Richa Shukla, MD, has shaped her career around thoughtful, patient-focused care and a genuine enthusiasm for teaching. Now an associate professor in the Section of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), she is known for her steady leadership in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and for the way she invests in developing young gastroenterologists.
Her medical journey started in New York City, where she completed her internal medicine training at Mount Sinai Hospital. Those years laid the groundwork for her clinical approach and connected her with mentors who helped steer her early interests. She eventually returned to BCM for both her general GI fellowship and advanced IBD training—an intensive stretch that deepened her understanding of complex IBD care and reinforced her appreciation for the long-term relationships formed with patients navigating chronic illness.
Teaching has become one of Dr. Shukla’s defining passions. As associate program director of the GI Fellowship at BCM, she works closely with trainees as they discover their clinical style, clarify their goals, and learn to balance the demands of early academic life. Her influence extends beyond BCM through her roles with the AGA Education and Training Committee and the board of the AGA Academy of Educators, positions that reflect her belief that good mentorship can change the course of a career.
A significant part of her work also centers on women’s health within the IBD community. She is particularly committed to ensuring that young women—including those planning families—receive clear, empowering, and evidence-based guidance. More broadly, she advocates for workplace policies that support women in gastroenterology, from fair compensation practices to thoughtful parental leave. As a clinician, educator, and mother of three, she approaches these efforts with a mix of honesty, curiosity, and practicality.
Dr. Shukla’s story highlights both how IBD care continues to evolve and how meaningful mentorship can shape the future of the field. In a recent interview, she reflected on the experiences, motivations, and values that have guided her path.
What drew you to focus on inflammatory bowel disease as your subspecialty within gastroenterology?
Dr. Shukla: I have always valued creating long-term, meaningful relationships with my patients. As chronic disease, I find that IBD naturally lends itself to this type of longevity. Getting to know my patients beyond their disease is one of the most rewarding aspects of this job. Furthermore, I love the cerebral nature of IBD and enjoy the feeling of constantly being challenged by complex patients. I am often humbled by new presentations of a disease I have been managing for years.
I credit my friend and colleague, Dr. Manreet Kaur, with inspiring me to pursue a career in IBD. She made what seemed like a very challenging disease process more manageable and showed me the fun of immersing yourself in this field.
As a leader in medical education, what do you find most rewarding about training the next generation of gastroenterologists?Dr. Shukla: I can still recall my own experiences in training and what a profound impact a good mentor or an engaged attending made on my training experience. Being involved in medical education is my way of trying to pay it forward like my own mentors did for me. I believe that I can help fellows by sharing my own successes and pitfalls and use these lessons to fellows achieve whatever it is they envision for their future careers.
I find the best way I was able to achieve balance between teaching and clinical responsibilities was to seek out and earn formal educational leadership roles. Having this protected time to pursue my passion in education allowed me to really grow this skill and become a better educator without any external distractions.
You’ve completed advanced fellowship training in IBD—how has that shaped your clinical approach, especially when managing complex cases?Dr. Shukla: While an advanced year in IBD is by no means a requirement to care for complex IBD patients, it made a world of a difference for me to gain the confidence I need to take care of these type of patients. Furthermore, it taught me the skills to troubleshoot any unusual presentations of IBD. Through this experience, I feel better prepared to also guide our fellows through the challenges that can sometimes make IBD feel intimidating. I am very excited about possible new mechanisms of action in the treatment pipeline and, perhaps even more impactful, the role of personalized medicine in helping to decide the right treatment for a patient.
Women's health is another area of your professional interest. How do you incorporate this into your IBD practice, especially when treating young women of childbearing age?
Dr. Shukla: I believe women often seek out other women for their medical needs. Especially when it involves something that can be somewhat personal and sensitive like gut health. I think it of utmost important to be prepared for the type of questions on womens’ minds and with the younger age of most IBD patients, pregnancy related questions come up quite often. I try to proactively address what types of questions and concerns could be relevant to a woman of childbearing age and ensure my knowledge is always up-to-date in this area.
The Crohn’s & Colitis Congress is just around the corner—what sessions or topics are you most looking forward to this year?Dr. Shukla: The Crohn’s and Colitis is an excellent, cutting-edge meeting where you can really get the latest and greatest in the world of IBD. I hope to see more data on the novel mechanism of action TL1A and its impact on the goal of achieving higher rates of remission in our patient population. I also would like to see more data on how to use combination advanced therapy in managing our most refractory patients. If you’re a first time attendee, I suggest you attend and especially if you’re a fellow or early career GI, I highly recommend the IBD A-Z sessions.
You wear many hats—clinician, educator, and mom to three young kids! What does a typical day look like for you, and how do you find balance?
Dr. Shukla: I’ve heard this advice a lot and it really resonates with me, so I think this is a great platform to share it. I don’t think one can ever really achieve true balance – which implies equal time or energy equally divided across your various commitments. Instead, I’ve learned that at any given time, one of your priorities may take “center stage” and take a greater chunk of your focus, and that’s okay.
What’s something your colleagues might be surprised to learn about you outside of work?
Dr. Shukla: While being a Houston sports fan is often a losing cause, I am still a big fan of the Houston Texans, Houston Rockets, and Houston Astros. I’ve leveraged my interest in football into a success career as a fantasy football team manager, and I won my league’s championship last year!
In your opinion, what’s one thing the field of gastroenterology could do better to support women—either as patients or professionals?
Dr. Shukla: I think the field of GI needs to continue to work toward better (and more transparent) policies around equal compensation, parental leave, and childcare in general. It is undeniable that women balance many competing priorities and the reality is that most have to shoulder a heavy load both at work and home. We have very talented female gastroenterologists who need to be enabled to reach their full potential without having to sacrifice their family responsibilities.
Additionally, I think we need more flexible policies around parental leave, particularly for our trainees. It is not realistic or even fair to expect trainees to defer childbearing until after completion of fellowship, and we need to find a way to allow them the time they need with their babies without falling behind on training experiences.
You’ve trained and practiced in a few different places—UTMB, Mount Sinai, and now Baylor. How have those experiences shaped your perspective and leadership style?
Dr. Shukla: I feel fortunate to have trained at such outstanding institutions where I’ve had not only excellent training but made lifelong friendships. I find that training at different institutions has given me exposure to so many leadership and mentorship styles. The advantage of this is I have been able to figure out what does and does not work well (for me) when it comes to clinical education, mentorship and even patient care
What advice would you give to early-career physicians—especially women—considering a career in academic medicine or IBD?
Dr. Shukla: I would say that whatever practice setting you choose and whatever “subspeciality” you have wish to have, do it because it’s something you feel you can do long- term. As a woman in the early career setting, we sometimes have to make decisions to allow for the best fit with our competing priorities but as your life changes and these priorities shift you want to keep loving whatever it is you do. With that being said, I have found academic medicine and IBD to be both rewarding and conducive to a strong work-life balance that allows me the time I want and need with my family.
