Dr. Callisia N Clarke completed her medical degree at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine where she was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honors Society. She completed a general surgery residency at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center in Cincinnati, Ohio in 2013 and a fellowship in Complex General Surgical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. She joined the faculty at the Medical College of Wisconsin in 2016 and now serves as the Division Chief of Surgical Oncology and an Associate Professor of Surgery in the Department of Surgery. Dr. Clarke specializes in hepato-pancreatic-biliary malignancies, melanoma and sarcoma, with her research efforts centered on epigenetic regulation of Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors and Workforce Diversification in Academic Surgery. Dr. Clarke is the President of the Association for Academic Surgery.

Dr. Joseph D. Phillips, MD FACS is an Associate Professor of surgery at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and The Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. He is a general thoracic surgeon specializing in minimally invasive robotic oncologic surgery. His research interests are in tumor immunology in non-small cell lung cancer, smoking cessation, and health services research, including implementation of patient reported outcomes to improve care. He is an investigative member of the Dartmouth Cancer Center in the Immunology and Cancer Immunotherapy Program where he is a Faculty Research Fellow.

Dr. Ashley Holder is an Assistant Professor of Surgical Oncology at the UT MD Anderson Cancer Center. She received her medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine, where she was an HHMI Medical Student Research Fellow, and completed her general surgery residency at Washington University in St. Louis, where she served as one of two administrative chief residents and was a finalist for the ACS Jameson L. Chassin, M.D., FACS Award for Professionalism. She completed a T32 research fellowship during her residency and then her fellowship in Complex General Surgical Oncology at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center. She is currently exploring the lymphatic transport of immune cells between primary cutaneous melanoma and the sentinel nodal basin to understand how macrophages facilitate lymphatic metastasis, which is supported by the ACS Clowes Award and the DOD Melanoma Academy Scholar Award, and its relationship to the gut microbiome in a Multi-PI R01. Her basic and translational research program aims to build our understanding of the metastatic process, ultimately culminating in the development of innovative therapies for cutaneous melanoma and other cancers.

Dr. Rebecca Sippel is a Professor of Surgery and Chief of the Division of Endocrine Surgery and Vice Chair of Academic Affairs and Professional Development at the University of Wisconsin. She also serves as the Endocrine Surgery Fellowship Director. Her clinical practice and research are in endocrine surgery with a special interest in thyroid and parathyroid disease. She has a productive clinical research program and has published >250 manuscripts in the area of endocrine surgery, focusing on the diagnosis and management of patients with endocrine disorders and the outcomes of patients after surgery. She is the current President of the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons and a past president of the Association for Academic Surgery.

Ben James, MD MS, is an Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. He is also the Chief of General Surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Dr. James completed a general surgery residency at Penn State Hershey Medical Center and an endocrine surgery fellowship at the University of Chicago. Following this, he obtained a Master’s in Public Health Sciences at the University of Chicago and completed an Endocrine Surgery Research Fellowship. He is Board-certified in Surgery and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons
Dr. James serves as an Associate Program Director for the general surgery residency program and has a research lab focused on financial toxicity and quality of life in cancer survivors. He is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Surgical Research.

He is the Chair of the Health Services Research Committee for the AAS and Chair of the Research Committee for the AAES. Further, he serves as a councilor for the AAES.

Jessica Aya Zagory, MD is an assistant professor of pediatric surgery at Children’s Hospital New Orleans and the Associate Program Director for general surgery at LSU New Orleans. Her clinical and research interests include Intestinal Rehabilitation and Hepatobiliary disease, and quality improvement including minimizing disparities. She was a 2022-2024 AAS/SUS JUMPSTART Fellow.

Dr. Lisa McElroy is an Assistant Professor of Abdominal Transplant Surgery at Duke University. She completed her general surgery residency training at the Medical College of Wisconsin and a clinical fellowship in abdominal transplant surgery at the University of Michigan. Her research training was completed at Northwestern University, where she completed a T32 postdoctoral research fellowship and a Master of Science in Health Services and Outcomes Research. Dr. McElroy’s research examines the influence of organizational characteristics on clinical outcomes of high cost, high acuity patients. Her current work aims to improve equity in access to transplantation by reducing bias in processes of care. Her work is funded by the American Surgical Association Foundation, The National Institutes of Minority Health and Health Disparities, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Dr. Jessica Fazendin is an Assistant Professor of Surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Her clinical practice includes endocrine and general surgery. She currently serves as the Director for Undergraduate Surgical Education and a lead Learning Community mentor at the Heersink School of Medicine at UAB. She also serves as the General Surgery Residency Site Director at the Birmingham VAMC. Her research interests include surgical education and leadership, surgical treatment of Graves Disease, and hyperparathyroidism.

Christopher P. Childers, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Section of Hepatopancreatobiliary Surgery at the University of Washington. He completed his General Surgery training at UCLA and his Surgical Oncology fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center. During his residency, he earned a PhD in Health Policy and Management from the Fielding School of Public Health. His research primarily focuses on healthcare finance, with a particular interest in physician compensation and its impact on patient care.

Brenessa Lindeman, MD, MEHP, is an Associate Professor and Vice Chair of Education in the Department of Surgery, and Assistant Dean for Graduate Medical Education at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. A native of eastern Kentucky, she graduated summa cum laude from the University of Louisville and Alpha Omega Alpha as the Founder’s Medalist at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. She completed General Surgery residency and earned a Masters of Education in the Health Professions at Johns Hopkins University, then completed simultaneous fellowships in Endocrine Surgery and Surgical Education at Harvard Medical School. At UAB, she also serves as the Fellowship Director for Endocrine Surgery. She is a Councilor for the American Board of Surgery, General Surgery Board Director, Member of the ACS Master Surgeon Educators, and President-Elect of the Association for Academic Surgery. Her research interests are in development and assessment of competency in surgical trainees, including Entrustable Professional Activities.

Krista Haines is an Assistant Professor of surgery in the Department of Surgery at Duke, in the Division of Trauma, Surgical Critical Care, and Acute Care Surgery, with a track record of scholarship and NIH, DOD, and Industry funding in nutrition, aging, trauma outcomes, surgical critical care, and perioperative medicine. She is currently on an NIH NIA K23 evaluating older adult trauma patients and caregivers using a mix-methods design. This year, she was awarded two grants to study a targeted precision nutrition pathway she developed, SeND Home, a DOD RCT for abdominal catastrophe patients, and an OAIC Pepper Center Pilot through the NIA for older adult trauma patients. Additionally, Dr. Haines is the Medical Director of Ethics for Duke University Health System, Chair of the Ethics Committee, and currently Chair of the AAS Ethics Committee.

Dr. Susanne Warner is a surgeon-scientist who seeks to better the lives of her patients through research in operative, scientific, and social arenas. Her studies have addressed a range of topics from minimally invasive surgical techniques to racial and gender bias in the profession of surgery, to oncolytic viroimmunotherapy to treat aggressive hepato-pancreato-biliary solid tumors.

Dr. Warner completed General Surgery Residency at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, during which time she also completed a Research Fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She went on to a clinical fellowship in hepato-pancreato-biliary and advanced gastrointestinal surgery at the University of Michigan before taking her first job at City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center in the Los Angeles area. Dr. Warner was thrilled to move to the Mayo Clinic and leverage unparalleled systemic excellence to push the boundaries of surgical treatments for patients suffering from hepatopancreatobiliary maladies.

Dr. Hassan Aziz is a Transplant and HPB Surgeon at the University of Iowa. I also serve as the multiorgan transplant fellowship program director. My research interests include surgical outcomes in HPB surgery and surgical education. I serve on the publication and leadership committees of AAS.

Dr. Hollis is an assistant professor and colorectal surgeon within the Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery at UAB. He is member of the UAB Institute for Cancer Outcomes and Survivorship. His research aims to improve outcomes for patients with hereditary gastrointestinal cancer syndromes by implementing effective interventions to improve genetic testing, screening, and, prophylactic interventions.

Fabian Johnston, MD, MHS is Professor and Chair of Surgery at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Hospital. His research interest include implementation and dissemination of best models of care in palliative care. Dr. Johnston earned his medical degree from the Pennsylvania State College of Medicine. He began is surgical training at Louisiana State University in New Orleans and completed general surgery at Washington University in St. Louis, followed by fellowship in surgical oncology at the Johns Hopkins University and a master’s degree in Clinical Investigations from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Dr. Funk is a Professor of Surgery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW), Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Surgery at UW, and Chief of the Division of General Surgery at the William S. Middleton VA. He is a minimally invasive and bariatric surgeon and a health-services researcher focused on improving obesity treatment access and outcomes. His research program focuses on identifying and addressing barriers to obesity care. He is a member of the AAS, SUS, ACS, SAGES, ASMBS, and Association of VA Surgeons. He has been an active member of the AAS since 2014 and has served as a Councilor (2016-2018), member of the Program Committee (2015-2017), member of the Nominating Committee (2017-2019; 2022-current), Co-chair/Chair of the Publications Committee, (2018-2020), Co-chair/Chair of the Leadership Committee (2020-2022), and Treasurer (2022-current).

Dr. Rebecca Sippel is a Professor of Surgery and Chief of the Division of Endocrine Surgery and Vice Chair of Academic Affairs and Professional Development at the University of Wisconsin. She also serves as the Endocrine Surgery Fellowship Director. Her clinical practice and research are in endocrine surgery with a special interest in thyroid and parathyroid disease. She has a productive clinical research program and has published >250 manuscripts in the area of endocrine surgery, focusing on the diagnosis and management of patients with endocrine disorders and the outcomes of patients after surgery. She is the current President of the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons and a past president of the Association for Academic Surgery.

Pam Choi is an Active Duty Navy Officer, Pediatric Surgeon, and the General Surgery Program Director at Naval Medical Center San Diego. She grew up in New Jersey, and graduated from Williams College and University of Rochester Medical School. After completing residency at Washington University in St Louis, she was the Ship Surgeon for the aircraft carrier, USS HARRY S TRUMAN. She completed pediatric surgery fellowship at Children\’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. Her research interests include trauma, quality improvement, and education. She lives with her husband, Nick, and sons, Calvin and Oliver, and enjoys reading non-fiction, watching ice hockey, and Escape Rooms.

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

Dr. Ghaferi is Professor of Surgery with Tenure, the President and CEO of the Physician Enterprise, and Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs at Froedtert & Medical College of Wisconsin. In these roles, he leads the enterprise strategy for establishing and advancing a regionally integrated and aligned medical group operation. He is accountable for identifying opportunities to develop new and innovative patient centered care delivery models to support the commitment to national leadership in quality, safety, value, and the patient experience. Prior to moving to the Medical College of Wisconsin, he was the Moses Gunn, M.D. Professor of Surgery and the Chief Clinical Officer of the University of Michigan Medical Group where he oversaw clinical operations, quality, strategy, and finance.

He was also the Director of the Michigan Bariatric Surgery Collaborative, a consortium of 40 hospitals and 80 surgeons focused on improving the safety and quality of bariatric surgery. He received his Bachelors degree from UCLA, his medical degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and completed his surgical training at the University of Michigan.

Dr. Ghaferi also completed advanced training in health services research and obtained a Masters degree in Health and Healthcare Research from the University of Michigan. He also completed his Executive MBA from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. Dr. Ghaferi’s research focuses on understanding the relationship of organizational systems and design to quality and efficiency.

Dr. Ghaferi has received research funding from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). His research has been published in prominent journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Health Affairs, Harvard Business Review, and the British Medical Journal. He also serves on the editorial board of several prominent journals including JAMA Surgery and is Associate Editor of GI Surgery for the Journal of Surgical Research.

Dr. Cunningham is an Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, Section head of the Massachusetts General Hospital Endocrine Surgery Unit, and a senior scientist at the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute for Technology Assessment. She is a Past-President of the Association of Academic Surgery. She is the principal investigator of an NIH/NCI R-37 (R01-type merit award) award to examine the potential impact of new diagnostic technologies and personalized management strategies in patients with thyroid cancer using mathematical disease simulation modeling and an American Cancer Society Research Scholar Award to develop a patient-reported instrument to assess thyroid-cancer specific quality of life. She speaks widely on mental health awareness and advocacy.

Anai N. Kothari, MD, MS, is an assistant professor in the Division of Surgical Oncology, Department of Surgery with additional faculty appointments in the Clinical and Translational Science Institute of SE Wisconsin and the Data Science Institute. He currently directs the Integrated Cancer Data Program in the MCW Cancer Center and is the Inaugural Director for the Bud and Sue Selig Hub for Surgical Data Science.

He received his BS and MD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Kothari completed his General Surgery training at Loyola University Medical Center where he also earned a Master’s degree in Epidemiology with a focus on Predictive Analytics and Machine Learning. This was followed by a fellowship in Complex General Surgical Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Kothari’s clinical expertise is the surgical treatment of upper gastrointestinal cancer, including robotic HPB and advanced cancer therapies. He is an active researcher with a focus on using data science and translating AI discovery to the bedside.

Melina R. Kibbe, MD, is the Dean of the University of Virginia (UVA) School of Medicine, the James Carroll Flippin Professor of Medical Science, and Chief Health Affairs Officer at UVA Health. Prior to arriving at UVA, she was Chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of North Carolina (UNC). Clinically, Dr. Kibbe has significant experience with both open and endovascular surgery. Dr. Kibbe’s research interests focus on developing novel drug-eluting therapies for patients with vascular disease while simultaneously studying the mechanism of how these therapies impact the vasculature. She has been funded as Principal Investigator (PI) by the NIH, DOD, VA, AHA, and AMA among others. She has also served as the national PI or site PI for many gene and cell-based clinical trials for patients with critical limb ischemia, as well as consultant for many clinical trials for patients with peripheral artery disease. She holds >10 patents or provisional patents. Her research was recognized by President Obama with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2009.