Jessica El Halabi, MD

Chetan Pasrija, M.D. is a cardiothoracic surgeon in Baltimore, Maryland. He is an assistant professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Pasrija specializes in heart and lung transplantation, aortic surgery, and the surgical treatment of ischemic heart disease. He also has a particular interest in chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension. He has published extensively on the topics of heart and lung transplant, massive pulmonary embolism, chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension, and minimally invasive left ventricular assist device implantation. As a trainee, Dr. Pasrija was heavily involved with the surgical implantation and postoperative management of the first cardiac xenotransplant performed in the world at the University of Maryland. During his time as faculty at Vanderbilt University, he was a part of one of the largest heart and lung transplant programs in the United States. This included significant involvement with cutting-edge technologies to expand the donor pool, including normothermic regional perfusion and the Transmedics Organ Care System. Dr. Pasrija was co-surgeon in a combined heart-lung transplant with a groundbreaking 9.5 hour period of time without any blood flow using a novel 10⁰C cooler. He has also performed heart transplants with travel as far as Puerto Rico.Outside of transplantation, Dr. Pasrija is a high-volume cardiac surgeon, with an interest in complex open and endovascular aortic surgery. He performed the first ascending stent in the state of Tennessee, as well as the first total arch replacement without cooling the patient’s body in Tennessee using the Thoraflex device. He earned his Bachelor of Science Degree in Bioengineering at the University of Maryland and his Medical Degree at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He completed an Integrated Cardiothoracic Surgery residency at the University of Maryland. During his training, he spent time at Vanderbilt University to learn advanced heart failure techniques as well as time at the University of Toronto to learn advanced lung transplant and pulmonary thromboendartectomy techniques. Additionally, he has a Masters in Clinical Research from the University of Maryland. Outside of his clinical interests, Dr. Pasrija is an accomplished investigator. During his post-doctoral research fellowship, he received a competitive American Heart Association post-doctoral fellowship award in addition to institutional awards for excellence in research. His research efforts focus on improving donor preservation with novel perfusion and temperature techniques, improving donor evaluation methods, and establishing novel immunologic therapies for transplant tolerance.

Dr. Irini Hanna is a clinical instructor of the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Division of Dentistry and Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Hanna practices general dentistry, providing restorative, surgical, acute, elective and preventative dental services to patients. Her focus is on patient-centered care, striving to help her patients achieve the dental care they want and deserve. Dr. Hanna also treats patients with complex needs. She oversees training of the dental residents. Dr. Hanna earned her Doctorate of Dental Surgery (DDS) from the University of Maryland. After graduating, she completed a one-year general dentistry residency training program at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. She then joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in 2024. Dr. Hanna is a member of the Academy of General Dentistry, the American Dental Association, and the Maryland State Dental Association.

Dr. Carole Fakhry is a head and neck surgical oncologist at Johns Hopkins and treats the breadth of patients with head and neck cancers, including cancers of the tonsils, base of tongue, mouth, larynx, thyroid, salivary gland (parotid, submandibular gland) and skin cancers among others. She is the Chief of the Division of Head and Neck Surgery and Director of the Head and Neck Cancer Center. She also serves as director of the head and neck group in the Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy and the head and neck surgical oncology fellowship. She is the associate editor for Oral Oncology and serves on several editorial boards. After an undergraduate degree at Stanford University, she completed medical school, residency in otolaryngology head and neck surgery, and a fellowship in head and neck surgical oncology at Johns Hopkins. She has also received a master’s in public health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is presently a professor in the Johns Hopkins Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Oncology, and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Department of Epidemiology. Her research interest focuses on the role of human papillomavirus (HPV) in head and neck squamous cell cancer. She has demonstrated that the presence of HPV confers a prognostic advantage to individuals with oropharyngeal cancer and that HPV is associated with unique clinical characteristics. In addition to the clinical implications of HPV in head and neck cancer, she is co-principal investigator of a large study to understand screening individuals at “high risk” of malignancy and evaluating imaging modalities to improve diagnostics and early detection of HPV- related head and neck cancer.