Sun Hi Lee, MD

Joel Brooks, D.O., M.P.H., is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University and Assisting Attending Pediatrician at the New York-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital in the Division of Allergy, Immunology, and Rheumatology. Dr. Brooks completed medical school at the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine, Internal Medicine Residency and Chief Residency at UPMC Lititz Hospital, and Allergy and Immunology Fellowship at the Yale School of Medicine. During fellowship, he completed a Masters of Public Health with a focus on global health and social and behavioral sciences at the Yale School of Public Health. In addition, he completed the Fellows as Medical Educators certificate program at the Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Brooks joined the faculty at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC where he served as a staff allergist and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Dr. Brooks was the Site Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Allergy and Immunology Fellowship. His areas of clinical and research interests include food allergies, drug allergies, angioedema, and immunizations. He has presented his work at national and international meetings as well as published in scientific journals. Dr. Brooks is also very engaged in medical education and serves on multiple committees for the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology.

Dr. Ratner is Professor of Surgery and Director of Renal and Pancreatic Transplantation at Columbia University. Prior to joining the faculty at Columbia, Dr. Ratner was on the faculty of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and served as the Chief of Solid Organ Transplantation at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Dr. Ratner was responsible for dramatic growth of the kidney transplant program at CUIMC. He also established the pancreas transplant program, and the Kidney Autotransplant Program. He introduced robotic surgery to our kidney transplant program. Access to organ transplantation has been Dr. Ratner's major academic interest. Dr. Ratner has been a leading innovator in transplantation for over two decades. In 1993, he performed the world's first dual renal transplant. In 1995 (with Dr. Louis Kavoussi) he performed the first laparoscopic donor nephrectomy, and set the stage for its widespread adoption, which resulted in a profound increase in living donor kidney transplantation. Dr. Ratner has made significant contributions in overcoming immunologic incompatibilities that prohibited transplantation. He devised the plasmapheresis/IVIg protocol for alloantibody desensitization in 1998. In 2001, Dr. Ratner orchestrated the second paired-kidney exchange in the U.S. Subsequently, he arranged the first paired kidney exchanges in both Pennsylvania and New York. More recently Dr. Ratner has been a leading proponent of including compatible donor/recipient pairs in kidney exchanges. And, his more contemporary work has looked at the organizational and regulatory barriers to access to care. All of these strategies have increased organ availability and access to transplantation. Additionally, he has made important contributions to improve living donor safety. For his work, Dr. Ratner has received numerous awards and honors. And, he has been invited to speak and operate at various venues around the world. Dr. Ratner has authored or co-authored over 240 peer-reviewed publications, and has been a federally funded investigator. His publications have been cited over 20,000 times. He served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the LiveOnNY (formerly the New York Organ Donor Network), and has served on numerous national committees including the Board of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN). He recently completed a term as the President of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, and previously served as that Society's Treasurer.Dr. Ratner originally hails from Brooklyn, NY. He received his undergraduate education at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He received his M.D. from Hahnemann University. His general surgery training was obtained at Long Island Jewish Medical Center. He completed a Fellowship in Transplantation Surgery and Immunology at Washington University. In 2011 Dr. Ratner completed a Master of Public Health with a focus on health care policy, administration and management.