Agenda

Anil K. Rustgi, MD, is Interim Executive Vice President and Dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine at Columbia University. In those roles he is Interim Dean of the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and also administratively responsible for the Mailman School of Public Health, the College of Dental Medicine, and the School of Nursing at Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC).

Dr. Rustgi graduated summa cum laude from Yale College with a bachelor of science degree in molecular biophysics and biochemistry (departmental honors) and earned his medical degree at Duke University School of Medicine, where he was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha. He completed an internal medicine residency at Beth Israel Hospital and a gastroenterology fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), both at Harvard Medical School. He rose to associate professor of medicine at MGH before joining the University of Pennsylvania in 1998, where he served as Chief of Gastroenterology and directed two Centers and NIH T32 training grants until 2018.

In 2019, Dr. Rustgi was recruited to be the Director of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at Columbia University and NewYork-Presbyterian (NYP)/CUIMC, and he successfully renewed the center’s NCI comprehensive status in 2020. He is also Irving Professor of Medicine, Associate Dean of Oncology, and Chief of Cancer Services at NYP/CUIMC. Dr. Rustgi is a world-renowned leader in the field of gastrointestinal oncology. His interdisciplinary research focuses on tumor initiation, tumor microenvironment, and tumor metastasis in the context of gastrointestinal cancers, including cancers of the esophagus, pancreas, and colon. Dr. Rustgi's lab works to translate discoveries into improving molecular diagnostics and finding new experimental therapeutics for patients and is funded through several grants including an NCI P01 (program project on esophageal cancer), an NCI U54 on Barrett's esophagus, two NIH R01 grants (for pancreatic cancer and colon cancer) and an American Cancer Society Research Professorship. He has more than 350 publications and his work has appeared in high-impact journals such as Nature, Nature Genetics, Nature Medicine, Cancer Cell, Genes and Development, Gastroenterology, Journal of Clinical Investigation, PNAS, and New England Journal of Medicine. He maintains a clinical practice in hereditary GI cancers and teaches students and fellows.

He has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and the Association of American Physicians and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has been designated as American Cancer Society Professor. Previously, he was president of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA), editor-in-chief of Gastroenterology, and president of the International Society of Gastroenterological Carcinogenesis. Dr. Rustgi is 2020 president of the American Pancreatic Association.

He has been recognized for his contributions with numerous awards, including the AGA Julius Friedenwald Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Gastroenterology Medal, AGA Distinguished Mentor Award, the Ruth C. Brufsky Award for Excellence in Research in Pancreatic Cancer, and the Distinguished Achievement Award from the South Asian American Society for Cancer Research. In addition, he received the top mentorship awards (Arthur Asbury for faculty and one from the postdoctoral fellow program) during his tenure at the University of Pennsylvania.

Tsion Firew is an emergency physician and assistant professor of Emergency Medicine at Columbia University in New York and an advisor to the Ministry of Health for the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. In her role at the ministry, she supports and oversees several programs, including emergency care capacity building through training and research, emergency preparedness, and the response of Ethiopia’s Public Health Institute to mobilize resources with initiatives to assist in the attainment of Ethiopia’s Health Sector Transformation Plan. At the ministry, she established a women's leadership forum for all management and executive committee leaders. She created a platform for both men and women to engage in dialogues of tackling gender-based violence and implicit biases in the workplace. These dialogues have helped inform both men and women on how to build a gender-sensitive environment and how to foster women leadership within their institution.

Born and raised in Ethiopia, Firew received her undergraduate degree in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of Georgia. She received her medical education at New York Medical College and completed her residency in emergency medicine at New York University and Bellevue Hospital. During her fellowship, she received her masters in public health from Columba University in population and family health along with a certificate in humanitarian assistance. She has had the opportunity to respond in a humanitarian crisis in Haiti and recently in Mosul Iraq during the war against ISIS. Before joining the ministry, she worked on emergency medicine assessment and capacity building in Ghana, Ethiopia and worked as an intern at the World Health Organization (WHO) headquarters in Geneva under the WHO’s emergency, trauma, and acute care program.

Dr. Rachel T. Moresky is an Associate Professor in the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health - Program on Forced Migration and Health; Columbia University Department of Emergency Medicine; and an Honorary appointment at the University of Rwanda - College of Medicine and Health Sciences. Over the past 20 years, Dr. Moresky has collaborated with governments and local institutions to improve complex adaptive emergency care systems (CAECS) in settings with limited health resources. Dr. Moresky's background in engineering, emergency medicine, and public health, drove her to work on CAECS in sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and Eastern Europe. In 2004 this culminated in the Columbia University sidHARTe - Strengthening Emergency Systems Program. The sidHARTe Program partners with governments, local universities, and NGOs through technical exchange, implementation support and science in India, Ghana, Rwanda, Kenya, Honduras, and Cambodia. The University of Rwanda and the Ministry of Health partnership culminated in developing the specialization of Emergency Medicine in Rwanda. Currently, sidHARTe is collaborating on a USAID supported implementation science program: Acute Care and Emergency Referral Systems Program to decrease maternal morbidity and mortality in rural Ghana. In 2006, Dr. Moresky founded the Columbia University Global Emergency Medicine Fellowship, which mentors future leaders in humanitarian action, disaster response, and health systems research. The fellowship has produced many global leaders in the WHO Global Health cluster, IRC, MSF, CDC Ethiopian MoH and many Global EM Fellowship Directors. Dr. Moresky teaches the MSPH Communicable Disease in Complex Emergencies course, Globalization and Global Health at MSPH, Fundamentals of Global Health in Sustainable Development at Columbia College.