Global Surgery- Capacity Building in Surgery Speakers

Emily Smith, PhD, MSPH

Emily Smith is an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology in the Department of Public Health at the Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences at Baylor University and an adjunct Assistant Professor of Global Health in the Duke Global Health Institute (DGHI) at Duke University. Her research interests include pediatric global surgery, health economics, health systems strengthening in low-income countries, capacity building and surgical service scale-up modeling. Currently, her research takes place in Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana, Somaliland and Latin America. Dr. Smith is a member of the Global Initiative for Childrenʼs Surgery where she leads a monthly research webinar and co-leads the Research and Grants committee. In addition, Dr. Smith serves on the steering committee of the largest longitudinal cohort study on pediatric congenital anomalies, Global PaedSurg. Before joining the faculty at Baylor, Dr. Smith was a research scholar at DGHI for two years. Prior to DGHI, her work at the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) involved utilizing epidemiological methods, mathematical modeling techniques and cost-effectiveness research to determine effectiveness of various testing strategies among HIV exposed infants in sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Smith received her PhD in epidemiology from the Gillings School of Public Health at UNC-CH and an MSPH from the University of South Carolina.

Tamara Fitzgerald, MD, PhD, ACS, FAAP

Tamara Fitzgerald is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Pediatric Surgery at Duke University. Her academic focus is in global surgery, surgical capacity building, and cost-effective, quality biomedical devices for low-middle income countries. She works with pediatric surgeons in sub-Saharan Africa to increase training and support for young surgeons, thereby improving children’s access to surgical care. She received her B.S. and Ph.D. in biomedical engineering and her M.D. from Boston University. She completed a general surgery residency and fellowship in pediatric surgery at Yale-New Haven Hospital.

Sadie Bazur-Leidy, MPH

Sadie is the Program Administrator for Operation Giving Back (OGB) at the American College of Surgeons (ACS). She graduated from New York University with a master’s degree in Public Health in 2015, focusing on community and international health. Following graduation Sadie worked as a Program Manager, and eventually Managing Director, of a non-governmental organization in Malawi dedicated to improving access to health care for rural Malawians, including essential surgery. Sadie joined the ACS last year, where she works with Medical Director Dr. Girma Tefera. OGB is currently collaborating with the College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA) and various US-based surgical programs to develop a surgical training hub in southern Ethiopia with the goal of expanding surgical workforce capacity in the region.