Celebrating Women's History Month: Women in Duke Surgery

Priyamvada Acharya, PhD, Professor in Surgery and Professor of Biochemistry, is the Director of the Division of Structural Biology at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute (DHVI). Dr. Acharya is the Director of the NIH-funded Duke Center for HIV Structural Biology (DCHSB).

Since joining Duke in 2018, Dr. Acharya has established herself as a national leader in HIV research. Since 2022, she has remained among the top three highest-funded principal investigators among surgical departments by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), receiving more than $29 million in research funding from the NIH alone over the last four years.

Dr. Acharya’s research uses cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and x-ray crystallography for visualizing the HIV-1 Envelope (Env) and its complexes with the host immune system. The major directions of her research include understanding the structural and mechanistic details of HIV-1 entry and to visualize interactions of the HIV-1 Env with antibodies elicited during natural infection or by vaccination. Combining these two intersecting areas of basic research, Dr. Acharya promotes a highly collaborative research environment to leverage atomic level findings for rational development of interventions for HIV-1 treatment and prevention.

Elizabeth Briere, MEd, joined the Duke Department of Surgery in 2021 as Director of Education. She provides strategic leadership across the department’s entire educational enterprise, including seven residency programs and 14 fellowship programs, continuing medical education, undergraduate medical education, the Surgical Education and Activities Lab (SEAL), and other key initiatives that advance surgical training and innovation.

Elizabeth Bullitt, MD, became the first woman to graduate from the Duke surgical residency in 1981.

After completing her residency at Duke, Dr. Bullitt became the first female neurosurgeon on staff at the Mayfield Neurological Institute in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she stayed until 1984. At that time, she returned to North Carolina and became the first neurosurgeon on staff at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Learn more about Dr. Bullitt.

In 2013, Kyla Bennett, MD, Nicole De Rosa, MD, Dawn Elfenbein, MD, Sarah Evans, MD, Keri Lunsford, MD, and Vanessa Schroder, MD, became the first all-female graduating class of the Duke General Surgery Residency program.

All six surgeons have since gone on to pursue academic surgical careers across the country, including one at Duke University: Dr. Vanessa Schroder is currently an Assistant Professor of Surgery in the Duke Division of Trauma, Acute, and Critical Care Surgery.

Dawn Coleman, MD, Professor of Surgery, joined Duke in 2022 as Chief of the Division of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, succeeding Cynthia Shortell, MD, after a 17-year tenure. Dr. Coleman was inducted into the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Academic of Master Surgeon Educators in October of 2025.

As Chief, Dr. Coleman has led initiatives to grow Duke's vascular services across the state, including expanding pediatric services and outreach to rural and underserved communities.

A Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, Dr. Coleman has deployed on multiple occasions to support forward operations in the Middle East. She previously served as Co-Director of the Pediatric Renovascular Hypertension Center while on the faculty at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Sara J. Dent, MD, was the first female division chief in the Duke Department of Surgery, as chief of the then-Division of Anesthesiology.

Under Dr. Dent's leadership, the Duke University School of Medicine agreed to create an independent Department of Anesthesiology in 1970. Dr. Dent was appointed interim chair of Anesthesiology from 1970-1971.

Learn more about Dr. Sara Dent's contributions to Duke and North Carolina.

Gayle DiLalla, MD, Associate Professor of Surgery, has served as the Duke Department of Surgery's Vice Chair for Opportunity and Engagement since 2022. She is the first person to hold the position.

As Vice Chair, Dr. DiLalla also leads the SEEDS initiative, a committee comprised of Duke Surgery faculty, staff, and trainees, that is dedicated to developing inclusive educational programs, supporting professional growth of faculty and trainees, and driving innovative research that tackles pressing medical challenges.

An accomplished breast surgical oncologist, Dr. DiLalla joined the Duke Division of Surgical Oncology in 2011. She is also a member of the Duke Cancer Institute, and cares for patients with breast cancer and high-risk breast lesions. She serves as Chief of Breast Surgery Clinical Operations for Wake County.

Outside of Duke, Dr. DiLalla has served as the Chair for the Association of Women Surgeons (AWS) Member Services Committee, and was named the 2026 AWS Foundation Kim Ephgrave Visiting Professor in March 2026.

Shaina Eckhouse, MD, Associate Professor of Surgery, was appointed Vice Chair for Clinical Operations for the Department of Surgery in November 2025.

As Vice Chair, Dr. Eckhouse is the department's senior leader for clinical operations, overseeing inpatient and outpatient operative platforms, quality, and outpatient clinics across all Duke Health sites.

Dr. Eckhouse has extensive leadership experience in clinical operations, quality improvement, and multidisciplinary program development. Prior to joining the Duke Surgery faculty in 2015, she served as Patient Safety Officer at Washington University in St. Louis, Surgical Liaison to the Perioperative Services Leadership Team at Barnes Jewish Hospital, and Medical Director of the bariatric surgery programs at Duke Raleigh and Duke Regional Hospitals. She will soon begin an MBA program for physicians through Brandeis University.

Dr. Eckhouse is a metabolic and weight loss surgeon, with a practice focused on treating patients with disease obesity.

Jennifer Gagnon was named Director of Healthcare Analytics and Innovation in early 2024 with the establishment of the new Innovation core mission pillar of the Department of Surgery. She previously served as Associate Director of Information Technology for the Duke Transplant Center since 2020, after nine years with Duke Health Technology Solutions.

E. Shelley Hwang, MD, MPH, was appointed Vice Chair of Research for the Duke Department of Surgery in 2015. She and Cynthia Shortell, MD, became the first women appointed to Duke Department of Surgery executive leadership positions, as Dr. Shortell was named Chief of Staff at the same time.

Dr. Hwang was appointed Vice Chair of Research by then-department Chair Allan D. Kirk, MD, PhD. In her role, Dr. Hwang has helped cement Duke Surgery as one of the nation's premier centers for academic surgical research. During her tenure, the department has been the top-funded academic surgical department among U.S. medical schools by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for six total years, including five consecutively from 2021-2025.  Her research has focused on patient-centered treatment of early-stage breast cancers based on individual risk and tumor biology. 

In 2018, Dr. Hwang was named the Mary and Deryl Hart Distinguished Professor of Surgery. The endowment is named for Deryl Hart, MD, who was the third member of the Duke University School of Medicine faulty and chair of the Department of Surgery from 1930 to 1960. She holds a secondary faculty appointment as Professor of Radiology. She previously served as Chief of the Section of Breast Surgery, and is a member of the Duke Cancer Institute and a core faculty member of the Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy.

Jennifer Janes, Administrative Director of Research for the Department of Surgery, provides strategic and operational leadership for the Duke Surgery research enterprise, including clinical research administration, core facilities, faculty research support, and grant management. She has also served as divisional administrator for the Division of Surgical Sciences since 2025.

Since joining Duke in 2009, Jennifer founded the Substrate Services Core Research Support, a centralized platform designed to expand core biobanking access across the department and the Duke School of Medicine. She subsequently led the development of scalable infrastructure and integrated research support services that have helped position the department among the top NIH-funded surgery departments in the country.

Lisa McElroy, MD, MS, Associate Professor of Surgery, was named the inaugural recipient of the Onyekwere E. Akwari, MD, Endowed Professorship of Surgery in 2024. The professorship was named for Dr. Onyekwere Akwai, who was the first African-American surgeon on the faculty at Duke University. The professorship was created to honor Dr. Akwari's legacy and to support a faculty member who shared his commitments to equitable and compassionate care of patients and to mutual respect and collegiality among all who are called to care for patients.

Dr. McElroy first came to Duke in 2019 as an assistant professor of surgery in the Division of Abdominal Transplant Surgery. She is also an associate professor in population health sciences. 

The McElroy Research Laboratory is centered on health services research (HSR) and focuses on understanding how complex health care processes and large multidisciplinary teams affect outcomes of high cost, high acuity patients. In 2024, Dr. McElroy was appointed director of the new Collaborative for Health Services Research, which serves to bring together and support faculty who are involved in HSR.

Brandi Pinnell has been with the Duke Health since 2011. In 2014, she worked with the Department of Surgery to launch the Surgery Access Center. She was named Director of Clinical Operations in 2023.

In this role, she enjoys working with the faculty and APPs to optimize patient access, OR utilization, and other strategic initiatives that benefit patients and the Department. Her background in access, along with working with others in the Department and system, helps achieve these goals. In her free time, she enjoys golfing and spending time with her dog and family by the lake.

Jennifer Plichta, MD, Associate Professor of Surgery in the Division of Surgical Oncology, was granted the E. Fulton Brylawski Associate Professorship in Women’s Health in 2025. The professorship was established by Mr. E. Fulton “Bud” Brylawski through his estate to memorialize Nancy Weaver Emerson, to promote women’s health, and to benefit the many women patients who struggle with cancer.

Dr. Plichta serves as Director of the Breast Risk Assessment Clinic in the Duke Cancer Institute. She is also principal investigator for the Breast and More (BAM) Laboratory, which focuses largely on breast cancer genetics, breast cancer risk, breast atypia, breast cancer in the elderly, breast surgery, and metastatic breast cancer. Her dedication to breast cancer extends to community education; she created and is the primary coordinator of Duke’s free, annual breast education community event, “What’s Best for Breasts?” which recently celebrated its ninth year.

Debra L. Sudan, MD, has served as Chief of the Division of Abdominal Transplant Surgery since 2011 after joining Duke in 2008. As Chief, Dr. Sudan has helped grow Duke's transplant programs to becoming consistently among the top nationally. A skilled technical surgeon, Dr. Sudan has pioneered a number of techniques improving the approach to intestinal and multivisceral transplants nationally and globally.

In 2019, Dr. Sudan led a team at Duke in performing North Carolina's first abdominal wall transplant, a groundbreaking, complex, and rare procedure. In 2022 she was parto f a team that performed a successful life-saving intestinal transplant for a child in Singapore, the first of its kind in the country.

Dr. Sudan was named the first woman Master Surgeon by the Duke Department of Surgery in 2020. Duke Surgery's Master Surgeon recognition was initiated in 2015, and it honors individuals who exemplify the ideals of Duke Surgery and inspire those looking to enter the field.

Cynthia Shortell, MD, was appointed Chief of Staff for the Duke Department of Surgery in 2015. She and Shelley Hwang, MD, MPH, became the first women appointed to Duke Department of Surgery executive leadership positions, as Dr. Hwang was named Vice Chair of Research at the same time.

Dr. Shortell first joined the faculty at Duke as an associate professor of surgery in 2005. She established the Division of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery and served as its first chief, a position she held until 2022. In 2023, she was appointed as the department's Executive Vice chair, a role in which she is dedicated to faculty success and has been instrumental in developing initiatives that promote faculty hiring practices, advancement, and departmental culture. She has also served as interim chief of the Divisions of Trauma, Acute, and Critical Care Surgery (2016-2017) and Pediatric General Surgery (2024-2026). 

A gifted surgeon, Dr. Shortell has established herself as a national authority in areas such as carotid disease, chronic venous insufficiency, and complex venolymphatic anomalies. She pioneered the use of Gonadal Vein Transposition for Nutcracker Syndrome with the largest reported series in the world. As an educator, she has taught countless medical students, residents, fellows, and junior faculty—many of whom are now leaders in the field—in some of the most technically demanding areas of the specialty.

After more than two decades at Duke, Dr. Shortell announced that she will be retiring in July 2026.

Julie K. Thacker, MD, Associate Professor of Surgery, has served as Chief of Colorectal Surgery since 2021 while the specialty was still a section under the Division of Surgical Oncology. When it was announced in December of 2025 that the section would be elevated to an independent division, Dr. Thacker was simultaneously appointed the new division's interim chief.

Since joining Duke in 2008, Dr. Thacker has built a robust, patient relationship-focused colorectal surgery practice that specializes in surgical management of benign and malignant disease of the gastrointestinal tract.

Dr. Thacker completed her surgical residency at the University of Utah, colorectal fellowship at the Mayo Clinic Rochester, Minnesota, and held faculty appointments at Mayo Clinic and the NW Surgical Association in Denver, Colorado prior to joining Duke.

Georgia Tomaras, PhD, Professor in Surgery, was appointed Chief of the Division of Surgical Sciences in 2022. She is the first woman to serve in the role. 

Dr. Tomaras was granted the A. Geller Distinguished Professorship for Research in Immunology in 2024. The endowment is named for the father of George Barth Geller, MD, Alter Geller.

Dr. Tomaras's research career at Duke spans more than two decades, beginning with a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Surgery in 1998. As principal investigator (PI) for the Immune Responses and Virology Laboratory, Dr. Tomaras has authored more than 320 peer reviewed publications, and has consistently been among the highest-funded PIs in surgical departments by the National Institutes of Health. Her primary research focus is deciphering mechanisms of protective human immunity and identification of immune correlates of protection to further development of effective vaccines against infectious diseases.  

Dr. Tomaras holds secondary appointments in the Departments of Integrative Immunobiology and Molecular Genetics and Microbiology. She is a member of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute, an affiliate of the Duke Global Health Institute, director of the Duke Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), and co-director and co-founder of the Duke Center for Human Systems Immunology (CHSI).