The surgical staff at Ochsner are full-time, academic, hospital-based surgeons. Members of the surgical staff are actively involved in clinical research. Several staff members also maintain active basic science laboratories. The Department of Surgery has divisions in Cardiothoracic Surgery, Transplantation, Plastic Surgery, Vascular Surgery, Pediatric Surgery, and General Surgery. General Surgery includes Endocrine, Laparoscopic, and Surgical Oncology. There is a separate Department of Colon and Rectal Surgery, through which all General Surgery residents rotate during their first and fifth years.
Faculty Listing
George Samuel R. Money, MD, FACS
Chairman
Samuel R. Money attended the State University of New York College of Medicine – SUNY Downstate and graduated with distinction. He trained in vascular surgery at the Ochsner Clinic in New Orleans, Louisiana, under the tutelage of Larry H. Hollier and John Ochsner. He remained at Ochsner Clinic for 15 years where he rose through the ranks to be Division Head of Vascular Surgery. He then moved to Mayo Clinic in Arizona where he served as professor and Chairman of the Department of Surgery. He has served in numerous leadership positions including presidency of the society for clinical vascular surgery, the southern association of vascular surgery and the vascular and endovascular society. He currently serves as the treasurer of the society for vascular surgery.
George Fuhrman, MD
Program Director
Dr. Fuhrman has been actively involved in Surgical Education for his entire 24 year career. He has been President of The Association of Program Directors in Surgery and is a current member of the Surgery Residency Review Committee. Nearly half of Dr. Fuhrman's 90 peer reviewed published manuscripts include residents as the first author reflecting a passion for promoting surgical house staff scholarly activity. Dr. Fuhrman takes frequent General Surgery call in order to have an opportunity to work with the residents that are not assigned to his service during the academic year. As Program Director of The Ochsner Surgery Residency he adheres to an open door policy and enjoys working with the house staff to develop innovative strategies to continuously improve the training program.
Jessica Koller Gorham, MD
Associate Program Director
Dr. Gorham received her medical degree from the University of Texas School of Medicine in San Antonio after completing a Bachelor of the Arts in Chemistry and International Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She then pursued her general surgery training at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, WA, the oldest surgical residency program in the Pacific Northwest. She went on to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, NH for her fellowship training in Minimally Invasive Surgery with a focus on Bariatric surgery and upper gastrointestinal diseases.
On Staff at Ochsner for 21 years. Dr. Adolph has always been actively involved in Resident recruitment and education. He is a strong advocate for the Residents and the training program, having been the Associate Program Director of Surgery Program for last 8 years. Section Head of Pediatric Surgery and Medical Director of ECMO Program for 16 years. Teacher of the Year for the Surgery Department 3 times in the last 8 years. Currently also serving as Interim Chair of the Pediatrics Department.
Dr. Babin’s practice involves Acute Care Surgery and Trauma/Critical Care, in addition to elective General Surgery. He has special interest in abdominal wall reconstruction, intensive care performance improvement, and Robotic Surgery. Resident education and training are a central part of his practice and he is heavily involved with resident didactics and simulation training. He believes resident autonomy is key to develop the clinical skills necessary to function independently and actively involves them in all phases of patient care.
Dr. Babycos earned his medical degree from Tulane where he also completed his surgical internship and residency. He completed a plastic surgery fellowship at Tulane followed by a fellowship with the Australian Craniofacial Unit in Adelaide, Australia. Dr. Babycos is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, a member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, and has been on staff at Ochsner since 1995. He is board certified in surgery and plastic surgery. Dr. Babycos specializes in plastic and reconstructive surgery with specific interests in craniofacial and cosmetic surgery including aesthetic, breast, and reconstructive surgeries.
Dr. Aditya Bansal is a Senior Staff Surgeon and Surgical Director of Mechanical Circulatory Support and Adult ECMO here at Ochsner Medical Center. Dr. Bansal was born and raised in India. He completed his General Surgery training at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and then his Cardiothoracic Surgery residency and Thoracic Transplant and Mechanical Circulatory Support fellowships at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Subsequently, he joined University of Pittsburgh as an Assistant Professor of Surgery before joining Ochsner Medical Center.
Hernan Bazan, MD FACS is a Professor, Section of Vascular/Endovascular Surgery, Dept. of Surgery and a Program Director, Vascular Surgery 5+2 year fellowship program. Dr Bazan has a busy clinical practice and is devoted to medical student and resident teaching. He has received numerous teaching awards in the past, including medical student teaching awards from the Ochsner/University of Queensland School of Medicine and Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, and the prestigious Arthur Auufses, Jr. Award at Mt. Sinai for mentoring of junior residents. He is actively involved in several endovascular clinical trials and is the PI of several translational research grants on atherosclerosis.
He plays a close supervisory role at the Houma rotation and is committed to maintaining the more autonomous nature of that practice experience for the residents. He feels this contributes to the development of self-confidence as they are freer to apply the knowledge and techniques gleaned from working with the best specialists in their fields at the main campus and complement this with different opinions offered by the staff at Houma whose experience is more along the lines of busy rural/small town practice. He participates actively in the weekly tumor board and M&M conferences as well as the daily teaching rounds which are frequently done jointly with one other teaching staff member, thus exposing the residents to more than one point of view on an ongoing basis.
Dr. Humberto Bohorquez, is a general surgeon with subsequent fellowship training in abdominal transplantation. He is the director of pancreas transplant surgery. He is lecturer with the University of Queensland. He has mentored trainees from first year medical school to final year residency. His areas of interests include organ allocation, liver, kidney, pancreas transplantation and liver surgery.
John Bolton, MD
(Chairman Emeritus)
Dr Bolton is the senior surgeon on the Upper GI Surgical Oncology service. This is a high volume, complex service with no post-graduate fellows, so it is a key rotation, both for the PGY1 resident who is focused on perioperative management of complex patients, and for the senior resident who serves as a junior partner on the service and gains extensive operative experience and experience with complex decision making for difficult surgical problems. It is an intense, fun, and in many ways a formative experience for our general surgery residents and a source of tremendous satisfaction for Dr. Bolton to be a part of. In addition, he is the Chairman Emeritus of the Department of Surgery and former Program Director for the surgical residency program. Dr. Bolton conducts the weekly Patient Safety and Grand Rounds Conferences on Wednesday morning, as well as a Chief Resident Clinical Conference each spring designed to sharpen the chief residents' decision-making ability as they prepare for practice and their Oral Board exams. There are typically one or two clinical research projects in progress and one or more presentations at national meetings each year.
Dr. Nathan Bolton received his Doctor of Medicine from Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans and completed his General Surgery residency at Ochsner, where he served as chief resident of the General Surgery program. He moved on to complete a Surgical Oncology fellowship at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York before returning home to Ochsner as a member of the Upper GI/HPB Surgical Oncology team. He is a member of the resident education committee and has an active interest in surgical resident training.
Clay Brinster is a staff surgeon in the section of vascular surgery. He completed medical school and a general surgery residency at the University of Pennsylvania and a fellowship in vascular and endovascular surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital. Before joining the staff at Ochsner, Dr. Brinster gained experience in Europe with endovascular devices currently undergoing clinical trial in the United States. His clinical interests include all aspects of vascular and endovascular surgery, focusing on the treatment of aortic disease and on the advancement of endovascular techniques. Dr. Brinster actively participates in resident and fellow education including case conferences, vascular surgery journal club and clinical research projects.
Dr. Russell Brown earned a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Texas Health Sciences Center School of Medicine located in Houston, TX. He then completed a General Surgery Residency at the Ochsner Clinic Foundation. Dr. Brown went on to complete a Surgical Oncology Fellowship at the University of Louisville. He is board certified by the American Board of Surgery.
Dr. Bruce has been a member of the Ochsner faculty since 2008. His clinical interests include liver, kidney, and pancreas transplantation, as well as robotic living donor nephrectomy. After graduating from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1985, he did his general surgery residency at University of Chicago, where he also completed a research fellowship in immunology and a clinical fellowship in liver and kidney transplant surgery. He was a member of the University of Chicago faculty from 1995 to 2000. Since 2012, Dr. Bruce has been active in medical informatics at Ochsner, and spends most of his non-clinical time working on Epic implementation for both the transplant program and the Ochsner health system as a whole.
Dr. Ian C. Carmody is a general surgeon with subsequent training in abdominal transplantation, trauma and critical care. During his training he was awarded two teaching awards. He is an associate professor with the University of Queensland and the medical director of the Louisiana Organ Procurement Association. He has mentored trainees from first year medical school to final year residency. He is involved in the medical school curriculum as well as the abdominal transplant fellowship program. His areas of interests include organ allocation, biliary complications, hepatocellular carcinoma and history of transplantation.
Dr. Ari J. Cohen is a general surgeon with subsequent fellowship training in abdominal transplantation. He is the section head of Abdominal Transplant Surgery and Director of the transplant research laboratory. He is a Professor of Surgery with the University of Queensland School of Medicine, Ochsner Clinical School and the president of the governing board at the Louisiana Organ Procurement Association. He has mentored trainees from first year medical school to final year residency. He is involved in the medical school curriculum as well as the abdominal transplant fellowship program. His areas of interests include organ allocation, liver, kidney and pancreas transplantation.
Dr. Conor Coogan is a native of South Louisiana, completing undergraduate and medical school at LSU and LSU Health Sciences Center-New Orleans, respectively. He completed his general surgery residency at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, AR before attending Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, PA for further training in Trauma and Surgical Critical Care. His interests include emergency general surgery, trauma surgery, critical care medicine, and evidence-based resident and medical student education in those fields.
Dr. Elder is originally from Tulsa, OK. She received her medical degree from Michigan State University College of Human Medicine after completing a degree in Neurobiology at the University of Miami. She underwent general surgery training at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, FL. She then completed subspeciality training in breast surgical oncology at Atrium Health/Levine Cancer Institute in Charlotte, NC.
Dr. Michael Friel serves as the Surgical Director of Ochsner’s Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Program. Dr. Friel is a double-fellowship trained, triple-board certified surgeon (American Board of Surgery, American Board of Plastic Surgery and American Board of Plastic Surgery Hand Subspecialty). He serves as a section editor for Annals of Plastic Surgery and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Craniofacial Surgery. He is reviewer for Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, the Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal, and Microsurgery.
I have been associated with the Ochsner General Surgery training program since I completed my own residency at Ochsner 21 years ago. Since that time, I have been intimately involved in the resident rotations at Chabert Medical Center. Our hospital is a safety net hospital for the State of Louisiana whereby we offer greater autonomy to the training resident aligned with close resident supervision within a Chief Resident run general surgery hospital service. We conduct standard weekly Grand Rounds and Morbidity/Mortality conferences as well as participate in our weekly Tumor Conference.
Dr Johnston joined the Ochsner staff in 2017. He completed his General Surgery residency at the University of Virginia and a proceeded to train in Colon and Rectal Surgery at the Lahey Clinic. His interests are colon and rectal cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, diverticulitis, anorectal disorders, and abdominal wall reconstruction. Dr. Johnston is committed to fostering the residents’ exposure and interest in all aspects of Colon and Rectal surgery. He is also interested in working with the residents on any research projects to help develop critical thinking and appropriate project development.
Dr. Kann received a Doctor of Medicine degree from Medical College of Pennsylvania/Hahnemann University in Philadelphia, PA. He completed a General Surgery Residency at Cooper Hospital/University Medical Center in Camden, NJ followed by a Colon and Rectal Surgery Residency at Ochsner Clinic Foundation in New Orleans, LA. Dr. Kann is a member of the following professional organizations: American College of Surgeons, American Society of Colon & Rectal Surgeons and the Association of Program Directors for Colon & Rectal Surgery.
Dr. Jeffanne Millien received her medical degree with a focus on global health from the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, DC. She then moved to New Orleans to complete her internship and residency at Ochsner Clinic Foundation. She successfully completed a fellowship in trauma and surgical critical care at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. She then returned to Ochsner in the Summer of 2020 to assume an acute care surgery position. Her interests include global health medicine, critical care surgery and medicine, and resident education.
Ross Parkerson is a staff surgeon in the section of vascular surgery. He earned his undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University. He then returned home to attend LSU school of Medicine in New Orleans where he earned his MD and was elected to the AOA Honor Medical Society. Afterward, he moved to Tampa where completed integrated vascular surgery residency at the University of South Florida. While in Tampa, Dr. Parkerson was able to participate in numerous clinical trials of novel endovascular devices designed for the treatment of complex thoracic and thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms.
Dr. Parrino is the Section Head for the Cardiothoracic Section. Residents rotate in the section of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery as second years (cardiac) and as third or fourth years (thoracic). During the cardiac surgical rotation, there are twice-daily rounds which are brief but allow adjustments to patient care on a less than every 24 hours basis. Residents participate in discussions covering the hemodynamic management of patients after conventional cardiac surgery (valves, bypass) as well as mechanical assist devices (LVADs, total artificial heart).
Dr Paruch earned her medical degree from the University of Michigan and completed her General Surgery Residency at the University of Chicago. While there, she earned an award for excellence in teaching from the junior residents. She completed her fellowship in Colon and Rectal Surgery at the Lahey Hospital and Medical Center. Dr Paruch is board certified in general surgery and colon and rectal surgery. She was in practice in Chicago for 2 years before joining Ochsner in the summer of 2019. She has been an instructor for several advanced endoscopy courses for residents and fellows.
The general thoracic section at the Ochsner Medical Center provides expert care in benign and malignant diseases of the thorax with a focus on lung and esophageal cancer. Minimally invasive techniques such as video assisted thoracoscopy (VATS) and robotic assisted thoracic surgery (RATS) are used for the management of all stages of lung cancer. These approaches are applied to minimize patient discomfort and expedite recovery. Our surgeons have an interest in airway surgery including tracheal resection and reconstruction as well as airway stenting and laser therapy.
Section Head of General Surgery. Dr. Richardson is a general surgeon primarily interested in minimally invasive surgery, bariatrics and robotics. During rotations on his service residents will be taught the workup, treatment and procedures for abdominal conditions including hernia, gallbladder diseases, adrenal diseases, splenic diseases, reflux disease, hiatal hernias, achalasia and morbid obesity. Residents are required to become proficient in laparoscopic techniques in our dry lab. Dr. Richardson is an academic surgeon and there is plenty of opportunity for residents to get exposure, assist or run clinically based research projects.
Dr. Amy Rivere is originally from Napoleonville, LA. She graduated from Louisiana State University and earned her Doctor of Medicine from Louisiana State University Health Science Center in Shreveport, LA. She then completed general surgery residency at Ochsner Clinic and a fellowship in Breast Surgical Oncology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, AR. In 2016, she joined the faculty at Ochsner as a Breast Surgical Oncologist in the Department of General Surgery.
Dr Roybal is relatively new to Ochsner and is active in teaching residents in clinic, on the wards, and in the operating room. She helps give the SCORE lectures for pediatric surgery. In the coming year, her goal is to set up a pediatric surgery conference for residents and faculty to discuss interesting cases. She also hopes to get a few research projects started this coming year and will aim to get residents involved.
Dr. Seal is a staff surgeon in Abdominal Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Surgery. He is actively involved in the General Surgery residency program through clinical rotations in Multi-Organ Transplantation and Critical Care, didactic lectures and weekly multi-disciplinary transplant conferences. During the transplant rotation, operative instruction is focused on nuances of abdominal anatomy and approaches through the organ recovery operation and technical skill development in vascular anastomoses.
Dr. Dennis Sonnier is part of the Abdominal Transplant Surgery Service. He attended medical school at LSU school of medicine in New Orleans. He completed his surgical residency at the University of Cincinnati and his transplant surgery fellowship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Sonnier’s areas of interest include organ allocation, liver, kidney and pancreas transplantation.
Dr. Stephen Spindel is a cardiothoracic surgeon at Ochsner Medical Center. He served eight years in the Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard and graduated as an Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society member from Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans. Afterwards, he completed an integrated residency fellowship in cardiothoracic surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. At Ochsner Medical Center, he specializes in mitral and tricuspid valve repair, particularly through a mini incision, and complex aortic root reconstructions.
Pediatric Surgery is perhaps the best specialty within general surgery. Specialties within General Surgery have flourished over the last two decades with fellowship trained individuals performing much of what a General Surgeon used to do routinely. This has certainly led to improved outcomes with the most difficult problems as these individuals are highly trained and competent. Pediatric Surgery broke away from General Surgery in the 1970s and there are about 600 practicing Pediatric Surgeons in North America, all fellowship trained.
Dr. Sternbergh’s educational background includes an undergraduate degree from Brown University and a MD from Duke University School of Medicine. He performed his general surgical training at the Medical College of Virginia and his vascular fellowship at Emory University. Dr Sternbergh has been on staff at Ochsner since 1996. He is nationally recognized for his expertise in Vascular Surgery, and is the author of more than 100 scientific publications and book chapters pertaining to vascular disease. Dr. Sternbergh literally "wrote the book" on the endovascular treatment of abdominal and thoracic aortic aneurysm.
Dr. Brian Strollo is a native of the Western New York area. He attended medical school at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in Buffalo, NY. He completed his surgical residency at the University at Buffalo general surgery program in Buffalo, NY and went on to the University of Louisville to complete a fellowship in trauma/surgical critical care. While in Louisville he also earned a Master’s in Public Health at the University of Louisville. He is board certified in Surgery and Surgical Critical Care by the American Board of Surgery.
After leaving fellowship training in New Orleans, Dr. Vargas gained extensive clinical experience in both private practice and academic surgery all the while remaining involved in medical education and post-graduate surgery resident training. He has been active in local, regional, and national professional organizations and has held positions of leadership. He has authored book chapters in major surgical textbooks as well as multiple scientific articles published in peer-reviewed surgical journals. While Dr. Vargas’ clinical practice encompasses the breadth of Colon Rectal Surgery, in particular he has gained recognition for minimally invasive or laparoscopic colorectal surgery resulting in his recruitment in 2007 to the University of Kentucky (UK) College of Medicine as Chief of Colon Rectal Surgery in the Department of Surgery.
Dr. Whitlow earned his medical degree from the University of Arkansas and completed his internship and residency at William Beaumont Army Medical Center in El Paso, Texas. He completed his colon and rectal surgery fellowship at Ochsner. Dr. Whitlow is board certified in general surgery and colon and rectal surgery and has been on staff at Ochsner since the Summer of 2002. Dr. Whitlow is listed in Best Doctors in America. He serves as Program Director of the Colon and Rectal Surgery training program. His particular areas of professional interest include Transanal excision of large benign rectal tumors, sphincter-preserving surgery for rectal cancer, surgical treatment of inflammatory bowel disease, laparoscopic and robotic colon and rectal surgery, surgery for rectal prolapse, and treatment of anorectal fistulas.
Dr. Wooldridge is a native of Memphis, TN and attended The University of Tennessee in Knoxville where he received his undergraduate degree in Biology. He went to medical school at The University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis and then did his general surgery residency at The University of Missouri in Columbia. Upon graduation, he moved on to complete a fellowship in laparoscopic and bariatric surgery at The University of California at Irvine. Since joining the Ochsner Medical Staff in 2009, he has continued to increase his clinical practice focusing on bariatric, foregut, hernia, and general surgery. He has recently been involved with organizing the Ochsner Swallowing Center, a multi disciplinary team focused on total care for Upper GI disorders. He is also on the University of Queensland Ochsner Clinical School Education Committee for General Surgery, helping shape the general surgery rotation for our Ochsner Clinical School students.
