Yale Medicine

Nita Ahuja, MD, MBA, is the chair of the Department of Surgery at Yale School of Medicine and chief of surgery at Yale New Haven Hospital, effective February 1, 2018. Watch a video with Dr. Nita Ahuja>>Dr. Ahuja obtained her medical education at the Duke University School of Medicine and her training in general surgery at Johns Hopkins. She completed a fellowship in surgical oncology at Johns Hopkins focused on hepatobiliary malignancies and joined the faculty in 2003. Dr Ahuja's surgical specialization is in management of sarcomas and complex gastrointestinal cancers, including gastric, rectal, and pancreatic cancers. She has developed an international reputation for management of peritoneal cancer metastases with cytoreduction and heated intraperitoneal chemotherapy, which attracts patients from around the world. She is a strong advocate for working with various disciplines to deliver caring and cutting edge treatment to her patients and is honored as a top doctor by multiple organizations. Prior to coming to Yale as chair of surgery, she was the director of sarcoma program and gastric cancer program.Dr. Ahuja is also a passionate advocate of clinician scientist and has run a laboratory focused on developing new knowledge to improve cancer outcomes. Her NIH funded laboratory has been focused on identifying new biomarkers for pancreas and colon cancers using liquid biopsies and stool DNA. She has also led over twenty national and international clinical trials on testing new therapies in gastrointestinal and breast cancers based on concepts identified in her laboratory.She is a national and international surgical leader and surgeon scientist who serves on multiple editorial boards and in national leadership positions including as an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, member of the American Surgical Association, New England Surgical Society, Southern Surgical Association and on the Association of American Medical Colleges Council of Faculty and Academic Societies Administrative Board. She has published over 300 papers and book chapters contributing to both the surgical and basic science fields. Her many awards and honors include the William J. Reinhoff, Jr. Scholar Award, the American Surgical Association Fellowship, the Society of Surgical Oncology Clinical Investigator Award, and the Abell Foundation Award: Johns Hopkins Alliance for Science and Technology Development.

Clifford W. Bogue, MD, a pediatric critical care specialist, is the Waldemar Von Zedtwitz Professor and Chairman of Pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine, where he has been on the faculty since 1993.  In 2014, he was also named the inaugural Chief Medical Officer of Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital, where he provides strategic and operational leadership for the Children’s Hospital’s clinical delivery systems. Dr. Bogue was named Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics in August, 2017.  Dr. Bogue received both his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Virginia (UVA).  He was a resident and chief resident in pediatrics at Vanderbilt University before completing a fellowship in pediatric critical care medicine at Yale.During his career at Yale, Dr. Bogue has held a number of medical school and hospital leadership positions, including Director of Pediatric Critical Care Transport, Medical Director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Director of the Pediatric Critical Care Fellowship, Chief of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine and Associate Chairman for Strategic Planning. From 2010 – 2012, he served as Interim Chairman of Pediatrics and Physician-in-Chief of Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital and from 2012 – 2015 served as Vice Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics. He served as Interim Chairman of Pediatrics from 2015 – 2017.Dr. Bogue has been actively involved in training students, residents and fellows and is committed to the development of pediatric physician-scientists.  He was director of Bedside to Bench: Seminars in Pediatrics, a course for first-year medical students for over ten years, served on the MD/PhD Faculty Committee, was PI for an NIH T32 training program in cardiopulmonary development for 10 years. He most recently served as training director for the Yale Child Health Research Center, a K12 program funded by the NICHD that had 25 years of consecutive funding. He has served on several NIH peer review panels and is currently a member of the Child Health Research Scientific Review Committee of the Charles H. Hood Foundation.  He previously served as Co-Chair of the American Heart Association Genetics/Epigenetics peer review committee. In 2014, Dr. Bogue was the Chair of the Planning Committee for Pediatric Clinical Trials Network Stakeholders’ Forum, a forum convened by the American Academy of Pediatrics to initiate the process of developing a global pediatric clinical trials network. Dr. Bogue served on two NIH Advisory Committees of the NIH focused on the inclusion of children in research and in the Precision Medicine Program Initiative All of Us.Dr. Bogue’s academic career at Yale also included establishing and directing an NIH-funded research program in the developmental biology of the lung, liver and cardiovascular system for over 20 years.  During that time, his laboratory made important contributions to the genetic pathways involved in embryonic organ development, including the identification of genetic pathways critical to formation of the liver and biliary system as well as the cardiovascular system.Dr. Bogue has served on a number of national and international boards in academic pediatrics including the Council of the Society for Pediatric Research, the Federation of Pediatric Organizations’ Child Health Research and Training Workgroup, and the Program Committee of the Pediatric Academic Societies’ Meeting where he served as Chair from 2015 - 2017.  He is currently a Trustee and President of the International Pediatric Research Foundation (which is responsible for publishing the journal Pediatric Research), Secretary-Treasurer of the American Pediatric Society, Chair of the AAP Committee on Pediatric Research, and Section Editor for Current Opinion in Pediatrics. He has been named annually to Best Doctors in America since 2004 and was awarded both the Mae Gailani Young Investigator and Norman J Siegel Faculty Awards at the Yale School of Medicine.

Keith Choate M.D., Ph.D., is a physician-scientist who employs tools of human genetics to understand fundamental mechanisms of disease. His laboratory studies rare inherited and mosaic skin disorders to identify novel genes responsible for epidermal differentiation and development.  His laboratory has identified the genetic basis of over 12 disorders and has developed new therapeutic approaches informed by genetic findings.  His laboratory is funded by the National Institute of Arthritis and of Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, a division of the National Institutes of Health.Dr. Choate mentors undergraduate, graduate, and medical students in his laboratory, teaches at Yale Medical School, and trains resident physicians and fellows.

Lucian V. Del Priore, MD, PhD specializes in the surgical and medical treatment of retinal disease, including age-related macular degeneration, retinal detachment, diabetic retinopathy, macular holes, epiretinal membranes, and ocular trauma. He received his BS in Physics from the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, an MD with Distinction in Research from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, and an MS and PhD in Physics from Cornell University.  He completed a residency in Ophthalmology and fellowships in Vitreoretinal Surgery and Glaucoma at the Wilmer Eye Institute of the Johns Hopkins Hospital.  He has served on the faculty of Washington University School of Medicine and Columbia University, where he rose to the ranks of Professor and Robert L. Burch III Scholar in the Department of Ophthalmology and was a member of the Stem Cell Consortium.  Prior to coming to Yale, he was the Pierre G. Jenkins Professor and Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Professor of Regenerative Medicine and Director of the Albert Florens Storm Eye Institute at MUSC in Charleston, SC.          Dr. Del Priore is a member of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the Macula Society, the Retina Society, the American Society of Retinal Specialists, the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, and the International Society for Eye Research.  Dr. Del Priore has published extensively in the peer-reviewed literature and has given numerous invited lectures throughout the world on the treatment of retinal diseases.  He maintains an active research laboratory in the biology of retina in health and disease.  He was recently elected to the New York Ophthalmological Society, and is a Life Fellow and Member of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, having previously received a Senior Achievement Award in recognition of commitment to advancing the profession. He has also received a Senior Honor Award from the American Society of Retina Specialists, and is a Fellow of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. He has received an MA (honorary) from Yale University, and a Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute at Johns Hopkins in recognition of outstanding contributions to ophthalmology as a Wilmer Graduate. He has received the Lew R. Wasserman Award from Research to Prevent Blindness and a Teacher of the Year Award. He is listed consistently within the Castle Connolly Guide to America’s Top Doctors, as well as Connecticut Magazine Best Doctors.

Gary V. Désir, MD, is the Paul B. Beeson Professor of Medicine and chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at Yale School of Medicine and vice provost for Faculty Development and Diversity at Yale University. He also serves as chief of Internal Medicine at Yale New Haven Hospital.He is a physician-scientist whose work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, National Institute of Health, Department of Veterans Affairs, American Heart Association, and the Robert Wood Johnson foundation. His major contributions to science include the discovery of a specific voltage-gated potassium channel that regulates body weight and insulin sensitivity, and the identification of a new growth factor, which he named renalase. He elucidated the pathway through which renalase affects cellular signaling and discovered that the protein can function abnormally and facilitate the development of certain cancers. His laboratory is currently focused on developing drugs that can treat cancer by blocking the action of renalase in cancer cells. Dr. Désir is a named inventor on several patents related to the discovery and therapeutic use of renalase, and the development of drugs that modulate renalase signaling in cancer. He is the scientific founder of 2 biotechnology companies focused on developing renalase-based therapies. Dr. Désir, the first person of African descent to be appointed as chair of a department at YSM, has a strong interest in issues of diversity and social justice. He is the co-founder of the minority organization for retention and expansion (MORE), a faculty group at YSM focused on increasing faculty diversity through mentoring programs and developing resilient social networks. In collaboration with Gordon Geballe, Associate Dean for Alumni and External Affairs at school of Forestry and Environmental Studies, he has worked with L’Hospital Albert Schweitzer in the Artibonite valley in Haiti on integrated projects designed to improve the standard of living in the valley. He was born in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. After high school, he immigrated to the US to attend New York University, from which he graduated magna cum laude, with a bachelor’s degree in biology. He was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and also received New York University’s Founders Day award. Following graduation from Yale University School of Medicine (Cum Laude, Alpha Omega Alpha honor society), he trained in internal medicine and nephrology at Yale New Haven Hospital. Dr. Désir is married to Dr. Deborah Dyett Désir who practices rheumatology at Yale. They have four children, Carl, Matthew, Christopher and Alexandra, a granddaughter Elodie and a grandson Amari.

Antonio studied Chemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Cadiz and the University Autonoma of Madrid. During undergraduate, he worked with Gines Morata at the CBM in Madrid. Antonio did his PhD with Stephen Cohen at the EMBL (Heidelberg) (1998-2002) and a post-doc with Alex Schier at the Skirball Institute (NYU) and Harvard (2003-2006). Antonio established his laboratory at Yale in 2007 where he investigates the regulatory codes that shape gene expression during embryonic development. He was Director of Graduate Studies (2012-2016) and was Chair of the Genetics Department (2017-2023).

Radiation oncologist Peter M. Glazer, MD, PhD, is the chair of the Department of Therapeutic Radiology. He has dedicated his career to helping cancer patients receive the highest quality of care available in a supportive environment.“When patients are undergoing radiotherapy for cancer, it can be a sensitive and challenging time for them and their families,” he says. “Our team does everything possible to keep our patients safe and comfortable throughout treatment.” Dr. Glazer makes it his priority to provide patients seeking care at Smilow Cancer Hospital and its Care Centers with the most advanced technologies and evidence-based treatments. “We take great pride in giving our physicians the best tools to treat cancer,” he says.As a professor of both therapeutic radiology and genetics at Yale School of Medicine, Dr. Glazer researches new therapeutic strategies for treating cancer and the role of altered DNA repair in tumor progression. His research was recently recognized by the National Cancer Institute of the NIH with a prestigious Outstanding Investigator Award of $7 million that will support his efforts to develop novel DNA repair inhibitors for cancer therapy.

Rob Goodman, MB BChir, MBA is the Chair of the Department of Radiology & Biomedical Imaging at Yale School of Medicine, Chief of Radiology at Yale New Haven Hospital and Radiologist-in-Chief at Yale New Haven Health System.Dr. Goodman joined Yale in 2004 from the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, UK, where he was lead clinician for its radiology department. He obtained his medical degree from Cambridge University in 1988 and an MBA in Healthcare from Yale in 2017. Upon completing his residency at the Central Oxford Hospitals in the UK, he did a fellowship in pediatric radiology at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. After his relocation from Europe to the United States, he was struck by the marked differences in radiation awareness between the two countries, which is particularly relevant in pediatric radiology due to children’s susceptibility to the effects of radiation. He subsequently played a major role in the movement to reduce radiation exposure from CT scans in children, as well as adults. As a way to reduce radiation exposure, his clinical interests also included improved utilization of ultrasound in pediatric imaging. He has published and lectured on these topics nationally and is the Pediatric Community of Practice President for the American Institute for Ultrasound in Medicine, and sits on its Board of Governors. He has been involved in developing national consensus guidelines for such topics as neonatal echoencephalography, pediatric spinal ultrasound, hip ultrasound, and imaging in pregnant patients. During his tenure at Yale, Dr. Goodman has overseen the expansion of pediatric radiology services, spearheaded the installation of a dedicated pediatric MRI scanner at Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital, implemented a critical test result reporting system, and identified mechanisms to improve the radiology peer review process. He recently helped execute an imaging industry relationship with Siemens Healthcare for Yale New Haven Health System. As Chair, Dr. Goodman is building upon the department’s clinical strengths and world-class research taking place in such areas as novel MR pulse sequences, functional MRI, MR spectroscopy, novel PET tracers, and advanced image processing. By including industry partners, he is eager to expand its translational research program to help convert basic science discoveries into clinical applications that improve patient care.

Dr. Murat Günel, the Sterling Professor of Neurosurgery and Professor of Neurobiology and Genetics, was appointed Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at Yale School of Medicine and Chief of Neurosurgery at Yale-New Haven Hospital in 2014. He is the director of the Yale Program in Brain Tumor Research and co-director of the Yale Program on Neurogenetics. Dr. Günel obtained his medical degree at Istanbul University and completed both his internship and residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital. His clinical expertise is in treating complex brain aneurysms and vascular malformations, as well as brain tumors. Dr. Günel’s research interest focuses on gene discovery in diseases of the human brain, including its development, vascular disease and tumors. Among these, the Günel lab has expertise in the application of next generation genomic technologies to study the genetic and epigenetic causes of brain and central nervous system tumors, focusing on meningiomas with various histological and pathological grades. Günel lab integrates multilevel approaches including whole exome and whole genome sequencing, molecular inversion probe sequencing (MIPS), whole genome genotyping, array based gene expression, RNA sequencing, whole genome methylation and chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-seq), followed by downstream biological studies to comprehensively analyze these tumors. The long-term goal of this approach is to define the molecular make-up of these tumors, which will then guide the development of novel therapies, including oncolytic viruses. In 2015, Dr. Günel was elected to the National Academy of Medicine, the highest distinction in medical sciences. He is a member of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS), both who collectively honored him in 2022 as the fourth recipient of the prestigious Ralph G. Dacey Medal for Outstanding Cerebrovascular Research. In 2021, he received the WINN award, given by the Society of Neurological Surgeons to recognize outstanding, continuous commitment to research in the neurosciences by a neurological surgeon. Dr. Günel previously served as chair of the AANS/CNS Cerebrovascular Section in 2011 and has been elected to the Society of Neurological Surgeons and Academy of Neurological Surgeons. Dr. Günel has been recognized by the Turkish Academy of Arts and Sciences for Outstanding Achievement in Health and Life Sciences and by Kadir Has University for Outstanding Scientific Achievement in Neurosciences.

Dr. Hafler is the William S. and Lois Stiles Edgerly Professor and Chairman Department of Neurology, Yale School of Medicine and is the Neurologist-in-Chief of the Yale-New Haven Hospital. He graduated magna cum laude in 1974 from Emory University with combined B.S. and M.Sc. degrees in biochemistry, and the University of Miami School of Medicine in 1978. He then completed his internship in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins followed by a neurology residency at Cornell Medical Center-New York Hospital in New York. Dr. Hafler received training in immunology at the Rockefeller University then at Harvard where he joined the faculty in 1984. He was one of the Executive Directors of the Program in Immunology at Harvard Medical School and was on the faculty of the Harvard-MIT Health Science and Technology program where he was actively involved in the training of graduate students and post-doctoral fellows. Hafler, in many respects, is credited with identifying the central mechanisms underlying the likely cause of MS. His early seminal work demonstrated that the disease began in the blood, not the brain, which eventually led to the development of Tysabri to treat the disease by blocking the movement of immune cells from the blood to the brain. He was the first to identify myelin-reactive T cells in the disease, published in Nature, showing that indeed, MS was an autoimmune disorder. He then went on to show why autoreactive T cells were dysregulated by the first identification of regulatory T cells in humans followed by demonstration of their dysfunctional state in MS. As a founding, Broad Institute associate member, Hafler identified the genes that cause MS, published in the New England Journal of Medicine and Nature. More recently, he identified the key transcription factors and signaling pathways associated with MS genes as potential treatment targets. Finally, he recently discovered that salt drives induction of these pathogenic myelin reactive T cells, both works published in Nature. Hafler was the Breakstone Professor of Neuroscience at Harvard, and became Chairman of Neurology at Yale in 2009, where he has built an outstanding clinical and research program that strongly integrates medical sciences. Hafler is among the most highly cited living neurologists and has received numerous honors including the Dystel Prize from the AAN for his MS research, the Raymond Adams Award from the ANA, and was the recipient of the NIH Javits Investigator Award, and The Dale McFarlin Prize by the International Society of Neuroimmunology. He is a member of AOA, the American Society of Clinical Investigation, and was elected into the National Academy of Medicine.

Dr. Isaac Kim is a urologic oncologist and surgeon who specializes in the treatment, management, and prevention of prostate cancer, with the goal of helping patients navigate and better understand their disease.  He has expertise in minimally invasive robotic surgery and has completed more than 2,100 robotic surgeries for prostate cancer. Dr. Kim's surgical focus has been on advanced and metastatic prostate cancer, as well as recurrent disease after radiation. Dr. Kim’s clinical research is focused on mechanisms of treatment resistance and specifically immunosuppressive factors produced by prostate cancer cells.  He also has a strong interest in inflammation in prostate cancer and the role of surgery in men with advanced or metastatic prostate cancer.

Dr. Krystal is a leading expert in the areas of alcoholism, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, and depression. His work links psychopharmacology, neuroimaging, molecular genetics, and computational neuroscience to study the neurobiology and treatment of these disorders. He is best known for leading the discovery of the rapid antidepressant effects of ketamine in depressed patients.He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine. He also serves in a variety of advisory and review capacities for NIAAA, NIMH, Wellcome Trust, Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, the Broad Institute, the Karolinska Institutet, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.Dr. Krystal previously served on the National Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Advisory Council (NIAAA), the Department of Defense Psychological Health Advisory Committee, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Advisory Council, and the NIMH Board of Scientific Counselors (chair, 2005-2007). He has led the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (president, 2012), and International College of Neuropsychophamacology (president, 2016-2018). Currently, he is co-chair of the Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders (NeuroForum) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and he edits the journal, Biological Psychiatry (impact factor: 13.382).

Dr. Lisa Lattanza is the chair of the Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation at the Yale School of Medicine. She obtained her medical degree at the Medical College of Ohio (now the University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences). She did her internship at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, completed her residency in orthopaedic surgery at the University of Missouri Kansas City and did a fellowship in hand surgery at Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons/Roosevelt Hospital. She did additional fellowship training in pediatric hand and upper extremity at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children in Dallas, Texas. She joined the faculty of UCSF in 1999. Although Lattanza treats all conditions and traumatic injuries in the upper extremity, she specializes in post-traumatic and congenital reconstruction for pediatric and adult elbow problems, treating patients from around the country and across the globe. She is a world- renowned leader in patient-specific 3D surgical planning and technology for deformity correction. She utilized her expertise in this area when she led a team to perform the first elbow-to-elbow transplant in the world in 2016, transplanting a patient’s left elbow into his right arm to give him one functioning extremity after a devastating accident. Using 3D computing, she also pioneered a new classification system and approach to the treatment of Chronic Monteggia Fracture Dislocations in children. Lattanza frequently travels to Nicaragua and other countries on mission trips to perform hand surgery and is eager to expand upon the global initiatives already in place in the department. Lattanza’s research interests include 3D surgical planning for deformity correction, elbow instability and other post-traumatic elbow conditions in children and adults, and diversity in orthopaedic surgery, specifically the underrepresentation of women. When she began her appointment at the School of Medicine in September 2019, she became one of only two current female chairs of orthopaedics in the U.S. In 2009, she co-founded the Perry Outreach Program to increase exposure of high school girls to orthopaedic surgery and biomechanical engineering. Now known as the Perry Initiative, the program is named after Lattanza’s mentor, Jacquelin Perry, MD, who was one of the first women orthopaedic surgeons in the country. It began with 18 high school girls in San Francisco and has now reached over 10,000 high school, college, and medical students across the country. Lattanza’s research has shown that young women who complete the program are applying and matching to orthopaedic surgery residencies at a rate of about 24%, compared to the national average of about 14%. Her goal is to reach 30% within the next three years. Lattanza has received numerous awards for both her clinical care and outreach efforts. She received UCSF’s Compassionate Physician award in 2013 and Exceptional Physician Award in 2014, the Jefferson Award for Community Service in 2014, and has been ranked by her peers as a Bay Area Top Physician for multiple years. In addition to her other leadership roles, she served as president of the Ruth Jackson Orthopaedic Society in 2017 and is active in the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, the American Society for Surgery of the Hand, and the American Orthopaedic Association.

Dr. Leffert is the Chair of the Yale University School of Medicine and Chief of Anesthesiology at Yale New Haven Hospital and Bridgeport Hospital. Dr. Leffert is nationally and internationally recognized as a clinical expert in obstetric anesthesia and the management of pregnant patients with complex comorbid neurologic and substance use disorders.  She recently served as President of the Society for Obstetric Anesthesia & Perinatology (SOAP), reflecting her subspeciality area of concentration. As SOAP President (2019-2020), she led a governance restructure of the Board and its committees to enhance the diversity, inclusion and the quality of its officers and to professionalize their communications and inter-society collaborations and strengthen their ability to execute their mission. Dr. Leffert does research in neurologic disease and vulnerabilities in pregnant women, and has published original research, reviews, and interdisciplinary guidelines on this topic. She lectures on diverse topics such as peripartum stroke, the anesthetic management of patients with intracranial lesions, strategies for placing neuraxial anesthetics in patients with comorbidities, and the peri-delivery care of patients with substance use disorder.

Dr. Liu is an expert in viral hepatitis, liver cancer immunotherapy, graft-versus-host disease, and cancer epigenetics. He currently serves as the Chair of the Department of Pathology and Chief of Pathology at Yale New Haven Hospital. He is also Anthony N. Brady Professor of Pathology. After obtaining his medical degree at Tong Liao Medical College and completing his postgraduate training at Peking Union Medical College in China, Dr. Liu received his PhD in pathology from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He completed his residency in anatomical and clinical pathology at the Medical College of Pennsylvania, followed by an oncological pathology fellowship at M.D. Anderson Cancer Hospital. Additionally, he underwent postdoctoral training at Scripps Clinic. Dr. Liu joined the faculty at the University of Florida's Department of Pathology, Immunology, and Laboratory Medicine, where he advanced to the positions of endowed professor and vice chair. In 2015, he was appointed as the joint chair of the Department of Pathology, Immunology, and Laboratory Medicine at New Jersey Medical School and Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers University. He was recruited to Yale in 2020.

Dr. Linda Mayes is the Arnold Gesell Professor of Child Psychiatry, Pediatrics, and Psychology and Director of the Yale Child Study Center. She is also Special Advisor to the Dean in the Yale School of Medicine. Trained as a pediatrician, Dr. Mayes’s research focuses on stress-response and regulatory mechanisms in young children at both biological and psychosocial risk. She has especially focused on the impact of prenatal substance use on children’s long-term outcomes. She has made contributions to understanding the mechanisms of effect of prenatal stimulant exposure on the ontogeny of arousal regulatory systems and the relation between dysfunctional emotional regulation and impaired prefrontal cortical function in young children. She has published widely in the developmental psychology, pediatrics, and child psychiatry literature. Given the nature of her work with children at significantly high-risk for developmental impairments from both biological and psychosocial etiologies, Dr. Mayes also focuses on the impact of parenting on the development of arousal and attention regulatory mechanisms in their children, and specifically on how substance abuse impacts reward and stress regulatory systems in new parents. With other colleagues in the Center, she studies how adults transition to parenthood, especially when substance abuse is involved, and the basic neural circuitry of early parent-infant attachment using both neuroimaging and electroencephalographic techniques. She and her colleagues have developed a series of interventions for parents including an intensive home-based program called Minding the Baby. Dr. Mayes's research programs are multidisciplinary, not only in their blending basic science with clinical interventions but also in the disciplines required including adult and child psychiatry, behavioral neuroscience, obstetrics, pediatrics, and neuropsychology. She is also a Distinguished Visiting Professor in psychology at Sewanee: The University of the South where she is working on intervention programs to enhance child and family resilience.

Brian R. Smith MD is Deputy Dean for Clinical and Translational Research at the Yale School of Medicine, as well as Co-Director of the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation (Co-PI of Yale's CTSA Award), Chair of the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Professor of Laboratory Medicine, Biomedical Engineering, Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at Yale University. He is the Chief of Laboratory Medicine and Attending Physician at Yale New Haven Hospital and also an attending physician at the Connecticut VA Medical Center and the Bridgeport Hospital.Dr. Smith received his undergraduate degree summa cum laude from Princeton University, his medical degree from the Harvard Medical School, and his residency/fellowship training at The Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Boston Children’s Hospital, and Dana Farber Cancer Center. He is board certified in Pathology / Hematopathology and in Internal Medicine / Hematology-Oncology. In addition to his clinical work, Dr. Smith has an investigative interest in the inflammation-hemostasis interface, especially in relation to biomaterials, as well as in cellular immunotherapeutics, with over 175 publications. His work extends from basic wet bench research through clinical and epidemiological trials (T1-T4). He has been continuously funded by the NIH at the PI-level for over 35 years. In these various roles, Dr. Smith has major administrative responsibility for the School’s research enterprise across the T1-T4 spectrum, as well as educational responsibilities across the scientific pipeline from STEM high school student programs through undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate training, for MDs, PhDs, and MD/PhDs. He is the initiator and long-standing PI of Laboratory Medicine’s post-doctoral T32 training program in Immunohematology and has personally mentored over 50 MD, MD/PhD, and PhD trainees, most of whom hold tenure-track positions at major research universities. In addition to directing trainees in bench and translational research, Dr. Smith has extensive experience in the didactic aspects of comprehensive training and career development for clinician-scientists, having developed and published curricula in Laboratory Medicine, developed and published new physician-scientist training paradigms in his field, and, in his capacity as the Chair of the Research Committee for the Association of Pathology Chairs, initiated and helped negotiate a dialogue with the American Board of Pathology that, with the work of many other Chairs of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, resulted in the adoption of a specific Physician-Scientist residency pathway by the Board. Similarly, through his research experience, dean position, and appointment in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, he is very involved with all aspects of PhD training at both the pre- and post-doctoral levels. He has been an invited lecturer on Bioethics and previously served on the NIH Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee. Dr. Smith has also played a significant role in gender equity initiatives at Yale. In addition, he has overseen the implementation of research core facilities in Translational Immune Monitoring, Flow Cytometry, and Clinical Sample Real Time Acquisition, chairs the Clinical Research Technology Committee, and has been a guiding member of a Cellular Therapy core resource, all of which have been used successfully by Yale investigators as well as by investigators from other universities.

Dr. Taylor is the Anita O'Keeffe Young Professor and Chair, Department of Obstetrics Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at Yale School of Medicine and Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Yale-New Haven Hospital. He is also Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental biology at Yale University. His clinical interests include IVF, infertility, endometriosis, implantation, menopause, uterine anomalies and Asherman's syndrome. Dr. Hugh Taylor received his undergraduate training at Yale University and received his medical degree from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. He completed his residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Yale. His postdoctoral training included a fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility as well as a fellowship in Molecular Biology, both at Yale. Dr. Taylor is a board certified specialist in Obstetrics and Gynecology and in Reproductive Endocrinology. His clinical research centers on endometriosis and fibroids. His basic science research focuses on uterine development, endometriosis, endocrine disruption, and on stem cells. He is a recipient of ten National Institutes of Health research grants and directs The Yale Center for Reproductive Biology. Dr. Taylor has published more than 400 articles and in leading medical journals.  He has served as president of the Society for Reproductive Investigation and president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in 2021.  He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.

Dr. Venkatesh is a Professor of Emergency Medicine and Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Yale University. He is also Scientist at the Yale Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation. He has been funded by the NIH, AHRQ, and the Emergency Medicine Foundation to study health system outcomes and efficiency, and he is supported by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as co-Principal Investigator of the Emergency Quality Network (E-QUAL) and for the development of the Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings. He has received over $6 million in grant funding and published over 80 peer-reviewed papers and is senior editor of The Evidence book series. He is national leader within ACEP and SAEM and he serves on expert panels for the National Quality Forum (NQF), Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and CMS. His work is also funded by the National Institute of Drug Abuse and the Addiction Policy Forum to advance the quality and delivery of emergency and acute care for opioid use disorder. Dr. Venkatesh earned his undergraduate degree at Northwestern University. He went on to earn an MBA from Ohio State University before completing medical school at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Most recently he completed Emergency Medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s and Massachusetts General Hospitals and the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program here at Yale University. He is originally from Dayton, OH and resides in New Haven.

Dr. Eric Winer is the Director of Yale Cancer Center and President and Physician-in-Chief of Smilow Cancer Hospital Yale New Haven Health System as of February 1, 2022. He is also the Alfred Gilman Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology and Deputy Dean of Cancer Research at Yale School of Medicine. An internationally renowned expert in breast cancer, Dr. Winer has led and collaborated on innumerable clinical trials that have changed the face of the disease. His work is both broad and deep, and it has touched almost all aspects of breast cancer. Dr. Winer has long been an advocate of building teams consisting of scientists and clinicians to accelerate progress in cancer research and care. Dr. Winer is Chair of the Board for the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. For over a decade, he served as chief scientific advisor and chair of the Scientific Advisory Board for Susan G. Komen for the Cure. For the past six years he has co-led the National Cancer Institute Breast Cancer Steering Committee. Dr. Winer has published over 350 original manuscripts and mentored over 30 fellows and junior faculty. In recognition of his mentoring impact, he was the recipient of the William Silen Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award from Harvard Medical School in 2020. He has also received numerous awards for his breast cancer research, most notably the William L. McGuire Memorial Lecture Award in 2016 at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. Dr. Winer is an alumnus of both Yale College and Yale School of Medicine. After receiving his medical degree in 1983, he completed training in internal medicine and served as chief resident at Yale New Haven Hospital. He completed a fellowship in hematology/oncology at Duke University School of Medicine and served on the Duke faculty from 1989 to 1997. He then joined Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School where he has spent the last 24 years. Most recently, he held the Thompson Chair in Breast Cancer Research and served as chief clinical development officer, and senior vice president for medical affairs at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, as well as Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.