Fellows of the Surgical Infection Society (FSIS)
The Fellow of the Surgical Infection Society (FSIS) is a designation given to those who have demonstrated commitment to and expertise in surgical infections. The FSIS is dedicated to fostering excellence in research, education, and clinical practice for surgical infections. This prestigious program equips healthcare professionals with advanced skills and resources to lead in this critical field.
*Earned FSIS credential in 2025
J. Wesley Alexander
William A. Altemeier
John Alverdy
Alfred Ayala*
Philip Barie
Greg Beilman
Timothy Billiar
David Blake
William S. Blakemore
John F. Burke
Miguel Cainzos*
Irshad Chaudry
William Cheadle
Nicolas Christou
Jeffrey Claridge
Robert E. Condon
Joseph Cuschieri*
John Davis*
Edwin Deitch
E. Patchen Dellinger
Therese Duane
David L. Dunn
Charles E. Edmiston Jr.*
Heather Evans
Josef Fischer
Henri Ford
Donald Fry
Rondi Gelbard*
Linwood Haith Jr.*
Daithi Heffernan*
Richard J. Howard
Catherine Hunter*
Jared Huston*
Arda Isik*
Kamal Itani
Marc Jeschke*
Suresh Joshi*
Haytham Kaafarani*
Lillian Kao
Lewis Kaplan
Pamela Lipsett
Stephen Lowry
Ronald Maier
Mark Malangoni
John Marshall
Addison May
John Mazuski
Jonathan L. Meakins
Kevin Mollen
Nicholas Namias
Lena Napolitano
Fred Pieracci
Basil A. Pruitt Jr.
Huseyin Kemal Rasa*
Jonathan E. Rhoads
Jennifer Rickard*
Ori Rotstein
James Sanders*
William R. Sandusky
Robert Sawyer
Sebastian Schubl
Richard L. Simmons
Jeffrey Tessier*
Jeff Upperman
Michaela West
Douglas W. Wilmore
Roger W. Yurt
Brian Zuckerbraun*
John Alverdy
MD, FSIS
Dr. Alverdy is the Sarah and Harold Lincoln Thompson Professor, executive vice chair, and vice chair for research in the Department of Surgery at the University of Chicago. He was an active gastrointestinal foregut surgeon in practice at the University of Chicago from 1986 to 2022, when he stopped operating. He actively runs a continuously NIH-funded basic translational biology laboratory in the Department of Surgery and has administrative duties there. He attended the Autonomous University of Guadalajara Medical School, did his surgical training at the Michael Reese/University of Chicago training program, and completed a research fellowship in trauma-critical care nutrition at the University of California, San Francisco, under the mentorship of Dr. George Sheldon. Dr. Alverdy resides in Glenview, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, which is his birthplace.
Alfred Ayala
PhD, MS, MA, FSIS
Dr. Alfred Ayala is presently Professor of Surgery (Research) and the Director of the Division of Surgical Research (DSR) at Brown University Health-Rhode Island Hospital/ Brown University. He is an elected American Association for the Advancement of Science-“Fellow”; elected Shock Society President, Treasurer & Scientific Program chair and has received both their ‘Scientific Achievement’ and ‘Distinguished Service Awards’; selected as Recorder/Executive council member of the Surgical Infection Society (member: 1990) and was ‘SIS 1994 Joseph Sussman Awardee’; was a Society of Leukocyte Biology (SLB) council member, Co-Scientific Program Char and recipient of ‘SLB’s 2024 Legacy Award.’ Dr. Ayala has been continuously NIH-funded since 1991, numerous ad hoc & standing NIH study panels and consulted for the ‘NIH/NIGMS Working Group on Sepsis’. He has over 320 published manuscripts to his credit and was on JI, JLB & Shocks’ editorial boards. Besides being PD on the DSR’s T32, he’s also training faculty for various Brown University-Graduate Programs. Dr. Ayala’s research interests include the assessment of the differential/pre-dispositional effectors of immune cell function that alter the patient response to hemorrhagic shock and/or sepsis; the role of programmed cell death/apoptosis and/or the impact of select checkpoint proteins have on immune/ organ dysfunction observed following shock and/or sepsis.
Philip S. Barie
MD, MBA, MCCM, FIDSA, FSIS, FACS, MAMSE
Philip S. Barie graduated from Boston University with simultaneously awarded Bachelor of Arts (cum laude) and Doctor of Medicine degrees in 1977. In 2003, Doctor Barie received a Master of Business Administration degree (with academic distinction) from Auburn University. He trained in general surgery at The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center under the tutelage of the renowned G. Tom Shires, M.D., who stimulated his interest in trauma and critical care. After receiving a NIH National Research Service Award Postdoctoral Fellowship in trauma and burn research at Albany Medical College under the tutelage of Samuel R. Powers, Jr., M.D., he joined the Weill Cornell Medicine faculty in 1984, rising to the ranks of Professor of Surgery (with tenure) and Professor of Public Health in Medicine, and is currently Professor Emeritus of Surgery and of Public Health in Medicine.
Doctor Barie has been recognized as a Master Surgeon Educator by the American College of Surgeons, and a Master of Critical Care Medicine by the American College of Critical Care Medicine (one of fewer than 20 surgeons world-wide). He is also a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the American Surgical Association, the Southern Surgical Association, the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, the Surgical Infection Society, and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, among the more than 25 societies to which he has been elected.
Doctor Barie practiced Acute Care Surgery (Emergency General Surgery, Surgical Critical Care, Trauma). He has also devoted his career to the education and training of students, residents, fellows, and peers in surgery, and to the study, prevention, and management of surgical infectious diseases and critical surgical illness and injury. His investigative focus has been the epidemiology of multiple organ dysfunction syndrome, the host biologic response to infection, and the pharmacotherapy of infection and sepsis. He has been Principal Investigator for numerous international multicenter clinical trials.
He received the Peter C. Canizaro Award of The American Association for the Surgery of Trauma; the Best New Book Award of the Association of American Publishers (for the textbook Surgical Intensive Care); the Presidential Citation (thrice), the Distinguished Service Award, and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Society of Critical Care Medicine; the Presidential Citation and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Surgical Infection Society, and the Distinguished Alumnus Award of Boston University School of Medicine.
Doctor Barie is the author or coauthor of more than 300 peer-reviewed manuscripts, six books, and more than 100 book chapters among more than 935 total publications. He is a ScholarGPS Highly Cited Scholar in Intensive Care Medicine and Infectious Diseases. Doctor Barie has delivered more than 400 invited lectures nationally and internationally, including numerous visiting professorships and named/endowed lectureships. Doctor Barie founded the journal Surgical Infections and served as its editor-in-chief for 17 years, serving currently on the editorial board of it and several other peer-reviewed journals, in addition to reviewing ad hoc for nearly 100 peer-reviewed journals.
Doctor Barie has been honored for his teaching five times at Weill Cornell. Doctor Barie has been listed among America’s Top Doctors and New York Magazine’s Top Doctors, and is mentioned in Who’s Who in America. He is a Past-President of the Surgical Infection Society, the Society of Critical Care Medicine, the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma, the Halsted Society, and the New York State Society of Surgeons. He served pro bono for 18 years as the Executive Director of the Surgical Infection Society Foundation for Research and Education.
Greg Beilman
MD, FSIS
A general surgeon and ICU physician, Greg Beilman currently serves as Interim CEO of the University of Minnesota Physicians at the University of Minnesota Medical School. He is the Owen Wangensteen Research Chair and Professor of Surgery at the University of Minnesota. As a surgeon, Greg has a career-spanning interest in surgical management of acute and chronic pancreatitis. Greg is a retired Colonel in the Army Reserves and has deployed five times. Greg has an active translational research program funded by the Department of Defense, the NIH, and industry. Greg has significant experience in Global Health efforts, with his experience in the Army, a decade of patient care and research efforts in Uganda, and recent efforts in Ukraine. Greg served as President of the Surgical Infection Society from 2019-2021.
David Blake
David Blake, MD, FACS, MPH, FSIS
Dr. David P. Blake is the National Medical Director for Acute Care Surgery (TeamHealth), and is an Intensivist with the Veterans Health Administration National Tele-Critical Care Program. He is board-certified in General Surgery and Surgical Critical Care. Dr Blake transitioned to the civilian workforce in 2018 after serving for 34 years in the US Air Force. He has held numerous senior leadership positions, including Chief of Surgery, Chief of the Medical Staff, Trauma Director/Theater Trauma Consultant in Iraq, and Deputy Commander for Clinical Services/Theater Trauma Consultant in Afghanistan. He actively participates in several national professional organizations and is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS), the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, the American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE), and the Surgical Infection Society (FSIS). Additionally, he is a Past-President of the Surgical Infection Society and serves on various committees within his professional affiliations. Dr. Blake earned the Diploma in the Medical Care of Catastrophes (DMCC) from the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London and currently serves as an examiner for this curriculum. His expertise includes the management of critically ill patients following severe illness or traumatic injury, with specific interests in disaster response, surgical infections/antibiotic stewardship, and quality/process improvement.
Miguel Angel Caínzos Fernández
MD, PhD, FACS, MAMSE, SIS-E, FSIS
Dr. Miguel Angel Caínzos is an Emeritus Professor with Tenure of Surgery at the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) and an Emeritus Surgeon of the Galician Health System (SERGAS). With a distinguished career spanning decades, Dr. Caínzos earned his PhD in 1979 with a thesis on “Infections of the operative wound.” His extensive research has focused on the incidence, microbiology, and prevention of surgical site infections (SSI), including the efficacy of antibiotic prophylaxis and the link between preoperative anergy and postoperative infection, particularly in jaundiced patients.
Dr. Caínzos’s leadership roles include directing the National Project for the Control of Postoperative Infections in Spain from the Ministry of Health (1996-2000) and chairing the National Committee of Surgical Infections within the Spanish Association of Surgeons (AEC) from 1986-2000. He also pioneered and directed the Internet Course on Surgical Infections of the SIS-E (2005-2012). His current interests include healthcare-associated infections in hospital settings. He holds numerous prestigious distinctions, including FACS (Hon), MAMSE, SIS-E (Hon), and FSIS (Hon).
Irshad H. Chaudry
Ph.D., FSIS
Dr. Irshad H. Chaudry, Professor Emeritus at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, held academic roles at Washington University, Yale, Michigan State, Brown, and UAB, earning his Ph.D. from Monash University, Australia. A leader in trauma-hemorrhage (T-H) research, he discovered gender dimorphism in T-H responses, showing female rodents in proestrus tolerate T-H and sepsis better than males or other estrus states. In 2000, his team showed a single estrogen dose post-T-H in males and aged females restores cardiac and immunological functions, reducing sepsis risk. His work extended the “Golden Hour” to 6 hours using synthetic estrogen, earning FDA approval for human safety studies. He also developed the cecal ligation and puncture sepsis model.
Dr. Chaudry published over 650 peer-reviewed papers, served nine years on NIH Study Sections (chairing SAT for two), and advised the VA Merit Review Board, NMRI, USAMRMC-CDMRP, and DoD’s Hemorrhage and Resuscitation Steering Committee. An Honorary member of AAST and SUS, he earned the NIH MERIT Award (1999), American Heart Association Lifetime Achievement Award (2005), and Shock Society Scientific Achievement Award (1997), and Mentoring Award (2021). He trained over 100 academic leaders. As Editor-in-Chief of SHOCK (1994–2020), he led the US Shock Society, Surgical Infection Society, and International Federation of Shock Societies as President.
William G. Cheadle
MD, FSIS
Dr. William G. Cheadle is a Professor of Surgery at the University of Louisville, a position he has held since 1999. His connection to the institution began in 1987, where he trained in general surgery and later joined the clinical staff.
He directed a basic science research laboratory at the Robley Rex VA, focusing on the immune response to intra-abdominal infection. This work was supported by 25 years of continuous federal funding and grants totaling over $3 million until his retirement from the VA in 2014.
A dedicated educator, Dr. Cheadle was the program director for the general surgery residency for over 22 years and continues to mentor students and residents. He has participated in numerous clinical trials over the last 35 years and has one active study examining antibiotic duration after appendectomy.
With over 200 published manuscripts, Dr. Cheadle’s contributions to the field are significant. He served as an associate editor of the journal Surgical Infections for over ten years, was on several editorial boards, and acted as a peer reviewer for more than 30 journals. He has held presidential roles for the KY Chapter of the ACS, Surgical Infection Society, Association of VA Surgeons, the Louisville Surgical Society, and The Hiram C. Polk Society, and served as the 2nd vice-president of the Southeastern Surgical Congress.
He currently participates in teaching conferences, junior student lectures, and wound and general surgery clinics. He took trauma and ER call from 1987 to 2023. His son, Jack, is an Assistant Professor of Surgery and a vascular surgeon at the University of Louisville.
Joseph Cuschieri
MD, FACS, FSIS
Dr. Joseph Cuschieri, MD, FACS, is a nationally recognized trauma and surgical critical care surgeon, currently serving as Professor of Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and Chief of Surgery at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (ZSFG). He also holds leadership roles as Vice Chair for Acute Care Surgery in the UCSF Department of Surgery.
Previously, he was a tenured Professor of Surgery at the University of Washington, where he served as Program Director for Surgical Critical Care, Medical Director for Surgical Intensive Care, and Associate Medical Director for Critical Care and Surgical Services at Harborview Medical Center. His academic career has been shaped by a focus on surgical education, trauma systems development, and critical care delivery. Dr. Cuschieri is also a leading clinical and translational researcher with over 200 peer-reviewed publications that have been funded by both the NIH and DOD, whose work has significantly advanced understanding of infection pathophysiology in critically injured patients.
He has published extensively on ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), ventilator-associated events (VAE), surgical site infections, and immune dysregulation following trauma and hemorrhagic shock. His research has described mechanisms such as Toll-like receptor (TLR4) trafficking, phosphatase transport in lipid rafts, and the protective role of vitamin E in modulating macrophage activation.
He was honored with the Surgical Infection Society’s prestigious Joseph Sussman Memorial Award in 2006 for his pioneering work on acid sphingomyelinase in LPS-mediated macrophage activation. His current studies include multicenter benchmarks of multiple organ failure and infection, and the effect of these conditions on long-term recovery.
John Mihran Davis
MD, FACS, FSIS
John Mihran Davis, MD, FACS, FSIS, is a recently retired Professor of Surgery at Northwell- Zucker School of Medicine. He received his surgical training at Cornell University Medical Center, now Weill Medical College of Cornell University. After his training, he did research at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, returning to Cornell to participate in burn research. In 1980, he joined the Surgical Infection Society as a Charter member. At the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s, he became involved with clinical research outlining the pathological changes in lymph node architecture, as well as the social habits of young gay men.
Dr. Davis was a Surgery Program Director who started two new programs and successfully transitioned an osteopathic residency to an allopathic program. Dr. Davis has had multiple NIH grants and published over 200 articles, books, and abstracts/presentations, most of which were presented at SIS meetings. He has served on numerous SIS committees and served as Chair of the Education Committee, Therapeutic Agents Committee, and Ad Hoc Committee on AIDS and Hepatitis. In addition, as serving on the editorial board for Surgical Infections since its inception in 2000, he was on the editorial board of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.
E. Patchen Dellinger
M.D., FACS, FIDSA, FSHEA, FSIS
Dr. Dellinger is Professor of Surgery, Emeritus at the University of Washington Medical Center. He graduated from Swarthmore College and from Harvard Medical School. During surgical residency at the Beth Israel Hospital, Boston, MA, he completed an Infectious Disease Fellowship at Tufts. He is past president of the Surgical Infection Society (SIS), a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, and of the Surgical Infection Society.
He was on the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee of the CDC (HICPAC) from 2004-07. He served on the WHO Working Group which resulted in the Surgical Safety Checklist in 2009. He performed general and bariatric surgery at the University of Washington from 1977 to 2018 where he was Chief of the Division of General Surgery. He has authored and/or coauthored more than 240 papers and chapters.
Dr. Dellinger’s work on infection prevention includes his time on HICPAC, his co-authorship of IDSA guidelines for surgical antibiotic prophylaxis and for management of soft-tissue infections, of guidelines for prevention of Central Line Associated Blood Stream Infections (CLABSI), of the Guideline for treatment of intra-abdominal infections, and of the Clinical Practice Guidelines for Antimicrobial Prophylaxis in Surgery, a joint guideline sponsored by the ASHP, IDSA, SHEA, and SIS in 2013 which is currently being updated by the same societies. He is a co-author of the new HICPAC guidelines for SSI prevention and of the WHO guideline for SSI prevention. He is a member of the IDSA writing group that is updating guidelines for treatment of intra-abdominal infections, and of the SHEA writing group that recently published a SHEA white paper, “SHEA Guideline for Management of Healthcare Workers Who Are Infected with Hepatitis B Virus, Hepatitis C Virus, and/or Human Immunodeficiency Virus.”
Therese Duane
MD, MBA, CPE, FACS, FCCM, FSIS
Therese M Duane, MD, MBA, CPE, FSIS, earned a BS from Cornell University and completed medical school at SUNY Buffalo. She completed her general surgery residency at EVMS and a surgical critical care fellowship at the Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore. She earned an MBA from UMASS and a Certified Physician Executive from the AAPL.
She has held numerous leadership positions including serving on the Executive Council for the American College of Surgeons Board of Governors as the Quality Pillar Lead. She is a current associate editor for Surgical Infections. Dr. Duane has redirected her efforts of quality to include work in remote locations within the country to ensure that acute care surgery is available to all people within the United States. Furthermore, she has found her true passion in mission work participating in medical missions to Uganda and is expanding these efforts to other impoverished areas around the world.
Charles E. Edmiston, Jr.
MS, PhD, CIC, FIDSA, FAPIC, FSIS
Dr. Charles Edmiston, Emeritus Professor of Surgery, Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Director, Surgical Microbiology and Hospital Epidemiology Research Laboratory, Completed Doctorate at Vanderbilt University. Joined the Surgical faculty in Milwaukee in 1984 to develop a surgical infectious disease research program. Hospital Epidemiologist, Froedtert Hospital, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. SSI Expert Liaison, Surgical Champion, Wisconsin Division of Public Health. Fellow of IDSA, APIC, and SIS. Served as consultant to FDA as an expert in the infection control implications of implantable biomedical devices, including as Chairman of the General Hospital & Personal Use Device Panel of the Medical Devices Committee of the FDA. Major research: nosocomial risks in the operating room environment; biomedical device associated infections; impact of selective risk factors for SSIs; antibiotic prophylaxis; innovative strategies for reducing risk of SSIs; and molecular epidemiology of SSI. Author of over 400 published peer-reviewed publications, including book chapters, editorials, tutorials and guidelines.
Heather Evans
MD, MS, FSIS
Heather L. Evans, MD, MS is currently Chief of Surgery at the Ralph H. Johnson Veterans Administration Medical Center in Charleston SC, and Professor of Surgery and Vice Chair of Veterans Affairs at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). She is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and Past-Chair of its Health Information Technology Committee, a member of the American Surgical Association and President of the Surgical Infection Society. Throughout her career, Dr. Evans has practiced trauma, critical care, emergency and elective general surgery, recently bringing her hernia and abdominal wall reconstruction practice to establish a comprehensive hernia center at the VA hospital.
For over two decades, she has explored the application of technology, telemedicine, and remote patient monitoring to the diagnosis and treatment of surgical infections. She is a national leader in infection control research, with clinical expertise in surgical infections, and research specialization in the application of digital health solutions, leveraging multidisciplinary teams and patient engagement to improve the post-operative postdischarge care experience. The Surgical Infection Society has been Dr. Evans‘ academic home for the past 23 years, having attended her first meeting in 2001 as a second year general surgery resident. She is honored to serve as the organization’s 44th president and aims to bring new energy and new voices to the SIS table this year.
Rondi Beth Gelbard
MD, FACS, FSIS
Rondi Gelbard, MD, FACS, FSIS is an Associate Professor of Surgery in the Division of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She received her medical degree from Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, after which she completed a general surgery residency at New York Presbyterian – Columbia University Medical Center. Her postgraduate training also included fellowships in trauma and surgical critical care.
Dr. Gelbard is the Medical Director for Surgical Critical Care under the integrated Quality, Patient Safety, and Clinical Operations structure within UAB Hospital. In this role, she leads an Accountable Care Team that brings physician, nursing and operations leaders together for quality improvement, patient safety, and operations activities related to the ICU. She is also the Chief of Critical Care Services for the Division of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery. Dr. Gelbard is an active member of multiple national professional organizations including EAST, AAST, and the Organ Donation and Transplantation Alliance, and is currently Chair of the SIS Scientific Studies Committee. She also serves on the Surgical Infections editorial board.
Dr. Gelbard’s research interests include the management of surgical infections and outcomes after traumatic injury. She is currently involved in multiple projects through the Department of Defense-funded Surgical Critical Care Initiative (SC2i), a consortium of research institutions that develops, translates, and validates biology-driven care. The focus of her research within SC2i is characterizing the role of biomarkers and innate cell phenotypes in detecting infectious complications after injury.
Linwood Haith
MD, FSIS
Linwood Haith was the 2018 President of the American Burn Association. He is on the Verification Committee and has been a member of the American Burn Association since 1981.
He is currently the director of the Nathan Speare Regional Burn Treatment Center at Crozer Chester Medical Center in Upland, Pennsylvania and is part of a four surgeon private practice. In addition to being involved in the management of approximately 500 severely burned patients per year and five times that many with minor burns he is involved in general surgical specialties including cancer, minimally invasive surgery and is known for his critical care surgery expertise.
He has been active on boards of numerous organizations including Living Beyond Breast Cancer, the president of the Philadelphia Academy of surgery, Governor of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and president of the Philadelphia Metro Chapter of ACS. He is a member of several professional organizations including the International Society of Burn Injuries, Society of Critical Care Medicine, and Surgical Infection Society.
He is Clinical Professor of Surgery at Drexel College of Medicine, Drexel University and also has been involved in the surgical and burn education of over 600 residents, fellows and medical students from Thomas Jefferson University, University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and numerous additional surgical departments in the Philadelphia area.
He has given numerous grand rounds and independent lectures throughout the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania region. He has written numerous abstracts and peer-reviewed publications, a textbook chapter and has served as a reviewer for the Journal of Burn Care, Journal of Burns and Journal of the American College of Surgeons. He has been featured on numerous local television and radio programs and has done an episode of Mystery Diagnosis.
He grew up in Fayetteville North Carolina attending EE Smith high school where he came under the tutelage of a local college biology professor and whom with his aunt Tina, a nurse inspired him to a career in medicine. He attended Yale College and had the good fortune to row for the Yale Lightweight Crew Team. At Yale his mentor was biology teacher Richard Goldsby who helped him secure the fundamentals necessary for success in medicine and he also had the fortuity to befriend Henry Louis Gates.
Upon entering Harvard Medical School he had thoughts of going into pediatrics but realized that he was too immature to deal with the often extremely distraught parents of a sick child. It was not until he immersed himself into his surgical rotation and met Dr. Samuel Lee Koontz, a transplant surgeon that he envisioned himself as a surgeon.
Catherine Hunter
MD, FAAP, FACS, FSIS
Catherine Hunter, MD, is the Division Chief of Pediatric Surgery and Program Director for the Pediatric Surgery Fellowship and the Research Scholars Program in Pediatric Surgery. Dr. Hunter is a highly accomplished surgeon, scientist, program builder, and mentor. She has a longstanding history of NIH funding for her research on necrotizing enterocolitis and has published over 100 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals. She has received numerous teaching and mentor awards and has served as the Chair of the Research Committee for the SUS, Co-Chair of the Research Committee for APSA, and a Councilor for the SIS.
Jared M. Huston
MD, FACS, FSIS
Jared M. Huston, MD, is Vice Chair for Education and System Chief of the Division of Surgical Education at Northwell Health. Dr. Huston graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and earned his medical degree from the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University. He completed his surgical residency at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and postdoctoral research fellowship at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research.
Dr. Huston leads surgical education across 28 Northwell hospitals, which sponsor more than 30 surgical GME training programs and have multiple affiliated medical, nursing, and physician assistant schools, totaling nearly 700 surgical learners annually. Previously, Dr. Huston served as the inaugural surgery clerkship and acting internship director at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell.
Dr. Huston’s clinical practice includes trauma and emergency general surgery. His long-standing, federally funded research focus is bioelectronic medicine, and specifically harnessing vagus nerve or trigeminal nerve stimulation and focused ultrasound stimulation to improve hemostasis and protect against shock and sepsis. Dr. Huston and colleagues hold multiple patents related to their work. As a clinical trialist, he conducts studies exploring the ability of this Neural Tourniquet™ technology to treat bleeding and bleeding disorders. He has co-founded and served as medical advisor and consultant for companies developing the Neural Tourniquet™ for clinical use.
Dr. Huston has been an SIS member since 2009 and served as Councilor-at-Large and Chair of the Therapeutics and Guidelines Committee. Along with his SIS colleagues, they have produced nearly 20 clinical practice guidelines for the prevention and management of surgical infections. He also serves on the editorial board of Surgical Infections.
Arda Isik
MD, FTBS, FEBS, FACS, FSIS
Arda Isik, MD, FSIS, is a distinguished Professor of General Surgery at Istanbul Medeniyet University’s School of Medicine. Recognized by Stanford University as a top 2% scientist (as of August 2024), Dr. Isik is a leading voice in the field. He serves on the Board of Directors for both the World Society of Emergency Surgery (WSES) and the Surgical Infection Society – Europe (SIS-E), and is the 2025 Scientific Secretary for the World Congress of WSES.
Kamal M. F. Itani
MD, FSIS
Kamal M. F. Itani, MD, FSIS, is the Chief of Surgical Services at the VA Boston Health Care System, a Professor of Surgery at Boston University, and faculty member at Harvard Medical School and The Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr Itani attended medical school at the American University of Beirut, residency in surgery at Baylor College of Medicine, and a research fellowship in the Department of Surgery at Duke University. Prior to his move to Boston, Dr. Itani was on the faculty at the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery and the Assistant Dean for Graduate Medical Education at Baylor College of Medicine. He was also Chief of General Surgery at the Houston VA Medical Center and a staff surgeon at the Ben Taub General Hospital and the Methodist Hospital.
Dr. Itani is a member of various surgical organizations and has served in various leadership positions in these organizations. He is the past President of The Surgical Infection Society, The Association of VA Surgeons, The Arab American Medical Society (Houston chapter), governor of the Americas Hernia Society, governor of the American College of Surgeons, past chair of the research Committee of the American College of Surgeons and past chair of the surgical quality data use group, the research arm of VA-NSQIP. He is an editorial board member of JAMA Surgery and Surgical Infection.
Dr. Itani’s primary clinical research interest is in surgical infections, abdominal wall reconstruction, clinical trials, and health services research, including surgical outcomes. He is the author/co-author of more than 300 peer-reviewed publications in addition to editorials and book chapters, and is the lead investigator on several clinical trials. His book, Clinical Trials Design in Operative and Non Operative Invasive Procedures, published in 2017, is considered a key reference in surgical clinical trials.
His leadership within the VA system and academic surgery has earned him several honors and awards, including the Undersecretary for Health Award, a US Senate proclamation in his name, a presidential citation, and distinguished service awards from the Association of VA Surgeons and the Fulbright faculty excellence award in educational leadership and teaching from Baylor. Dr Itani has been invited all over the world as a visiting Professor and guest speaker.
Marc Jeschke
MD, PhD, FACS, FRCSC, FSIS
Dr. Marc Jeschke has been caring for burn patients and conducting research in the field of burns for almost 30 years. He is a global leader in burn care, research, and education. According to Expertscape, he is the second highest-ranked expert in burns in the world. Dr. Jeschke is currently the Vice-President of Research for Hamilton Health Sciences and is a Professor in the Departments of Surgery, Biochemistry, and Biomedical Sciences at McMaster University. He is the Director of the Burn Program at Hamilton General Hospital, and is a Surgeon-Scientist. Before joining Hamilton Health Sciences in 2022, Dr. Jeschke held a faculty position at Sunnybrook, in Toronto, for 12 years. Prior to that, he was the distinguished Annie Laurie Howard Chair in Burn Surgery at the University of Texas Medical Branch and Shriners Hospital for Children, and worked there as a Staff Surgeon and Coordinator of Research, with a focus on increasing research productivity and obtaining independent grant funds.
Dr. Jeschke has a continuous commitment to scholarly work with over 450 peer-reviewed articles, books, and book chapters on burn care. He has been funded continuously since 2000 and has a significant track record of successes with federal funding agencies and private foundations. He has a total lifetime funding of over $25,000,000 as Principal or Co-Investigator. Dr. Jeschke has an essential role in worldwide multicenter clinical trials and is currently engaged in multiple ongoing multicenter trials. His work is translational, and his research interests include investigating the profound metabolic alterations post-burn injury and novel techniques for wound coverage and skin regeneration.
Suresh Joshi
MD, PhD, MS, DNHE, FIDSA, FSIS
Dr. Suresh G Joshi, Director and Professor, is a physician turned medical educator and research scientist, known for his liaison skills. In addition to medical qualifications, he earned a postgraduate and doctorate in medical microbiology and immunology, and biochemistry from the University of Pune and specialized in infection control and prevention, infectious diseases, and hospital epidemiology. Since 1988, Dr. Joshi has been providing his services in academia, healthcare, and research, and has served at four renowned universities.
His special interest is in bacterial infection, biofilms and surgical site infections, wound infection and healing, novel antimicrobial products, and mechanisms of resistance, biodefense vaccines. Dr. Joshi became the Founding Director of the Center for Surgical Infection (2008) after being inspired by Dr. Henri Ford and Dr. Pamela Lipsett, the former presidents of SIS. This was the only surgical infection center in the Philadelphia region when it was established. Dr. Joshi has published 210 peer-reviewed publications and articles, 2 book chapters, 32 novel gene sequences, and edited the special issues of ‘Antimicrobial Testing (AMT) 1.0, AMT 2.0, and AMT 3.0 for Microorganisms (MDPI publications). Dr. Joshi is passionate about his teaching and mentoring research since the beginning, and has mentored over 80 graduates, medical students, residents and fellows, and foreign-exchange fellows from 6 countries. He is the Founding Director of the Center for Plasma in Health and Biomedical Engineering, and the Founding Director of Drexel Biomed-India and Brazil Programs.
He is a fellow of IDSA and now SIS, and served formerly as a member of the committees of Research and Awards, public health, and vice-chair of publications at IDSA, and research and program committee at SIS. Dr. Joshi has been a member of several international organizing committees related to Infectious diseases, microbiology, and drug discovery, and editorial boards. He is part of 5 global patents related to antimicrobial strategies and infection control, wound dressing.
Haytham Kaafarani
MD, MPH, FACS, FRCSEd, FSIS
Haytham Kaafarani, MD, MPH, FACS, FRCSEd (Hon), FSIS, is a Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and the Trauma Medical Director at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). Between 2022 and 2023, Dr. Kaafarani served as the Chief Patient Safety Officer of The Joint Commission. In that role, he was the president’s designee to prioritize patient safety concerns at Joint Commission-accredited health care organizations, provided oversight and medical expertise for the Office of Quality and Patient Safety, and oversaw data management and analysis related to the Sentinel Event Database. His previous roles include The MGH Hospital-wide Director of Safety & Quality, the Director of the MGH Center for Outcomes & Patient Safety in Surgery (COMPASS) and the Director of the MGH Wound Center. Dr. Kaafarani is a recognized authority and speaker with more than 450 published peer-reviewed manuscripts and textbook chapters with a focus on surgical patient safety from intake to discharge, benchmarking quality care, peer support, and the use of artificial intelligence for risk modeling and predicting outcomes. He has won numerous awards, including a nomination to the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the 2024 Robert L. Wears Patient Safety Leadership National Award and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh Honorary Fellowship Ad Hominem. Dr. Kaafarani received his Master of Public Health from Harvard University and his doctorate from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. He holds certifications in surgery and surgical critical care from the American Board of Surgery.
Lillian Kao
MD, MS, FACS, FSIS
Lillian Kao, MD, MS, FACS, FSIS is Professor and Chief of the Division of Acute Care Surgery at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston. She has been a member of SIS since 2003. She has served as chair of a number of SIS committees including the Fellowship, Bylaws and Special Projects, and the ad hoc Acute Care Surgery Committee, and she is the current Secretary-Treasurer. She has been fortunate to have received a number of awards from the SIS Foundation including the Junior Faculty Fellowship Award, the Innovation Award, and the Multi-Center Trial Award.
Pamela Lipsett
MD, FSIS
Dr. Lipsett is an Assistant Dean of Assessment and Program Evaluation, Warfield M Firor Endowed Professorship, Professor in the Department of Surgery, Anesthesiology, and Critical Care Medicine, as well as in Nursing at the Johns Hopkins University Schools of Medicine and Nursing. She is currently the Program Director Surgical Critical Care Fellowship and the Co-Director of the Surgical Intensive Care Units. Dr Lipsett previously served as the Program Director of the General Surgery Residency, and actively recruited international trainees into the preliminary surgery program for over 17 years. Dr. Lipsett completed her internship and residency in general surgery at Johns Hopkins and holds a Faculty Advanced Training Specialty Certificate in gastrointestinal surgery. As an intensivist for over 36 years, Dr. Lipsett has played an integral role in several clinical trials and government supported grants as well as studies of scientific interest. Her scientific interests include phase II, III trials of agents for critically ill patients including sepsis, prevention and management of nosocomial infection, the perioperative management of the critically ill surgical patient, antibiotic management, hand hygiene, outcomes, cost effectiveness , quality of life in the critically ill, residency education, and assessment and evaluation. She has served as President of the Society of Critical Care Medicine and the Surgical Infection Society. She served as the Chair of the Residency Review Committee for Surgery.
Ronald V. Maier
MD, FACS, FRCS Ed (Hon), FCSHK (Hon), FCCS (Hon), FASI (Hon), FISS(Hon), MAMSE, FSIS
Dr. Maier holds the Jane and Donald D. Trunkey Chair of Trauma Surgery and is Professor of the Department of Surgery at the University of Washington. In addition, he is Emeritus Surgeon-in-Chief at Harborview Medical Center, the Level I Trauma Center in Seattle, supporting four Northwest states representing one quarter of the landmass of the USA.
Dr. Maier graduated magna cum laude with his BS from the University of Notre Dame, obtained his MD degree from Duke University Medical School, and completed his General Surgery residency at the University of Washington, after which he completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Immunopathology at the Scripps Research Foundation in La Jolla, California. He has been a member of the Faculty of the Department of Surgery at the University of Washington since 1981.
He has served in numerous leadership positions, both nationally and internationally, including Past-President of the American Surgical Association, American College of Surgeons, Society of University Surgeons, Shock Society, American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, Halsted Society, Surgical Infection Society, North American Trauma Association, and the International Association of Trauma, Surgery and Intensive Care of the International Surgical Society. He is a past Director and Chair of the American Board of Surgery. He was the co-founder of the Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center, one of the original CDC-funded Injury Prevention Centers in America.
Dr. Maier has received numerous honors for his research, teaching and clinical trauma work, including the Scientific Achievement Award from the Shock Society (2004); the Lifetime Achievement Award in Trauma Resuscitation from the American Heart Association (2007); the Flance-Karl Award, for seminal contributions in basic laboratory research with clinical surgery applications, from the American Surgical Association (2008); the Parker J. Palmer Courage to Teach Award from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (2010); the John K. Stevenson Award for Teaching Excellence and Dedication to Resident Education (2012); the Sheen Award from the American College of Surgeons for outstanding contributions to the medical profession (2013), and was awarded the Medal for Lifetime Achievement, for published work which has made the most notable and useful contribution to Surgical Science, International Society of Surgery/Societe Internationale de Chirurigie (ISS/SIC), 2017. In addition, he has provided the Stone lecture, American Trauma Society (1996), the Scudder Oration on Trauma at the 100th Annual American College of Surgeons’ Clinical Congress (2013), the Fitts Oration at the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (2017), and the I.S. Ravdin Lecture in the Basic and Surgical Sciences at the ACS Annual Congress (2019). Dr. Maier is a member of the Gold Humanism Honors Society and has been an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science since 1995 for his research on molecular signaling during proinflammatory innate immunity.
Throughout his career, Dr. Maier has been interested in the critically-ill surgical patient, focusing on the underlying pathophysiology driving the aberrant host immuno-inflammatory response, and subsequent syndrome of multiple organ failure with its attendant high morbidity and mortality. Dr. Maier was funded continuously for over 25 years by the NIH, totaling more than $20 million. He has been a member and Chair of the NIH Surgery, Anesthesiology, and Trauma Study Section. His long-standing interest in trauma has also involved extensive clinical studies of the acute management of the severely injured and critically ill ICU patient, and investigations of the impact of trauma system development on trauma care, outcomes, and palliative care of the severely injured. Dr. Maier has presented his work worldwide and has delivered more than 400 lectures on trauma, critical care medicine, and surgical immunology. He has published over 450 peer-reviewed articles and contributed to or co-edited 60+ book chapters.
Mark A. Malangoni
MD, FACS, FSIS
Mark A. Malangoni MD is a native of Indiana. He received a B.A. degree cum laude in 1971 from Indiana University and an M.D. from Indiana University School of Medicine in 1975. Dr. Malangoni completed a residency in surgery at Indiana University in 1980. He then joined the faculty at the Medical College of Wisconsin as an Assistant Professor of Surgery. In 1984, Dr. Malangoni was recruited to the University of Louisville as Associate Professor of Surgery and Chief of Surgery at the University of Louisville Hospital.
In 1990, Dr. Malangoni was appointed Chair of Surgery at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland Ohio where he was Surgeon in Chief and Professor of Surgery with tenure at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. He held these positions until 2011 at which time he joined the American Board of Surgery as Associate Executive Director. He retired from the ABS in 2019.
Mark Malangoni MD has held a number of important positions in American Surgery. These include Secretary and President of the Surgical Infection Society, President of the Central Surgical Association, President of the Cleveland Surgical Society, and Vice President of both the American Surgical Association and the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma. He served the American College of Surgeons as Chair of the Board of Governors and as a member of the Board of Regents. Dr. Malangoni was also Chair of the American Board of Surgery as well as vice chair of the ACGME Residency Review Committee- Surgery.
Dr. Malangoni has served on the editorial boards of the Annals of Surgery, Journal of the American College of Surgeons, American Journal of Surgery, Surgery, Surgical Infections, and the World Journal of Emergency Surgery. He has authored more than 200 peer reviewed articles as well as 60 book chapters. He has been a visiting professor at more than 50 institutions and has given more than 20 named lectures. Dr. Malangoni received the Distinguished Service Award from the American College of Surgeons in 2022 and the Distinguished Service Award from the Ohio Chapter in 2005.
He is a member of the American College of Surgeons Academy of Master Surgeon Educators and the MetroHealth Medical Hall of Honor.
John Marshall
MD, FRCSC, FSIS
John Marshall is a Professor of Surgery and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Toronto, and a Senior Scientist in the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of Unity Health Toronto. He received his medical degree from the University of Toronto, followed by post-graduate training at Dalhousie University in Halifax and McGill University in Montreal. He is the founding and current Chair of the International Forum for Acute Care Trialists (InFACT), past-Chair of the International Sepsis Forum (ISF) and the Canadian Critical Care Trials Group (CCCTG), former Secretary-General of the World Federation of Societies of Intensive and Critical Care (WFSICC), and past-President of the Surgical Infection Society (SIS). He is the Canadian principal investigator for the REMAP-CAP trial that evaluated multiple therapies for COVID-19, and co-chairs the R&D Roadmap Committee of the Clinical Characterization and Management of COVID-19 of the World Health Organization. He is a Senior Editor of Critical Care Medicine. He has published more than 640 peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters, delivered more than 1200 invited talks at national and international meetings, and been cited more than 185,000 times (Google Scholar).
Addison May
MD, MBA, FACS, FCCM, FSIS
Dr Addison May is Chief of Acute Care Surgery for the Atrium Health and Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, North Carolina and is a Professor of Surgery, Wake Forest School of Medicine. Prior to assuming this role in 2018, he held the Ingram Chair in Surgical Sciences and was Professor of Surgery and Anaesthesiology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center where he served as the Director of Surgical Critical Care and the Program Director of Vanderbilt’s Surgical Critical Care and Acute Care Surgery Fellowship for 17 years. Dr May is a past President of the Surgical Infection Society, past Chair of the Surgical Section of the Society of Critical Care Medicine, a fellow of the American College of Critical Care Medicine and the American College of Surgery, and a recipient of the Barry A. Shapiro Memorial Award for Excellence in Critical Care awarded by the American College of Critical Care Medicine. He has published greater than 235 peer reviewed manuscripts, book chapters, and editorials predominately in the areas of surgical infections, critical illness, and trauma and has maintained continuous research funding throughout his career totally more than $7.5 million as either PI or site-PI.
Dr May is a graduate of the University of Virginia with a BA in biology, received his medical degree from the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. He completed his General Surgery residency and a 3M/SIS research fellowship at the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center under the mentorship of Dr. Timothy Pruett and also a two-year fellowship in Surgical Critical Care and Traumatology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Dr. May also received a Master of Business Administration degree from Auburn University.
John E. Mazuski
MD, PhD, FACS, MCCM, FSIS
John E. Mazuski, MD, PhD is a retired acute care surgeon from Saint Louis, Missouri. His last academic appointment was as Professor of Surgery at Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri, from which he retired in December, 2022. He received his medical degree from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1981. He completed a surgical residency in 1990 and a fellowship in surgical critical care in 1991 at the University of Minnesota. He also received a PhD degree in biochemistry from the University of Minnesota in 1993, under the mentorship of Dr. Frank B. Cerra and Dr. Howard C. Towle. Prior to joining the faculty at Washington University School of Medicine in 2002, he was a Professor of Surgery at St. Louis University School of Medicine.
Dr. Mazuski’s clinical responsibilities included trauma and emergency general surgery, surgical critical care, surgical nutrition, and hyperbaric oxygen therapy. He was co-director of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. His research interests focused on surgical infections, particularly intra-abdominal and soft tissue infections; antimicrobial stewardship in critically-ill patients, nutritional support of the critically-ill patient; and development of best practice guidelines. Dr. Mazuski was chair or co-chair of task forces from the Surgical Infection Society (SIS) and the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) that published guidelines on the management of intra-abdominal infections. He also participated on a task force for the 2016 Surviving Sepsis campaign, a task force sponsored by the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that developed revised guidelines for the prevention of surgical site infection, and on task forces of the American College of Critical Care Medicine for development of clinical practice guidelines on glycemic control and patient physical safety in the ICU. He is a fellow of the American College Surgeons, designated a Master of Critical Care Medicine (MCCM) by the American College of Critical Care Medicine, and is now a fellow of the Surgical Infection Society. Dr. Mazuski served as President of the Surgical Infection Society from May, 2016 to May, 2017.
Kevin P. Mollen
MD, FSIS
Kevin P. Mollen, M.D. is the Benjamin R. Fisher Endowed Chair in Pediatric Surgery and a Professor of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He is the Division Chief of Pediatric Surgery at UPMC and serves as the Surgeon-in-Chief of the UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. He is also the Program Director for the Pediatric Surgery Fellowship Program at UPMC.
Dr. Mollen attended Dartmouth College and the University at Buffalo Jacobson School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. He went to complete his training in General Surgery and Pediatric Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. During his General Surgery training, he completed a postdoctoral research fellowship studying the innate immune response to traumatic injury in the laboratory of Dr. Timothy R. Billiar, Chair of Surgery at UPMC.
Dr. Mollen has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health since 2014 and runs a translational research laboratory investigating mitochondrial dysfunction with the intestinal epithelium of children with Inflammatory Bowel Disease. He also maintains a robust clinical practice as the Surgical Director of the Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease Program at the UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. Dr. Mollen has held leadership positions in several national surgical societies, including the Society of University Surgeons, the Association for Academic Surgery, and the Surgical Infection Society. He currently serves at the Recorder of the SIS.
Fredric Pieracci
MD, MPH, FACS, FSIS
Fredric Pieracci, MD, MPH, FACS, FSIS, is the Director of Surgery at Denver Health Medical Center in Denver, Colorado, USA, and is originally from Chicago, Illinois. He received both his Bachelor of Arts degree in biology and his medical degree from The University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Pieracci completed residencies in both general surgery and general preventive medicine at the New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City. During this time, he also obtained a Master’s Degree in Public Health from Columbia University with a focus on socioeconomic disparities in access to surgery. Additional fellowship training in Trauma, Acute Care Surgery, and Surgical Critical Care was completed at the University of Colorado and Denver Health Medical Center. He is currently a Professor of Surgery at the University of Colorado. In addition to trauma and ICU call, he maintains busy elective practices in both thoracic and bariatric surgery. He is also a past president of the Denver Health Medical Staff. Dr. Pieracci is board certified in general surgery, general preventive medicine, and surgical critical care. Dr. Pieracci is deeply committed to providing outstanding surgical care to underserved communities and fostering a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Dr. Pieracci is an active clinical researcher with over 150 peer reviewed publications and 50 book chapters. He has served as a visiting professor both nationally and internationally and hosts an international research fellow in chest wall injury from Erasmus University, Rotterdam, Netherlands annually. Research interests of Dr. Pieracci include surgical stabilization of rib fractures (SSRF) and bariatric surgery. Specific areas of current research include indications for and timing of SSRF, as well as disparities in access to SSRF. Dr. Pieracci is active in many national surgical societies, including the American College of Surgeons, Society of Critical Care Medicine, American College of Chest Physicians, American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, Surgical Infection Society, Chest Wall Injury Society (for which he was a founding member), The Southwestern Surgical Society, and the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.
Huseyin Kemal Rasa
MD, FSIS
Huseyin Kemal Rasa, MD, FSIS, graduated from Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine in Ankara, Turkey, in 1990, where he also completed his general surgery residency. Dr. Rasa’s passion for surgical infections ignited during his training and has since become the cornerstone of his research and professional involvement. He is a founding member and past president of SIS-Turkey and a founding member and current Secretary of the World Surgical Infections Society. Dr. Rasa’s expertise is further recognized through his roles on the editorial boards of prestigious journals such as Surgical Infections Journal and British Journal of Surgery. Beyond surgical infections, his professional interests encompass Global Surgery (within SIS), acute care surgery (within WSES), and medical and surgical errors (within JMESE).
Jennifer Rickard
MD, MPH, FACS, FCS(ECSA), FSIS
Jennifer Rickard, MD, MPH, FSIS, is an Associate Professor of Surgery at University of Minnesota with a clinical focus is on trauma, surgical critical care and emergency general surgery. Dr. Rickard completed her surgery residency at Rush University. She completed the Paul Farmer Global Surgery Fellowship and a Surgical Critical Care Fellowship at University of Minnesota. She is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and serves on the ACS H.O.P .E. committee.
She is an NIH funded investigator with over 100 publications. She has spoken at multiple national and international conferences with a focus on global health and surgical infections. She is currently on the editorial board for Surgical Infections.
Her global health work focuses on health system strengthening and surgical capacity development. She has been working in Rwanda since 2012 and is a Fellow of the College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa.
She has been an active member in the Surgical Infections Society since 2015 and is a past-chair of the Global Health Committee.
James Sanders
PhD, PharmD, FSIS
Dr. Sanders is currently an anti-infectives medical science liaison. He previously practiced as an antimicrobial stewardship pharmacist for 12+ years across three institutions, including his most recent position at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Over this time, he served as an antimicrobial stewardship co-director, a rounding ID pharmacist, and clinical faculty member at several pharmacy and medical schools. His research interests include surgical infections, Gram-negative resistance, pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics, and antimicrobial stewardship. Dr. Sanders’ research collaborations resulted in several presentations at the Surgical Infection Society (SIS) annual meeting and subsequent publications. In addition, he has been an active member of the SIS Therapeutic and Guidelines, Bylaws, Informatics and Membership committees.
Robert G. Sawyer
MD, FSIS
Robert Sawyer finished his undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan in 1984 and Graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1986. He performed his general surgery residency at the University of Virginia from 1986-1994, including a three-year basic and clinical science surgical infectious disease research fellowship. Dr. Sawyer completed a multi-organ transplant fellowship at the University of Michigan from 1994-1996, and joined the staff of the Department of Surgery at the University of Virginia in 1996, performing a Surgical Critical Care Residency in 2002-2003. He was promoted to Professor of Surgery and Public Health Sciences in July 2006. In 2008 he became Chief of the Division of Acute Care Surgery and Outcomes Research. In 2013 he was named Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs and Quality and in 2016 became the C. Bruce Morton Professor of Surgery. In September 2017, he was named Professor and Chair of Surgery at the Western Michigan University Homer Stryker MD School of Medicine. In November 2023 he became Senior Associate Dean for Research, and in February 2024 was named Acting Hal Jenson MD Dean, President, and Chief Executive Officer. He has over 400 publications relating mostly to surgical infections, critical care, transplantation, and nutrition and is Editor-in-Chief of Surgical Infections.
Sebastian Schubl
MD, FACS, FSIS
Dr. Schubl was raised and trained on the east coast before completing a fellowship in trauma and critical care surgery at the University of California at Irvine Medical Center. Prior to that he attended Johns Hopkins University, the University of Virginia and New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City. He has an active interest in surgical outcomes, surgical infections and translational research involving the care of the trauma patient and the critically ill. He is a member of several national societies including the Society for Critical Care Medicine, the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma, the Surgical Infections Society, the Chest Wall Injury Society and is a Fellow in the American College of Surgeons and the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma. Prior to relocating to Southern California he was a member of the faculty in the Department of Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical Center and served as the Trauma Medical Director at that institution’s trauma affiliate in Queens, Jamaica Hospital, an ACS verified level one trauma center. He is currently a Professor of Surgery and Chief of Emergency General Surgery at UCI Health and serves in a variety of administrative roles.
Jeffrey Upperman
MD, FAAP, FACS, FSIS
Jeffrey S. Upperman, MD, FAAP, FACS, FSIS, serves as Surgeon in Chief and Chair of Pediatric Surgery at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt and is a Tenured Professor of Surgery at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He leads surgical operations at MCJCHV and is Associate Program Director in pediatric surgery at Vanderbilt. Previously, he directed the pediatric surgery fellowship at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
Dr. Upperman graduated from Stanford University and earned his medical degree from New Jersey Medical School. He completed his pediatric surgery training at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. An expert in pediatric trauma and disaster preparedness, he has spoken at numerous national and international conferences and testified before the Department of Health and Human Services.
Dr. Upperman has published 217 peer-reviewed articles and 20 book chapters, with research funded by NIH and other prestigious organizations. He is a fellow of the Surgical Infection Society, Member of the Academy of Master Surgeon Educators, Pediatric Surgery Board and the American College of Surgeons, and has held leadership roles in multiple surgical associations. A retired Lieutenant Colonel of the U.S. Army Medical Corps, he continues to serve on various national advisory committees.