Marco Bertucci Zoccali, MD, FACS, FASCRS

Dr. Dionigi is a double board certified colon and rectal surgeon with a specific interest and expertise in colon and rectal cancer, polyposis syndromes, re-operative colorectal surgery, as well as robotic and minimally invasive procedures. Dr. Dionigi obtained her medical degree with highest honors from the University of Pavia, Italy. After a surgical internship at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York, she completed her general surgery residency at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Harvard Medical School in Boston. During this time, she also did a two-year translational research fellowship related to mesenchymal stem cells at Boston Children Hospital. She then completed a colon and rectal surgery fellowship at the Salvati Fellowship Program at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson in New Jersey, followed by two years of advanced training in complex reoperative colorectal surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Ohio. Dr. Dionigi then joined the Division of Colorectal Surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center as Assistant Professor of Surgery. Since her arrival at NYP/Columbia, she has created the Women in Surgery Association (WINGS) first of its kind at Columbia with the goal of promoting women in leadership, she has served as Associate Program Director of the General Surgery Residency Program, and she is the founder and co-Chair of the collaborative translational project on Early Onset Colon and Rectal Cancer within the Columbia Research Cancer Center. Her dedication to the education of surgery residents was recognized with the 2023 Teacher Award. She is the author of several publications, received national and international awards for her research, and has been an invited speaker to national and international meetings.

Dr. Mark E. Ginsburg is an associate Professor of Surgery at Columbia University Medical Center and surgical director of the Diaphragm Program and the Lung Volume Reduction program. Dr. Ginsburg received his MD from Tufts University School of Medicine in 1980, completed his General Surgery residency in 1985 and Thoracic and Cardiovascular Residency in 1987 both at the University of Rochester Medical Center. He is renown for his surgical work in patients with disorders of the Diaphragm, and is one of few surgeons in the country to perform pacing of the diaphragm. Dr. Ginsburg has lectured and published extensively on this subject, and recently addressed the 95th AATS Annual Meeting in 2015, presenting ten-year data on lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS). The results, based primarily on surgical experience in the Division of Thoracic Surgery at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia, showed durable benefits that should promote wider adoption of LVRS in patients with severe emphysema. Dr. Ginsburg has been an invited speaker and principal and co-investigator of numerous clinical trials, author of numerous publications in renown journals such as the Journal of The American College of Cardiology, Annals of Thoracic Surgery, and the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplant, among many others, including co-author of the book, Lung Volume Reduction Surgery published by Humana Press. He’s also currently on the department of surgery QA committee and is a member of numerous professional societies including, the American College of Surgeons, New York State Medical Society, New York Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons and the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation.

James Church, MD is a colorectal surgeon who cares for all aspects of colorectal disease, with a particular focus on hereditary colorectal cancers and polyposis. Born and raised in New Zealand, Dr. Church did his medical school, postgraduate research and general surgical training in Auckland before training in colorectal surgery at the Cleveland Clinic and eventually joining the faculty there. Over the 34 years that followed, he played an instrumental role in developing what was widely considered the finest Department of Colorectal Surgery in the world. Dr. Church has been co-Investigator of the Collaborative Colorectal Cancer Family Registry, funded by a research grant from the National Cancer Institute. In addition, he has served as the Chairman of the Leeds Castle Polyposis Group and the International Collaborative Group on Hereditary Non-Polyposis Colorectal Cancer and President of the Collaborative Group of the Americas on Inherited Colorectal Cancer. These international societies are dedicated to the care of patients with inherited colorectal cancer and research into their disease. Dr. Church’s other areas of interests include colonoscopy, functional colorectal and anal problems including constipation and incontinence, perianal and perineal infections and inflammatory bowel disease. As head of the Section of Endoscopy at Cleveland Clinic, he helped develop several advances in the art of colonoscopy for the benefit of patients. He is also deeply commitment to education and is currently a Fellow of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons, American College of Surgeons, Costa Rican Society of Surgery, Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, American College of Gastroenterology, American Surgical Association and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow.