SAGES 2021-2022 Official Ballot

Liane S. Feldman, MD
Montreal, Canada
President

Current Teaching/Academic Title: Edward W. Archibald Professor and Chair, Department of Surgery, McGill University

Current Hospital Title: Surgeon-in-Chief- McGill University Health Centre (MUHC)

Professional Activities and Distinctions: Dr. Feldman currently serves as SAGES President-Elect having previously served on the Executive Committee as Treasurer and as Vice President. She is past Chair of the Finance Committee, was the inaugural Chair of the SMART Enhanced Recovery Task Force and is past cochair of FUSE and of the Quality, Outcomes and Safety committees. She Co-Chaired the 2018 World Congress in Seattle. In addition to the Board & Executive Committee, she currently serves on the Finance, FUSE, and QOS Committees. Dr. Feldman is Chair of the Department of Surgery at McGill University and Surgeon in Chief at McGill University Health Centre. She was the James IV Traveller for Canada (2010) and received the Canadian Association for Medical Education Junior award for distinguished contribution to medical education (2008).

John D. Mellinger, MD
Springfield, IL
President-Elect

Current Teaching/Academic Title: J. Roland Folse Endowed Chair in Surgery; Vice Chair, Department of Surgery; Professor and Chair of General Surgery; Director, Leadership and Excellence, Center for Human and Organizational Potential; Southern Illinois University School of Medicine

Current Hospital Title: Physician Coach, Memorial Medical Center, Springfield, IL

Professional Activities and Distinctions: Dr. Mellinger is currently SAGES 1st Vice President and serves on the Educational Resources, Finance, FES and RAFT Committees, as well as the RPS Task Force, and serves as Executive Committee liaison for the Education Council. He previously Co-Chaired the FES and RAFT Committees, and previously served on the Standards of Practice, Flexible Endoscopy, Ethics, Hernia and Telemedicine Committees, as well as the Fellowship Council Upper GI Task Force. He was formerly SAGES liaison to the Association of Program Directors in Surgery (APDS). Dr. Mellinger is Director and Chair of the American Board of Surgery (ABS). He previously served as APDS President, and was prior Chair of the ABS General Surgery Residency Committee. He is a member of several associations, including the American Surgical Association, Southern Surgical Association, Central Surgical Association (Council Member at large), Association for Surgical Education, and American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy. His national teaching awards include the Association for Surgical Education (ASE) Outstanding Teacher Award, Educator of the Year Award of the Christian Medical and Dental Association, and SAGES Jeffrey L. Ponsky Master Educator in Endoscopy Award; he has also received more than 30 institutional teaching awards. He is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the ACS Resources in Surgical Education and Past Chair of the ACS Flexible Endoscopy Postgraduate Course.

Robert Lim, MD, FACS, FASMBS
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Retired, United States Army, Medical Corps
1st Vice President

Current Teaching/Academic Title: Associate Professor of Surgery, Oklahoma University School of Medicine Tulsa Vice Chair of Education

Current Hospital Title: Residency Program Director, Oklahoma University Physicians, St. John’s Medical Center

Professional Activities and Distinctions: Dr. Lim is currently a Board Member of SAGES and the co-Chair of the Immunofluorescence Task Force. In response to the COVID crisis, he co-authored the SAGES primer on mechanical ventilation management and the SAGES repository for safe smoke evacuation, while also moderating and chairing a virtual conference on safe care of emergent patients during the COVID-19 crisis. He was Program Co-Chair for the World Congress of Endoscopic Surgery in 2018 and former Chair of the Acute Care Surgery and the Military Committees. He previously served as Program Chair for the SAGES-Society of Military Surgeons Military Surgical Symposium in 2014-2016. He was President of the ACS Excelsior Surgical Society in 2019-20, and co-Chaired several combined educational conferences on the subject of Acute Care Surgery with the SSAT, the EAST, the AAST, the ASMBS, and the ASCRS. He is actively involved in committees and/or faculty for SAGES, ACS, ASMBS, SSAT, ASE, and the Oklahoma chapter of the ACS. He represents SAGES on the Emergency General Surgery Task Force of the ACS. He has served six Combat Duty tours and earned the Bronze Star, Combat Medic Badge and Combat Action Badge, as well as the Military Alpha Designator, the military’s highest academic award. He is a member of the Order of Military Medical Merit (O2M3). He won the SAGES Excellence in Clinical Care (Arnold P. Gold Foundation) Humanism award in 2015.

Areas of Research and Publication: Editor, General Surgery Examination and Board Review textbook, published 2017 and updated 2020, McGraw-Hill Publisher, Inc. Editor, Surgery during Combat, Natural Disasters, Terrorist Attacks, and Crisis Situations, Published 2016, Springer, Inc. Editor, Multidisciplinary Approaches to Common Surgical Problems textbook, published in 2019, Springer, Inc. Co-Editor, The SAGES Manual of Acute Care Surgery, published 2020, Springer, Inc. Editor, Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Board Review, in progress 2020 Contributing author to SESAP 16, 17, and 18 Obesity Care, Bariatric Surgery, Simulation Training, Robotic Surgery, NOTES Surgery, Military and Combat Surgery, Patient Safety

Patricia Sylla, MD
New York, NY
2nd Vice President

Current Teaching/Academic Title: Associate Professor of Surgery, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York City, NY Associate Director, Colorectal Surgery Fellowship Program

She received the Columbia University Department of Surgery Blakemore Award in 2005, and Blakemore Prize in 2006. She won 1st Prize for Poster from the New York Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons in 2007, and the SLS Young Educator Award in 2014. She is Chair of the New Technology Committee for ASCRS and a member of the National Accreditation Program for Rectal Cancer (NAPRC) Accreditation Committee.

Areas of Research and Publication: Minimally invasive surgery for rectal cancer (laparoscopic, robotic and transanal endoscopic), Transanal Endoscopic Surgery, Transanal NOTES, Minimally invasive surgery for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)

Brent Matthews, MD
Charlotte, NC
Secretary

Current Teaching/Academic Title: Professor and Chair of Surgery, Carolinas Medical Center Center

Current Hospital Title: Surgeon-in-Chief, Atrium Health, Charlotte, NC Senior Academic Chair of the Atrium Health Medical Group Surgery Care Division

Professional Activities and Distinctions: Dr. Matthews has been a member of SAGES since 1998 and has served on SAGES Board since 2013. He is an active member of the Acute Care Surgery Task Force, Leadership and Professional Development Task Force (formerly We R SAGES) and RAFT Committee. He previously Chaired the Bylaws and RAFT Committees and was Co-Chair of the Program Committee. He received the SAGES Young Investigators Award in 2003 and the Inaugural SAGES Excellence in Medical Leadership Award in 2011. He has been the Principal Investigator or Co-investigator on 8 SAGES research grants. Dr. Matthews is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, Past President of the Americas Hernia Society, and a member of the American Surgical Association and Southern Surgical Association. He serves on the Board of Directors for the Fellowship Council and ERAS®USA Society. He most recently served as the Chair of the Fellowship Council Accreditation Committee. In 2020, Dr. Matthews was elected as a Director of the General Surgery Board of the American Board of Surgery. Dr. Matthews is co-founder and on the Board of Directors for Surgical Outreach for the Americas, a nonprofit organization that provides surgical services in developing countries of Central America. Surgical Outreach for the Americas has completed 17 brigades and performed more than 1,400 operations in partnership with Hospital Santo Hermano Pedro in Catacamas, Honduras, Hospital Maternidad La Divina Providencia in Santiago Texacuangos, El Salvador and ILAC in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic.

Areas of Research and Publication: Dr. Matthews has received 6 faculty teaching awards. He has authored or co-authored 193 peer- reviewed manuscripts, 55 of these publications in Surgical Endoscopy, over 371 scientific abstracts and 18 book chapters. His clinical and basic research has focused on biomaterial for abdominal wall reconstruction, connective tissue biologic response to hernia repair and clinical outcomes and quality improvements in foregut and hernia surgery. Dr. Matthews has been funded by the National Institute of Health for the evaluation of photoacoustic imaging of Barrett’s esophagus.

Christopher Schlachta, MD
London, Ontario, Canada
Treasurer

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

Current Hospital Title: : Chief of Surgery, University Hospital Site, London Health Sciences Centre. Medical Director, CSTAR (Canadian Surgical Technologies & Advanced Robotics)

Professional Activities and Distinctions: Dr. Schlachta has been a member of SAGES since 1997, has served on SAGES Board since 2011, and is currently SAGES Treasurer. He currently chairs the SAGES Technology Council and the Finance Committee and serves as a member of the Artificial Intelligence Task Force and Education Council. He has served the SAGES program for years as a speaker and faculty instructor, but also as PG Course Chair for: Current Common Dilemmas in Colorectal Surgery (2015) and Equipping the Surgeon / Training the Jedi (2008). He also served as Chair of SAGES Technology Luncheon: Industry/Surgeon Partnerships in Promoting Surgical Innovation (2009), Technology into Meeting (2012), Ultimate SAGES (2013), Presidential Debates (2015), Telementoring – A new paradigm in surgical training (2016), Wild Cases presented in the Wild West (2017), Image is Everything: Near Infrared Fluorescence in Every OR? (2018), co-chair of Adopting Innovations in the OR: What Lies Beneath (2019), and chair of SAGES Webinar: Returning to Operations after COVID-19 (2020). In 2010, he was program co-chair (CAGS) of the 12th World Congress of Endoscopic Surgery (Washington, DC), chair of the SAGES Project 6 Summit (Los Angeles, 2015) and Chair of the Next Big Thing Summit (Houston, 2020). He brought SAGES resident courses to Canada, with the 29th offerings (nearly 500 attendees) since 2008. Dr. Schlachta is past president of the Canadian Association of General Surgeons (CAGS) and a past Governor of the American College of Surgeons. He is a past section editor for Surgical Endoscopy. He has served on multiple SAGES committees including: Global Affairs, Open to MIS, Program, Research, Resident Education, Curriculum Task Force, co-chair of Education Resources and chair of the Telementoring Taskforce force.

Dr. Schlachta is Past-President of the Canadian Association of General Surgeons (CAGS) and a past Governor of the American College of Surgeons. He is a past section editor for Surgical Endoscopy. He has served on multiple SAGES Committees including: Global Affairs, Open to MIS, Program, Research, Resident Education, Curriculum Task Force, Co-Chair of Educational Resources and Chair of the Telementoring Task Force.

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

Robert Fanelli, MD, MHA, FACS, FASGE
Sayre, PA
Re-appointed Board Member

Current Teaching/Academic Title: Chair, Clinical Competency Committee and Core Faculty Member, Robert Packer Hospital / Guthrie Clinic Residency Program in General Surgery. Professor of Surgery, Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine

Current Hospital Title: Chief, Minimally Invasive Surgery & Chief, Surgical Endoscopy; The Guthrie Clinic

Professional Activities and Distinctions: Dr. Fanelli has been a SAGES member since 1988, and has served on numerous SAGES Committees, including the Board of Governors, Guidelines (former Chair), Ethics, FES, Flexible Endoscopy, ERAS, Legislative Review, TAVAC, the Resident and Fellow Training Committee, and the HPB Solid Organ Committee. He serves presently as Chair of the Program Committee, and is a member of the Education Council. He helped launch the Safety in Cholecystectomy Project in coordination with then President L. Michael Brunt, MD. Dr. Fanelli was involved with EPA creation for the Fellowship Council and other organizations, and was the Program Chair for the SAGES 2016 Annual Meeting in Boston. He has been awarded SAGES Leadership Coins, and has received the SAGES Brandeis Scholarship Award. Dr. Fanelli has represented SAGES on joint projects with ASMBS, ASGE and ASCRS, served as the SAGES liaison with the AGA in planning two consecutive GI Technology Summits held jointly by SAGES and the AGA, and currently is leading a SAGES sponsored project around training, assessment, and credentialling in GI endoscopy that involves ten professional societies. Dr. Fanelli currently serves as a Director for the American Board of Surgery, Inc., and formerly served as the inaugural Chair for the Component Board in General Surgery. As a member of the ABS Council, he served roles on the Education and Training Committee, the Nominating Committee, the Certifying Examination Committee, and formerly was Chair of the General Surgery Advisory Council.

Areas of Research and Publication: Dr. Fanelli has contributed more than 12 book chapters, 180 publications and 140 presentations to date. His interests include evidence-based clinical practice guidelines as drivers of efficient care, flexible GI and biliary-pancreatic endoscopy in surgical practice, improving efficiency through specialist integration, problem-specific patient- focused care, and intraoperative endoscopy.

Leena Khaitan, MD, MPH, FACS, FASMBS
Cleveland, Ohio
Re-appointed Board Member

Current Teaching/Academic Title: : Professor of Surgery, University Hospitals, Cleveland, Ohio; Fellowship Director, MIS/Bariatrics, University Hospitals, Cleveland Ohio

Current Hospital Title: : Professor of Surgery, University Hospitals, Cleveland, Ohio

Professional Activities and Distinctions: : Dr. Khaitan was a candidate member of the SAGES Board of Governors from 2001-2004 and member of the Board from 2012-2016 and again since 2018. She served as Chair of the Resident Education Committee from 2009-2012 and is currently Chair of the newly formed Foregut Committee. She has served as a member of several committees including the Membership Committee, Outcomes Committee, Research Committee, Publications Committee, Communications Committee, Guidelines Committee, FUSE Task Force, Flexible Endoscopy Committee, Bariatric Committee, Program Committee and Education Council. She currently serves as the SAGES liaison to the Bariatric Endoscopy committee for ASMBS. Dr. Khaitan has chaired and participated in numerous resident courses and fellow courses for the last 20 years. She has also served at the SAGES annual meetings as Hands on Equipment Czarina (2012) and as chair or cochair for several sessions in the topics of endoscopy, bariatric and foregut diseases. She has also helped to run several of the Hands on Courses and is Chairing the Bariatric Hands On Course at the 2018 Annual Meeting. Dr. Khaitan is Director of the Bariatric and Metabolic Nutrition Center at University Hospitals and Director of the Center for Esophageal and Swallowing Disorders. She serves on the Video Executive Committee for the American College of Surgeons. In 2006, Dr. Khaitan received the coveted Young Researcher Award from SAGES. In 2020, Dr. Khaitan cochaired the Annual Meeting and worked with Drs. Goldblatt and Pryor to plan an unprecedented virtual meeting for SAGES.

Areas of Research and Publication: New technologies in GERD, Management of GERD, Esophageal motility disorders, Clinical research in bariatric surgery, Outcomes in bariatric surgery

Dana Telem, MD, MPH
Ann Arbor, MI
Re-appointed Board Member

Current Teaching/Academic Title: : Lazar J. Greenfield Professor of Surgery Section Chief (Interim), General Surgery Vice Chair, Quality and Patient Safety, Department of Surgery Director, Procedural Safety and Quality Improvement Program, Michigan Medicine

Current Hospital Title: :Director, Procedural Safety and Quality Improvement Program, Michigan Medicine Associate Professor of Surgery Department of Surgery University of Michigan

Areas of Research and Publication: : Dr. Telem’s academic interests lie in health services research with a focus in implementation science. Specifically, the effective and sustainable adoption of evidence-based recommendations into actual practice. Dr. Telem receives research funding from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the National Institute of Health and the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES). She serves on the editorial boards of Annals of Surgery and Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases, is an Associate Editor for Surgical Endoscopy, The American Journal of Surgery and Hernia. Her research and commentaries have been published in several prominent journals such as the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), JAMA surgery and Annals of Surgery.

David Urbach, MD, PhD
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Re-appointed Board Member

Current Teaching/Academic Title: Professor of Surgery and Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto

Current Hospital Title: Head, Department of Surgery, and Medical Director, Perioperative Services, Women’s College Hospital

Professional Activities and Distinctions: Dr. Urbach served previously as Chair of SAGES Research & Career Development Committee and Delphi Task Force, and currently serves on the Awards, Communications, Flexible Endoscopy, & Research Committees, as well as the Extramural Funding Task Force. He is Past President of the Canadian Association of General Surgeons.

Areas of Research and Publication: Surgical Outcomes Research, Health Services Research, Health Policy, Health Technology Assessment. Dr. Urbach is an internationally recognized scientist whose research on the evaluation of surgical procedures and quality of care has influenced research and clinical care around the world. Dr. Urbach’s current research program focuses on the cost, quality, and sustainability of surgical care. His clinical focus is bariatric surgery, foregut surgery and adrenal surgery.

Jonathan Dort, MD
Falls Church, VA
New Board Member

Current Teaching/Academic Title: Professor of Surgery University of Virginia School of Medicine

Current Hospital Title: Vice Chairman for Education and Research General Surgery Residency Program Director Department of Surgery Inova Fairfax Medical Campus Falls Church, VA

Professional Activities and Distinctions: Dr. Dort currently serves as the Chair of the SAGES Quality, Outcomes, and Patient Safety Committee. Additionally, he is the Chair of the ADOPT Program of the Continuing Education Committee and has participated as faculty and course chair for the LapCo Train the Trainer program designed to standardize mentorship for this program and beyond. Recently, he served on the SAGES Rapid Response Task Force during the COVID-19 pandemic. Outside of SAGES, he serves on the Finance Committee and as the Chair of the Mentorship Committee of the Association of Program Directors in Surgery (APDS). He also serves on the Board of Governors of the American College of Surgeons and is the President-elect of the Virginia Chapter of the ACS.

Jon C. Gould, MD, MBA
Wisconsin
New Board Member

Current Teaching/Academic Title: Professor of Surgery, Vice Chair Department of Surgery

Current Hospital Title: Chief of General Surgery, Senior Medical Director Clinical Affairs

Professional Activities and Distinctions: Dr. Gould is Chief of General Surgery and Vice Chair for Quality in the Department of Surgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He has been actively involved in SAGES for many years on numerous committees, and previously served on the Board from 2014-2020. He was former Chair of the Program and TAVAC Committees, was Program Chair of the SAGES 2019 Annual Meeting in Baltimore. He won the Brandeis award in 2014 and currently serves on SAGES Awards, Foregut, Program, TAVAC Committees and the Technology Council. He is co-chair of the SAGES led multi-society consensus conference on GERD.

Areas of Research and Publication: Dr. Gould has conducted research and published extensively in the areas of bariatric and foregut surgery outcomes as well as surgical quality. He currently has 128 peer reviewed publications and has authored or co-authored 30 book chapters. He is an Associate Editor for the surgical textbook Mastery of Surgery for the 7th edition and yet to be released 8th edition.

Ozanan R. Meireles, MD
Boston, MA
New Board Member

Current Teaching/Academic Title: Assistant Professor of Surgery Harvard Medical School

Current Hospital Title: Bariatric and Foregut Surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital

Professional Activities and Distinctions: Dr. Meireles is a bariatric, foregut, and advanced endoluminal surgeon at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and an Assistant Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Meireles has been practicing surgery at MGH for more than 10 years, where he has been responsible for the introduction of new technologies and techniques, including Artificial Intelligence, Tele-mentoring, and new MIS and endoluminal procedures. At SAGES, he serves as Chair of the Artificial Intelligence Task Force, and on the Educational Resources Committee and Education Council. He also serves as an ad-hoc consultant for the United States Government Accountability Office and the National Academy of Medicine in Artificial Intelligence in Health Care.

Areas of Research and Publication: Dr. Ozanan Meireles' areas of research are Advanced Endoluminal Surgery and Artificial Intelligence in Surgery, where he has obtained several grants and generated many impactful publications. He is the co-founder and the director of the Surgical Artificial Intelligence and Innovation Laboratory (SAIIL) at the Massachusetts General Hospital. At SAIIL, his research focus is on utilizing computer vision to investigate the intraoperative phase of care through real-time automated surgical analysis and provide surgeons with additional data, with the goals of the democratization of surgical knowledge, lowering costs, improving patient outcomes, and reducing of morbidity and mortality. At SAGES he has been leading several projects to research and build the foundation for the scalability and sustainability of Surgical AI.

Jaisa Olasky, MD, FACS
Cambridge, MA
New Board Member

Current Teaching/Academic Title: Assistant Professor

Current Hospital Title: Minimally Invasive Surgeon

Professional Activities and Distinctions: Dr. Olasky is Co-Chair of SAGES FUSE Committee and serves on the Communications Committee, Facebook Task Force and Education Council. She has been at Mount Auburn Hospital since finishing fellowship in 2013. At MAH her clinical areas of expertise and focus include GI Surgery, hernia surgery, benign biliary surgery and foregut surgery. She created a GERD Task Force at MAH to bring together MIS/Bariatric/Thoracic surgeons, GI physicians, and support staff to improve care in this area, and is now expanding this center to add on more endoscopic procedure options for patients. Dr. Olasky is also the Co-Associate Clerkship Director for the BIDMC Harvard Medical School students and a lecturer for the MIT Health Science Technology Introduction to Clinical Medicine program. She serves on several hospital committees that are involved with IT and EHR related decisions.

Areas of Research and Publication: Dr. Olasky has been involved with many education related research projects. She has done work on virtual reality simulation through which she studied ways to use VR simulation to help teach the FUSE curriculum. She is currently exploring the role of healthcare informatics in medical education and studying possible gaps in medical student experiences on their surgery clerkship that result from widespread use of EHR. In the future she will be expanding this work to further study EHR simulation programs that can be used both for medical education for trainees and also for EHR training for practicing physicians.

Shawn Tsuda, MDS
Las Vegas, NV
New Board Member

Current Hospital Title: Chief of Minimally Invasive and Bariatric Surgery

Professional Activities and Distinctions: Dr. Tsuda is a Minimally Invasive Bariatric and General Surgeon with a full-time private practice in Las Vegas, Nevada. After graduating from the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii and attending general surgery residency at the University of Nevada, he completed a fellowship in minimally invasive surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He returned to Nevada where he attained associate professorship and developed the residency Surgical Skills & Simulation Center. He has been active in SAGES, serving as chair of the Technology and Value Assessment Committee and participating in other committees and task forces, including the recently formed Re-Imagining the Practice of Surgery Task Force, COVID-19 Response Team and Virtual ADOPT team. He decided to leave academia in 2017 to start a private practice and expand his education by pursuing a MBA in Healthcare Management at the UNLV Lee Business School, as well as serving as a board member and medical director of the Viticus Group, a 140,000 sq ft hands-on surgical and veterinarian training center. In his free time he enjoys spending time with my family and reading.

Areas of Research and Publication: Dr. Tsuda’s primary areas of research have been in minimally invasive hernia repair, anti-reflux procedures, and emerging technologies. He has also edited comprehensive textbooks in surgical simulation and robotic surgery. As he is approaching completion of his MBA in Healthcare Management, his capstone research project will be on value-based innovation in the medical device industry.

Michael, Ujiki, MD
Evanson, IL
New Board Member

Current Teaching/Academic Title: Clinical Professor of Surgery, University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine

Current Hospital Title: Louis Biegler Chair of Surgical Innovation and Program Development, Vice Chair of Surgery, Chief of Gastrointestinal and General Surgery, Director of Minimally Invasive Surgery, Surgical Director of the Grainger Center for Simulation and Innovation

Professional Activities and Distinctions: Dr. Ujiki has been a member of SAGES since 2007 and currently serves as Chair for the Educational Resources Committee. He previously served as co-chair from 2014-2020. He currently serves or has served on several other SAGES committees including the Education Council, Flexible Endoscopy, Foregut, Membership and Safe Cholecystectomy. In other professional activities, Dr. Ujiki serves on the Executive Council for the Central Surgical Association, program committee for the Western Surgical Association, secretary of the Chicago Surgical Society, and is Vice President Elect for the Illinois Surgical Society. He also contributed to the International Consensus for the Prevention of Bile Duct Injury.

Areas of Research and Publication: Dr. Ujiki has over 140 peer-reviewed publications and over 280 accepted abstracts from around the world. In addition, he has written 25 book chapters and was awarded the SAGES grant on correlating biomarkers with clinical risk to predict progression vs regression of Barrett’s esophagus. He has also received funding from the NorthShore Pilot Grant award ($40,000) on using impedance planimetry to predict de novo reflux after laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy, the Auxiliary at NorthShore ($595,000) for improving healthcare through surgical simulation, Cardinal Health Foundation ($31,500) for decreasing surgical errors through compliance to the WHO checklist, and over six million dollars in philanthropic funding to build the Grainger Center for Simulation and Innovation at NorthShore University HealthSystem.

Melina Vassiliou, MDCM, FRCSC, MEd
Montreal, QC
New Board Member

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

Current Hospital Title: : General Surgeon, McGill University Health Centre

Professional Activities and Distinctions: Dr. Vassiliou served on SAGES Board from 2014-2020, and is current Chair of the SAGES FLS Committee. She was Program Chair for the 2017SAGES Meeting in Houston. She also serves on the Education Council, FES, Re-Imagining the Practice of Surgery, and RAFT Committees. She received the first SAGES Career Development award in 2008 and the Young Researcher Award in 2012.

Dr. Vassiliou is an Associate Professor of Surgery and Program Director of MIS Fellowship Program. She is a minimally invasive GI surgeon with a special interest in Foregut, hernias and interventional endoscopy. She just completed a seven-year term as the Program Director for the Surgical Foundations Program at McGill. She completed her Masters of Education at McGill in 2005. Dr. Vassiliou has won several educational awards, including the 2018 Canadian Association for Medical Education Certificate of Merit.

Areas of Research and Publication: Research interests: Assessment of clinical and operative skills, simulation, curriculum development, competency based surgical education.

Andrew Wright, MD,
Seattle, WA
New Board Member

Current Teaching/Academic Title: Center for Video Endoscopic Surgery Endowed Professor, University of Washington

Current Hospital Title: Director, Center for VideoEndoscopic Surgery and UW Medicine Hernia Center, University of Washington

Professional Activities and Distinctions: Dr. Andrew S. Wright is an advanced minimally invasive gastrointestinal surgeon at the University of Washington, where he specializes in management of inguinal, incisional, hiatal and paraesophageal hernias, as well as complex esophageal and gastric disease like GERD (acid reflux), achalasia, and other esophageal motility issues. Dr. Wright is Director of the UW Medicine Hernia Center and Director of the UW Department of Surgery Minimally Invasive Surgery/Advanced GI and Foregut Fellowship. Dr Wright has been an active member of SAGES for more than 15 years and has been an active member of numerous SAGES committees. He is current Co-Chair of the Communications Committee, and also serves on the Continuing Education, Facebook, Foregut and RAFT committees. As part of the Safe Cholecystectomy Task Force he helped guide the initial development of the Safe Chole program and authored two of the modules. Dr. Wright also helped found and organize the SAGES Mastery Facebook groups which now include over 6,000 members and was instrumental in coordinating a set of SAGES webinars to enhance online surgical education through the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.

Areas of Research and Publication: Dr. Wright’s academic interests are in improving patient safety, development of new surgical technology, surgical education, and patient outcomes of hernia and esophageal and gastric surgery. He has over 80 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, and educational curricula. He speaks nationally and internationally on these topics and is on the leadership of a several surgical societies. He spends much of his non-clinical time teaching surgical and communication skills in the UW's WWAMI Institute for Simulation in Healthcare (WISH).