Dr. Elaine Shao joined the Department of Medicine as an Instructor in the Division of Hospital Medicine in July 2019. Originally from Chapel Hill, NC, she attended Wake Forest University and graduated summa cum laude in 2012 with majors in Biology and Spanish and a minor in History. She was awarded the full merit Guy T. Carswell Scholarship. Dr. Shao was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and received the Ruth Foster Campbell Award for Excellence in Spanish. She developed a passion for volunteering, working with Campus Kitchen to redistribute unused dining hall food to feed the hungry in the community as well as organizing blood and bone marrow registry drives. She graduated from medical school at East Carolina University in 2016. Dr. Shao was the recipient of the full merit Brody Scholarship and was inducted into Alpha Omega Alpha. During medical school, she furthered her interest in working with underserved communities and became a coordinator for the Grimesland Free Clinic that served the uninsured Latino population. She presented and published neurosurgery research on cognitive outcomes after use of low-dose unfractionated heparin in aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage. She completed her Internal Medicine residency at Barnes-Jewish Hospital/Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis in 2019. As a resident, Dr. Shao cultivated her interest in gastroenterology and hepatology. She recently presented her research on the correlation between vitamin D levels and primary sclerosing cholangitis outcomes at Digestive Disease Week. Outside of medicine, her biggest passions include traveling and eating her way around the world. In her free time, she enjoys yoga, hiking, rock climbing, reading, and spending time with friends and family.