Spotlight on the SUS Mid Career Award
2022-2023
Susan Pitt, MD, MPHS, FACS
University of Michigan
Project: Reducing Overtreatment of Low-Risk Thyroid Cancer with a Patient-Directed Intervention: A Pilot-Feasibility Study
Dr. Susan Pitt, MD, MPHS is an Associate Professor of Surgery and Director of Endocrine Surgery Health Services Research at the University of Michigan. Dr. Pitt also serves as the Director of Engagement at the Center for Healthcare Outcomes and Policy. In this role, she leads didactic research and career development related educations programming the Center.
She founded the CHOiCE Collaborative (Comparing Health Outcomes in Cancer Experience to improve the outcomes and experience of patients with low-risk thyroid cancer through comparative effectiveness research and better understanding patient-surgeon treatment decisions. Dr. Pitt earned her medical degree from the Medical College of Wisconsin and completed general surgery residency at Washington University in St. Louis where she also earned a Masters in Population Health Science focused on shared decision-making and health literacy. During a 2-year research fellowship at the University of Wisconsin, she was awarded an NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (T32) an American College of Surgeons Resident Research Scholarship. Dr. Pitt completed a clinical research fellowship in Endocrine Surgery at Brigham & Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA.
Dr. Pitt joined the endocrine surgery faculty at the University of Michigan in 2021 after being faculty at the University of Wisconsin for six years. Clinically, she specializes in surgically treating diseases of the thyroid, parathyroid, and adrenal glands. Her research program funded by the National Cancer Institute focuses on reducing overtreatment of low-risk thyroid cancer through behavioral interventions as well as implementation of less-invasive management strategies like active surveillance. Dr. Pitt’s team also investigates the effect of emotion (fear, anxiety, worry) and uncertainty on overutilization in healthcare. She is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a member of multiple professional societies including the Association of Academic Surgeons, American Thyroid Association, American Association of Endocrine Surgeons, and the Surgical Outcomes Club.
Spotlight on the SUS George P. Yang, MD, PhD Underrepresented in Medicine Early Stage Investigator Award
Sponsored by an unrestricted educational grant from the SUS and the SUS Foundation
2024-2025
Alejandro Garcia, MD
Project: Improving Cerebral Reperfusion Injury in Pediatric Cardiac Arrest Using a Porcine Model of Extracorporeal Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (ECPR)
Alejandro Garcia, M.D., is an associate professor in the Johns Hopkins Department of Surgery, Vice-Chair of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Co-director of the Pediatric Surgical Colorectal Program, Assistant Program Director of Halsted General Surgery, and Surgical Director of the Pediatric ECMO Program. Dr. Garcia’s areas of clinical expertise include inflammatory bowel disease and robotic surgery.
Dr. Garcia received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University and earned his medical degree from Weill Cornell Medical College. He completed residencies at Columbia University Medical Center and performed his fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He also completed an ECMO fellowship and pediatric cancer research at the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York- Presbyterian.
Dr. Garcia is a member of several professional societies, including the American College of Surgeons, the American Pediatric Surgical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Society of University Surgeons, the Latino Surgical Society, and the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization.
Dr. Garcia’s research interests include pediatric health care disparities and mitigating brain injury on ECMO following cardiac arrest.
Spotlight on the SUS Early Stage Investigator Award
Sponsored by an educational grant from the SUS Foundation
2024-2025
Emily Keung, MD
Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Mentor: Christina Roland, MD
Project: Elucidation of Intratumoral Spatial Immune Features of Primary Undifferentiated Pleomorphic Sarcomas Associated with Metastasis
Dr. Keung is Assistant Professor of Surgery in the Department of Surgical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Her clinical practice focuses on the care of patients with soft tissue sarcomas. Dr. Keung received her undergraduate degree in Biochemical Sciences and master’s degree in Chemistry and Chemical Biology from Harvard University and her medical degree from Harvard Medical School. She completed her general surgery residency and surgical critical care fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts and fellowship training in Complex General Surgical Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Spotlight on the SUS Resident Research Scholar Award
Sponsored by an educational grant from the SUS Foundation
2024-2025
Mary Elizabeth Guerra, MD
Mentor: Sundeep Keswani, MD
Project Title: Contribution of Fibroblast-Derived Exosomes to Human Scarring Heterogeneity
Mary Elizabeth Guerra is a third year general surgery resident in the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin where she majored in Neuroscience and Plan II Honors, and attended Yale School of Medicine. She is in the first year of her research fellowship in the Laboratory for Regenerative Tissue Repair at Texas Children’s Hospital. Along with her research mentors, Drs. Sundeep Keswani and Swathi Balaji, Dr. Guerra developed a translational research project to study heterogeneity in patient fibrotic responses, with a particular focus on fibroblast-derived exosomes as mediators of differential scarring phenotypes. With the support of this award, she will use a unique biobank of skin samples from high- and low-scarring patients to investigate how different degrees of biomechanical tension govern the profiles of fibroblast-derived exosomes that mediate signaling between cells and may perpetuate dermal scarring responses. Their research has the potential to inform the development of precision medicine to target scarring.
Spotlight on the SUS Resident Research Scholar Award
Sponsored by an educational grant from KARL STORZ
2024-2025
Ryan Zeh, MD
SUS Mentor: Amer Zureikat, MD
Project Title: Utilization of Deep Learning to Predict Positive Portal and Superior Mesenteric Vein Margins during Pancreaticoduodenectomy for Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma
Ryan received his bachelors of science in neuroscience from the University of Pittsburgh Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, his MD from The Ohio State University College of Medicine and is a current PGY-IV/Lab resident at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. His mentorship team includes faculty from the UPMC Department of Surgery, Division of Surgical Oncology and collaboration with faculty at UT Southwestern Medical Center’s Artificial Intelligence and Medical Simulation Lab, lead by Ganesh Sankaranarayanan, PhD. This project aims to leverage advancements in artificial intelligence, specifically deep learning algorithms, in order to detect margin status intraoperatively during robotic pancreaticoduodenectomy.
Spotlight on the SUS Global Surgery Scholar Award
2024
Kristin L. Long, MD, MPH, FACS, FCS(ECSA)
Associate Professor of Surgery
Associate Director, Endocrine Surgery Fellowship
Director, Doris Duke Clinical Research Continuum
Department of Surgery, Section of Endocrine Surgery
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
Dr. Kristin Long is an Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in the Division of Endocrine Surgery. She completed her general surgery training at the University of Kentucky and her endocrine surgery fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, prior to joining the faculty at UW. Once at UW, she also earned a Master’s in Public Health from UW SMPH. Her clinical practice focuses primarily on thyroid and parathyroid surgery, and she is the Associate Program Director for UW’s Endocrine Surgery fellowship. Her academic focus is global surgery, and she has projects in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Palestine. Additionally, she is a fellow of the College of Surgeons of Eastern, Central and Southern Africa and serves on the executive committee of the Association of Academic Global Surgery. She was awarded the 2019 AAS Visiting Professorship to the West African College of Surgeons, and has given invited talks on 6 continents. When not operating or traveling, she can be found with her dog Gizmo or at a nearby concert! Her SUS Global Surgery Scholar proposal focuses on the challenges of adapting to a hybrid virtual world in education and capacity-building for global surgery.
Spotlight on the American Surgical Association Surgical Leaders Fellowship Grant
2024
Nathaniel R. Evans III, MD, FACS, FCCP
Professor of Surgery
Director, Division of Thoracic and Esophageal Surgery
Chief of Cancer Services, Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, Center City
Associate Director for Surgical Services, Jane and Leonard Korman Respiratory Institute
Nathaniel R. Evans III, MD, FACS, FCCP is Professor of Surgery, the inaugural Chief of the Division Thoracic and Esophageal at Sidney Kimmel Medical College, and Jefferson Health System lead for Throacic and Esophageal Surgery. Dr. Evans is chief of cancer services for the center city division of the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center and clinical lead for the center’s lung cancer program and multidisciplinary clinic. He also serves as associate director for Surgical Services in the Jane and Leonard Korman Respiratory Institute.
Under his leadership, Jefferson has become a leader in minimally invasive and robotic thoracic surgery, and provides thousands of patients in the Philadelphia area and beyond with the highest quality care for lung cancer, esophageal cancer, and other diseases of the chest.
Dr. Evans leads a research team that studies early detection and treatment of lung cancer and ways to improve outcomes and the patient experience following lung surgery and esophageal surgery. He also conducts research to identify and alleviate disparities in healthcare, which includes a project funded by a $2.8 million grant to assess and improve lung cancer screening in vulnerable populations.
Dr. Evans is a member of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, the Society of Black Academic Surgeons, and the Society of University Surgeons. He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the American College of Chest Physicians. Jefferson recognized him as a distinguished educator with the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, and in 2020 singled him out as a skilled and accomplished surgeon with the Outstanding Clinician Award for Surgical Specialties. He was the 2022 recipient of the Sidney Kimmel Medical College Deans Award for Faculty Mentoring and the Jefferson Health Award for Achievement in Medicine.