Faculty - Surgery Residency Program

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.

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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.

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Dr. Blackstock joined Ochsner in 2022. He offers surgical therapies for nearly all areas of vascular disease including thoracic and abdominal aortic aneurysms, carotid artery disease, peripheral arterial disease, chronic-limb threatening ischemia, thoracic outlet syndrome, hemodialysis access, and venous disease (including varicose veins).

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Dr. Humberto Bohorquez, is a general surgeon with subsequent fellowship training in abdominal transplantation. 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.

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Dr. Nathan Bolton received his Doctor of Medicine from LSUHSC in New Orleans and completed his General Surgery residency at Ochsner, where he served as chief resident. 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.

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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. 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.

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Dr. Emily Bugeaud completed her undergraduate and medical degrees at the University of Michigan. She then went on to complete her residency in General Surgery at the University of Chicago. During her clinical training, she simultaneously earned her doctorate in immunology studying the role of bacterial infections in transplantation tolerance. Dr. Bugeaud then went on to continue her clinical training in Abdominal Organ Transplantation, completing her fellowship at the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Bugeaud joined the Ochsner Multi-Organ Transplant Institute in August 2014 with an interest in liver, kidney and pancreas transplant as well as organ donation, including living donation.

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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 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.

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Dr. Jessica Dahle completed her fellowship training in Endocrine Surgery at Duke University and is the faculty member of the Endocrine Surgery service. Fourth year surgical residents rotate on the Endocrine Surgery service, a one-on-one apprenticeship model service designed to teach senior level residents comprehensive understanding of endocrine disorders of the adrenal, parathyroid, and thyroid glands. Endocrine surgical techniques are taught with graduated responsibility to build operative skills in robotic and open adrenalectomy, minimally invasive surgery parathyroidectomy, thyroidectomy, and lymph node dissection. Dr. Dahle is also actively involved in resident recruitment, didactics, and medical student education.

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Dr. Dozier completed his general surgery internship and residency at Rutgers University NJMS in Newark, New Jersey. During his residency, he completed a two-year research fellowship focusing on immunotherapy for thoracic malignancies at Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York. He completed his fellowship in cardiothoracic surgery at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. Dr. Dozier has been on staff at Ochsner since 2022. He specializes in removing both benign and malignant tumors of the lung, esophagus, mediastinum chest wall, trachea, and diaphragm. He has a special clinical interest in robotic surgery. Dr. Dozier's research interests include immunotherapy and healthcare disparities. He has published 10 peer-reviewed scientific papers and presented his work at several international conferences.

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Dr. Elder 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.

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Dr. Salim is a graduate of the Aga Khan University Medical College. He completed his Surgery Residency training at Brown University & Ochsner, before additional fellowship training in Minimally Invasive and Bariatric Surgery at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. His interests include bariatric (weight loss) and anti-reflux surgeries, hernia repair and resident education.

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Dr. Kethman earned his undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering and medical doctorate from Tulane University. He completed his general surgery residency at Stanford University and a colon and rectal surgery fellowship at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center - Case Western Reserve University. He completed a research fellowship at the Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign. He is interested in leveraging technology to improve the care we provide patients.

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Dr. Charles Leithead received his Doctor of Medicine from LSUHSC, and completed an Integrated Vascular Surgery Residency at The University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Leithead treats a wide variety of vascular conditions including aneurysms, carotid artery disease, peripheral vascular disease, DVT (blood clots), spider veins and varicose veins with both open surgery and minimally invasive procedures.

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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 completed 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. Her interests include global health medicine, critical care surgery and medicine, and resident education.

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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 Ochsner under the tutelage of Larry H.Hollier and John Ochsner. He later worked at 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.

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Dr. Andrew Newton received his medical degree from the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He completed his general surgery residency at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. After residency, Dr. Newton completed a fellowship in complex general surgical oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. He is board certified in General Surgery and Complex General Surgical Oncology by the American Board of Surgery. Dr. Newton's expertise is in hepatopancreaticobiliary malignancies, gastroesophageal malignancies, neuroendocrine tumors, peritoneal surface malignancies including HIPEC, sarcoma, and melanoma.

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Ross Parkerson attended 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.

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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 has been an instructor for several advanced endoscopy courses for residents and fellows.

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Dr. Pettiford earned a doctor of medicine degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine where he continued his general surgery and cardiothoracic surgery training. He is certified by the American Board of Thoracic Surgery, is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and holds memberships in the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the Southern Thoracic Surgical Society and the Eastern Cardiothoracic Surgical Society. He has authored or coauthored over 40 journal articles and book chapters.

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Dr. David Pointer completed medical school and general surgery residency from Tulane. Dr. Pointer completed fellowship training in Surgical Oncology at H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa, Florida. His clinical interests include gastrointestinal, hepatopancreaticobiliary, skin and soft tissue malignancies with a specific focus on the application of robotic techniques. Dr. Pointer has an interest in resident education, technical development, and mentorship.

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Dr. Amy Rivere graduated from LSU and earned her Doctor of Medicine from LSUHSC in Shreveport, LA. She then completed general surgery residency at Ochsner and a fellowship in Breast Surgical Oncology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, AR.

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Dr Roybal is active in teaching residents in clinic, on the wards, and in the operating room. She helps give the SCORE lectures for pediatric surgery.

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Dr. Seal 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.

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Dr Smith attended medical school at the Kansas City University of Medicine, then followed by General Surgery residency at Spartanburg Regional Medical Center. Afterwards, he completed his Plastic Surgery residency at Tulane. He is board certified in General Surgery and board eligible in Plastic Surgery. Dr Smith's primary interests are implant based and microvascular breast reconstruction, complex extremity reconstruction, and aesthetic surgery.

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Dr. Dennis Sonnier attended medical school at LSU 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.

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Dr. Rodney Steiner completed medical school at the University of Texas in Houston. He completed his general surgery residency and an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) fellowship at LSU in New Orleans and Ochsner. His pediatric surgery fellowship was completed at LeBonheur Children's Hospital and the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. His clinical interests are pediatric congenital anomalies, pediatric oncology, short gut syndrome and ECMO. Dr Steiner is board certified in general surgery and pediatric general surgery. He is a member of the American Medical Association, the American Pediatric Surgical Association, the American College of Surgeons and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

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Dr. Dennis Wells specializes in the care of infants and children as well as adults with congenital heart disease. He earned his medical degree from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. He completed his cardiothoracic surgical training at the University of Cincinnati and congenital cardiac surgical fellowship at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. His clinical interests include neonatal surgery, single ventricle palliation, the Ross procedure, mechanical circulatory support, and transplantation. He enjoys opportunities to work with medical students, residents, and fellows.

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