Friends of ODysseus (FOD): Man-2-Man Series

Dear Friends,

Happy New Year!  We hope you and your families are healthy and well, and we hope you all have had an opportunity to relax and reflect on life and your accomplishments thus far.  Many of you have already received the calendar invitations for our FOD monthly meetings for the rest of the academic year. 

However, we wanted to remind you that our next Man2Man (M2M) is fast approaching; Tuesday, January 18, 2022, at 6:00 pm.

We are also introducing a new format to help MS1/2 connect with Residents of Color (PGY1-5).  Residents will be incorporated into our speaker’s list for a new segment:  “Lessons for Survival on the Wards”. Our guest speaker for January will be Dr. Van Don Williams II (Chief Resident, Pediatrics).

Save the Date: January 18, 2022, at 6:00 pm FOD M2M Event: Survival on the Wards

Dear Friends,

We want to invite you to participate in our next Game Plan session on Tuesday, November 30, 2021, from 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm (virtual format: ZOOM). Our guest speaker is Michael Leitman, MD, Dean for Graduate Medical Education, Mount Sinai Health System.

Dr. Michael Leitman

Biosketch

Michael Leitman, MD, is an American surgeon and medical educator. He is Professor of Surgery and Medical Education and Dean for Graduate Medical Education at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He previously held the position of Site Chairman of the Department of Surgery at Mount Sinai Beth Israel in New York City.

A native of Philadelphia, Dr. Leitman received both his bachelor's degree and Medical Degree from Boston University. After medical school, Dr. Leitman moved to New York City to receive his training in General Surgery at New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell and completed his fellowship in Surgical Critical Care at North Shore University Hospital-Weill Cornell. While at Cornell, Leitman was under the tutelage of American surgical pioneer G. Tom Shires, MD. As a faculty member at North Shore University Hospital, he was appointed Director of Surgical Endoscopy, Physician-in-charge of Surgical Education, Program Director, and Chief of Surgical Critical Care in 1995. He joined the Department of Surgery at Mount Sinai Beth Israel in 2005, where he is presently Vice Chairman of the Department of Surgery and Chief of General Surgery. In 2007, he was appointed Associate Chief Medical Officer and, in 2010, Chief of Graduate Medical Education. As an innovator of minimally invasive techniques for treating abdominal conditions, Dr. Leitman is also known for his research on the outcomes following the surgical treatment of breast cancer, colon cancer, lower gastrointestinal hemorrhage, and gallbladder disease morbid obesity.

For nearly 30 years, Dr. Leitman has served as a medical educator. In addition to his current role as Professor of Medical Education at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Dr. Leitman has also served as a Professor of Clinical Surgery at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in New York City. In 2017, Dr. Leitman was appointed Dean for Graduate Medical Education at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and was responsible for all GME programs in the Icahn School of Medicine of Mount Sinai Consortium, the largest program in the United States.

A fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, Dr. Leitman has been recognized as a Harold C. Case Scholar and Commonwealth Scholar. Dr. Leitman is also a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the Society of Surgical Oncology. He is a member of the American Board of Colon and Rectal Surgery, Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract, where he serves as a member of the Continuing Education Committee. Dr. Leitman has more than 150 peer-reviewed scientific articles, book chapters, and published abstracts. He is on the editorial board of 20 surgical journals.

In addition, Dr. Leitman was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Omega Alpha honor societies and was the recipient of the 2008 Murry G. Fischer Distinguished Educator Award.  Since 2013, Dr. Leitman has been included in New York Magazine’s (Castle Connolly) lists of "Top Doctors."

Dear Friends,

We want to invite you to participate in our next Game Plan session on Tuesday, February 16, 2021, from 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm (virtual format: ZOOM). Our guest speaker is Raja Flores, MD, Thoracic Surgeon, Mount Sinai Health System.

Dr. Raja Flores, MD

Biosketch

Dr. Raja Flores is a world-renowned thoracic surgeon known for his technical skill and life-long work on lung and esophageal cancer, mesothelioma and asbestos-related diseases. His research has produced over 250 publications and he is the Principal Investigator of a 4.8 million dollar RO1 grant to study the effect of asbestos contamination in the town of Libby, Montana. He is currently investigating the health effects of mold exposure on New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) tenants. Dr. Flores is currently an active member of the Manhattan Community Board 11 in East Harlem, New York. He was educated at NYU, Einstein, Columbia, and Harvard. He is Professor and founding Chairman of the Department of Thoracic Surgery at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in NYC.

February 2021

Dear Friends,

We want to invite you to participate in our next Game Plan session on Tuesday, January 19, 2021, from 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm (virtual format: ZOOM). Our guest speaker is Dr. Gary Butts, MD, Executive Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Mount Sinai Health System.

Dr. Gary Butts, MD

Biosketch

Dr. Gary Butts is currently Executive Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.  He is a visionary leader with more than 20 years of experience designing, developing, and managing DEI programs and executive-level academic healthcare strategies. Since 2014, he has been Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer for the Mount Sinai Health System and Dean for Diversity Programs, Policy and Community Affairs for the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.  These roles and responsibilities have evolved substantially since he was recruited to design, develop, and lead D&I organizational structure and medical school programs in 1998.

Dr. Butts has overseen developing one of the nation’s (if not world’s) most comprehensive, full-thickness, and impactful DEI programs for a health care system. In these roles, Dr. Butts is responsible for oversight, management, and integration of all aspects of diversity programs and policies for the Mount Sinai Health System to ensure diversity and inclusion as an integral core institutional value and resource across the health system, including the medical and graduate schools (over 3,800 faculty and 650 students), graduate medical education (nearly 3,000 trainees) and the Mount Sinai Health System hospitals (42,000+ employees). The five domains of work include advancing demographic diversity; learner, employee, and faculty inclusion; health disparities research; education and training; and community engagement.

In 2019, he co-founded the Diversity Innovation Hub (DIH): A Mount Sinai Venture, which he directs. A first for a health care system, the DIH intentionally intersects priorities of diversity and inclusion with innovation and technology, addressing the lack of inclusion of women and people of color in the health innovation and technology space by expanding the diversity and capacity of entrepreneurs with tech and innovation pipelines targeting high school, college, and medical students and resident trainees. 

Dr. Butts is currently leading a Task Force to Address Racism across the health system. Under his tenure, the medical school and health system have been recognized annually by Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED), the Human Rights Campaign for LGBTQ inclusion and quality care, and by Diversity Inc. for the Top 10 Hospitals and Health Systems for four consecutive years, achieving #1 ranking in 2017 and 2018.  Also, MSHS achieved status as Forbes Top 20 employers for Diversity in the nation in 2018 and 2019, and the Diversity Innovation Hub was awarded the Rock Health Diversity Innovations award in 2020.

Dr. Butts has been the leading senior representative and voice for diversity deans and leads in New York through Associated Medical Schools of New York, chairing the Committee on Diversity and Multicultural.

Affairs since 2006 and has mentored dozens of DEI leaders for medical schools and health systems. Dr. Butts holds joint appointments as a Professor with tenure in the Departments of Pediatrics, Medical

Education and Environmental Medicine/Public Health.

January 2021

Dear Friends,

We would like to invite you to participate in a new series called "Game Plan." Our first meeting has been finalized for Tuesday, November 17, 2020, from 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm (virtual format: ZOOM). As we previously mentioned, the idea is that you must have a “game plan” to win in sports, and the same applies to success in academics.

Our series will allow you to hear the game plans from former (collegiate and professional) athletes to aid you in your preparation. Our guest speaker is Dr. Joseph Herrera, DO, Chair, Department of Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation, Mount Sinai Health System.

Dr. Joseph Herrera, DO

Biosketch

Dr. Joseph E. Herrera was appointed the Lucy G. Moses Professor and Systems Chair for the Department of Rehabilitation and Human Performance for the Mount Sinai Health System. He joined Mount Sinai following the completion of an Interventional Spine and Sports Medicine Fellowship at Beth Israel Medical Center, New York. He completed his residency and served as Chief Resident in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation through the combined program of Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and Weill Cornell Medical Center. Dr. Herrera is fellowship-trained in fluoroscopic guided and ultrasound-guided procedures for painful spine and joint conditions. The American Pain Society named him an American Pain Scholar. He has also received various awards for his clinical work, such as Castle Connolly’s Top Doctors, New York Times Super Doctors, and Best Doctors in America.

Dr. Herrera currently serves as an Official Medical Provider for Red Bull North America. He evaluates, treats, and maximizes the performance of Red Bull sponsored athletes. He served on the New York State Athletic Commission. He was appointed Chief Team Physician for USA Boxing Metro, affording him the opportunity to treat and evaluate amateur and professional athletes. He was awarded the Rocky Marciano Physician of the Year Award for Excellence in Sports Medicine. He has authored and edited the textbooks “Manual to Musculoskeletal Medicine” and “Essential Sports Medicine.” He is the Chief Editor of the medical journal “Current Reviews in Musculoskeletal Medicine.” He also has publications in various textbooks and journals.

Dr. Herrera’s research and clinical interests include human performance, disruptive technologies, concussion, sports-related injuries, electrodiagnostic studies, and fluoroscopic guided spine and joint intervention. His interventional procedures include but are not limited to interlaminar and transforaminal epidural injections, discography, and radiofrequency neurotomy.

November 2020

March 2020

Dear Friends,

We would like to invite you to participate in a new series called "Game Plan." Our first meeting has been finalized for Tuesday, February 18, 2020, from 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm (virtual format: ZOOM). As we previously mentioned, the idea is that you must have a “game plan” to win in sports, and the same applies to success in academics.

Our series will allow you to hear the game plans from former (collegiate and professional) athletes to aid you in your preparation. Our guest speaker is Dr. Brian Coakley, MD, FAAP, FACS, Department of Pediatric Surgery, Mount Sinai Health System.

Dr. Brian Coakley, MD

Biosketch

Dr. Brian Coakley is an Assistant Professor of Surgery (Pediatric Surgery) at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. 

Dr. Coakley received a bachelor’s of arts in biochemical science from Harvard University, and a medical degree from the Oregon Health and Science University. He completed his general surgery residency at The Mount Sinai Medical Center (New York, NY). During his residency training, he also completed a two-year research fellowship in the Department of Oncological Sciences in cancer immunology at Mount Sinai. His research during this fellowship focused on the utilization of myeloid-derived suppressor cells as a delivery vector for tumor-specific therapies. After residency, he went on to complete a pediatric surgery fellowship at the British Columbia Children’s Hospital (Vancouver, Canada) and finally a pediatric surgical oncology fellowship at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

He is a fellow of: the American Academy of Pediatrics; American College of Surgeons; American Pediatric Surgical Association, Children’s Oncology Group; and the International Society of Pediatric Oncology. Dr. Coakley maintains an active clinical practice spanning the breadth of general and thoracic pediatric surgery. He has a specific interest in the management of pediatric solid tumors, including the employment of hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) for the treatment of children with forms of intra-abdominal sarcomatosis. His practice includes performing cytoreductive surgery and HIPEC for children with multiple advanced tumors, including desmoplastic small round cell tumor, rhabdomyosarcoma, peritoneal mesothelioma, Ewing’s sarcoma, undifferentiated sarcoma, and germ-cell tumors. 

February 2020