I am extremely proud to provide complex pediatric surgical care to a wide variety of children, from premature infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit to young infants, toddlers, young children and adolescents. When a parent hands you over their child and asks you to care for them, it is one of the greatest honors you can receive. I take this responsibility with tremendous gratitude and sincerity.
I graduated fifth in my class from The Blake School, a college preparatory school in Minneapolis, MN, in 1990 and matriculated to Princeton University, where I graduated cum laude with a degree in chemistry. Subsequently, I attended Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. While rotating on the pediatric surgery service under the guidance of Marshall Schwartz, MD, I developed an interest in pediatric surgery. I graduated from Jefferson with cum laude honors and matched to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital into a seven-year general surgery residency. I spent five years in clinical training and two as a research fellow in the basic science laboratory of Dr. Schwartz at AI DuPont Hospital for Children. Using rat models under his supervision, I evaluated certain treatments for inflammatory bowel disease and intestinal failure.
During that time, I made numerous national presentations, one of which earned me the Peter Paul Rickham Prize for the most outstanding presentation at the British Association of Pediatric Surgeons meeting – the first person from the United States to receive this award. My research resulted in six papers, of which I was the first author on three.
In my sixth year of residency, I matched with a two-year clinical fellowship in pediatric surgery at Columbus Children’s Hospital of Ohio State University (now Nationwide Children’s Hospital). I was honored to receive the Surgical House Officer of the Year Award in 2007.
During the next 16 years I served in many roles at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, including Program Director and Associate Program Director of our Pediatric Surgical Fellowship. I was also the Interim Director and Associate Director of our Level One Trauma Program, successfully obtaining reaccreditation twice under my direction. I was also the ECMO Director, the Director of Resident and Medical Student Education and the surgical representative for the Children’s Oncology Group.
I left in January of 2023 to become the Chair of Surgery and the Surgeon-in-Chief of the Children’s Hospital at Saint Peter’s University Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Wanting to focus on clinical interests, I ultimately left this role as it became too administrative. I recently joined St. Luke’s University to serve as Pediatric Trauma Medical Director and a pediatric general, thoracic and minimally invasive surgeon on staff here at St. Luke’s.
When I’m not working, my greatest joy is spending time with my wife and family at the beach or traveling on vacation. We also love going to concerts and watching comedians. I try to avoid growing old by playing golf, tennis, pickleball, basketball, skiing and virtually any other activity that comes my way.
