Meet Our Speakers

Santa J. Ono, Ph.D., is currently serving as the 15th president of the University of Michigan. Ono previously served as the 15th president of the University of British Columbia from 2016 to 2022 and the 28th president of the University of Cincinnati from 2012 to 2016. Previously as a faculty member of Johns Hopkins University, Harvard University, University College London, and Emory University, Ono contributed to the field of gene regulation in the immune system and to the understanding of inflammation in the eye.

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He also serves as chair of the U15 Group of Canadian Research Universities, on the board of directors of Universities Canada and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, and as past chair of Research Universities of British Columbia. 

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He has served on the boards of the American Council on Education and the Council on Competitiveness, as chief innovation adviser to the Province of British Columbia, and as co-chair of the Advisory Committee on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Policy for the Government of Canada.

Joseph C. Kolars is the Josiah Macy, Jr., Professor of Health Professions Education and Senior Associate Dean at the University of Michigan Medical School.   Since 2010, he has been the co-director for the Joint Institute for Translational and Clinical Research with Peking University of Health Sciences.  He lived with his family in Shanghai from 1996-1999 to help establish one of China’s first western-based health care systems.  

A practicing gastroenterologist, Dr. Kolars has focused his career on education and training, holding numerous leadership roles in education programs at the Mayo Clinic and the University of Michigan.  Global health has been a major component of his career with a focus on education and health system strengthening in low-resource areas.  He directs the university-wide Center for Global Health Equity and provides consultation to the NIH Fogarty International Center Advisory Council.   From 2007-11 he served as a consultant to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation where he oversaw initiatives that partnered health science schools in Sub-Saharan Africa with those in the U.S.  He obtained his M.D. degree in 1982 from the University of Minnesota Medical School and completed his post-graduate training at the University of Michigan.

Rishindra M. Reddy, M.D. M.B.A. is the Director of the Center for Surgical Innovation, the Chair of the UM-Comprehensive Robotic Surgery Program at Michigan Medicine, and José José Alvarez Research Professor in Thoracic Surgery. He was born and raised in Michigan. He earned his undergraduate and medical degrees at Northwestern University, and completed his general surgery residency at Washington University-Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri. His spent two years during his residency, as a Clinical Research Fellow at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. He completed his Thoracic Surgery residency at the University of Washington and was a visiting fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. His academic interests include improving outcomes for patients with thoracic cancers, molecular targeting for thoracic cancers, resident and medical student education.

Dr. Reddy currently also serves as the He is involved in translational lung and esophageal cancer research, medical education research, and health disparities research. He participates in leadership positions in a number of national and regional societies in cardiothoracic surgery and surgical education. 

Dr Gifty Kwakye, MD, MPH, is the Clerkship Director for Department of Surgery and a Clinical Associate Professor of Surgery in the Division of Colorectal Surgery. She graduated from Yale University with a BSc degree in both Biology and Psychology. She received her medical degree from Yale University in 2010 and holds a Master’s in Public Health from Johns Hopkins. She completed her general surgery residency at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School in 2017 and colorectal surgery fellowship at the University of Minnesota in 2018. Dr Kwakye joined the faculty at the University of Michigan in 2018.

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As a resident she received multiple awards including the Robert T. Osteen and the Partners Health System Medical Education awards for excellence in teaching. Her passion for global health was also recognized with a Global Health Scholarship award from Johns Hopkins during her public health training. She also currently serves as the University of Michigan chapter advisor for the global surgery student alliance (GSSA).

Dr. Raghavendran is the Director of the Center for Global Surgery and Program Director for fellowship in surgical critical care and acute care surgery. He is a trauma, critical care, and general surgeon. His primary research interests are lung contusion and aspiration-induced lung injury. He received his medical education in India and immigrated to the United States in 1991, wherein he completed his Surgical Residency and subsequent fellowship in Surgical Critical Care.

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He has a long-standing interest in global health and established research collaborations between India and the University of Michigan medical school. He serves as one of the lead physicians for the University of Michigan India collaborative, a distinct platform under Global Reach. The collaborative extends across multiple sub-specialties and is currently working with many institutions across India. He has also been working on similar collaborative efforts in Ethiopia and Taiwan. His main areas of publication have included venous thromboembolism (VTE), aspiration-induced lung injury, pulmonary surfactant biology, and decompressive craniectomy for traumatic brain injury (TBI).[8] He has also been involved in the study of TBI and trauma systems in the global arena.He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and has been cited more than 1,000 times.

Paul S. Cederna is the Chief of Plastic Surgery, Robert Oneal Professor of Plastic Surgery, and Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Michigan who specializes in reconstruction of complex wounds. Dr. Cederna received his Bachelors of Science in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Michigan College of Engineering and his MD degree from the University of Michigan Medical School. Thereafter, he completed a residency in General Surgery and a fellowship in Microsurgery at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. He then returned to Ann Arbor, Michigan where he completed his Plastic Surgery Fellowship training at the University of Michigan Health System. By combining his clinical training in general surgery, microsurgery, and plastic surgery and background in biomedical engineering, he is able to incorporate creative solutions with technically challenging operations to solve the most difficult problems resulting from trauma, cancer, or burns.

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Dr. Cederna has been the Chairman of the Plastic Surgery Research Council, President of the American Society for Peripheral Nerve, President of the Michigan Academy of Plastic Surgeons, is on the Board of Directors of the American Board of Plastic Surgery, and is on the Board of Directors for the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and Plastic Surgery Foundation. He is a past President for the Plastic Surgery Foundation.

Dr. Jeffrey Punch is the Jeremiah and Claire Turcotte Professor of Surgery. Dr. Punch received his medical degree from the University of Michigan. He also completed a two year multi-organ transplantation fellowship, also at U of M, in which he was trained to perform kidney, pancreas and liver transplant procedures. He is board certified in both General Surgery and Surgical Critical Care.

Upon completion of his training Dr. Punch began a surgical practice that consists of liver, pancreatic, and kidney transplantation. He performs these procedures on both adults and children. He has also assumed the role of director of the Liver Transplant program and performed the first living donor liver transplant procedure ever in the state of Michigan in 1996. In addition to a clinical practice, Dr. Punch also runs numerous clinical research studies involving transplant recipients. Dr. Punch has served on the Liver and Intestinal Committee and on the Board of Directors for the United Network for Organ Sharing. He has also served as President of Gift of Life Michigan.

Professor Gordon's areas of interest are entrepreneurship and technology commercialization, venture capital, private equity, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and activism, IPOs, investment banking, funds, the biomedical industry (pharmaceuticals, devices, healthcare big data, and biotechnology), transportation, FinTech, and digital and mobile marketing. He also served on the faculty of University of Michigan Law School.

He has served on the faculty and as Associate Dean and Director of the Graduate Division of Business & Management (Carey Business School) at Johns Hopkins University, where he taught in the business and medical schools, and at the University of Florida, where he also served as director of the Center for Technology & Science Commercialization Studies and as Director of MBA Programs. He has served as an adviser or co-founder to numerous companies. He is frequently quoted in The New York Times, BusinessWeek, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Reuters, BusinessInsider and other outlets, appears regularly on Marketplace and Marketplace Morning Report (in NPR's Morning Edition) and Bloomberg Radio, and has appeared on Bloomberg Television, CNBC, NBC, and PBS. His degrees are in economics and law. 

Dr. Salavitbar is the Director of the NCH Heart Center XR Program at The Heart Center of Nationwide Kids Hospital in Columbus, Ohio and one of America's largest pediatric hospitals.

Following his graduation from medical school at the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Dr. Salavitabar completed his Pediatric Residency and Pediatric Cardiology Fellowship training at the New York-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital at Columbia University Medical Center, where he also served as Chief Resident and Chief Fellow. He then went on to complete his advanced fellowship in Pediatric Interventional Cardiology at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

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Dr. Salavitabar’s main clinical interests include therapeutic percutaneous interventions to treat children and adults with congenital and acquired heart disease. This has led to his ongoing research interests, which are closely integrated into his clinical care, and include the development of 3D rotational angiography and 3D visualization modalities to guide transcatheter interventions and the care of congenital heart disease, the safety and utility of implantable hemodynamic monitoring devices, the use of simulation to improve outcomes of interventions performed in the cardiac catheterization laboratory, and development of transcatheter devices.

Dr. Rouba Ali-Fehmi is the Chair of National NAAMA NextGen and serves as a member of the Board of Directors for UNICEF U.S. Mid-West. She is a professor and Vice Chair in the Department of Pathology at Wayne State University School of Medicine (WSUSOM). She is also the Director of the Surgical Pathology Fellowship at WSU. Rouba has received multiple honors such as the Wayne State University College Teaching Award for Pathology and Obstetrics and Gynecology 2016 and the Recognition Award for Significant Contributions to the GYN/Oncology Fellows Teaching. She has served as the president of Michigan Society of Pathologists from 2016 to 2018. She has also been a member of the National Arab American Medical Association (NAAMA) for 15 years and served as the National NAAMA president from 2018 to 2020.

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Dr. Ali came to this country at a young age for better opportunities. She was the valedictorian of her high school class in Damascus and the only student who went to medical school. After finishing medical school, Dr. Ali started her medical journey by spending several years in Europe before coming to the United States. She made her way to Cleveland where she began her residency in Pathology at Case Western University. She later moved to Detroit and began her career at WSU to become a professor of pathology. Dr. Ali specializes in Breast and GYN Oncology pathology. She has had numerous National Institute of Health (NIH) research grants and more than 120 peer reviewed publications. She is well known nationally and internationally in her field and has given numerous lectures throughout the world. 

Sharon Aronovich (Ron), DMD, FACS, FRCD(C) is Associate Program director of the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Residency program, and the TMJ Surgery Fellowship director. He has lived in Israel, Canada, and the USA. Dr. Aronovich earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto, his dental medicine degree at McGill University, and completed his surgical residency training in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the Hospital of Saint Raphael/Yale-New Haven Hospital. He completed a fellowship in Pediatric Craniomaxillofacial Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

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Dr. Aronovich treats both pediatric and adult patients with various oral & maxillofacial conditions including congenital or traumatic jaw disorders, sleep disorders (OSA), and craniofacial anomalies such as cleft lip and palate. He has specialized experience in TMJ replacement for complex conditions of the jaw including juvenile idiopathic arthritis, ankylosis, and ablative defects of the jaw. Dr. Aronovich has been involved in global outreach programs serving children with orofacial clefts in India, China, and Mexico.

He has current research funding for the development of an anesthesia simulation training curriculum in oral and maxillofacial surgery, and a clinical trial for patients with obstructive sleep apnea.

Dr. Cole is Director of the Emergency Critical Care Elective, Co-Director of the clinical reasoning course, Assistant Clerkship Director for Emergency Medicine and Co-Director of interdisciplinary trauma team training.  He has has extensive experience in medical education, clinical reasoning, medical simulation and emergency nontechnical skills, particularly involving cardiac resuscitation and other critically ill patients. He has developed curricula rooted in education theory for these courses and has won departmental and institutional awards for his teaching ability and curricular endeavors.

His research interests involve the integration of cognitive and behavioral science principles into nontechnical skills training using both traditional and virtual reality (VR) medical simulation, integrating clinical reasoning principles into medical simulation and discovering effective methods of assessment of nontechnical skills in a simulated medical environment.

Dr. Kantor is the Michigan Promise Innovation Director at the UM Center for Surgical Innovation  with the purpose of assisting other residents and medical students in pursuing their own innovation efforts. He is in his fourth year of the integrated cardiothoracic surgery residency program at the University of Michigan and a Surgical Innovation Fellow. Taylor was raised in Columbus, Ohio where he completed his undergraduate degree from The Ohio State University with a egree in Biology and minor in Economics. He completed his medical education and received his Medical Degree from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. 

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Dr. Taylor Kantor is serving as the Resident Promise Initiative Innovation Director and the Center for Surgical Innovation (CSI) Fellow for the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 academic years.  Taylor has developed several industry partnerships in collaboration with the University of Michigan including Microsoft in creating a global Center for Medical and Surgical Innovation Center, GigXR in development of a Mixed Reality (MR) Bedside Procedural Simulation and Training course, ApoQlar in the development of MR 3D automated aortic measurements for endovascular therapies, and with Iristick utilizing Informed Reality (IR) technology to enhance surgical training and remote surgical consultation strategies.  He is also the first resident ever to be awarded a GME Innovations Grant for his work on surgical tele-mentoring using novel telemedicine devices.  In addition, Taylor assisted in developing the first ever International Mixed Reality Surgical Grand Rounds which has now had three iterations with 13 countries participating and has helped develop the new Center for Surgical Innovation 

Candice Stegink is the Associate Director of the Center for Surgical Innovation (CSI) at the University of Michigan.  She manages a biomedical innovation and commercialization educational program and accelerator fund for surgical faculty and medical students.

Candice serves as Program Manager for the Medical Innovations in Extended Reality (MIXR) National Science Foundation (NSF) Industry-University Cooperative Research Center aimed at assessing and incorporating extended reality in clinical applications and training. Candice helps manage all extended reality applications in use at Michigan Medicine with much of her work aimed at enhancing medical education and training or incorporating XR in the clinical setting.

Dr Yost is the University of Michigan Coulter Surgical Innovation Fellow and a Center for Surgical Innovation Fellow. He is in his fourth year of cardiothoracic surgery residency. His primary research focus is the development of surgical devices. He is currently working to develop several medical devices at varying stages of development, from early engineering to late business development. These include a novel system for sternal closure after cardiac or thoracic surgery, improved epicardial pacing wires, and endovascular devices for the treatment of aortic dissection, among others.

His background includes undergraduate degrees in biology and food science from Cornell University and a Masters of Bioengineering, focused on non-invasive assessment of left ventricular device function, at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His medical education was at the University of Illinois at Chicago and included a focus on medical device development.

Dr. Kashlan is  a neurosurgeon at Michigan Medicine with a focus in Surgical treatments of degenerative spinal disorders, spinal trauma, and spinal tumors. He attended the Georgia Institute of Technology to study chemical and biomolecular engineering. He subsequently obtained his medical degree from Emory University. He completed his residency in neurosurgery at the University of Michigan before returning to Emory University for further training in spine surgery. While a resident at U of M, Dr. Kashlan also obtained a master of public health degree in epidemiology. After completing his spine fellowship, Dr. Kashlan returned to U of M where his practice focuses on all aspects of spinal disease with a special interest in minimally-invasive spinal surgery; he is one of the only endoscopic spine surgeons in the state.

Dr. Popov is the Director of Learning Sciences & Technology in the Clinical Simulation Center and an Assistant Professor of Learning Health Sciences. His research program focuses on understanding how team function can be optimized to lead to better learning gains, performance, and healthcare outcomes. Current research projects are situated at the intersection of Learning Sciences, Health Sciences, Artificial Intelligence, and eXtended Reality.

He is currently serving as a principal investigator on several projects funded by the National Science Foundation ranging from applying multimodal learning analytics in teamwork in VR to understanding the mechanisms of joint visual attention in the operating room. Dr. Popov completed his Ph.D. on computer-supported collaborative learning at Wageningen University & Research Center, in the Netherlands. His background allows him to utilize evidence in education science, simulation-based training and learning analytics to understand how healthcare professionals can better work in teams and how we can support these processes to foster health care delivery.

Dr. Draelos is an Assistant Professor in Robotics and Ophthalmology at the University of Michigan, where he directs the Image-Guided Medical Robotics lab. His research interests include medical robotics, biomedical imaging, data visualization, medical device development, and real-time algorithms.

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His background includes both engineering and medicine. After graduating from Duke University’s Medical Scientist Training Program, he completed an internship in general surgery at Duke University Medical Center. During graduate school, he studied biomedical engineering under Prof. Joseph Izatt and developed image-guided robotic technologies for surgical navigation with live 3D imaging, corneal transplantation, and autonomous eye imaging. Prior to that, he earned an MS in electrical engineering, a BS in electrical and computer engineering, and a BS in physics from North Carolina State University.

Dr. Bos is an orthopedic hand surgeon in Manhattan Beach, California and is affiliated with multiple hospitals in the area, including MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center and Torrance Memorial Medical Center with more than thirty-two years of experience, Dr. Mary Bos is a top-tier surgeon specializing in joint injuries and repair. 

Dr. Bos graduated from the Midwestern University-Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1991.  She was the first female Orthopedic intern and resident at NYU. Dr. Bos did fellowships at the Philadelphia hand center in hand and microvascular hand surgery and then another at the institute for bone and joint disease in Phoenix for sports medicine and arthroscopic surgery. She currently has her own practice— bosorthopedics - and is a partner at beach city orthopedic in Manhattan beach California

Dr Kewson has been practicing in Southeast Michigan since 2004 and is founding partner of Southeast Michigan Ear Nose and Throat. He has published numerous research papers in the area of his specialty, and has received multiple awards for his research and clinical training.  His training included time at Harper Hospital, William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Children’s Hospital of Michigan, the Karmanos Cancer Institute and the Detroit Receiving Hospital offering high level tertiary care in all aspects of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery.Dr Kewson also has expertise in facial plastic and reconstructive surgery including skin cancers, rhinoplasty, otoplasty, as well as hair transplantation using the Neograft Hair Restoration system, one of the most advanced techniques able to be offered to both male and female patients with excellent success rates, little downtime, shorter procedures and no visible scars.He has also received additional training in both computer assisted sinus surgery and balloon sinuplasty for complicated and/ or recurrent sinus disease. 

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Dr Kewson completed his residency in Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery and his internship in General Surgery at Wayne State University / Detroit Medical Center.  He received his Medical Doctor degree from the Wayne State University School of Medicine having completed his undergraduate education at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He has furthered his education to Fellowship status of the American Board of Otolaryngic Allergy (FAAOA).

Dr. VanHoose completed his undergraduate education at Michigan State University and dental school at the University of Michigan. At Michigan State University, Dr. VanHoose received his bachelor of science in the study of human physiology. Deciding that the medical/dental field was his career choice, he attended the University of Michigan to receive his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree. During dental school, Dr. VanHoose decided that oral and maxillofacial surgery was his calling and attended the Ohio State University residency program where he received his certificate and master of science degree.

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In addition to private practice, Dr.VanHoose is affiliated with Metro Health Hospital- University of Michigan, where he performs elective and trauma surgeries. Dr. VanHoose has expanded his scope of practice by becoming an instructor at the Michigan State University Division of Reconstructive and Plastic Surgery through the Department of Surgery where he teaches the plastic surgery residents the full scope of facial trauma surgery.

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He has lectured to professional groups and community organizations covering various topics, and he is a member of the following associations: American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, Michigan Society of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, American Dental Association, Michigan Dental Association, West Michigan Dental Association, and the Kent County Dental Society.

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Dr. Orzel is a Diplomate of the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (ABOMS), which he obtained by passing rigorous written and oral board examinations. ABOMS ensures Diplomates maintain appropriate professional credentials and demonstrate the requisite training, experience, and knowledge of oral and maxillofacial surgery. Dr. Orzel is also a member of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, Michigan Society of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, American Dental Association, Michigan Dental Association, and West Michigan Dental Association.

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Dr. Douglas Orzel grew up on the east side of Michigan and completed his undergraduate training in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan, majoring in Brain Behavior and Cognitive Science. Upon completion of his undergraduate degree, he remained at the University of Michigan, where he earned his DDS degree in 2015.

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He then completed his Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Residency at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, finishing in 2019. Iowa’s Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Residency Program is nationally recognized and is best known for extensive training in orthognathic surgery, cleft lip and palate repair, and dental implant and bone grafting surgery.

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