SAGES 2019-2020 Official Ballot

Aurora D. Pryor, MD
Stony Brook, NY
President

Current Teaching/Academic Title: Professor of Surgery, Stony Brook University

Current Hospital Title: Division Chief, Bariatric, Foregut and Advanced GI Surgery; Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs, Department of Surgery, Stony Brook University Hospital. Dr. Pryor also holds positions of Program Director for the Stony Brook Advanced GI / Bariatric and Minimally Invasive Surgery Fellowship and she is founder and Director of the Stony Brook Bariatric and Metabolic Weight Loss Surgery Program

Professional Activities and Distinctions: Dr. Pryor is currently the SAGES President-Elect. She previously served as SAGES Treasurer from 2015-2018 and has been on the SAGES Board of Governors since 2009. She has served as Chair of Finance, Membership and the Research and Career Development committees. Other leadership roles have included serving as a committee member on the Awards Committee, Nominating Committee, Delphi Taskforce, Research and Career Development Committee, I3 Taskforce, Resident and Fellow Training Committee, Endolumenal Taskforce and Program Committees. She also served on the NOSCAR joint grant committee with ASGE and SAGES. She has co-Chaired the Research Committee and Taskforce on Young Surgeons. She was the Program Chair for the 2015 SAGES annual meeting in Nashville. In addition to these roles, Dr. Pryor is currently working with the Resident and Fellow Training Committee to rework the curriculum for MIS and Flex Endo fellows. She is also helping to develop a tool for video based assessment. She is the SAGES Representative on the Gastrointestinal Surgery Advisory Council for the American Board of Surgery and has served as the SAGES representative to the Fellowship Council Board from 2010-2016.
In addition to her work at SAGES, Dr. Pryor has been actively involved in several other surgical societies. She served the ASMBS on the Program and Emerging Technology committees, both of which she eventually served on as chair. She served on the Executive Council of the ASMBS as a Council person at Large from 2014-2017. In that role, she provided oversight for Emerging Technologies, Membership, and the Obesity Prevention committees. She is also co-chair of the General and Foregut Surgery committee. She is also the NY ASMBS chapter Treasurer. She has been active in the Fellowship Council Board where she served as Secretary/Treasurer, Second Vice-President and is now First Vice President. She is an Associate Editor for Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases, previously was the Subject Editor for Bariatric Surgery for Surgical Endoscopy and serves on the editorial boards of Annals of Surgery and Bariatric Times. She has also been awarded the Stony Brook Surgery Attending of the Year Award and the Stony Brook Community Service Award.

Horacio J. Asbun, MD
Miami, FL
President-Elect

Current Teaching/Academic Title: Professor of Surgery at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science

Current Hospital Title: Chief of Hepatobiliary Surgery at Miami Cancer Institute

Professional Activities and Distinctions: Dr. Asbun has been serving as the 2nd Vice-President of SAGES for the past two years, and has served as a Board Member since 2006. He was Program Co-Chair for the 2017 Annual Meeting in Houston. He is the Chairman of the HPB/Solid Organ Task Force, and a member of the Curriculum Task Force, Finance Committee, OWLS Task Force, and Program Committee. Dr. Asbun has previously chaired the Global Affairs Committee (2009-2015), Educational Resources Committee (2001-2005), and served as Co-Chair of the Program Committee. He has participated in multiple other committees, task forces and sub-committees; among them: Development, Humanitarian, Communications, Conflict of Interest, Open to MIS, International Liaison, Go Global Initiative, State Chair-person, Top 14 Procedures, Web-Quizzes and Pearls Video Projects. He is also the SAGES representative and founding Board Member of G4 Alliance
In other professional activities, Dr. Asbun is the Editor-in-Chief of the American College of Surgeons Multimedia Atlas of Surgery, he has served in the Executive Council of AHPBA and was the Chair of the AHPBA Development Committee. He has also chaired the Video-Based Education Committee of the American College of Surgeons. Dr. Asbun is on the Editorial Board of Surgical Endoscopy and is an ad-hoc peer reviewer for several surgical journals. Dr. Asbun is a member of over 20 surgical societies including American Surgical Association and holds honorary membership of several international surgical associations. He is part of multiple international expert groups in Pancreas and Liver surgery. He is also a panel member of NCCN Pancreas Cancer guidelines group.

Areas of Research and Publication: Dr. Asbun has authored over 280 peer-review manuscripts, book chapters, and peer-reviewed surgical videos. He has also been author or co-author of over 175 peer-reviewed abstract/poster presentations at national meetings. He has been invited as Guest Speaker to multiple national surgical meetings and to over 140 international surgical meetings giving over 410 invited presentations in Asia, Europe, Africa, Oceania, Central and South America. His publications have been in the areas of minimal access surgery, hepatobiliary, pancreas and endocrine surgery, as well as basic science research in the field of surgical oncology.

John D. Mellinger, MD
Springfield, IL
1st Vice President

Current Teaching/Academic Title: J. Roland Folse Endowed Chair in Surgery; Vice Chair, Department of Surgery; Professor and Chair of General Surgery; Southern Illinois University School of Medicine.

Professional Activities and Distinctions: Dr. Mellinger is the current SAGES 1st Vice-President. He is a member of the Educational Resources Committee, FES Committee, and Resident and Fellow Training Committee. He is a former Co-Chair of the FES Committee and the Resident and Fellow Training Committee. He is a former member of the Curriculum Task Force, Ethics Committee, Flexible Endoscopy Committee, Hernia Task Force, Public Information Committee, Standards of Practice Committee, Telementoring Task Force, and Fellowship Council Upper GI Task Force. He is the Former SAGES liaison to Association of Program Directors in Surgery (APDS). Dr. Mellinger is the Past president of APDS, Director and Vice Chair Elect of the American Board of Surgery (ABS), and Chair of the ABS General Surgery Residency Committee. He is a member of the American Surgical Association, Southern Surgical Association, Central Surgical Association, Association for Surgical Education, and American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy. His national teaching awards include Association for Surgical Education (ASE) Outstanding Teacher Award and Educator of the Year Award, Christian Medical and Dental Association. He has over 30 institutional teaching awards. He is the Co Editor-in-Chief of ACS Resources in Surgical Education, and is former Chair of the ACS Flexible Endoscopy Postgraduate Course.

Areas of Research and Publication: Surgical education, surgical endoscopy including ERCP, minimally invasive surgery, international surgery.

Christopher M. Schlachta, MD
London, Ontario, Canada
2nd Vice President

Current Teaching/Academic Title: Professor of Surgery and Oncology, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, The University of Western Ontario

Areas of Research and Publication: Simulation training and health technology assessment of minimally invasive computer assisted surgery and technologies.

Liane S. Feldman, MD
Montreal, QC, Canada
Treasurer

Current Teaching/Academic Title: Professor of Surgery, McGill University

Current Hospital Title: Director, Division of General Surgery- McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) and McGill University

Professional Activities and Distinctions: Dr. Feldman has served on the SAGES Board of Governors since 2013, is the current Treasurer, and has served as the Vice-President. She was the inaugural Chair of the SMART Enhanced Recovery Task Force, and is past Co-Chair of Fundamental Use of Surgical Energy and Quality, Outcomes and Safety Committees. She also Co-Chaired the 2018 World Congress of Endoscopic Surgery in Seattle, WA.
She is Professor of Surgery and Director of the Division of General Surgery at McGill University. She holds the Steinberg-Bernstein Chair of Minimally Invasive Surgery and Innovation at the McGill University Health Centre and established and chairs the Enhanced Recovery After Surgery Clinical Pathways Program. She is Director of the McGill MIS Fellowship, member of the Examination Board of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, and was the James IV Traveller for Canada (2010). She received the Canadian Association for Medical Education Junior award for distinguished contribution to medical education (2008).

Areas of Research and Publication: Surgical Care Pathways to improve quality of surgical care, measurement and improvement of patient-centered outcomes of surgical recovery, assessment of surgical performance, surgical simulation.

Fredrick J. Brody, MD, MBA
Washington, DC
Secretary

Current Teaching/Academic Title: Professor and Chair of Surgery

Current Hospital Title: Chair, Department of Surgery, Washington D.C. Veterans Administration Medical Center

Professional Activities and Distinctions: Dr. Brody has been a SAGES Board member since 2007 and currently serves as Secretary. Previously, he chaired the Membership, Communications and Development Committees. He was the Program Chair for the 2013 Annual SAGES Meeting in Baltimore, MD. He has also served as Chair of the Annual Meeting Video session, Learning Center and multiple Hands-on courses.

Areas of Research and Publication: Over 100 diverse peer reviewed publications regarding laparoscopic treatment of foregut, biliary, hernia, median arcuate ligament disease and solid organ disorders. He has been a member of the Fellowship Council since its inception and has trained over 20 clinical Fellows in Advanced Minimally Invasive Surgery.

Pascal R. Fuchshuber, MD
Walnut Creek, CA
Re-Appointed Board Member

Current Teaching/Academic Title: Associate Clinical Professor of Surgery, UCSF-East Bay

Professional Activities and Distinctions: Dr. Fuchshuber has been a member of SAGES since 2009 and has served as Co-Chair of the FUSE committee since 2010. He also serves on the Quality, Outcomes, Safety Committee, and Safe Chole Task Force. He served as the Chair for the SAGES FUSE PG course in 2011 and 2016, and as Co-Chair of the FUSE Hands-on Course at the 2011 Annual Meeting in San Antonio. He has also chaired the Learning Center.
Dr. Fuchshuber helped develop the FUSE curriculum that is now included as part of the national curriculum for residents and surgeons in France and has worked closely with the FUSE Committee developing new tasks and offering national hands-on courses.
Dr. Fuchshuber is a recipient of the 2016 SAGES Brandeis award and a Governor of the American College of Surgeons. He has served on committees of the American College of Surgeons (ACS), the American Hepato Pancreato Biliary Assiciation (AHPBA), the Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) and the International Association of Surgeons, Gastroentrologists and Oncologists (IASGO). Dr Fuchshuber is a honorary member of the Académie Nationale de Chirurgie, Paris.

Areas of Research and Publication: Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Surgery
Patient Safety and NSQIP
OR Safety and Education

Anne O. Lidor, MD, MPH
Madison, WI
Re-Appointed Board Member

Current Teaching/Academic Title: Professor of Surgery

Current Hospital Title: Chief, Division of MIS and Bariatric Surgery, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Professional Activities and Distinctions: Dr. Lidor chaired the Quality, Outcomes, Safety Committee from 2012-2016, and has been very active with helping define validated quality metrics for minimally invasive surgical procedures. She also currently serves on the SAGES Awards and WRS committees as well as the i3 Task force. She has served on the TAVAC, Resident Education Committee, and SAGES SMART committees in the past. Dr. Lidor has chaired and co-chaired multiple Panels and courses during the SAGES annual meetings and has also served as faculty for numerous SAGES sessions and resident courses over the years.
Dr. Lidor was the recipient of the SAGES 2015 Brandeis Award and was funded to attend the Leadership Program in Health Policy and Management. She is the current chair for the Members Services Committee for the Society of Surgery of the Alimentary Tract (SSAT) as well as serving on the Esophageal subcommittee for the SSAT program committee and the Diversity and Inclusion Committee as well as serving on the Member Services Committee for the Society of University Surgeons (SUS). Additionally, she is very active in the Fellowship Council, serving as the Representative to the Executive Committee as well the SAGES representative to the Accreditation Committee, the SSAT representative to the Foregut Curriculum Working group, and serving on the Communications and Nominating Committees.

Areas of Research and Publication: Dr. Lidor’s research has mainly focused on health services outcomes in benign and malignant esophageal disorders. She has published extensively on improving clinical outcomes in foregut and bariatric surgery with a focus on patient reported quality of life in these disease processes. She has over 80 peer reviewed publications as well as numerous book chapters and national presentations.

E. Matthew Ritter, MD
Bethesda, MD
Re-Appointed Board Member

Current Teaching/Academic Title: Vice Chairman for Education, Professor of Surgery, USU / Walter Reed Department of Surgery

Current Hospital Title: Program Director, General Surgery Residency & Surgical Simulation/Education Fellowship

Professional Activities and Distinctions: Dr. Ritter is an Active Duty Military Surgeon in the US Air Force. He served 3 tours in the Middle East in Direct Support of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. He is Founding Chair of the SAGES Education Council, previous Chair of the Curriculum Task Force, and Co-Chair of the FLS committee. He represents SAGES as the Co-Chair of the Unified Standards Committee of the Fellowship Council. He also serves on SAGES FES Committee, Resident and Fellow Training Committee, and Military Working Group. His previous service includes the Guidelines Committee and Hernia Task Force. In addition to SAGES, Dr. Ritter is an active member of ACS, APDS, ASE, and the Excelsior Society of Military Surgeons. His clinical practice is focused on advanced minimally invasive GI surgery, hernia surgery, and surgical endoscopy at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

Areas of Research and Publication: Surgical Education, Surgical Simulation, Flexible Endoscopy, Laparoscopy, Hernia.

Danielle S. Walsh, MD
Greenville, NC
Re-Appointed Board Member

Current Teaching/Academic Title: Associate Professor of Surgery, East Carolina University, Brody School of Medicine; Vice-Chair for Diversity, Department of Surgery

Current Hospital Title: Program Director, General Surgery Residency; Director of Surgical Quality, James and Connie Maynard Children’s Hospital, Vidant Medical Center

Professional Activities and Distinctions: Dr. Walsh has served on the SAGES Board of Governors since 2016, and has served on the Membership, Pediatrics, Legislative, and Guidelines Committees for 12+ years, including 4 terms as the Chair of the Pediatrics Committee. She was honored with the 2015 SAGES Excellence in medical Leadership Award.
Dr. Walsh is a member of the ACS Board, is the Chair of the ACS Health Information Technology Committee, Past-President of the North Carolina Chapter, and former Commission on Cancer representative.
Dr. Walsh is a Past-President of the Association of Women Surgeons, and has been an Officer and Executive Council member for 6 years. She has been a Leadership Council member for 16 years.

Areas of Research and Publication: Training of medical students, residents, and faculty in quality, patient safety, and intra-professionalism. Surgical education. Guideline development in pediatric minimally invasive surgery. Professional development for women in surgery.

Ross F. Goldberg, MD
Phoenix, AZ
New Board Member

Current Teaching/Academic Title: Associate Professor of Surgery, Creighton University School of Medicine
Associate Professor of Surgery, University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix

Current Hospital Title: Vice-Chair, Department of Surgery
Specialty Ambulatory Medical Director

Professional Activities and Distinctions: Dr. Goldberg has had an interest and passion focused on health policy and advocacy on both the state and federal level since medical school. He has held multiple local, state and national positions while lecturing at all levels on a variety of topics, ranging from clinical surgical issues to advocacy and health policy, and has actively lobbied on behalf of his patients and fellow physicians for the past 17 years.
Currently, Dr. Goldberg is the Chair of the SAGES Advocacy and Health Policy Committee, member of the We R SAGES Task Force, member of the SAGES Quality Outcomes, Safety committee, member of the SAGES Facebook Task Force, one of the recipients of the 2013 Brandeis Award. He is honored to be the 2019 Excellence in Medical Leadership Award winner.
Outside of SAGES, he is currently a Governor-at-Large for Arizona for the American College of Surgeons (ACS), as well as the Chair of the ACS Health Policy Advisory Council, member of both the ACS Health Policy & Advocacy Group and the ACS Legislative Committee and Vice-President of the Arizona Medical Association.

Areas of Research and Publication: Dr. Goldberg's current areas of research focus on diseases related to the gallbladder and its function, integration of robotic surgery into a public health system, evaluating quality within the public health systems and health policy and advocacy. He has recently authored several book chapters presenting updated clinical algorithms, was a part of the SAGES Social Media Task Force White Paper, has written about federal regulations and laws and the impact it has had on physician burnout, and has published a manuscript on the surgeons’ role within the current opioid epidemic.

Jose M. Martinez, MD
Miami, FL
New Board Member

Current Teaching/Academic Title: Professor of Clinical Surgery

Current Hospital Title: University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine Chief, Division of Minimally Invasive Surgery; Director, Laparoendoscopic Fellowship; Director, Minimally Invasive Surgical Training and Educational center

Professional Activities and Distinctions: Dr. Martinez has been a member of SAGES and active on committees since 2004. Dr. Martinez is currently serving as Chair of the FES committee, and has served multiple terms as Co-Chair of the FES and Flexible Endoscopy Committees. He currently serves as a member of the Flexible Endoscopy and Resident and Fellow Training Committees, as well as the Education Council. He is a former member of the Global Affairs Committee. He has been a member of several committees for the Fellowship Council, including, Research, Accreditation, Communications, Case Log, and currently serves on the Board of the Fellowship Council. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.
Dr. Martinez is a Professor of Surgery and Chief of the Division of Minimally Invasive Surgery at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He is also Director of the Minimally Invasive Training and Educational Center, Director of the Hernia Center and the Director for the MIS/Flexible Endoscopy Fellowship Program at University of Miami.

Areas of Research and Publication: Dr. Martinez’s primary areas of interests include MIS foregut surgery, donor nephrectomy, open, laparoscopic and Robotic hernia repair, gallbladder disease and therapeutic flexible endoscopy. His foregut practice focuses on anti-reflux surgery, hiatal hernia repair and Heller myotomy.

Eric M. Pauli, MD
Hershey, PA
New Board Member

Current Teaching/Academic Title: Associate Professor of Surgery

Current Hospital Title: Director of Endoscopic Surgery

Professional Activities and Distinctions: Dr. Pauli is currently a member of several SAGES committees, including the FES and Resident and Fellow Training Committees, the Facebook Task Force, and the Education Council. He is a former member of the Global Affairs Committee. He has served as Co-Chair and currently serves as Chair of the SAGES Flexible Endoscopy Committee and has led multiple projects in the training of flexible endoscopy for SAGES membership. As a consequence of this role, he has also had the opportunity to interface with The Fellowship Council as a SAGES representative for multiple projects, including the development of Entrustable Professional Activity based curriculum, redefining flexible endoscopy fellowships and re-designing the case log system. He was recently added as a member at large for the FC Executive Committee. He has additional leadership roles at the Americas Hernia Society Quality Collaborative and was recently nominated for the AHS board of governors.

Areas of Research and Publication: Dr. Pauli has two distinct and parallel areas of research and publication which mirror his split clinical practice. He publishes in the field of therapeutic flexible endoscopy, including the development of novel endoscopic procedures and the follow up of patients who undergo such procedures (eg POEM, rendezvous ERCP, endoscopic closure of GI tract defects). He also publishes in the area of abdominal wall reconstruction, in particular in the realm of posterior component separation hernia repairs. As with his endoscopy practice, he performs, evaluates and follows patients who undergo novel hernia repair procedures to assess long term success and complication rates. He has a particular area of interest in the management of parastomal hernia patients.

Rebecca P. Petersen, MD
Seattle, WA
New Board Member

Current Teaching/Academic Title: Clinical Associate Professor

Current Hospital Title: University of Washington Medical Center

Professional Activities and Distinctions: Rebecca Petersen MD, MSc, FACS has been an active and highly engaged member of SAGES since she was a resident. As a fellow she was awarded the SAGES Research in Training Award. Over the years she has been a member on a variety of committees, contributed to several SAGES manuals, and has served as a reviewer for Surgical Endoscopy. She currently is the Chair of the Research and Career Development Committee and is a member of the Hernia Task Force and the Resident and Fellow Training Committee.
Dr. Petersen is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Washington. Dr. Petersen specializes in advanced minimally invasive gastrointestinal surgery and was one of the founding members of the UW Medicine Hernia Center. She serves as an Associate Program Director for the General Surgery Residency Program and is the Medical Student Director at Northwest Hospital.
Dr. Petersen attended Oregon Health Sciences University & Medical School. During medical school she also received a Master of Science in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health. She went on to complete a General Surgery Residency at Duke University Medical Center, after which she completed a minimally invasive fellowship at University of Washington Medical Center. Dr. Petersen’s clinical interests include advanced laparoscopy, gastrointestinal disorders, complex abdominal wall hernia repair and reconstruction, in addition to inguinal, femoral, sports and hiatal hernias.

Areas of Research and Publication: Dr. Petersen’s research efforts have focused on surgical outcomes and quality improvement, GERD, paraesophageal hernias, and achalasia. She has over 50 publications.

James C. Rosser, Jr., MD
Celebration, FL
New Board Member

Current Teaching/Academic Title: University of Central Florida, Volunteer Faculty, Clinical Professor.

Professional Activities and Distinctions: James C. “Butch” Rosser, Jr., MD, FACS has been a SAGES member since 1992. He has served on many SAGES committees, including: The Business Development Advisory Group; Development; Educational Resources; Open to MIS; Public Information; Outcomes, Quality, Safety; Resident and Fellow Training; Technology; and TAVAC. Dr. Rosser has chaired Mini-Med School and the Top Gun station of the Learning Center during the annual meeting for many years.
Dr. Rosser has been an established global leader in minimally invasive surgery since 1990 when he one of the first to perform and teach laparoscopic cholecystectomies. He has been Secretary, Vice President, and President of the Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons.

Areas of Research and Publication: Dr. Rosser has worked on the development of the Top Gun Laparoscopic Skills and Suturing Programs. He also works on the development of an inanimate model to train surgeons how to explore the common bile duct laparoscopically. He has helped to design a restraining device for instruments to decrease number of surgeons required to perform laparoscopic cholecystectomy, and helped to design a special holder for laparoscopic instruments. Additionally he has helped on the design of surgical drape and camera holders used in laparoscopic cholecystectomy, video trainers to teach laparoscopic suturing, and is the design consultant for U.S. Surgical Corporation, Stryker, Circon-Cabot. Furthermore, he worked on the development of laparoscopic skills and suturing kit for establishment of a mobile skills lab, a mobile telemedicine unit, and an objective-based laparoscopic skill acquisition and assessment program.

Summary:

Section 1.

Standing committees shall be selected by the President and may include the following: Advocacy and Health Policy Committee, Awards Committee, Bylaws Committee, Communications Committee, Conflict of Interest Committee, Continuing Education Committee, Development Committee, Educational Resources Committee, Ethics Committee, Finance and Assets Management Committee, Flexible Endoscopy Committee, Fundamentals of Endoscopic Surgery (FES) Committee, Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS) Committee, Fundamental Use of Surgical Energy (FUSE) Committee, Global Affairs Committee, Guidelines Committee, Liaison Committee, Liaison Groups, Membership Committee, Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Committee, Military Committee, Nominating Committee, Pediatric Committee, Program Committee, Publications Committee, Quality Outcomes Safety Committee, Research and Career Development Committee, Resident and Fellow Training Committee, Robotics Committee and Technology and Value Assessment Committee (TAVAC). The Executive Committee is a standing committee whose composition is described in Article XV, Section 4.

Section 8. Affiliate Members