2023 Early Career Development Course – Faculty Listing

Callisia N. Clarke, MD

AAS President-Elect

Joseph Phillips, MD

Chair, Early Career Development Course
Chair, Leadership Committee

Christina Roland, MD

Co-Chair, Early Career Development Course
Co-Chair, Leadership Committee

Julie Ann Sosa, MD, MA, FACS

Julie Ann Sosa, MD MA FACS is the Leon Goldman MD Distinguished Professor of Surgery and Chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), where she is also a Professor in the Department of Medicine and affiliated faculty for the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies. Dr Sosa came to UCSF in 2018 from Duke. Her clinical interest is in endocrine surgery, with a focus in thyroid cancer. She is an NIH- and FDA-funded investigator and author of more than 400 peer-reviewed publications and 80 book chapters and reviews, all largely focused on outcomes research, health care delivery, hyperparathyroidism, and thyroid cancer, with a focus on clinical trials. She has authored or edited 7 books. Dr Sosa is President of the American Thyroid Association (ATA) and serves on the Board of Directors/Executive Council of the ATA and International Thyroid Oncology Group; for the ATA, she is chairing the committee responsible for writing the next iteration of differentiated thyroid cancer guidelines. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the World Journal of Surgery and an editor of Greenfield’s Surgery: Scientific Principles and Practice. She has mentored more than 90 students, residents, and fellows, for which she was recognized with induction as a full member to the American College of Surgeons Academy of Master Educators in 2020, and by the ATA with the Lewis E. Braverman Distinguished Lectureship Award in 2017 and its Distinguished Service Award in 2022. She received the Chancellor’s Diversity Award in 2022 for the Advancement of Women at UCSF. Dr Sosa was born in Montreal and raised in upstate New York. She received her AB at Princeton, MA at Oxford, and MD at Johns Hopkins, where she completed the Halsted residency and a fellowship.

Eugene Kim, MD

Dr. Kim obtained his undergraduate degree in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard University and his medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons. He completed his residency in general surgery at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center and completed a two-year research fellowship in Tumor Biology under the mentorship of Dr. Jessica Kandel and Dr. Darrell Yamashiro. He also completed an ECMO fellowship under the training of Dr. Charles Stolar. Dr. Kim subsequently completed a fellowship in pediatric surgery at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Dr. Kim is Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he is the Director of the Division of Pediatric Surgery and Vice Chair of the Department of Surgery. Dr. Kim is recognized for his expertise in pediatric surgical oncology, and he maintains a basic science research laboratory which is focused on mechanisms of metastasis and recurrence in high-risk neuroblastoma. Dr. Kim is Past President of the Association for Academic Surgery and President-Elect of the Society of Asian Academic Surgeons. He is actively involved in mentoring and promoting young academic surgeon-scientists.

Ben James, MD, MS

Ben James, MD, MS, is the Chief of Endocrine Surgery and Associate Professor of Surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA.
Dr. James received his M.D. from Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine in 2008. He completed his general surgery residency at Penn State Hershey Medical Center (Alpha Omega Alpha) and served as the administrative chief resident in his final year of training (2013). He then completed an endocrine surgery fellowship at the University of Chicago (2014). Following this, he obtained a Master’s in Public Health Sciences at the University of Chicago and completed an Endocrine Surgery Research Fellowship (2015). He is Board-certified in Surgery and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons
Dr. James is an endocrine surgeon with extensive knowledge in endocrine surgery. He has made scientific contributions in health policy, quality of life in thyroid cancer survivors, and financial toxicity in cancer survivors and has authored many book chapters in endocrine surgery.

Christopher P. Childers, MD, PhD

Christopher P. Childers, MD, PhD, is a second-year Surgical Oncology Fellow at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He completed his general surgery residency at UCLA where he also obtained a PhD in Health Policy & Management through the Fielding School of Public Health. Clinically his interests include hepatopancreatobiliary, gastrointestinal, and peritoneal surface malignancies. His research primarily focuses on healthcare finance, with the goals of measuring and ultimately reducing healthcare costs in the United States. He has prior independent federal funding (AHRQ F32) and has peer-reviewed work published in JAMA, JCO, JAMA-Oncology, JAMA-Surgery and Annals of Surgery.

Alexander T. Hawkins MD, MPH

Alexander T. Hawkins MD, MPH is currently an Associate Professor of Surgery at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, TN. Dr. Hawkins received his medical degree from the University of Virginia and completed his general surgery training at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA. He went on to serve a fellowship in Colon and Rectal Surgery at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St Louis, MO. He is an NIH funded investigator who uses mixed-methods and patient reported outcomes to study the role of surgery in recurrent diverticulitis. His clinical focus is broad and includes colorectal cancer, inflammatory bowel disease and ano-rectal issues.

Callisia N. Clarke, MD

Dr. Callisia Clarke completed her medical degree at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine where she was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honors Society. She completed a general surgery residency at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center in Cincinnati, Ohio in 2013 and a fellowship in Complex General Surgical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in 2016. She joined the faculty at the Medical College of Wisconsin in 2016 and is an Associate Professor of Surgery, and Chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology. Her research efforts are centered on epigenetic regulation of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in academic surgery. She holds several leadership positions in national organizations. She was recently elected the President-Elect of the Association for Academic Surgery, the first Black Woman to hold this office.

Nabeel Zafar, MD

Dr. Zafar is an Assistant Professor of Surgery at the University of Wisconsin in Madison within the division of Surgical Oncology. He completed his medical degree from the Aga Khan University, a Masters in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health, a general surgery residency from Howard University, an MIS fellowship from the University of Maryland, and a surgical oncology fellowship from the MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Zafar has been a member of many professional societies and has been actively engaged in health services research and global surgery research for several years. Dr. Zafar has published over 100 peer reviewed articles, with over 40 national and international presentations, and several book chapters. His clinical work focuses on HPB and peritoneal malignancies. His research interest is in surgical outcomes and improving surgical and cancer care in low and middle-income countries.

Brenessa Lindeman, MD, MEHP

Brenessa Lindeman, MD, MEHP, is an Associate Professor of Surgery and Medical Education at the University of Alabama at Birmingham; there she serves as Vice Chair of Education, Section Chief and Fellowship Director for Endocrine Surgery and the Assistant Dean for Graduate Medical Education. A native of eastern Kentucky, she completed her undergraduate training summa cum laude at the University of Louisville and was the Founder\’s Medalist at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. She completed general surgery training at Johns Hopkins, and endocrine surgery fellowship at Harvard/Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She earned a Master of Education in the Health Professions from Johns Hopkins and has been part of drafting EPAs for the Association of American Medical Colleges, the American Board of Surgery, and the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons, and serves as Secretary of the Association for Academic Surgery. Her research interests are in development and assessment of competency in surgical trainees, resident supervision and autonomy, and evaluation of the learning climate/physician wellness as an academic surgeon.

Mashaal Dhir, MD

Mashaal Dhir is an Associate Professor of Surgery at the State University of New York in Syracuse, NY. He is the Section Chief of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery and the Chair of Cancer Committee at the SUNY Upstate Cancer Center. He graduated medical school from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, India. He then pursued a two-year postdoctoral research fellowship in the Department of Surgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, followed by residency in General Surgery at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. He then went on to do a fellowship in Complex General Surgical Oncology, at the University of Pittsburgh, followed by a fellowship in Surgical Endocrinology.

Courtney Collins, MD

Courtney Collins is an assistant professor of general and minimally invasive surgery at The Ohio State University. Her clinical and research interests are focused on improving care for older surgical patients. She lives in Columbus with her wife, Steph. Go Bucks!

Justin B. Dimick, MD, MPH

Justin B. Dimick, M.D., M.P.H. is the Frederick A. Coller Distinguished Professor of Surgery and Chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of Michigan. Dr. Dimick is a graduate of Cornell University and Johns Hopkins Medical School. He completed his surgical training at the University of Michigan and a health services research fellowship at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice. Dr. Dimick is a practicing general surgeon focused on advanced laparoscopy, including bariatrics, hernias, and benign esophageal disease. With R01 funding from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and National Institutes of Health (NIH), his own research focuses on quality measurement, policy evaluation, and large-scale, innovative quality improvement interventions. He has more than 500 peer-reviewed publications, including papers in NEJM, JAMA, Health Affairs, and the leading surgical journals. Dr. Dimick has served in several national leadership positions, including President of the Association for Academic Surgery (AAS), Chair of the Health Services Organization and Delivery (HSOD) Study Section at the NIH, Associate Editor at Annals of Surgery, and the Surgical Innovation Editor at JAMA Surgery. Dr. Dimick is member of several professional organizations, including the American Surgical Association (ASA), the Society of Clinical Surgeons (SCS), the American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI), and he was elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) in 2020.

Fabian Johnston, MD, MHS

Fabian Johnston, MD, MHS is an Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery and Division of Surgical Oncology at the Johns Hopkins University. He is the Division Chief of Gastrointestinal Surgical oncology and Executive Vice Chair of the Department of Surgery. His research interest include both education and implementation and dissemination of best models of care in palliative care. Dr. Johnston earned his medical degree from the Pennsylvania State College of Medicine. He began is surgical training at Louisiana State University in New Orleans and completed general surgery at Washington University in St. Louis, followed by fellowship in surgical oncology at the Johns Hopkins University and a master\\’s degree in Clinical Investigations from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Susanne Warner, MD

Dr. Susanne Warner is a surgeon-scientist who seeks to better the lives of her patients through research in operative, scientific, and social arenas. Her studies have addressed a range of topics from minimally invasive surgical techniques to racial and gender bias in the profession of surgery, to oncolytic viroimmunotherapy to treat aggressive hepato-pancreato-biliary solid tumors.
Dr. Warner completed General Surgery Residency at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, during which time she also completed a Research Fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She went on to a clinical fellowship in hepato-pancreato-biliary and advanced gastrointestinal surgery at the University of Michigan before taking her first job at City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center in the Los Angeles area. Dr. Warner was thrilled to move to the Mayo Clinic and leverage unparalleled systemic excellence to push the boundaries of surgical treatments for patients suffering from hepatopancreatobiliary maladies.

Nabeel Zafar, MD

F. Thurston Drake, MD, MPH

F. Thurston Drake, MD, MPH is Chief of Endocrine Surgery at Boston Medical Center and an Associate Professor of Surgery at the Boston University (BU) Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. He is the inaugural Robert O. Beazley Scholar in Surgical Science. Dr. Drake joined the BU faculty in 2016, with an appointment as the Laszlo N. Tauber Assistant Professor of Surgery, a three-year term for promising clinical investigators. Dr. Drake studied English Literature at Princeton University, earned his medical degree at the University of Utah School of Medicine, and completed general surgery residency at the University of Washington (UW) Medical Center in Seattle, Washington. During residency, Dr. Drake spent two years as an NIH T32 research fellow and earned a master’s degree in global health at the UW School of Public Health. Dr. Drake completed fellowship training in comprehensive endocrine surgery at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center. Dr. Drake serves on the editorial boards of Surgery and Journal of Surgical Research, and he holds the rank of Commander in the United States Navy Reserve Medical Corps.

Sandra L. Wong, MD, MS

Sandra L. Wong, MD MS is the William N. and Bessie Allyn Professor of Surgery and Professor of The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. She is Chair of the Department of Surgery at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth/ Dartmouth-Hitchcock. Her health services research program has been funded by National Institutes of Health, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the American Cancer Society. She is a Past-President of the Society of University Surgeons and the Society of Surgical Oncology.

Vikas Dudeja, MD

Dr. Dudeja is Professor with tenure, James P Hayes Endowed Professor and Director of Division of Surgical Oncology at University of Alabama at Birmingham. He completed his bachelor of medicine and surgery at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi, India. He also received his master of surgery from AIIMS in 2005. Dr. Dudeja spent the next 3 years doing research on the pathogenesis of pancreatic cancer and pancreatitis and developing novel therapies against these diseases. Afterwards he received residency training in general surgery at the University of Minnesota from 2008-2013. Following his residency, Dr. Dudeja completed a complex general surgical oncology fellowship and hepato-pancreato-billiary fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center from 2013-15. Dr. Dudeja is also a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.
Dr. Dudeja’s clinical practice is focused on taking care of patients with pancreatic cancer, pancreatic cyst, hepatobiliary malignancies including cholangiocarcinoma, kaltskin tumor, colorectal cancer liver metastases, and benign disease like bile duct injury and chronic pancreatitis. On research front, Dr. Dudeja’s laboratory focuses on deciphering the biology of tumor microenvironment in pancreatic cancer and interaction of gut microbiome with anti-cancer immune response. In the area of pancreatitis, his laboratory focuses on developing novel treatment for this morbid disease. Currently, he is the initiating PI on two clinical trials evaluating novel drugs in patients with pancreatitis. Elucidation of the mechanism and determinants of tumor recurrence is another key area studied in his laboratory. His research efforts is funded by grants from National Institute of Health (NIH), Veterans Affairs, Department of Defense and various Society Grants. His work has been published in high impact journals like Gastroenterology, GUT, Clinical Cancer Research and Nature Reviews in Gastroenterology and Hepatology. He serves on the editorial board of Gastroenterology, Frontiers of Immunology and Pancreatology. He routinely reviews manuscripts submitted to many journals including Pancreatology, eBiomedicine, Communication Biology, Annals of Surgical Oncology.

Rian M. Hasson, MD

Dr. Rian M. Hasson is an Assistant Professor of Surgery in the section of thoracic surgery at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC), Geisel School of Medicine, and The Dartmouth Institute (TDI) for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. Her research interests include the surgical management of thoracic malignancies and increasing uptake in lung cancer screening. Specifically, she aims to identify the provider and patient barriers that decrease participation in shared decision-making and the lung cancer screening process; especially in rural and underserved locations and populations. She additionally aims to develop interventions to promote successful participation of high-risk populations in early detection programs and integrate mobile screening opportunities in rural and underserved locations across the United States. In line with her research interests, she serves as the Director of the DHMC Lung Cancer Screening Program, and Co-Founder and Co-Director of the DHMC Lung Health and Pulmonary Nodule Clinic. Dr. Hasson graduated with a BA in Psychology in 2001 from the University of California, Berkeley. She earned her MD from the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California in 2008 and subsequently completed her general surgery internship, residency, and chief residency at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 2015. She completed her cardiothoracic fellowship in 2017 at The Ohio State University and a general thoracic fellowship in 2018 at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. She obtained her MPH in 2021 from TDI, is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and a member of Alpha Omega Alpha and Delta Omega honor societies.

Victor Zaydfudim, MD

Dr. Zaydfudim is a Section Chief of Gastrointestinal and Hepatobiliary Surgery at the University of Virginia.

Amir Ghaferi, MD, MS

Dr. Ghaferi is a Professor of Surgery with Tenure, the President and CEO of the Physician Enterprise, and Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs at Froedtert & Medical College of Wisconsin. In these roles, he leads the enterprise strategy for establishing and advancing a regionally integrated and aligned medical group operation. He is accountable for identifying opportunities to develop new and innovative patient centered care delivery models to support the commitment to national leadership in quality, safety, value, and the patient experience.
Prior to moving to the Medical College of Wisconsin, he was the Moses Gunn, M.D. Professor of Surgery and the Chief Clinical Officer of the University of Michigan Medical Group where he oversaw clinical operations, quality, strategy, and finance. He was also the Director of the Michigan Bariatric Surgery Collaborative, a consortium of 40 hospitals and 80 surgeons focused on improving the safety and quality of bariatric surgery.
He received his Bachelors degree from UCLA, his medical degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and completed his surgical training at the University of Michigan. Dr. Ghaferi also completed advanced training in health services research and obtained a Masters degree in Health and Healthcare Research from the University of Michigan. He also completed his Executive MBA from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.
Dr. Ghaferi\’s research focuses on understanding the relationship of organizational systems and design to quality and efficiency. Dr. Ghaferi has received research funding from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). His research has been published in prominent journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Health Affairs, Harvard Business Review, and the British Medical Journal. He also serves on the editorial board of several prominent journals including JAMA Surgery and is Associate Editor of GI Surgery for the Journal of Surgical Research.
Dr. Ghaferi is an active member of several national societies (Association for Academic Surgery, Society of University Surgeons, AcademyHealth, Surgical Outcomes Club) and serves on, chairs, or co-chairs several national committees. He is a Past-President of the Surgical Outcomes Club – the largest surgical health services research group in the world. He is the Immediate Past President of the Association for Academic Surgery – the largest academic surgical association in the US. Dr. Ghaferi is passionate about inspiring and developing academic surgeons across globe.

Tania Arora, MD

Dr. Arora is an Associate Professor at The Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University (AU), a recent Program Director of the General Surgery Residency and the current Assistant Dean of Learner DEI. She completed ABS Certification in General Surgery and Complex General Surgical Oncology. Her clinical interests include breast cancer and complex GI oncology. Research interests include curriculum, evaluation and methods of coaching for trainees. She is working on DEI initiatives locally and nationally: inaugural GME subcommittee Chair of DEI, and Health Disparities for AU, current Association of Program Directors in Surgery (APDS) and Association of Surgical Education Executive Liaison, recent APDS DEI Chair, recent Chair of the Association for Academic Surgery DEI Committee, and current Vice Chair of ACS CADIE

Carrie Cunningham, MD, MPH

Carrie Cunningham, MD, MPH, is an Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, Section Head of Endocrine Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, and a Associate Director at the MGH Institute of Technology Assessment. In addition to her clinical practice, Dr. Cunningham leads a health-service research team with research interests including patient-reported outcome measurement ad disease simulation modeling to assess the comparative effectiveness and improve the quality of care of patients with endocrine-related disorders, with a focus on thyroid cancer. She has served as the Chair of the Clinical & Health Services Research Committee, Recorder, and is currently the President of the AAS.