Current Surgery Reports - Meet The Editors

Jose J. Diaz

Editor-in-Chief

Education:

Medical School: University of Texas Medical School at Houston

Internship Surgery: University of Kentucky Albert B. Chandler Medical Center 

Residency: General Surgery, Huron Hospital/Cleveland Clinic Foundation Affiliated Health Systems 

Fellowship: Trauma/Surgical Critical Care, Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Board Certified: General Surgery, Surgical Critical Care, and Adult Nutrition Support

Current:

Director, Regional Trauma Program

Director, Trauma ICU & Surgical Step-Down Unit

Tampa General Hospital

Chief, Division of Acute Care Surgery

University of South Florida

Previous:

Chief, Division Acute Care Surgery and Program Director, Acute Care Surgery; Fellowship Program Director, University of Maryland Medical Center / R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center (12 years)

Chief, Emergency General Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center (11 years)

Publications: Nationally recognized expert in trauma, emergency general surgery, and management of the open abdomen: +150 peer-reviews, 3 Books, 29 book chapters, 110+ regional, national and international invited presentations

Editorial Boards:

Editor-in-Chief: Current Surgery Reports

Associate Editor: Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery

Editorial Board Member: International Journal of the Care of the Injured

National:

Society of Critical Care Medicine

Past Chair, Surgery Section

Past Chair, Program Committee

Southeastern Surgical Congress

              Chair, DEI Committee

American College of Surgeons

              Past President, Maryland Chapter, Governor at Large for Maryland

Research Interests:

Chest Wall Injury, Pancreatitis, Open Abdomen, Complex Abdominal Wall Reconstruction, Enteroatmospheric Fistula

Mark Kligman

Section Editor: Bariatric Surgery

Dr. Mark Kligman is the Vice Chair for Quality and Safety for the Department of Surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He is the Director of the Center for Weight Management and Wellness and Program Director of the Advanced GI / MIS Fellowship program and Surgical Quality Officer at the University of Maryland Medical Center. He has been a bariatric surgeon for more than 23 years and has performed over 4,000 laparoscopic weight loss operations. A fellowship-trained trauma surgeon, Dr. Kligman developed an interest in bariatric surgery while at the Medical College of Ohio (now University of Toledo School of Medicine), where he served as Medical Director of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit. Eventually, he decided to devote most of his practice to weight loss surgery. He received his medical degree from Wayne State University. In addition to a residency and research fellowship at the University of Maryland, he completed fellowships in Trauma Surgery and Surgical Critical Care at the University of Miami.

Nathan Mowery

Section Editor: Emergency General Surgery

I am a Professor of Surgery in the Wake Forest Medical Center in the Division of Acute Care Surgery. I serve as the Surgical Critical Care and Acute Care Surgery Fellowship Director and the Director of Research for the Division of Acute Care Surgery. I specialize in trauma injuries, emergency general surgery and critical care. I am a board-certified surgeon with subspecialty training in trauma surgery and surgical critical care.

I earned my medical degree from West Virginia University. I completed my general surgery residency at Indiana University. I completed a year of ACS research at Vanderbilt University and then a two year fellowship in Surgical Critical Care and Acute Care Surgery, also at Vanderbilt University.

I am devoted to educating trainees in surgery. I conduct clinical research in emergency general surgery and trauma and am a member of several professional organizations, including the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma and the American College of Surgeons.

Keith Miller

Section Editor: Nutrition, Metabolism, & Surgery

Dr. Miller obtained his undergraduate degree at DePauw University, followed by his MD from the Indiana University School of Medicine. He has spent the last fifteen years at the University of Louisville where he completed his General Surgery residency and Trauma / Surgical Critical Care fellowship before joining the faculty.

Currently, Dr. Miller is an Associate Professor of Surgery in Trauma and Critical Care at the University of Louisville. He serves as the Associate Trauma Medical Director and Associate Program Director for General Surgery. His research interests include violent injury prevention, firearm injury, shock resuscitation, critical care nutrition, and care of the critically injured trauma patient.

Ramya Swamy

Section Editor: Ophthalmologic Surgery

I am a board certified ophthalmologist with fellowship training in glaucoma. My areas of clinical expertise include medical and surgical treatment of glaucoma, cataract and anterior segment disorders. I completed my bachelor’s degree with high honors at the University of Maryland, College Park. I completed my medical training at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Residency and fellowship training at the Doheny Eye Institute.  

I have been on faculty at the University of Maryland since 2015, and currently serve as an Associate Professor as well as Program Director for the Residency program. 

Kenneth Taubenslag

Section Editor: Ophthalmologic Surgery

Joshua Lubek

Section Editor: Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery

Dr. Lubek is currently a Clinical Professor and Director of the Fellowship in Head & Neck Surgical Oncology and Microvascular Reconstructive Surgery Program in the Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery at the University of Maryland. He serves as the Director of Oral & Maxillofacial Hospital Services at the University of Maryland Medical Center. 

Dr. Lubek is actively involved in the training of surgical fellows, residents, dental students, and medical students. He continues to be involved with collaborative research in the areas of head & neck cancer and microvascular surgery, with over 80 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals and textbooks. He continues to lecture nationally and internationally on these subjects. 

Dr. Lubek served as past Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery Section Editor for the journal Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology, Oral Radiology. Dr. Lubek is board certified by the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. His clinical interests are focused on Head and Neck Surgery (both malignant and benign tumors), Microvascular Reconstructive Surgery, Transoral Robotic Surgery (TORS) and Maxillofacial Trauma. 

Anne Fischer

Section Editor: Pediatric Surgery

Anne C. Fischer, MD, PHD, FACS is currently Professor of Surgery at the Charles E. Schmidt Medical School / Florida Atlantic University and Chief of Pediatric Surgery at Palm Beach Children’s Hospital associated with St. Mary’s Medical Center. Her research interests have evolved over time, with a longstanding interest in immunologic alteration in transplantation since she began her scientific career studying the immunologic dysregulation associated with immunosuppression such as Cyclosporine, one of the calcineurin inhibitors. Her work led to the characterization of the aberrant immunologic mechanisms underlying Graft-Versus-Host Disease, which were then clinically applicable to anti-tumor therapies. A postdoctoral research fellowship at Johns Hopkins allowed her to describe the skewing of the T-cell receptor repertoire in a bone marrow model. 

After her surgical training, she focused on the immune analysis of the delivery of gene therapy in a monogenic disorder, cystic fibrosis (CF) and in doing preclinical translation studies to develop a preclinical trial. With these prior research experiences being a PI and Co-PI, she focused on critical immunologic pathways that are altered with the introduction of exogenous transplants (organ and genes). She has experience in both immune alteration in transplant models, immune dysregulation associated with calcineurin inhibitors critical to transplantation and the value of how to bring very detailed scientific findings to a more translational level.

Most recently, she collaborates on the analysis of biomarkers to identify a gene signature that helps to predict the behavior of aggressive tumors, identified in transplant patients. This has allowed our work to analyze the clinical spectrum of cutaneous Squamous Cell Cancers (cSCC) to identify markers that differentiate aggressive cSCC from nonaggressive cSCC and particularly to identify those markers associated with the most aggressive subtypes which often occur in organ transplant patients.

Alexander Mericli 

Section Editor: Plastic Surgery

Dr. Mericli is an Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He completed his plastic surgery residency at the University of Virginia, followed by a fellowship in microvascular and reconstructive surgery at MD Anderson. Dr. Mericli is an expert in microvascular reconstructive surgery with particular attention to breast, head and neck, and trunk reconstruction.  He is known as an innovator in microvascular approaches to complex spine, pelvic and extremity reconstruction. In addition to his clinical practice, Dr. Mericli also serves as the Director of Clinical Research for the Department of Plastic Surgery. He has authored or co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on various plastic surgery topics and lectured nationally and internationally on his research.

Mark Schaverien

Section Editor: Plastic Surgery

Eren Berber

Section Editor: Robotic Surgery

Dr. Eren Berber graduated from Istanbul University, Istanbul Medical Faculty in 1994. He finished a General Surgery residency at Istanbul University, Istanbul Medical Faculty in 1999. He then continued his career in the United States by completing a General Surgery residency and a Laparoscopic Surgery fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic (Cleveland, Ohio) and University of California (San Francisco, California). He has been on staff in the Department of General Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic, Ohio since 2005. His areas of interest include laparoscopic and robotic liver surgery, laparoscopic liver tumor ablation, robotic surgery, conventional and minimally invasive endocrine surgery (thyroid, parathyroid, adrenal and pancreas), robotic thyroidectomy, robotic adrenalectomy and surgical ultrasound. 

He is a Professor of Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic, and currently is the Vice-Chair of the Endocrine Surgery Department, Director of Robotic Endocrine Surgery, Adrenal & Neuroendocrine Center and Surgical Liver Tumor Ablation programs. He has authored more than 300 peer-reviewed papers and over 30 book chapters. 

In addition to his role as Section Editor, Robotic Surgery for Current Surgery Reports, Dr. Berber also serves on the Editorial Boards of Gland Surgery, Videoendocrinology, International Journal of Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery and Journal of Surgical Oncology. He is an active member of numerous surgical societies, and serves on multiple committees. He is a past president for the Clinical Robotic Surgery Association. 

Steven Hanish

Section Editor: Solid Organ Transplant

Steven I. Hanish, MD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery at UT Southwestern Medical Center, as well as the Surgical Director of UTSW's Liver Transplantation Program and Director of its Living-Donor Liver Transplantation Program. He specializes in complex surgeries of the liver and bile duct.

Kyla Terhune

Section Editor: Surgical Education

Dr. Kyla Terhune is the Senior Vice President for Educational Affairs at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, the Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education and a Professor of Surgery and Anesthesiology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. After graduating from medical school at the University of Pennsylvania, she completed her Surgery Residency and Critical Care Fellowship at Vanderbilt, where she stayed on the faculty as a general surgeon. She was the Program Director of the Surgery Residency at Vanderbilt from 2014-2019, and served as Chief of General Surgery at the VA Medical Center from 2016-2019. 

Ryan Antiel

Section Editor: Surgical Education

Dr. Antiel is Assistant Professor of Pediatric Surgery at Duke University School of Medicine and a core faculty member at the Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities, and History of Medicine where he directs the Center’s Clinical Ethics Fellowship. As director of the Character, Formation, and Flourishing in Medicine research lab, Dr. Antiel is interested in how surgical residency shapes the character of surgeons-in-training and how best to form the virtues of character necessary for good surgical practice. His research and writing also focuses on surgical decision-making for critically ill neonates and end-of-life issues. Dr. Antiel received his M.D. from Mayo Medical School and his M.S. in medical ethics from the University of Pennsylvania. He completed his General Surgery residency at the Mayo Clinic and Pediatric Surgery fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis.

Andrea Parker

Section Editor: Surgical Education

Dr. Andrea Parker is a general surgeon and surgeon educator who lives and works in rural Kenya. She serves as the Director of Medical Education at Tenwek Hospital, where she has worked since 2015. She has previously served at the hospital in the capacities of Program Director and Assistant Program Director for the general surgical residency program. Since 2018, as part of the Education Committee, she has overseen the development of a large-scale, standardized surgical curriculum for PGY1 and 2 surgical trainees of the College of Surgeons of East, Central, and Southern Africa (COSECSA). The curriculum is currently in use by over 600 surgical trainees in 20 countries through COSECSA and is available to the broader global surgical community through the UN Global Surgery Learning Hub. 

Dr. Parker serves on the International Task Force of the Association of Surgical Education and the Education Committee of the Association of Academic Global Surgery. She is an Associate Member of the American College of Surgeons Academy of Master Surgeon Educators. She completed medical school at Indiana University School of Medicine, followed by a residency in General Surgery at Brown University. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery at Brown University.

John Stewart

Section Editor: Surgical Oncology

Dr. John H. Stewart, IV, MD, MBA, is the founding director of the Louisiana State University- Louisiana Children's Medical Center Cancer Center. He also holds the rank of Professor of Surgery, Louisiana State University New Orleans School of Medicine. Under his leadership, Dr. Stewart sets the overall mission, vision and direction for multidisciplinary cancer care and cancer clinical research programs for LSU Health New Orleans and LCMC Health. 

Before he arrived at LSU, Dr. Stewart served as the Deputy Director for the University of Illinois Cancer Center and Physician Executive for Oncology Services for the University of Illinois Health System. He was also a member of the initial class of Presidential Scholars for the University of Illinois. Dr. Stewart’s previous leadership roles include serving as the Chief of Surgery at the Durham VAMC, Vice-Chair in the Wake Forest School of Medicine Department of Surgery, and Associate Dean for Clinical Research and Innovation at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

Dr. Stewart received his medical degree from Howard University and completed his General Surgery residency at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He completed fellowships in Surgical Oncology, Tumor Immunology, and Molecular Oncology at the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Stewart has established a national profile in education, scientific research, and cancer care delivery to underserved populations. His clinical interests are in general surgical oncology, focusing on melanoma, tumor immunotherapy and peritoneal surface malignancies. Dr. Stewart serves as a director for the American Board of Surgery, the chair of the American College of Surgeons Advisory Council for General Surgery, and a member of the Halsted Society Board of Directors. Best Doctors, Top Doctors, and Top Surgeons have recognized Dr. Stewart for his patient care achievements. 

In addition, the National Cancer Institute, Amgen, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have funded his research efforts. He has published over 100 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals, including Cancer, Annals of Surgery, JAMA Surgery, the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, the Journal of Immunotherapy, Annals of Surgical Oncology, the Journal of Surgical Research, Transplantation, Surgery, and Cancer Gene Therapy.

Nicole Stassen

Section Editor: Trauma Surgery

Dr. Stassen earned a BS in Chemical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and earned her medical degree from Rutgers Medical School, in Piscataway, New Jersey. She completed a residency in General Surgery at the University of Chicago Hospitals. She subsequently completed a fellowship in Trauma and Critical Care at the University of Louisville. Dr. Stassen has spent the majority of her career at the University of Rochester, where she is a Professor of Surgery. 

She also serves as the Director of both the University of Rochester Surgical Critical Care Fellowship and the Kessler Family Burn Trauma Intensive Care Unit. Nationally, Dr. Stassen is a past president of the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma and has served on multiple committees for the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma, the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma. She currently serves on the Board of Governors for the American College of Surgeons and is a member of the Trauma, Burns and Surgical Critical Care Board for the American Board of Surgery.

Michael Phelan

Section Editor: Urology

Dr. Michael W. Phelan, MD is a Professor of Surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He serves as the Director of Minimally Invasive Urologic Surgery. He has expertise in minimally invasive approaches to urologic cancers, renal stones and reconstructive surgery.