Faculty
Michael E. Zenilman, M.D., F.A.C.S.
Chairman, Department of Surgery
NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital
Vice Chairman, Department of Surgery, Weill Cornell Medicine
Professor of Surgery, Weill Cornell Medicine
Michael E. Zenilman, M.D., graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, with highest honors in biology. He received his medical degree from SUNY/Downstate Medical College in Brooklyn, graduating Summa Cum Laude and as a member of Alpha Omega Alpha. He completed his residency training in general surgery at Washington University School of Medicine, Barnes Hospital. His first academic appointment was in the Department of Surgery at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. After he spent seven years at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center, he was appointed Clarence Dennis Professor and Chair of Surgery at SUNY/Downstate. He served there for 10 years.
More recently, Dr. Zenilman served as regional director of surgery for the Johns Hopkins Health System. In this novel appointment he integrated the academic medical center with three community hospitals. He coordinated surgical care between them; established models for recruitment of new and established surgeons into a new practice plan, developed quality assurance programs and built new multidisciplinary programs. Under his leadership, a new community surgical division, which now has over 50 active surgeons in over 15 new office locations, was created. He established mentoring programs for junior faculty and created a blueprint for education in community hospitals. In 2016 he was recruited to NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital.
Dr. Zenilman is an established clinician, teacher and researcher. His clinical interests are in gastrointestinal, pancreatic and geriatric surgery; he is nationally recognized in all three. His laboratory effort was funded by an American College of Surgeons Faculty Fellowship and the NIH. An author or more than 100 peer reviewed articles, Dr. Zenilman has contributed over 50 chapters to classic surgical textbooks such as Sabiston’s Surgery, Schwartz’s Surgery and Camerons’ Current Surgical Therapy. He has also published more than 10 books, and edited the textbook Principles and Practices of Geriatric Surgery. Both the first and second editions of received positive reviews in the Journal of the American Medical Association, New England Journal of Medicine and Journal of the American College of Surgeons.
Dr. Zenilman has served on the editorial board of JAMA Surgery, and in 2014 was appointed associate editor of the American Journal of Surgery. He is a member of the Geriatric Surgery Task Force of the American College of Surgeons and served on the Jahnigan Scholarship Leadership Committee of the American Geriatrics Society. He remains clinically active, and is recognized by Castle Connolly as a top NY Metro Doctor since 2000 and as a Best Doctors in America since 2008.
As a general surgery program director for 12 years, Dr. Zenilman has mentored over 80 surgical residents and over 30 students, fellows, and junior faculty members. To bring surgical education to the web, in 2014 he created the first surgical journal club on Twitter; #IGSJC, which has now expanded to trauma (#EASTjc), surgical residents (#rasjacs) and surgical outcomes (#socjc).
James Rucinski, M.D., F.A.C.S., F.A.C.E.P.
Program Director, Department of Surgery
NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital
James Rucinski, M.D., is program director of the surgical residency and director of surgical education at NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. Dr. Rucinski's academic duties include the organization and administration of all educational activities within the Department of Surgery including the undergraduate and post-graduate residency curricula.
A graduate of the University of Michigan Medical School, Dr. Rucinski subsequently served as an intern in the Department of Surgery at the University of Illinois/Cook County Hospital combined residency program in Chicago. His surgical residency training was completed at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City under the chairmanship of professor Michael Eisenberg. Following his surgical residency, Dr. Rucinski began his academic career in the Department of Surgery of Long Island Jewish Medical Center and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine from which he was recruited into this present position.
As a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, Dr. Rucinski currently serves as a member of the Board of Governors and as cancer liaison physician to the Commission on Cancer as well as the surgeon champion for the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program at NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. In addition Dr. Rucinski is a former president of the Brooklyn and Long Island chapter of the American College of Surgeons as well as a former president of the Brooklyn Surgical Society, the Royal Society of Medicine, the Society of Surgery of the Alimentary Tract, the Association of Program Directors in Surgery, the Association for Academic Surgery and the American Society of Breast Surgeons.
In support of the residency education program, Dr. Rucinski's clinical practice encompasses a variety of surgical conditions, including acute care surgery. He has a special interest in surgery of the breast and breast-related disorders.
Faculty Appointments
Michael Wayne, DO
Assistant Professor of Clinical Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College
Director, Hepatobiliary, Pancreatic Surgery
Justin Steele, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Clinical Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College
Director of Robotic Abdominal Wall Reconstruction
Vivian Bea, M.D., MBS, FACS
Section Chief of Breast Surgical Oncology
Assistant Professor, Weill Cornell Medical College
Michael S. Segal, DO
Associate Professor of Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College
Vascular Surgeon, New York Presbyterian
Michael Ayad, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Clinical Neurological Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College
Hans Burkholder, M.D.
Assistant Clinical Professor of Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College
Raffaele Borriello, M.D.
Assistant Clinical Professor of Surgery, NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital
Rajesh Malik, M.D.
(Interim) Assistant Professor of Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College
Chief of Vascular Surgery, NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital
John Deysine, M.D.
Clinical Assistant Professor, Weill Cornell Medical College
Bashar Fahoum, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College
Director of Surgical ICU, NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital
Piotr Gorecki, M.D.
Associate Professor of Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College
Chief of Laparoscopic Surgery, NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital
John Hunter, M.D., M.M.M.
Professor of Clinical Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College
Vice-Chairman, Department of Surgery, NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital
Chief of Plastic Surgery, NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital
Nicole Ilonzo, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College
Associate Program Director
Dorna Jafari, M.D.
(Interim) Assistant Professor of Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College
Chief of Colorectal Surgery, NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital
Ziyad Naswari, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College
Rabih Nemr, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College
Demetri Merianos, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College
Tiffany Pinchinat, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College
Minerva Romero Arenas, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College
Pieter Smit, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College
Shaun Steigman, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College