Office of Academic Affiliations

Laura Zambrano-Vazquez, PhD is the Program Manager, Director of Training, Education & Dissemination Core for VHA’s VISN 17 Heart of Texas Health Care Network Center of Excellence for Research on Returning War Veterans. Her work and passion for health professions education align with VA’s statutory mission to train future generations of health care professionals. Dr. Zambrano-Vazquez serves as a faculty mentor to health professions trainees and manages a wide array of VA training programs. She co-developed an Ethics and Diversity webinar training series for VA providers and launched a Self-Care series to prevent employee burnout during the COVID pandemic. In addition, Dr. Zambrano-Vazquez established an academic affiliation and new training program with a historically black college/university. The inaugural class completed a two-week immersive program that included career mentoring, quality mental health research experience and professional development. Nearly 70% of the program’s undergraduates have been accepted to graduate programs in medicine and mental health; many also attain VA employment. In sum, Dr. Zambrano-Vazquez’ efforts have contributed significantly to developing a pipeline of diverse health care professionals for the VA workforce.

Laura Caputo, MD is a hospitalist at the Durham VA Medical Center (DVAMC) located in Durham, North Carolina. She also serves as an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine. At the DVAMC, Dr. Caputo led a faculty development project focusing on inpatient medicine attendings who round with undergraduate and graduate physician trainees. The project focused on increasing faculty’s confidence teaching and improving the quality of the teaching. The program has since expanded to the Richmond, San Francisco, Palo Alto and Sacramento VAMCs, and Dr. Caputo has concrete plans to collaborate with the Cincinnati, Greater Los Angeles, Baltimore and Portland VAMCs. Dr. Caputo also started a medical education podcast series titled ‘VAcross the Street’ targeting graduate physician trainees on the VA inpatient medicine service. Each episode highlights the strengths of the DVAMC faculty, providing listeners from the Durham and other VAMCs with an asynchronous, independent way to learn about the VA and its patients.

Trainees in these fellowships have completed thousands of quality improvement projects and published more than 100 manuscripts. Across all fellowships, Dr. Watts has improved the alignment between health professions education quality improvement (QI) projects and the VA’s operational needs, contributing to the development of future healthcare leaders in VA. Dr. Watts has participated in national committee and work groups in QI and patient safety for the American Psychiatric Association and National Board of Medical Examiners. In addition, Dr. Watts has a long history of involvement in residency training in psychiatry and internal medicine at the White River Junction VA Medical Center and is currently Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine. Drs. Zambrano-Vazquez, Caputo and Watts are productive educators, outstanding collaborators, and thoughtful leaders who exemplify the values and mission of the VA. We applaud their successes and congratulate their respective medical centers, VISNs and national offices.