Emory University School of Medicine

1365 A Clifton Road NE

Atlanta, GA 30322

(404) 778-2178

H. Michael Baddour, MD, – Fellowship Director

Jennifer Gross, MD – Associate Fellowship Director

Renita McCoy – Coordinator

Number of Fellowships: 1
Duration (in years) / Type: 1 year / Clinical
Faculty: Primary Surgical Faculty involved with Fellowship:
Michael Baddour, MD
Azeem Kaka, MD
Brian J. Boyce, MD
Nikki Schmitt, MD
Merry Sebelik, MD
Meredith Lilly, MD
C. Arturo Solares, MD
Jennifer Gross, MD
Peter Kang, MD
James Jeong, MD

Non-surgical faculty involved with Fellowship:
Ashley Aiken, MD (Neuroradiology)
Kristen Baugnon, MD (Neuroradiology)
Soumon Rudra, MD (H&N Radiation Oncology)
James Bates, MD (H&N Radiation Oncology)
William Stokes, MD (H&N Radiation Oncology)
Amit Jethanandani, MD (H&N Radiation Oncology)
Jill Remick, MD (H&N Radiation Oncology)
Nabil Saba, MD (H&N Medical Oncology)
Dong Shin, MD (H&N Medical Oncology)
Conor Steuer, MD (H&N Medical Oncology)
Jose Monteiro, MD (H&N Medical Oncology)
Kelly Magliocca, DDS, MPH (H&N Pathology)
Luvy Delfin, MD (H&N Pathology)
Daniel Lubin, MD (H&N Pathology)
Faisal Saeed, MD (H&N Pathology)
Scott Steward-Tharp, DDS, PhD (H&N Pathology)
Kartik Viswanathan, MD PhD (H&N Pathology)

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

Overview: The Emory Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery is a vibrant department in Atlanta, Georgia. Its residency program is only one of two programs in the state of Georgia, with 5 residents per year. Its Winship Cancer Institute is the only NCI Comprehensive Designated Cancer Center in Georgia. The Head and Neck Surgery Division cares for nearly 2000 new patients, performs approximately 4000 surgical procedures, and sees over 7500 outpatient visits annually in a state-of-the-art surgical and clinical facility. The division represents the primary referral center in the region and consists of nine surgeons, six outpatient advanced practice providers (APPs), six H&N speech language pathologists, two inpatient APPs , two social workers, one dietitian, and one dentist.

The well-developed microvascular program consists of six microvascular reconstruction trained surgeons (HMB, AK, BJB, JHG, PWK, JJ), and performs over 250 microvascular cases per year consisting of the full breadth of donor sites. The endocrine program has two surgeons specializing in endocrine surgery (MS, ML), performing complex endocrine procedures (>300 annually) and outpatient ultrasound and biopsies. Our TORS program is one of the busiest in the Southeast performing 50+ cases per year (AK, BJB, JHG). The open and endoscopic skull base program (CAS) is shared with rhinology (approximately 40+ per year). Sialoendoscopy (BJB, NCS) and complex facial reanimation (HMB) are also performed. Additionally, there are >30 active HN clinical trials open for enrollment.

The Head and Neck Multidisciplinary Tumor Board is a robust, collaborative program that includes surgeons, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, pathologists, speech pathologists, nurses, social workers, nutritionists, oral surgeons, and neuroradiologists. The multi-disciplinary Head and Neck clinic sees ~4 new cancer patients daily with simultaneous tumor board discussion. This allows the clinic to see ~20 new cancer patients weekly. The Thyroid Tumor conference is equally robust, consisting of surgeons, endocrinologists, nuclear medicine physicians, ultrasound radiologists, pathologists and clinical staff and meets monthly.

Objectives: The one-year fellowship is designed to provide a comprehensive program in clinical head and neck ablative surgery, microvascular reconstruction, Transoral Robotic surgery (TORS), skull base surgery, thyroid/parathyroid surgery, facial reanimation, and sialoendoscopy.

Strengths:

complex endocrine surgery with in-clinic ultrasound and ultrasound-guided biopsy procedures.
complex microvascular and locoregional reconstructive surgery with a wide variety of donor sites and defects
complex extirpative surgery, including open skull base
high-volume TORS surgery
broad facial reanimation experience, including gracilis flaps and cross-face nerve grafting
sialoendoscopy experience

Eligibility: To be considered for the position, the candidate for the head and neck fellowship must have completed an ACGME accredited residency in Otolaryngology and must be qualified to sit for the American Board of Otolaryngology written and oral exams. The candidate must be able to secure a Georgia Medical License. Salary is commensurate with PGY level.

Fellows’ Duties/Responsibilities:The Head and Neck Surgery fellow will be appointed Instructor in the Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery. The fellow is expected to be a Primary or Teaching surgeon in head and neck surgery ablative cases and microvascular reconstruction cases. It is estimated that the fellow will be primary surgeon or teaching surgeon on at least 300 cases, including at least 100 free flap cases. The fellow will be in the call pool for attending faculty in the Department and will have an independent outpatient clinical and surgical experience, including staffing multidisciplinary tumor board clinics. Teaching opportunities include staffing head and neck surgery cases at Grady Memorial Hospital and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, instructing residents in operative cases and lectures, attending journal clubs, and giving a Grand Rounds presentation. The fellow is expected to attend clinical trial working group meetings for further educational experience.

Research Opportunities: The Department of Otolaryngology has ERGO (Emory Research Group in Otolaryngology) with expertise in clinical research. In addition, Winship Cancer Institute, the NCI-CCC, has core resources in research. Several faculty also collaborate with many departments both within Emory and with other institutions. The fellow will have access to any research resources he/she is interested in pursuing.

Supervision, Teaching & Call: The fellow will be in the call pool for attending faculty in the Department and will have an independent outpatient clinical and surgical experience, including staffing multidisciplinary tumor board clinics. Teaching opportunities include staffing head and neck surgery cases at Grady Memorial Hospital and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, instructing residents in operative cases and lectures, attending journal clubs, and giving a Grand Rounds presentation.

PAST FELLOWS

2025-2026 Sean Mooney, MD
2024-2025 Katherine Chang, MD, Assistant Professor, LSU Shreveport
2023-2024 Scott Hong, MD, Kaiser Bay Area
2022-2023 Stephanie Chen, MD, Assistant Professor, Houston Methodist
2021-2022 Rachel Irizarry, MD, Assistant Professor, Mount Sinai
2020-2021 Christopher Nickel, MD, Assistant Professor, University of South Florida
2019-2020 Oleksandr Butskiy, MD, Assistant Professor, University of British Columbia
2019-2020 Avanti Verma, MD, Assistant Professor, Yale University
2018-2019 James Hamilton, MD, Assistant Professor, Emory University
2017-2018 Natasha Cohen, MD, Assistant Professor, Queen’s University
2016-2017 Andres Bur, MD, Assistant Professor, University of Kansas
2015-2016 H. Michael Baddour, MD, Assistant Professor, Emory University
2014-2015 Pardis Javadi, MD, Assistant Professor, Southern Illinois University
2013-2014 Sung Cho, MD, DMD, Private Practice, New York City, NY
2012-2013 Ajani Nugent, MD, Plastic Surgery Fellowship, University of Miami