Program Leadership
Directors
John Stowers, D.O., is interim program director of OHSU surgery residency. He joined the OHSU Department of Surgery in 2018 as Assistant Professor of Surgery within the Division of Gastrointestinal and General Surgery. He is a full time general and minimally invasive surgeon at the Portland VA Medical Center and was named the Director of the Robotics Curriculum in 2020. His interests include development of standardized robotics training and evaluation to enhance technical skills through simulation and clinical practice.
Dr. Stowers’ residency training and military experience allowed him to continue a broad-based practice in general surgery with a focus on minimally invasive techniques for gastrointestinal and hernia surgery, including complex abdominal wall reconstruction and colorectal procedures. His educational focus is on post graduate education and teaching through simulation and clinical evaluation of resident performance. This has led to the development of a novel robotics training curriculum to enhance resident’s robotics experience and performance to prepare them for future practice and fellowship.
Dr. Stowers is a fellow of the American College of Osteopathic Surgeons and of the American College of Surgeons.
Effective May 1, 2024, Dr. Karen Brasel stepped down from the director position in order to assume her new appointment as Vice President of the American Board of Surgery. Associate Program Director Dr. John Stowers is serving as interim program director while a national search is conducted.
Dr. James Lim is a fellowship-trained endocrine surgeon specializing in thyroid, parathyroid, adrenal and neuroendocrine diseases. He joined OHSU and the Division of Surgical Oncology in 2016; he also is a part of the OHSU Thyroid and Parathyroid Center team. Dr. Lim has advanced training in minimally invasive surgical techniques to remove the thyroid, parathyroid, and adrenal glands (including both transabdominal and retroperitoneal adrenal approaches). He is also proficient in neck ultrasound and fine needle aspiration thyroid biopsies. Dr. Lim is adept at working with patients and their families to provide a multidisciplinary approach to their disease and treatment plan.
His research interests are in the diagnosis and management of endocrine diseases and clinical outcomes. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his family and exploring the great Oregon outdoors.
Dr. Raphael Sun provides the full spectrum of pediatric surgery and fetal surgery as well as complex surgical oncology and colorectal surgery.
He is an expert in prenatal anomalies and conditions such as congenital diaphragmatic hernia, sacrococcygeal teratoma, gastroschisis, omphalocele, congenital lung malformations and tracheoesophageal fistula. Along with pediatric surgery, he also specializes in fetal surgery including in-utero interventions such as twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome using laser photocoagulation. He also performs prenatal neural tube defect repairs fetoscopically.
Dr. Sun chose pediatric surgery because it allows him to make a lifelong difference in children’s health. Children are born with conditions that they have no control over, and he finds it extremely gratifying to make an impact that can be life changing. As the father of two young children, who were born during his two-year pediatric surgery fellowship, Dr. Sun learned quickly what it felt like to be a parent. He understands how parents feel when they bring their children to the hospital.
Dr. Sun earned his M.D. degree from the Medical College of Virginia – Virginia Commonwealth University. He completed his residency in general surgery at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, where he also served as an administrative chief resident. During his residency, he completed his research fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis and his pediatric surgery fellowship at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. He received advanced training in perinatal/fetal surgery at Texas Children’s Fetal Center.
When he’s not working, Dr. Sun enjoys spending time with his wife and children. He enjoys cooking for his family and traveling, and looks forward to spending time outdoors in the Pacific Northwest. He also serves in the United States Air Force Reserve.
Dr. Divya Sood joined the Division of Surgical Oncology in 2022 following General Surgery residency at the University of California San Diego and a Complex General Surgical Oncology fellowship at the University of Chicago. Her immediate plans here at OHSU include the re-launch of our Peritoneal Surface Malignancy and HIPEC program and playing an integral role in our multidisciplinary GI cancer team.
Dr. Sood has a particular interest in the oligometastatic paradigm across multiple histopathologies. In addition to HIPEC, she has expertise in cytoreductive surgery for metastatic neuroendocrine tumors, as well as both open and minimally invasive foregut and HPB oncology.
Her investigative interests include clinical trial development and health services research. As part of the University of Chicago Cancer Health Disparities Training Program, she was engaged with underserved populations within Chicago in an effort to increase and diversify participation in clinical trials. Dr. Sood intends to continue this work of improving cancer health disparities here at OHSU, alongside her clinical practice.
Dr. Mackenzie Cook is a trauma surgeon in OHSU’s Division of Trauma, Critical Care and Acute Care Surgery, with an added focus on:
- ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) management and transport
- Surgical stabilization of rib fractures
- Serious illness communication
He co-directs the Surgery Clinical Experience clerkship program.
His research interests include:
- Serious illness communication
- Surgical stabilization of rib fractures and chest wall injury
- Curriculum development in medical education
Dr. Cook was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and grew up in a small town in Connecticut. He attended college at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., and then spent a year backpacking and skiing in Utah before attending medical school at Duke University in Durham, N.C.
He spent his dedicated research year in medical school at the University of Wisconsin in the endocrine surgery lab as a Howard Hughes medical scholar. He then headed west for residency at OHSU, where he completed a dedicated research year in the Trauma Research Institute of Oregon. He graduated from residency in 2016 and completed a surgical critical care fellowship at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle in 2017.
He joined the faculty at OHSU in the fall of 2017 and has built his clinical practice around caring for the sickest and most severely injured patients in Oregon. He joined the OHSU ECMO team as an intensivist (a critical care specialist) and as part of the OHSU mobile ECMO team, flying throughout the Pacific Northwest to care for the most critically ill patients.
He has also developed a significant clinical interest in treating patients with blunt chest wall injuries. These can be debilitating injuries and he was the first surgeon in Oregon to offer minimally invasive surgical stabilization of rib fractures (SSRF).
He has maintained a strong interest in improving communication with patients and families in the ICU as well as teaching the next generation of physicians.
Dr. Cook lives in Portland with his wife, Crystal, their three kids and two rambunctious dogs. Avid hikers, skiers, travelers and climbers, the Cook family is happy to call Portland home.
Dr. Erin Maynard is an Assistant Program Director for the general surgery residency (with a focus on EPAs and preliminary residents) as well as the Head of the Division of Abdominal Organ Transplantation. Dr. Maynard received her M.D. from The Ohio State University and completed a surgical residency at Maine Medical Center. She went on to complete a Hepatobiliary and Abdominal Organ Transplant Surgery Fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. She maintains a clinical appointment as an Associate Professor in the Division of Abdominal Organ Transplantation at OHSU.
Her clinical interests include the surgical treatment of benign and malignant disease of the liver, bile ducts and pancreas in addition to abdominal organ transplantation. Dr. Maynard is the faculty leader for our bi-annual mock oral examinations for residents in the 4th and final years of clinical training and she provides post-graduation board preparation for residents who have completed training. She is an outstanding educator and has received teaching awards for her work with medical students, residents and fellows.
Dr. Sandy Fang is a colorectal surgeon and Associate Professor of Surgery. She came to OHSU from Johns Hopkins University where she was the Director of the High-Resolution Anoscopy Clinic, Surgical Director for the Anal Cancer Center of Excellence, and the Director of Surgery Apprenticeship Program. Dr. Fang is a high-volume robotics and minimally invasive colorectal surgeon, who specializes in complex abdominal operations to treat colorectal cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, and other benign colorectal disease processes, such as diverticulitis, as well as anorectal disease. She is the Program Director for the High Resolution Anoscopy Clinic, which is a screening tool used to detect anal pre-cancerous lesions or cancer. She is also the Director of Resident Research for the OHSU Department of Surgery.
Dr. Fang completed her Colon and Rectal Surgery Fellowship through the Salvati Program at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and her surgical residency at the University of Iowa.
After completion of colon and rectal surgery fellowship, Dr. Fang practiced colorectal surgery at The Johns Hopkins Hospital for 9 years. During her time at Johns Hopkins, she established herself as a robotic surgeon and has become internationally known for her clinical and research programs in anal cancer, innovative surgical techniques, clinical trials, surgical outcomes, and quality improvement. She is Co-Director of the International Consortium for Anal Cancer Screening.
Dr. Fang has won multiple teaching awards in general surgery residency and as an attending colorectal surgeon. In 2016, Dr. Fang was inducted into The Distinguished Teaching Society of The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Dr. Philbert Van was named Assistant Program Director/Advisor for Military Residents in August 2020. Dr. Van received his M.D. from Drexel University College of Medicine, and completed his training in General Surgery at OHSU in 2012. Dr. Van remained at OHSU for his fellowship in Surgical Critical Care. In July 2013 he accepted a faculty position in the OHSU Department of Surgery/Division of Trauma, Critical Care, and Acute Care Surgery. Dr. Van maintains an Associate Professorship of Surgery at OHSU and is also a surgical intensivist at the Veterans Affairs Portland Health Care System. He is dually Board-certified by the American Board of Surgery in Surgery and Surgical Critical Care.
In 2019 Dr. Van was commissioned as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Medical Corps, US Army Reserve. He is a member of the 915 Forward Surgical Team, based in Vancouver, Washington. He has served our country in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Freedom’s Sentinel.
His research interests included coagulation, venous thromboembolism prophylaxis, and fluid resuscitation.
Dr. Van has received numerous military honors and awards and frequently provides instruction at OHSU and beyond regarding trauma, combat casualty care, and resuscitation.
In his spare time, amongst other community service endeavors, he has volunteered with the TSA at Portland International Airport as a passenger screening canine volunteer.
Administrative Team
Erin Anderson joined the Department of Surgery education team in 1999. She has served as Education Manager overseeing the general surgery residency program since 2017. Erin has been witness to major programmatic developments over the years and has supported more than 200 graduating residents during her tenure at OHSU. She is an incredible asset to our program, understanding the ins and outs of every aspect of resident life and training.
Molly is a graduate of St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota with a background in Psychology. She came to Portland in 2008 to study at Multnomah University and has since called Portland home. Her hobbies include exploring the Pacific Northwest, collaborative board games, and trying new local coffee shops.
Rachel Quinn joined the Department of Surgery as our Education Coordinator in 2019. She received her Master’s degree in English from California Polytechnic Institute, Pomona in 2012, and then taught both overseas and domestically at the collegiate level. From there, Rachel moved into academic administration in Los Angeles before accepting her position here at OHSU. Outside of work, Rachel's interests include her dog (named Subaru, which she has been assured is a perfect name for Portland), automotive interests (including autocross and rally cross), video games, and reading.
Sareena Nunez joined the Department of Surgery in June 2024, returning to her hometown of Portland after 10 years in New Orleans. She previously worked in administrative roles at one of the country's leading Plaintiffs'-side mass tort law firms. In addition to pursuing hobbies like reading, roller-skating, and seeing live music, Sareena enjoys spending time with her adult children Ava and Miles, and her beloved rescue dogs Rocco and Nala.