Harkness Pavilion

Susannah E. Hills, MD, is a Pediatric Otolaryngologist-Head and Neck surgeon and Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Hills is a fellowship-trained Pediatric Otolaryngologist with particular expertise in airway surgery and aerodigestive disorders. Dr. Hills specializes in the management of congenital and acquired airway disorders, feeding and swallowing pathology, childhood hearing loss, and benign and malignant pediatric head and neck masses. She also has a special interest in neonatal breathing and feeding disorders. Dr. Hills received her bachelor’s degree, cum laude, from Harvard University. She completed her medical degree and surgical residency training at the University of Michigan, where she received the Commendation for Humanitarianism from the medical school. She went on to complete a fellowship in Pediatric Otolaryngology at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Northwestern University. Dr. Hills has authored a number of journal articles and textbook chapters and has lectured extensively, both nationally and internationally. She is a member of the American Academy of Otolaryngology and is Board Certified in Otolaryngology. Dr. Hills is also very committed to international healthcare, and she was a Michael C. Rockefeller Fellow in Equatorial Guinea. During her residency, she also spearheaded an ongoing partnership for surgical training between the University of Michigan Department of Otolaryngology and KATH hospital in Ghana.

Dr. Nir Uriel, an internationally recognized leader in heart failure, mechanical circulatory support, and heart transplantation, has been named Director of Advanced Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplantation at NewYork-Presbyterian. Dr. Uriel will oversee heart failure programs at NewYork-Presbyterians campuses in Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, and Westchester, with a goal to increase accessibility of care for those with advanced heart failure throughout the New York area. Dr. Uriel was born and raised in Israel, where he attended medical school. After serving for four years as a physician in the Israeli Defense Forces, he then completed his cardiology residency and fellowship. In 2008, he moved to New York to pursue fellowships at NewYork- Presbyterian/Columbia in cardiology, heart failure, transplant, and mechanical circulatory support and remained here as a faculty member until 2014. He then served as the Louis Block Professor of Medicine and Director of Heart Failure, Transplant and Mechanical Circulatory Support at the University of Chicago Medicine, where, in 2018, he and his Chicago team made history performing two tripleorgan transplants within 27 hours.A dedicated researcher with more than 200 peer-reviewed publications, Dr. Uriel has improved treatment protocols for patients with end-stage heart failure and has extended criteria for the use of ventricular assist devices and eligibility for transplant for high-risk patients, including those who are HIV positive. His research continues with a focus on interactions of medical devices, such as VADS, with the human body.