Julie Ann Sosa, MD

Julie Ann Sosa, MD, MA, FACS is the Leon Goldman, MD Distinguished Professor of Surgery and Chair of Surgery at the University of California San Francisco, where she is also a Professor of Medicine and affiliated faculty for the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies. Her clinical interest is in endocrine surgery, with a focus in thyroidology. She is an NIH- and FDA-funded investigator and author of more than 340 peer-reviewed publications. 

Dr. Sosa is ATA Treasurer (2017-present) and has served on the Board of Directors since 2014; she is co-chairing the committee writing the next iteration of guidelines for adult patients with differentiated thyroid cancer. Her service record to the ATA is long; she joined in 2005 and has served on the patient education/advocacy committee (2006-8); nominating committee (2008-10); Thyroid centers of excellence task force (2009-10); Lateral neck dissection subcommittee of the surgical affairs committee (2010-12); MTC registry data monitoring committee (2010-present); program committee (2011-14; co-chair, 2013); Finance/audit committee (2015-present); guidelines policy task force (2016-17); publications committee (2017-19); and search committees for secretary-elect (2017-18), executive director and treasurer-elect (2019-20), and Thyroid EIC (2021). She served on guidelines committees for adult patients with thyroid nodules and differentiated thyroid cancer (2011-15) as well as the management of hyperthyroidism/thyrotoxicosis (2007-9; 2014-5). 

Dr. Sosa has served on NCCN and American Association of Endocrine Surgeons guidelines committees. She is a member of the International Thyroid Oncology Group and Editor-in-Chief of the World Journal of Surgery. She has mentored 90 students, residents, and fellows, for which she was recognized with induction to the American College of Surgeons Academy of Master Educators in 2020, and with the Lewis E. Braverman Distinguished Lectureship Award from the ATA and Woman of the Year in Thyroidology from the WIT in 2017. 

Dr. Sosa was born in Montreal and raised in New York. She received her AB at Princeton, MA at Oxford, and MD at Johns Hopkins, where she completed the Halsted residency.

ENDOCRINE SURGEON CANDIDATES

Peter Angelos, MD, PhD

Peter Angelos, MD, PhD, FACS, MAMSE is the Linda Kohler Anderson Professor of Surgery at the University of Chicago where he is also Vice Chair for Ethics, Professional Development, and Wellness; Chief of Endocrine Surgery; and Associate Director of the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics. Dr. Angelos completed his undergraduate degree, medical school, and a PhD in Philosophy at Boston University. After a residency in General Surgery at Northwestern University, he went on to complete fellowships in Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago and in Endocrine Surgery at the University of Michigan. 

After spending the first 10 years of his career at Northwestern University, Dr. Angelos has been at the University of Chicago since 2006. Throughout his career, he has pursued the dual interests of endocrine surgery and surgical ethics. Dr. Angelos continues to have a very busy endocrine surgical practice but he also has significant teaching responsibilities in the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago. 

Dr. Angelos has written widely on many areas of endocrine surgery as well as on the ethical aspects of patient care. He has over 240 peer-reviewed publications and has authored or co-authored over 50 book chapters. He edited two editions of the book, Ethical Issues in Cancer Patient Care, he is co-editor of the book, Difficult Decisions in Endocrine Surgery, and co-editor of the American College of Surgeons textbook, Ethical Issues in Surgical Care. Dr. Angelos is also co-editor of, Difficult Decisions in Surgical Ethics, forthcoming in 2021. Dr. Angelos is a Governor of the American College of Surgeons, Councilor of the American Board of Surgery, member of the Academy of Master Surgeon Educators of the American College of Surgeons, and past President of the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons. He has served the ATA as both member and chair of the Ethics Committee, member and current co-chair of the Guidelines and Statements Committee, and past member of the Pediatric Thyroid Cancer Guidelines Committee.

Electron Kebebew, MD

Dr. Electron Kebebew received his bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles in Chemical Engineering. Dr. Kebebew went on to complete his medical training, surgical residency and NCI T32 Surgical Oncology Basic Science fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). In 2002, Dr. Kebebew joined the surgical faculty at UCSF. In 2009, he was recruited as a tenured investigator to the National Cancer Institute where he created and established one of the first Endocrine Oncology programs in the U.S. In 2019, he was recruited to Stanford University where he is currently Professor of Surgery. He is also the Chief of the Division of General Surgery, and the Harry A. Oberhelman Jr. and Mark L. Welton endowed Professor at Stanford University, School of Medicine. 

Dr. Kebebew has authored over 400 scientific articles and 43 invited book chapters, and edited and co-edited 4 textbooks. He has received awards from the American Cancer Society, American Association for Cancer Research, American Thyroid Association, American Association of Endocrine Surgeons, and International Association of Endocrine Surgeons. His laboratory investigates the genomic changes associated with endocrine cancer initiation and progression with the ultimate goal of identifying therapeutic targets and novel anticancer agents for endocrine cancers, and diagnostic and prognostic markers to refine the management of patients with endocrine tumors. Kebebew is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and is an internationally recognized expert in Endocrine Surgery and Oncology with an H-index of 92. Dr. Kebebew has performed more than four thousand operations on the thyroid, parathyroid and adrenal glands, and neuroendocrine tumors of the pancreas and gastrointestinal tract.

ENDOCRINOLOGIST DIRECTOR CANDIDATES

Ernest Asamoah, MD

Ernest Asamoah, MD, FACE, FACP, FRCP (UK), is an Indianapolis-based endocrinologist in the city’s Community Health Network, where he has practiced since 1999. He is also a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine Indiana University School of Medicine and Marian University Osteopathic School of Medicine.

After earning his medical degree from the University of Ghana Medical School, he did postgraduate training in General Medicine in England and became a member and later a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. In 1995, Dr. Asamoah moved to the United States and completed an internal medicine residency at the University of Virginia School of Medicine (Roanoke), followed by endocrinology fellowship at Brown University School of Medicine, Providence, RI.

Dr. Asamoah’s clinical practice has a focus on thyroid disease. In 2004, he established the Thyroid Institute, a multidisciplinary clinic comprised of on-site pathologist and ENT surgeons. He is certified in thyroid ultrasound (ECNU) and has been an active member of the ATA since 2004. For 6 years he served as a member of the Clinical Affairs Committee (2009-2014), past chair of the Public Health Committee (2016-2018). He served as co-chair of the Diversity, Inclusion and Equity task force set up by the ATA board as part of the 2019-2023 strategic plan.

Dr. Asamoah is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, fellow of American College of Physicians and fellow of American College of Endocrinology. He is also a member of the Endocrine Society, where he has served on the Minority Affairs Committee (2009-2012), Clinical Affairs Committee (2012-2015), and Quality Improvement Sub-committee (2015-2018).

He currently sits on the Board of Directors of Community Physician Network (a multispecialty practice of over 1400 providers in Central Indiana) after completing a 3-year term as Chairman of this board. He served as a member of the Board of Trustees of Northview Church (a non-denominational mega-church in Central Indiana).

His hobbies include photography, running and traveling.

Mona M. Sabra, MD

Dr. Mona M. Sabra is an Attending Physician and Clinical Director in the Endocrine Service, Department of Medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) and a Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Weill Cornell School of Medicine. Her medical training was completed at the American University in Beirut, and training in Internal Medicine and Endocrinology was completed in Baltimore, Maryland. After 7 years on faculty at University of Maryland, she was recruited to MSK where she became a highly valued member of the thyroid cancer disease management team with a practice focused primarily on the treatment of patients with thyroid cancer. As a clinician-educator, her research involvement includes participation in collaborative clinical research in thyroid cancer and acting as a co-investigator on several institutional clinical trials. Dr Sabra focused her personal research efforts on the study of RAI efficacy in metastatic thyroid cancer, optimal RAI adjuvant administered activities of high risk thyroid cancer patients, progression free survival of thyroid cancer patients with distant metastatic thyroid cancer and the use of tumor volume doubling time in the assessment of patients’ prognosis and response to molecular targeted therapies. Her research resulted in numerous publications and speaking engagements. Her contribution to the improvement of the MSK Endocrine divisional clinical operations includes an active membership to the MSK ClinDoc committee and the MSK Quality Assurance committee. As a Clinical Director, she is also very much involved in the MSK Regional Centers Strategic Partnerships effort. On a national level, Dr. Sabra served as committee member for the American Thyroid Association Patient Education and Advocacy Committee between 2008 and 2014, Committee member for the ATA Clinical Affairs Committee between 2011 and 2014, Chair of the Clinical Affairs Committee between 2014 and 2016 and as past Chair for the ATA Clinical Affairs Committee in 2017, and as the co-Chair of the 2019 American Thyroid Association Program Committee.

SCIENTIST (PhD Only) CANDIDATES

Aime Franco, PhD

Aime Franco, PhD leads the Pediatric Thyroid Cancer Translational Research Program in the Department of Pediatrics/Division of Endocrinology and Diabetes at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Her expertise is thyroid cancer and the role of the tumor microenvironment in tumorigenesis. She is a member of the Abramson Cancer Center at UPenn. She also served as the State Lead for Arkansas with the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.

Dr. Franco has been instrumental in developing a multidisciplinary team approach to thyroid cancer research. She currently leads the Pediatric Translational Research Program at CHOP, bridging the clinical program with the basic science programs. Her primary focus of research is determining why pediatric thyroid tumors present differently than adult tumors and respond differently to therapy. The team focuses on how age modulates the tumor microenvironments and seeks to incorporate patient-centric questions into basic research. Dr. Franco’s research is/has been supported by the NIH, American Cancer Society and the ATA. She is a thyroid cancer survivor and is keenly aware of the life-long challenges that thyroid cancer patients face. She is dedicated to training and mentoring the next generation of scientists and clinicians to view cancer beyond the binary outcomes of life and death, but to incorporate patient-centric outcomes throughout the research spectrum.

Dr. Franco joined the faculty at CHOP in 2019. Prior to joining CHOP, she was a tenured Associate Professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Dr. Franco did her postdoctoral fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, following her PhD in Cancer Biology at Vanderbilt University. She holds a MS degree in Nutritional Sciences from the University of Connecticut. Dr. Franco has served on numerous committees within the ATA, including the Women in Thyroidology and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Task Forces and is the current Co-Chair of the Trainees and Education Committee and a member of the Pediatric Thyroid Cancer Guidelines Task Force.

Yunbo Shi, PhD

Dr. Shi is a senior investigator and a Deputy Associate Scientific Director at NICHD, NIH. Dr. Shi received his PhD degree from University of California, Berkeley. After postdoctoral training at Carnegie Institution, Baltimore, Dr. Shi established his laboratory at NIH in 1992. His laboratory has been studying thyroid hormone regulation of development. Dr. Shi has published over 240 articles, edited three books and written a monograph. He has received many recognitions, including the 2008 Van Meter Award from ATA. In 2012, Dr. Shi was elected to be a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Shi was an editor of Cell Research from 1997 to 2010 and the founding Editor-in-Chief of Cell and Bioscience (2010 to 2020), and has served as a board member of many journals including Thyroid. He has been elected to serve as an official or council member of several scientific organizations, including North American Society for Comparative Endocrinology, where he is the current President.

ATA is Dr. Shi’s professional home. Dr. Shi has served on various ATA committees, such as Annual Meeting Program Committee, Trainees and Career Advancement Committee, including chairing its basic subcommittee. Dr. Shi would like to use the knowledge and expertise that he has gained through services to different societies to help ATA maintain its strength and continue to grow. He is particularly interested to increase the participation of basic researchers at ATA annual meeting and grow its membership, especially junior basic and clinical members, who are the future of ATA. Dr. Shi sees a strong benefit of getting patients and advocacy groups involved at ATA annual meeting and other activities. Finally, Dr. Shi strongly believes in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). EDI enriches all of us by exposing us to a wider range of ways to engage with other scientists and the society. Dr. Shi will work to promote and enhance EDI at all levels within ATA.

AT-LARGE DIRECTOR CANDIDATES

Joana Klubo-Gwiezdzinska, MD, PhD

Dr. Joanna Klubo-Gwiezdzinska is a Lasker Tenure Track Investigator, Acting-Chief of Thyroid Tumors and Functional Thyroid Disorders Section in the Metabolic Disease Branch, National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD. Dr. Klubo-Gwiezdzinska holds MD/PhD degree from Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun, Poland and MHSc degree from Duke University. She completed internal medicine training in Nicolaus Copernicus University Hospital, Poland as well as in Georgetown University/Washington Hospital Center, Washington, DC. Therefore, she is double board certified in internal medicine – in European Union and USA, as well as board certified in endocrinology, after successful completion of fellowship in endocrinology at the NIH.

Her scientific interest involves translational and clinical studies focused on optimization of thyroid cancer diagnosis and therapy through personalized medicine. Her research has been recognized and supported by the ATA through the ThyCa grant in 2011-2012. Dr. Klubo-Gwiezdzinska is serving as a Principal Investigator for five clinical protocols focused on the management of functional thyroid disorders and thyroid tumors. Her lab investigates the cross-talk between cell metabolism and oncogene-driven signaling pathways as well as identification of new molecular targets for cancer therapy with radiolabeled analogs, utilizing individualized dosimetry-based approach. Her team’s study investigating bench to bedside translation of a radiolabeled somatostatin receptor type 2 analog (Clin Cancer Res 2021 Mar;27(5):1399-1409) has been selected as one of the Best Achievements in Clinical Thyroidology in 2020 by Endocrinology and Metabolism journal.

Dr. Klubo-Gwiezdzinska, despite being an early career investigator, is an author of 70 published papers including publications in Thyroid, Lancet Oncology, Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology, Annals of Internal Medicine, JAMA, and 11 book chapters, including Oxford Textbook of Endocrinology. She is an Associate Editor of Frontiers in Endocrinology and Therapeutic Advances in Endocrinology and Metabolism. She is also a recipient of multiple awards, including ATA 2021 Women Advancing Thyroid Research Award and American Society for Clinical Investigation 2021 Young Physician-Scientist Award.

Dr. Klubo-Gwiezdzinska has been an active member of the ATA since 2009, serving as chair- elect of the ATA Research Committee and the Editorial Board member of the Thyroid journal.

Sareh Parangi, MD

Dr. Parangi is a Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School in Boston and a busy endocrine surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). She currently serves as Chair of Surgery at Newton Wellesley Hospital. She focuses her clinical efforts on endocrine surgery and applies her basic science knowledge and expertise to tumor progression in thyroid cancer. Dr. Parangi graduated from Barnard College and earned her medical degree from Columbia University. She completed her residency at UCSF during which time she completed a Fellowship in Molecular Medicine. She is a thyroid surgeon with expertise in molecular biology and has over 100 publications, many on thyroid cancer therapeutics. Her active research focuses on aggressive thyroid cancers and development of animal models of tumor progression.

She is very grateful to the ATA for early funding of her research career through an ATA ThyCa grant. She has been an active member of the ATA over the past two decades and currently serves as Chair of the Publication committee overseeing the three publications of the ATA. She has previously served on the Publication, Membership committee, the ATA Thyroid Research Funding Task Force, Women in Endocrinology and on the Editorial Board of Clinical Endocrinology. She has served in a mentorship role for young fellows interested in thyroid cancer through her lab and through the ATA E Chester Ridgway Conference. She is a past President of The Association of Women Surgeons (AWS) and has in the past served as Treasurer of The American Association of Endocrine Surgeons. She has also served in the past as Secretary of the International Thyroid Oncology Group.

She serves as the Co-Director of Diversity and Inclusion in the MGH Department of Surgery She is active in many organizations that promote gender equity and diversity in surgery and medicine because she feels there is still a large need in promoting women and those who are under-represented in medicine to leadership positions in academia and professional organizations.

TRAINEE OBSERVERS (BY APPOINTMENT)

Athanasios Bikas, MD, PhD

Intrigued by the pathophysiology of the Endocrine system and wanting to follow in his father’s footsteps, Athanasios Bikas obtained his Medical Degree from the University of Athens. After graduation, he moved to Washington DC where he performed clinical and translational research on thyroid cancer under the supervision of Drs. Kenneth Burman, Leonard Wartofsky and Vasyl Vasko. His scientific interest lies in the study of the role of metabolism in endocrine malignancy. The work that led to his PhD in Molecular Biology was on identification of metabolic parameters to increase Metformin’s efficacy as a therapeutic agent against thyroid cancer, and he currently holds a grant from the American Thyroid Association to study the role of the mitochondrial enzyme COX-4 in medullary thyroid cancer. He has received awards from several national organizations for his work. He completed his Internal Medicine residency training at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and he was chosen to also serve as a Chief Medical Resident. He is currently a Clinical and Research Endocrinology Fellow at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital/ Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA working under the supervision of Dr. Erik Alexander. His goal is to become a Physician-Scientist in the field of Endocrine Oncology.

Danica Vodopivec Kuri, MD

Danica M. Vodopivec is a second-year endocrinology fellow at Boston Medical Center, Boston University School of Medicine.  She went to medical school at Universidad de Guayaquil in Ecuador, completed an internal medicine residency at Lahey Clinic in Massachusetts, and will do an advanced training in endocrine oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center.  Dr. Vodopivec has participated in research dedicated to different endocrine neoplasias and has served in the New England region as the co-founder of a virtual learning series for endocrine fellows.  As future long term goals, she would like to become an endocrine oncologist, conduct clinical trials, and study targeted therapy resistance mechanisms to serve patients with advanced thyroid cancer.