The Team

Dr. Minter is certified by the American Board of Surgery. Her clinical practice is focused in the areas of pancreatobiliary and gastrointestinal surgery. She has a particular interest in the management and treatment of benign and neoplastic diseases of the pancreas. Dr. Minter is recognized as a clinical leader in her field and presently serves as the President of the Americas Hepatopancreatobiliary Association, current Chair of the International Hepatopancreatobiliary Association Education and Training Committee, and is an Associate Editor of the journal HPB. Dr. Minter’s research efforts are primarily focused within the domain of surgical education. This work is focused on the development of training frameworks which explicitly define progressive entrustment and the development of autonomy. Dr. Minter holds national leadership positions in multiple societies in recognition of her work in the field of surgical education and academic surgery, and is the immediate past President of the Society of University Surgeons and the Fellowship Council.

Dr. Mackenzie Cook is a trauma surgeon in OHSU’s Division of Trauma, Critical Care and Acute Care Surgery. He co-directs the Surgery Clinical Experience clerkship program. His research interests include: serious illness communication, surgical stabilization of rib fractures and chest wall injury, and curriculum development in medical education. Dr. Cook attended college at Cornell University before attending medical school at Duke University. He spent his dedicated research year in medical school at the University of Wisconsin in the endocrine surgery lab as a Howard Hughes medical scholar. He then headed west for residency at OHSU, where he completed a dedicated research year in the Trauma Research Institute of Oregon.  He graduated from residency in 2016 and completed a surgical critical care fellowship at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle in 2017. He joined the faculty at OHSU in the fall of 2017 and has built his clinical practice around caring for the sickest and most severely injured patients in Oregon.

Dr. Brenessa Lindeman is an Associate Professor, Chief of the Section of Endocrine Surgery, Vice Chair of Education, Program Director of the University of Alabama Birmingham Endocrine Surgery Fellowship, and Assistant Dean, UAB Graduate Medical Education. She has distinguished herself as a surgical educator. She earned a Master’s of Education in the Health Professions from Johns Hopkins University and served as a member of the Board of Directors for the Association of American Medical Colleges for four years. She is also an author of the AAMC’s Core Entrustable Professional Activities for Entering Residency. At UAB, she is the Associate Designated Institutional Official for the Clinical Learning Environment and says her desire is to improve the education and experiences of medical students and residents at UAB and across the United States. Dr. Lindeman received her M.D. from Vanderbilt. She did her residency in general surgery at Johns Hopkins University and completed a fellowship in endocrine surgery at the Harvard/Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Her clinical interests include thyroid cancer, benign thyroid disease, hyperparathyroidism, adrenal disease and surgical treatment of inherited endocrine syndromes.

Dr. Sarah Jung is an Assistant Professor in Education Research and Development in the Department of Surgery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is an expert in educational psychology with a focus in Learning Science, the study of how people learn in different contexts. She obtained her PhD in Educational Psychology in 2014. Dr. Jung’s research interests focus on the creation of learner-centered learning environments and recognizing how learners’ perceptions and individual characteristics influence learning in surgery and other areas of medicine. One focus of her work is the study of how individual factors such as self-regulated learning strategies, cognitive processes, and other personal traits are involved in learning within these environments. She also focuses on understanding learning trajectories in competency-based medical education, particularly with regard to facilitating the development of entrustment and expertise in surgical practice. Finally, she is interested in how environments designed to complement the clinical learning experience, such as simulation or online learning systems, can be optimally combined with clinical practice to facilitate knowledge and skill development.

Janet Dombrowski spent nearly 20 years as a senior strategy leader in various consulting organizations and large health systems, after an early career in healthcare delivery and operations. Janet’s coaching and consulting work today is exclusively focused on supporting Csuite executives in becoming more intentional about their leadership presence, their contribution to organizational culture, and the importance of aligning in strategy, structure, and culture for optimal performance. She has worked with senior executives and physician leaders and their teams in academic medical centers, national faith-based health systems, regional integrated delivery systems, community hospitals, and health centers. She has additional experience in higher education and non-profit social service organization. Janet received her Master in Health Services Administration from the University of Michigan, where she remains active as the chair of the Alumni Board and as an adjunct faculty member. Janet has additional certifications from the Harvard Program on Negotiation, Wisdom Works in Transformational Coaching and other certifications in culture shaping and a variety of leadership assessments. She also received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Michigan.

Dr. Vahagn Nikolian is a board-certified General Surgeon with advanced training and expertise in abdominal wall reconstruction. Dr. Nikolian attended medical school and graduated with honors from the University of Southern California. He completed his surgical residency at the University of Michigan. He completed his complex abdominal wall reconstruction fellowship at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City, where he mastered techniques in minimally invasive and robotic hernia repair and abdominal wall reconstruction. His research and commentaries have been published in several prominent journals such as the Journal of the American Medical Association and Annals of Surgery. To date, he has over 60 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters focused on general surgery, resident education, and digital health. He has received numerous national awards as well as funding from the National Institutes of Health and other surgical societies.

Dr. Sutzko was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and grew up in California, North Carolina and Florida before moving to Michigan for her vascular surgery residency. She received a Bachelor of Science from the University of Florida, graduating with a degree in microbiology and cell science with a minor in chemistry. She went on to attend medical school at the University of South Florida, graduating Alpha Omega Alpha. During her research time, Dr. Sutzko completed a post-doctoral health services research fellowship at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation under a National Heart and Lung & Blood Institute T32 grant, where Dr. Nicholas Osborne served as her primary mentor. Her research interests are in health services research, specifically areas related to quality improvement and cost effectiveness of vascular interventions. She also has a passion for education and educational research and has been an active member of the OpTrust research team investigating intraoperative teaching and advancing operative autonomy.

Niki is a senior statistician and currently provides statistical consultation, interpretation, and analysis to surgery residents across the Department of Surgery and their faculty mentors. Prior to this, Niki was a Research Area Specialist Senior for the Research Center for Group Dynamics (RCGD) within the Institute for Social Research (ISR). During her time at the Institute, Niki developed analytic strategies/plans for NIH R, P, and K series grants, conducted numerous analyses, prepared and managed data for public release, and co-authored manuscripts with have been successfully published in high impact journals. She also brings expertise in health equity and diversity as they relate to patient oriented outcomes. Niki comes to the ERSC with over 17 years of experience in both private and public sectors and is a graduate of the University of Michigan.