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Chief Resident Retreat

The Chief Resident Retreat is Rutgers Health Graduate Medical Education’s signature annual leadership development event, bringing together incoming chief residents from across the health system for a day of learning, collaboration, and professional growth. Through keynote presentations, interactive workshops, networking opportunities, and career development sessions led by experienced physician leaders and educators, participants gain practical leadership skills and build connections with peers across specialties. The retreat reflects Rutgers Health’s commitment to preparing the next generation of physician leaders and fostering a strong, collaborative GME community.

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2026 Chief Resident Retreat Recap

Building on the success of last year, Rutgers Health Graduate Medical Education once again brought more than 160 chief residents together for a dynamic day of leadership, learning, and connection at the 2026 Chief Resident Retreat. Held on May 11 at The Palace in Somerset, the retreat fostered a welcoming environment where colleagues could connect, share experiences, and grow as leaders.

Dr. Neil Kothari presenting at the 2026 Chief Resident Retreat

The day opened with a welcome from Neil Kothari, MD, FACP, vice chancellor for Graduate Medical Education and enterprise-wide designated institutional official for the Rutgers Health Sponsoring Institution, followed by energizing icebreakers led by Christine M. Gerula, MD, FACC, professor and program director of Rutgers Health/NJMS Cardiology, setting a collegial tone for the day. Sessions such as Beyond Scrubs: Essential Skills for Management & Leadership by Harsh P. Sule, MD, MPP, professor and chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Rutgers NJMS, and Managing Professionalism as a New Leader by Michael L. Loftus, MD, MBA, chief medical and quality officer at Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center and senior vice president for system medical affairs at RWJBarnabas Health, offered practical strategies for navigating the unique challenges of physician leadership.

 

Chief residents attending a leadership session during the 2026 Chief Resident Retreat

Afternoon workshops, led by Christine M. Gerula, MD, FACC, Radhika Malhotra, MD, Payal D. Parikh, MD, FACP, Colleen M. Donovan, MD, CHSE-A, FACEP, Nitasa Sahu, MD, MBA, and Sophia W. Chen, DO, MPH, ACUE, created space for meaningful discussion, skill-building, and peer connection. Among the featured presenters was Radhika Malhotra, MD, chief resident in Rutgers Health/NJMS Internal Medicine, who shared how thoughtfully applied artificial intelligence can enhance physician leadership and education by streamlining routine tasks and allowing clinicians to focus more fully on patient care, teaching, and critical thinking.

The retreat concluded with reflection and a celebratory toast, highlighting not only the new knowledge and leadership skills participants gained, but also the strong sense of community that continues to define Rutgers Health Graduate Medical Education.

 

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Chief Resident Spotlight: Radhika Malhotra, MD

Advancing Leadership Through Innovation

As part of the Chief Resident Retreat, we spoke with Radhika Malhotra, MD, Chief Resident, NJMS Internal Medicine, about her journey into medicine, lessons learned as a chief resident, and her perspective on leadership and innovation in medical education.

 

Radhika Malhotra, MD presenting at the Chief Resident Retreat
1. Can you tell us a little about your background and what led you to pursue a career in medicine and medical leadership?

I’ve always loved connecting with people—understanding what matters to them, and finding the right way to communicate something that helps. Medicine, for me, is the place where you get to do that every single day. Every patient is a new conversation, a new person to listen to and care for, and that never stops feeling like a privilege. Over time I found myself drawn not just to caring for patients one at a time, but to thinking about the people and systems around that care—how we train physicians, how teams work together, how we make things a little better for the next person who walks through the door. That’s what pulled me toward leadership. It’s really just an extension of the same instinct: a desire to listen, to connect, and to help on a slightly larger scale.

2. What did presenting at the Chief Resident Retreat mean to you, and what message did you hope to share with your peers?

Being a chief resident is one of the most unique privileges in all of training—you sit in this rare space between resident and faculty, leading the very peers you trained alongside. There’s nothing else quite like it. Presenting at the Chief Resident Conference let me step into that peer leadership role on a larger stage, sharing the practical lessons I’d gathered with the chiefs who will come after me. More than anything, I wanted to show how thoughtfully applied AI can augment what chiefs already do so well—amplifying our ability to teach, to lead, and to support the people around us. It’s a position built on the trust of your peers, and getting to honor that by helping the next group step into it even stronger meant a great deal to me.

 

3. How do you see tools like AI or innovation in workflow impacting the future of medical training and patient care?

I see these tools as a way to give clinicians back the parts of the work that matter most—the reasoning, the teaching, and the time spent truly present with a patient. So much of training can get absorbed by documentation, screening, and the routine mechanics of the day, and that’s exactly where innovation can help. Used thoughtfully, AI can streamline those tasks and even strengthen care itself—helping us catch gaps in follow-up, screen more consistently, and surface the right information at the right moment. What excites me most is the chance to train a generation of physicians who are both fluent in these tools and appropriately thoughtful about them—who ask not just whether something is new, but whether it genuinely makes care better and more equitable. Used well, I think these tools can return us to the very heart of why we went into medicine in the first place.

Pull quote graphic from Dr. Malhotra, Chief Resident Presenter, Chief Resident Retreat
4. As a chief resident, what leadership lessons or experiences have been most meaningful during your time at Rutgers Health?

The most meaningful thing I’ve learned is that leadership starts small—you don’t need a title, and you can begin at any point in your training. Every project I’ve taken on has asked something of me as a leader, usually before I’d have thought to call it that. But the lessons that stuck didn’t come from the big initiatives; they came from small moments—teaching a student, stepping in for a teammate, noticing when something wasn’t working and choosing to fix it. Being at Rutgers since medical school has also taught me that you can’t lead a system you don’t truly understand—you have to know every role from top to bottom, and how all the pieces fit together, before you can lead them well. And the part I didn’t expect is how much the people around you shape it all; the colleagues here are some of the most generous I’ve worked with, and they’ve made me a better leader simply by being the kind of people worth showing up for.

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Moments from the 2026 Chief Resident Retreat

Group shot of all residents on a staircase
Speaker leads a leadership development session for chief residents during the 2026 Chief Resident Retreat.
Retreat participants share ideas during a leadership development activity.
Retreat participants share ideas during a leadership development activity.
Retreat participants share ideas during a leadership development activity.
Attendees collaborate during an interactive workshop session at the 2026 Chief Resident Retreat.
Retreat participants share ideas during a leadership development activity.
Retreat participants share ideas during a leadership development activity.
Presenter addresses attendees during a workshop at the 2026 Chief Resident Retreat.
Retreat participants listening to GME presentation during retreat.
Radhika Malhotra, MD presenting at the Chief Resident Retreat
Chief residents attending a leadership session during the 2026 Chief Resident Retreat

Looking Ahead to 2027

The Chief Resident Retreat returns on May 10, 2027, at The Palace in Somerset for another day of leadership development, collaboration, and connection. Stay tuned for registration details and additional event information.

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Past Events