October 20, 2018 | Sheraton Boston Hotel, Boston, MA
View the Course Agenda
View the Faculty Bios
COURSE PRESENTATIONS
- KICKOFF LECTURE: Tips on How to Succeed in Academic Surgery – Melina Kibbe, MD, FACS, FAHA
- MAKING YOUR MARK IN THE FIRST FEW YEARS
- Moderators: Melissa Hogg, MD & Matthew Porembka, MD
- Establishing Your Clinical Footprint and Understanding Your Clinical Value – T. Clark Gamblin, MD, MS, MBA
- Launching your Research Program: Early Strategies and Benchmarks – Adil Haider, MD, MPH
- Being an Effective Educator as a Junior Faculty Member – Brenessa Lindeman, MD, MEHP
- Being a Good Citizen and Leader in your Institution – Christopher Sonnenday, MD, MHS
- ADVANCING YOUR CAREER
- Moderators: Joseph Phillips, MD & Susan Pitt, MD, MPHS
- Strategies to Find and Negotiate your First or Next Academic Position – Timothy Pawlik, MD, MPH, PhD
- Mentorship and Sponsorship – Justin Dimick, MD, MPH
- Funding your Research: How to Start and How to Keep It Going – Caprice Greenberg, MD, MPH
- Making the Transition from K to R: Establishing Research Independence – Dorry Segev, MD, PhD
- SUSTAINING AND BUILDING ON EARLY SUCCESS
- Moderators: Christy Chai, MD & Amanda Laird, MD
- Pearls for Promotion – Lillian Kao, MD, MS
- Switching Gears in Academic Surgery – Rachel Kelz, MD, MSCE
- Achieving Local and National Visibility: Societies, Committees, Journals, and the Web – Karl Bilimoria, MD, MS
- SMALL GROUP SESSION: PREPARING AN ELEVATOR PITCH
- Introduction by Rebecca Sippel, MD
- MANAGING LIFE AS JUNIOR FACULTY
- Moderators: Lindsay Kuo, MD & Priti Parikh, PhD
- Finances and Compensation Plans – Rebecca Minter, MD
- Effective Time Management, When to Say “Yes,” and When to Say “No” – Gregory Kennedy, MD, PhD
- Turning Difficult Conversations into Opportunities – Arden Morris, MD, MPH
- Taking Care of Yourself: Wellness and Resilience – Taylor Riall, MD, PhD
- JOINT KEYNOTE: Academic Surgery Wars: The Last Jedi – Jeffrey Matthews, MD
WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
- Junior Faculty in their first 5 years of practice
- Fellows
- Senior Residents
LEARN HOW TO:
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- Effectively plan and start your academic career
- Negotiate your job, resources, and programmatic support
- Build and manage a research team; Obtain and sustain research funding
- Make the most of society, university, and hospital committee involvement; and achieve national and local visibility
- Advance along promotion and tenure tracks
- Develop and sustain mentoring relationships
- Cope with and recover from setbacks
- Appreciate diverse pathways to success in academic surgery
- Network with leaders in academic surgery and with early-career peers
FACULTY BIOS
Shipra Arya, MD, MS
Dr. Arya received her Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery degrees from All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, India, in 2004. She then completed her Master of Science in epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health in 2006, her general surgery residency at Creighton University Medical Center in 2011, and her fellowship in vascular surgery at the University of Michigan in 2013. Dr. Arya specializes in the treatment of aortic aneurysmal disease, cerebrovascular disease, peripheral vascular disease, and renal and mesenteric arterial disease. Her research interests include health services research and healthcare resource utilization, with a specific focus on quality and effectiveness of vascular procedures and secondary prevention of vascular disease. Dr. Arya has received funding from Atlanta Clinical & Translational Science Institute for a comparative effectiveness pilot study evaluating the factors associated with prolonged catheter use and the delay or failure of fistula maturation in the first year of dialysis. Dr. Arya was awarded a one-year Surgical Outcomes Club Research Fellowship in 2014. In 2015, she received the American Heart Association’s NCRP Winter 2015 Mentored Clinical and Population Research Award, which she is using to develop PAD predication models that will estimate risk for such outcomes as amputation, heart attack, stroke, and death.
Karl Bilimoria, MD
Dr. Bilimoria is the Director of the Surgical Outcomes and Quality Improvement Center (SOQIC) at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Vice President for Quality for the health system, and the Vice Chair for Quality in the Department of Surgery. He is also the John B. Murphy Professor of Surgery, and his clinical practice focuses on melanoma and sarcoma. His research focuses on surgical quality measurement and improving the quality of healthcare for surgical and oncology patients, and he has a particular interest in large cluster-randomized trials. He is the founding director of the 56-hospital Illinois Surgical Quality Improvement Collaborative (ISQIC). He was the PI for the national FIRST Trial of resident duty hour policies. His research is supported by the NIH, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, the American College of Surgeons (ACS), the American Board of Surgery (ABS), and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), and other societies. He has published more than 300 peer-reviewed in articles, with multiple recent studies in JAMA and NEJM. He is a Faculty Scholar at the American College of Surgeons. He is the past President of the Surgical Outcomes Club and the current Secretary of the Association of Academic Surgery (AAS). He was recently listed by Becker’s as one of the “Top 50 Experts Leading the Field of Patient Safety” in the U.S.
Christy Chai, MD
Christy Chai, M.D., F.A.C.S., is a tenured assistant professor in the Division of General Surgery & Surgical Oncology in the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX. After earning her B.A with magna cum laude in both Physics and Biology from Washington University in St. Louis, Dr. Chai received her medical degree from Loma Linda University School of Medicine in Loma Linda, CA. She then successfully completed general surgery training at Baylor College of Medicine and began her active duty military career in the U.S. Airforce serving as a general surgeon both overseas and in the continental U.S.A. Recognizing the need for specialized care in cancer patients, she received fellowship training in surgical oncology, focusing on minimally invasive cancer surgery, at H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, FL. After completion of her fellowship, Dr. Chai was assigned to Joint Base San Antonio, where she provided care to military service members, their dependents and veterans. After separating from the U.S. Airforce as a seasoned officer, surgeon and educator, Dr. Chai brought her experience caring for military service members and veterans to Baylor College of Medicine, where she was appointed chief of the Section of General Surgery & Surgical Oncology at the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center. As Section chief, Dr. Chai serves our veterans by proving comprehensive cancer care and complex general surgical care. She also conducts clinical research focused on improving clinical outcomes for surgical patients.
Jill Cherry-Bukowiec, MD
Jill R. Cherry-Bukowiec, M.D., M.S. is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Section of General Surgery at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She provides clinical coverage in trauma, non-trauma emergency, general surgery and surgical critical care. Dr. Cherry received her BA in Zoology from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She graduated from the Medical College of Ohio at the University of Toledo and completed General Surgery residency at the Eastern Virginia Medical School. She received her Master of Science degree in Clinical Research Design and Statistical Analysis from the University of Michigan. She is board certified in General Surgery, Surgical Critical Care, and by the National Board of Physician Nutrition Specialists. She is also a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.
Dr. Cherry-Bukowiec’s clinical interests focus on Surgical Critical Care, Trauma, Non-Trauma Emergency and General Surgery. She is the Medical Director of the University of Michigan Trauma Burn ICU and provides surgical care for injured patients and patients with acute general surgery problems. She has a special interest in patients with severe infection and sepsis, and challenging nutrition issues. She also serves the health system as a voting member for the Executive Council of Clinical Affairs (ECCA).
Dr. Cherry-Bukowiec has a strong interest in clinical nutrition. She was a recipient of the Nestle Nutrition Institute Enteral Nutrition Fellowship and currently serves on the National Board for Nutrition Physician Specialists representing the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM). She is a Past-President of the Michigan Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition and co-founder of the Nutrition Advisory Committee for the University of Michigan Hospital where she currently acts as a physician advisor for the committee.
Dr. Cherry-Bukowiec also has a strong interest in teaching medical students and residents. She is the Assistant Scientific Trunk Director for the Medical School Pre-Clinical Curriculum, Faculty for the Medical School Doctoring Course, and has been Faculty for the Medical Student Chief Concerns Course. She Directs the Nutrition Course for the undergraduate pre-clinical medical student curriculum and also the director of the Interprofessional Education Clinical Nutrition elective. Dr. Cherry-Bukowiec is also heavily involved in Resident and Fellow Education serving on the competency committees for the General Surgery, Vascular Surgery and Surgical Critical Care.
Dr. Cherry-Bukowiec clinical research is focused on critical care of the surgical patient with particular focus in nutrition and infection. Her education research focuses on interprofessional and medical student education.
Justin Dimick, MD, MPH
Justin B. Dimick, MD, MPH is the George D. Zuidema Professor of Surgery, Chief of the Division of Minimally Invasive Surgery, and Director of the Center for Healthcare Outcomes & Policy at the University of Michigan. Dr. Dimick’s clinical practice is primarily devoted to advanced laparoscopy, including treatment of morbid obesity, gastroesophageal reflux (GERD), abdominal wall hernias, and other benign and neoplastic diseases of the stomach, spleen, and foregut. Dr. Dimick’s research program, currently funded by 4 R01 grants from the NIH and AHRQ, focuses on quality measurement, policy evaluation, and large-scale quality improvement interventions. He has more than 200 peer-reviewed publications, including papers in NEJM, JAMA, Health Affairs and the leading surgical journals. Dr. Dimick serves in leadership positions in several organizations, including President of the Association for Academic Surgery (AAS) and the Board of Directors of the Surgical Outcomes Club (SOC). He is currently a standing member of the NIH Health Services Organization and Delivery (HSOD) Study Section. He has served in advisory roles on quality and health care policy issues for several organizations, including the Institute of Medicine (IOM), the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), BlueCross BlueShield Association (BCBSA), and the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS-NSQIP).
T. Clark Gamblin, MD
Dr. T. Clark Gamblin is a native of Jackson, Mississippi. Dr. Gamblin obtained his BS from Mississippi State University and graduated from the University of Mississippi School of Medicine in 1998. Dr. Gamblin then completed his general surgery residency at Mercer University followed by a surgical oncology fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh and then joined the University of Pittsburgh faculty in the Divisions of Transplantation and Surgical Oncology. His clinical practice was focused on liver and pancreatic disease. Shortly after joining the faculty, Dr. Gamblin obtained a Master of Science in clinical research from the University of Pittsburgh. He also obtained NIH funding and served as a primary investigator on multiple liver clinical trials. In December 2014, Dr. Gamblin obtained a Master of Business Administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.
Dr. Gamblin is currently the Chief of Surgical Oncology and Professor of Surgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He holds the Stuart D. Wilson Chair in Surgical Oncology and leads the liver program at MCW. His clinical interests include primary and metastatic liver cancer with a focus in laparoscopic liver surgery. Dr. Gamblin has spoken often nationally and internationally regarding liver cancer and has over one-hundred peer reviewed publications and has mentored many medical students, residents and fellows. Dr. Gamblin also serves as the co-director of the Medical College of Wisconsin, Department of Surgery, Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Fellowship. Additionally, he leads the comprehensive liver program in Milwaukee. Dr. Gamblin and his wife, Holly, have three wonderful children. When not at the hospital, he can be found with his family enjoying seasonal sports.
Caprice Greenberg, MD, MPH
Caprice Greenberg, MD, MPH is the Morgridge Distinguished Chair of Health Services Research, Professor of Surgery, Director of the Wisconsin Surgical Outcomes Research Program and Vice Chair of Research at the Unviersity of Wisconsin. She studies comparative effectiveness and quality in cancer care, particularly related to breast cancer. Her research program also aims to understand and improve system, team and individual performance in the operating room. Her research has been funded by PCORI, NCI, AHRQ and numerous foundations. Dr. Greenberg is a founder and Past President of the Surgical Outcomes Club. She previously served as Recorder and is a Past-President of the Association for Academic Surgery. Contact her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/CapriceGreenber
Adil Haider, MD, MPH
Adil Haider, MD, MPH, FACS is an active trauma and acute care surgeon, prolific researcher, and the Kessler Director for the Center for Surgery and Public Health (CSPH), a joint initiative of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He is also the Deputy Editor of JAMA Surgery and holds numerous leadership positions, including President of the Association for Academic Surgery (AAS). Dr. Haider is credited with uncovering racial disparities after traumatic injury and establishing the field of trauma disparities research. He is regarded as one of the foremost experts on healthcare inequities in the United States, with projects focused on describing and mitigating unequal outcomes based on gender, race, sexual orientation, ethnicity, age and socioeconomic status. His other research focuses on long-term clinical and functional outcomes after trauma and emergency general surgery, optimal treatment of trauma/critically ill patients in resource-poor settings, and advanced analytic techniques for surgical health services research. He has formally mentored more than 100 research trainees, published more than 250 peer reviewed papers and currently serves as Principal Investigator (PI) on extramural grants worth more than ten million dollars. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including 2017 Ellis Island Medal of Honor. Dr. Haider believes that equality is the cornerstone of medicine, and his professional goal is to eradicate disparities in healthcare in the United States.
Melissa Hogg, MD
Melissa E. Hogg, MD MS, is the Director of HPB Surgery at Northshore University Hospital. She did her medical school and residency training at Northwestern University in Chicago, IL, and her fellowship and masters training in Medical Education and Clinical Research at the University of Pittsburgh, PA. Dr. Hogg specializes in abdominal cancers and has a focus in minimally invasive foregut surgery doing robotic hepatobiliary surgery. In addition, she develops programs in patient-centered outcomes research, comparative effective and cost analysis in minimally invasive cancer surgery. Additionally, she has developed medical education programs centered on a robotic simulator curriculum for fellows, residents, and additional surgeons looking to acquire skills utilizing the robotic platform and techniques. Her work aims to link how technical training and surgical education can improve patient outcomes using proficiency-based curriculums and surgical coaching.
Haytham Kaafarani, MD, MPH
Dr. Haytham Kaafarani practices at Mass General Hospital. He is the Director of Patient Safety & Quality, Trauma & Emergency Surgery, an Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, and is the Director of Clinical Research. He specializes in Bowel obstruction and perforation, Critical care, and Gallbladder disease.
Lillian Kao, MD, MS
Lillian Kao is Professor, Division Chief of Acute Care Surgery, Vice-Chair for Research and Faculty Development for the Department of Surgery and Co-Director of the Center for Surgical Trials and Evidence-Based Practice (C-STEP) at McGovern Medical School at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth). She is a Past President of the Association for Academic Surgery.
Rachel Kelz, MD, MSCE
Rachel R Kelz, MD MSCE MBA FACS graduated magna cum laude from Union College (Mathematics) in 1992 where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She received her medical degree cum laude from Yale University School of Medicine (cum laude) in 1997. She went on to complete her internship (1998) and general surgery residency (2004) at the University of Pennsylvania. While enrolled in the residency program, she earned a Masters degree in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the University of Pennsylvania in 2002. In 2018, Dr. Kelz earned an Executive Masters in Business Administration at the Wharton School and was appointed as a Professor of Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a board-certified surgeon with an active endocrine surgical practice. Dr. Kelz is an Associate Program Director of the General Surgery Residency Program, the founding Director of the Center for Surgery and Health Economics and the ACS NSQIP Surgeon Champion for the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. In 2011, she received The Christian R and Mary F Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, the highest teaching award given out by the University. She has received the Buzby Leadership Award and the Mentorship Award from the Department of Surgery. She is a senior scholar at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the Wharton School. Dr Kelz is a federally funded investigator with a particular interest in the eradication of surgical disparities and the advancement of surgical care using health services research methods, quality improvement methodology and innovative educational techniques.
Gregory Kennedy, MD, PhD
Greg Kennedy, MD, PhD, is the John H. Blue Chair of General Surgery and the Director of the Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Kennedy is a board certified colon and rectal surgeon and his funded research program is focused on understanding how the different signaling states of the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor contributes to colorectal carcinogenesis. He is the current President elect of the Society of University Surgeons and is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Surgical Research.
Melina Kibbe, MD, FACS, FAHA
Melina R. Kibbe, MD, is Professor of Surgery with tenure, and the Colin G. Thomas Jr. Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of North Carolina (UNC). She also is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. She began her tenure at UNC on July 1, 2016. Prior to UNC, Dr. Kibbe was faculty at Northwestern University for 13 years where she also served as the Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Surgery and as Deputy Director of the Simpson Querrey Institute for BioNanotechnology. Clinically, Dr. Kibbe has significant experience with both open and endovascular surgery, including the treatment of carotid stenosis, peripheral vascular disease, and abdominal aortic aneurysms. Dr. Kibbe’s research interests focus on nitric oxide vascular biology and developing novel and innovative nitric oxide-based therapies for patients with vascular disease. For her research, she has received funds from the National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, American Heart Association, Department of Veterans Affairs, American Medical Association, and various society, foundation, and intramural sources. She holds 12 patents or provisional patents. Her research was recognized by President Obama with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2009. Her bibliography includes over 200 peer-reviewed manuscripts, review articles, and book chapters, with an emphasis on vascular biology and nitric oxide-based therapies. She is board certified in general and vascular surgery and is RVT and RPVI certified by ARDMS. Dr. Kibbe is the Editor-in-Chief for JAMA Surgery. She is past-president of the Association for Academic Surgery, the Midwestern Vascular Surgical Society, and the Association of VA Surgeons. She is also an active member in the American College of Surgeons, the American Surgical Association, the Society for Vascular Surgery, and the American Heart Association, among others. Most recently, she was inducted into the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the National Academy of Medicine.
Lindsay Kuo, MD
Dr. Kuo is an endocrine surgeon at Temple University. She completed her general surgery residency at the University of Pennsylvania in 2017; she received her MBA with a major in Health Care Management from the Wharton School of Business in 2015. Following residency Dr. Kuo completed the Endocrine Surgery fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, finishing in 2018.
Amanda Laird, MD
Dr. Amanda M. Laird is Chief of the Section of Endocrine Surgery at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and an Associate Professor of Surgery at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
Prior to joining Rutgers Cancer Institute, she was an Assistant Professor of Surgery at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine was Director of Endocrine Surgery. She is a member of the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons, the Association for Academic Surgery, the American association of clinical endocrinology, the international association of Endocrine surgeons, and is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons. After graduation from Louisiana State University and Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, Louisiana, she completed residency in general surgery at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She then completed the Norman Thompson Fellowship in Endocrine Surgery at the University of Michigan.
Brenessa Lindeman, MD
Brenessa Lindeman, MD, MEHP, is an Assistant Professor of Surgery and Associate Designated Institutional Official for the Clinical Learning Environment at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. 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 residency training in General Surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where she served as an Administrative Chief Resident, and completed a fellowship in Endocrine Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Brenessa earned a Masters of Education in the Health Professions from Johns Hopkins University and completed Surgical Education Research Fellowships with the Association for Surgical Education and Massachusetts General Hospital. She served as a member of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Core EPAs for Entering Residency Drafting Panel as well as the Resident Member of the AAMC Board of Directors from 2012-2016 and has worked with the American Board of Surgery to define EPAs for General 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.
Nader Massarweh, MD
Dr. Massarweh is an Assistant Professor of Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine with a Surgical Oncology practice at the Michael E DeBakey VA in Houston, TX. His training included a health services research fellowship at the Surgical Outcomes Research Center in the Department of Surgery and an MPH in Epidemiology from the School of Public Health at the University of Washington. His research interests include the quality of oncologic and surgical care, evaluating existing and proposed quality measures, and finding ways to improve the manner in which performance data are fed back to hospitals. He has been a member of the Association for Academic Surgery since 2008, has previously served on the Committee for Academic Advancement, and is currently a member of the Leadership Committee.
Jeffrey Matthews, MD
Dr. Jeffrey B. Matthews is the Dallas B. Phemister Professor of Surgery, Chairman of the Department of Surgery, and Surgeon-in-Chief of The University of Chicago Medicine. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Medical School, Dr. Matthews completed surgical residency at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston and a hepatobiliary fellowship at the University of Bern. During his appointment at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Hospital, he rose to the rank of Associate Professor of Surgery and Chief of the Division of General Surgery at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. In 2001, he was appointed Christian R. Holmes Professor and Chairman of the Department of Surgery at the University of Cincinnati until assuming his current position in 2006.
Dr. Matthews is a leading expert in pancreaticobiliary and gastrointestinal surgery. He has over 150 original articles and other publications. He led a federally funded research laboratory studying the regulation of epithelial transport and barrier function for over two decades. He serves on the editorial board of 11 scientific journals and is Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of the Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery. He is the Chair of the Surgery Residency Review Committee of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. He is a senior Director of the American Board of Surgery, and past President of the Society of Surgical Chairs, the Society of University Surgeons and the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract (SSAT).
Rebecca Minter, MD
Rebecca M. Minter, M.D., is the A.R. Curreri Professor and Chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Prior to her move to the University of Wisconsin, Dr. Minter held successive leadership roles at the University of Texas Southwestern and the University of Michigan, including serving as Chief of the Hepatopancreatobiliary Section/Division at both institutions
Dr. Minter’s clinical practice is focused in the areas of pancreatobiliary and gastrointestinal surgery. She has a particular interest in the management and treatment of benign and neoplastic diseases of the pancreas. Dr. Minter is recognized as a clinical leader in her field and presently serves as the President of the Americas Hepatopancreatobiliary Association, current Chair of the International Hepatopancreatobiliary Association Education and Training Committee, and is an Associate Editor of the journal, HPB.
Dr. Minter’s research efforts focus on surgical education, specifically the development of training frameworks which explicitly define progressive entrustment and development of autonomy. Dr. Minter holds national leadership positions in multiple societies in recognition of her work in the field of surgical education and academic surgery, and is the immediate past President of the Society of University Surgeons and the Fellowship Council, and currently serves as a Director of the American Board of Surgery.
Arden Morris, MD, MPH
Arden M. Morris, MD, MPH is Professor of Surgery, Vice Chair for Clinical Research in the Stanford School of Medicine’s Department of Surgery, and Director of the S-SPIRE Center, a health services research collaborative. Dr. Morris’ research uses quantitative and qualitative research methods to focus primarily on socially determined disparities in the quality of cancer care, decision making for care, and patient-physician relationships. She serves as Director of the American College of Surgeons biennial Health Services Research Methods Course.
Hari Nathan, MD, PhD
Dr. Hari Nathan is an Assistant Professor of Surgery in the Division of Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Surgery at the University of Michigan. Dr. Nathan completed both his undergraduate and medical education with honors at The Johns Hopkins University. He also completed advanced training in health services research and was awarded a PhD from The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Nathan completed his clinical residency training in general surgery at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. He subsequently completed a clinical fellowship in complex general surgical oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where he also served as the Chief Administrative Fellow in Surgery. He joined the faculty of the University of Michigan in 2014. His clinical focus includes the multi-disciplinary treatment of tumors of the liver, bile duct, pancreas, and stomach.
Dr. Nathan’s health services research portfolio focuses on variation in the cost and quality of surgical care. He has been awarded a K08 career development award from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to study the impact of accountable care organizations (ACOs) on the costs and quality of surgical care. Additionally, he is a co-investigator on a R01 focused on evaluating the impact of Medicare payment policy innovations on surgical care. More recently, his research has included assessments of surgical quality and costs within hospital networks. He is also interested in the quality of cancer surgery and prediction of prognosis after cancer resection. He was awarded the 2018 American College of Surgeons Joan L. and Julius H. Jacobson II Promising Investigator Award.
Priti Parikh, PhD
Priti Parikh currently serves as an Associate Professor and Research Director in the Department of Surgery (DOS) at Wright State University. Her primary research interests are in the area of health services research and simulation based training. As a Research Director, she builds research culture in the department and provides necessary research education to surgery faculty, residents, and medical students.
Timothy Pawlik, MD, MPH, PhD
Dr. Pawlik received his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University and his medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine. Dr. Pawlik completed surgical training at the University of Michigan Hospital and spent two years at the Massachusetts General Hospital as a surgical oncology research fellow. He then went on for advanced training in surgical oncology at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Dr. Pawlik’s main clinical interests include alimentary tract surgery, with a special interest in hepatic, pancreatic and biliary diseases. Dr. Pawlik also has an interest in medical ethics and completed a fellowship in medical ethics at the Harvard School of Public Health as well as a Masters in Theology from Harvard Divinity School in Boston. In addition, Dr. Pawlik was the recipient of a Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) KL2 Research Scholar Award and received a PhD from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Clinical Investigations.
Dr. Pawlik took his first faculty appointment at Johns Hopkins in 2005, where he was Professor of Surgery and Oncology, as well as the John L. Cameron Chair of Alimentary Tract Diseases and the Chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology until 2016. Dr. Pawlik currently is the Chair of Surgery at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center where he holds The Urban Meyer III and Shelley Meyer Chair for Cancer Research. Dr. Pawlik also serves as the Treasurer / Secretary of The Ohio State University Practice Plan. Dr. Pawlik has given our 400 invited talks both nationally and internationally in 25 different countries. Dr. Pawlik has published over 850 articles and 75 book chapters, in addition to editing six surgical textbooks. Dr. Pawlik serves on multiple editorial boards and is Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Deputy Editor of JAMA Surgery, as well as an Associate Editor for Annals of Surgical Oncology. Dr. Pawlik has served on the executive council of several of the premier surgical associations in the United States. Dr. Pawlik is a member of multiple surgical societies including the Society of Surgical Oncology, the Americas Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association, American Surgical Association, Society of Clinical Surgery, as well as being a past-President of the Association for Academic Surgery. Dr. Pawlik’s international contributions have been recognized through his honorary memberships in the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, Brazilian Society of Surgical Oncology, as well as the Society of General Surgeons of Perú. Dr. Pawlik’s research focuses on determinations of factors associated with prognosis and staging of gastrointestinal cancers, as well as the economics of cancer care. He also studies patient/physician communication and patient engagement, as well as patient perception of cancer-care goals. Dr. Pawlik has consistently been recognized by Castle Connolly as one of America’s “Top Docs.”
Joseph Phillips, MD
Medical School: Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine
General Surgery Residency: McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University
Cardiothoracic Residency: University of Michigan
Staff Physician: Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center
Assistant Professor of Surgery: Dartmouth, Geisel School of Medicine
Associate Program Director, General Surgery Residency
Clinical Interests: General thoracic surgery, benign and malignant disease of the chest, lungs and esophagus
Research Interests: Tumor Immunology, Simulation, Resident Education, Surgical Outcomes
Susan Pitt, MD
Susan C. Pitt, MD, MPHS, is currently an Assistant Professor of Surgery in the Division of Endocrine Surgery at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, WI. Dr. Pitt is a Wisconsin Surgical Outcomes Research (WiSOR) program investigator and member of the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center. Her research is funded by a National Cancer Institute Mentored Career Development Award and focuses on reducing over-treatment in patients with small thyroid cancers through behavioral techniques. Dr. Pitt received her Bachelor’s of Arts degree from Boston College and medical degree from the Medical College of Wisconsin. She finished her general surgery residency at Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine where she was an Administrative Chief Resident. While there, she received her Master’s degree in Population Health Science. Dr. Pitt completed a one year fellowship in Abdominal Organ Transplantation and Hepatopancreatobiliary surgery at Washington University in St. Louis and an Endocrine Surgery fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Matthew Porembka, MD
Matthew Porembka, MD is an Assistant Professor of Surgery at UT Southwestern Medical Center and the Chief of Surgical Oncology at Parkland Hospital. His clinical practice focuses on the treatment of liver, pancreas, and stomach cancers. He also maintains an active translational research program examining the biologic basis of gastric cancer disparities.
Taylor Riall, MD, PhD
Taylor S. Riall, MD, PhD, FACS, is Professor and Acting Chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of Arizona, College of Medicine – Tucson. She joined the faculty after 10 years at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, TX. Her clinical expertise is in general and pancreaticobiliary surgery, including pancreatic and periampullary cancer, acute and chronic pancreatitis, gallstone disease, gastrointestinal cancer, and general surgery. She has extensive expertise in comparative effectiveness and health services research. Her research has focused on the quality of cancer care and the care of surgical patients. Dr. Riall has been instrumental in developing and implementing critical pathways to streamline care, improve outcomes, and decrease cost of patients undergoing pancreatic, gallbladder, and colorectal surgery. Dr. Riall is also an executive leadership coach, trained at the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching. She applies her leadership training as a developmental tool to help surgeons and residents reach their full potential by raising self-awareness, developing emotional intelligence, clarify their goals, identifying and addressing personal challenges, and consciously improve and integrate the many facets of their lives.
Dorry Segev, MD, PhD
Dr. Dorry Segev is an abdominal transplant surgeon focusing on minimally invasive live donor surgery and incompatible organ transplantation. His research uses advanced statistical methods for mathematical modeling and simulation of medical data, analysis of large healthcare datasets, and outcomes research. He has made significant contributions to the field of transplantation including development of a mathematical model to facilitate a nationwide Kidney Paired Donation program in both the US and in Canada. He is an NIH Clinical Research Scholar, American Geriatrics Society Dennis Jahnigen Scholar, National Institute of Aging Paul Beeson Scholar, senior investigator for the Scientific Registry for Transplant Recipients, and Doris Duke Clinical Scientist Development Award recipient for his groundbreaking work in clinical decision-making for renal failure patients over 65. He has authored more than 250 peer-reviewed research articles in journals including New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, American Journal of Transplantation, Annals of Surgery, Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, and others. He is an Associate Editor for American Journal of Transplantation, American Journal of Kidney Diseases, and Liver Transplantation. His work is regularly featured in widely read media including TIME magazine, the Discovery Channel, US News & World Report, and the New York Times.
Rebecca Sippel, MD
Rebecca Sippel is an Associate Professor of Surgery and Chief of Endocrine Surgery at the University of Wisconsin. She is a past President of the AAS and is currently serving as the Vice Chair of Academic Affairs and Professional Development at the University of Wisconsin. She is an established leader in the field of endocrine surgery and does clinical research focused on improving outcomes in patients with Endocrine surgical diseases. She is currently PI on an NIH funded randomized controlled trial examining the impact of the surgical treatment of thyroid cancer on patients overall quality of life.
Christopher Sonnenday, MD
Christopher Sonnenday, M.D., M.H.S., is the Surgical Director of Liver Transplantation for Michigan Medicine and serves as Associate Chair for Clinical Affairs for the Department of Surgery at the University of Michigan. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery, Section of Transplantation, and Associate Professor of Health Management and Policy at the School of Public Health. Dr. Sonnenday’s clinical interests focus on liver transplantation, hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery, and general surgery procedures in patients with advanced liver disease. His primary academic and research interests include the study of frailty and sarcopenia in liver transplant candidates, novel methods of patient selection in liver transplantation and hepatobiliary surgery, and quality collaboratives in transplantation. [
Laura Stafman, MD
Laura Stafman received her BA in Neuroscience and Middle Eastern Studies from Wellesley College in 2009, her MD from the University of Florida in 2013, and her PhD in cancer biology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2018. She is a general surgery resident and spent three years in a basic science lab researching pediatric solid tumors. She has been a member of the Leadership Committee of the AAS for two years and this is her fourth year participating in the AAS Fall Courses.