Guest Speakers
Leonard D'Avolio, PhD
Dr. D’Avolio has spent the last 13 years in government, academia, philanthropy, and industry working to make the learning healthcare system a reality. He’s the co-founder of Cyft, an organization that uses data and AI to improve clinical care and operations. He is also an Assistant Professor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, an advisor to the Helmsley Charitable Trust Foundation and several healthcare startups, and a board member for Youth Development Organization. He helped improve childbirth across 70 clinics in India working with Atul Gawande at Ariadne Labs, created the infrastructure for the world’s largest genomic medicine cohort, and embedded the first clinical trial within an electronic medical record system for the Department of Veterans Affairs. His work has been funded by the National Cancer Institute, Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Defense, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, National Library of Medicine, the Helmsley Charitable Trust Foundation.
Petr F. Hausner, MD, PhD
Dr. Hausner graduated from Medical School of the Charles University in Prague in 1972. He dedicated his formative years there as Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Laboratory of Clinical Immunology. As his interest turned towards oncology, he joined the research laboratory of the Oncology Department, became board certified in Medical Oncology, was promoted to Associate Professor of Oncology, and became vice-chair of the department. In 1998 he became a staff oncologist at the Greenebaum Cancer Center and faculty at the Medical School of the University of Maryland in Baltimore. Since 1999, he has been Chief of Hematology and Oncology at the Baltimore VA Medical Center. His laboratory interests center on cancer biology, metastasizing, gap junctional intercellular communications as well as molecular biology and DNA repair, whereas his clinical interests and research revolve around lung cancer, mesothelioma and melanoma. He has published 96 papers, more than 130 abstracts and contributed to seven medical books.
Nirusha Lachman, PhD
Dr. Lachman is a professor in the Department of Anatomy, College of Medicine with joint appointment in the Department of Surgery, Division of Plastic Surgery at Mayo Clinic. Her primary focus lies in integrating anatomy education for everyday practice, and she is one of few clinical anatomists in the world who works collaboratively on a daily basis with clinicians in a practice-based setting. In her 20-year career as a clinical anatomist, Dr. Lachman has contributed over 74 scientific publications in peer reviewed journals, 16 book chapters and numerous abstract publications and national and international presentations.
Nicholas R. Mahoney, MD
Dr. Mahoney is an Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Wilmer Eye Institute where he serves as the Associate Residency Program Director and Division Education Champion for Oculoplastic Surgery. He has special clinical interest in multi-disciplinary reconstruction and is a member of the Thyroid Eye Disease, Adult Cranioplasty, and Face Transplant teams. His research focuses on using technology to improve teaching methodology and orbital surgery. In addition to his research publications, he has also developed software for intraoperative tissue assessment, curriculum management, classroom mobile device polling and surgical logging.
Scott E. Strome, MD
Dr. Strome is the Robert Kaplan Executive Dean and Vice Chancellor for Clinical Affairs at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine. He is Professor and Chairman Emeritus of the Department of Otorhinolaryngology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He previously served as interim Chairman of the Departments of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and the Department of Dermatology. Dr. Strome is an active Head and Neck Surgeon with particular expertise in head & neck malignancies and diseases of the anterior skull base. He has a major interest in medical student and resident education and runs one of the four academic houses to which all medical students are assigned. He has contributed nationally as chairman of two NIH study sections and membership on the Advisory Committee. He has excelled in creating drugs and procedures with direct clinical impact.
Mohan Suntha, MD, MBA
Dr. Suntha is President and Chief Executive Officer of the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC), a two-campus academic medical center in downtown Baltimore that serves more than 250,000 patients each year, with 9,000 employees, 1,000 licensed acute care and ICU beds and $1.5 billion in net revenue. Dr. Suntha joined the University of Maryland School of Medicine as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiology Oncology in 1995. He served as the Vice Chairman of the Department of Radiation Oncology from 1997 to 2016. He has maintained faculty and clinical appointments throughout his tenure at UMMC, and is a member of the American College of Radiation Oncology, the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology, and serves as the Vice Chairman of the Simon Kramer Society. He received his MD from Jefferson Medical College, his MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, and his BA from Brown University.
M. Reza Vagefi, MD
Dr. Vagefi is an Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) who specializes in Oculofacial Plastic, Reconstructive and Orbital Surgery. After obtaining a BA from Johns Hopkins University, he completed medical school at Yale University. His ophthalmology residency training was performed at UCSF followed by oculofacial plastic surgery fellowship in Salt Lake City. Dr. Vagefi is a member of American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery (ASOPRS) and the American Academy of Ophthalmology. He serves as the medical director and quality improvement officer for the Department of Ophthalmology, UCSF and is the present Assistant Secretary of Education for ASOPRS. His research interests include orbital inflammation and infection, orbital imaging, anophthalmic and orbital rehabilitation, and benign essential blepharospasm.
