ISHLT2026: Early Career Mentor Meetup

Samantha Anthony, PhD, MSW
Health Clinician Scientist

The Hospital for Sick Children
Toronto, ON Canada
Primary IDN: ALFTX | Primary PC: Research & Immunology

Dr. Anthony is a Health Clinician Scientist at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto, with appointments as a Senior Scientist in the Child Health Evaluative Sciences Program of the SickKids Research Institute, and an Associate Professor and Affiliated Scientist in the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Anthony leads a research program centered around evidence-based interventions for adaptation and quality of life for children with chronic conditions, especially those who have undergone solid organ transplantation. Her research drives impact through the design and implementation of eHealth interventions and generates co-produced knowledge through meaningful patient engagement.

Her program of research is nationally and internationally funded, with grants awarded from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, The Kidney Foundation of Canada, Health Canada, the Canadian Donation and Transplantation Research Program and Enduring Hearts.

Sai Bhagra, MBBS, MRCP
Consultant Cardiologist

Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Cambridge, United Kingdom
Primary IDN: MCS | Primary PC: Cardiology

Dr. Bhagra completed postgraduate medical training in the West of Scotland and higher specialist training in cardiology in Newcastle upon Tyne. His subspecialty training in advanced heart failure, MCS, and transplantation was undertaken at the Golden Jubilee National Hospital (Glasgow), Freeman Hospital (Newcastle upon Tyne), and Toronto General Hospital (Canada). Sai’s research focuses on long-term outcomes following MCS and heart transplantation and increasing donor utilization. He was shortlisted for the Philips Caves Award at the 2015 ISHLT Annual Meeting and received the ISHLT Transplant Registry Early Career Award in 2016.

Fay Burrows, BPharm
Senior Pharmacist Heart and Lung Transplant

St. Vincent's Hospital
Sydney, NSW Australia
Primary IDN: ALFTX | Primary PC: Pharmacy

Fay Burrows is the Senior Pharmacist for Heart and Lung Transplant at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, Australia, with over 15 years experience of working with heart and lung transplant recipients. She is the current chair of the ISHLT Pharmacy Professional Community and has contributed to several consensus and guideline documents for ISHLT. She is affiliated with the University of Sydney and her research interests include transplant infectious diseases and antimicrobial/immunosuppressant drug interactions.

Daniel Calabrese, MD
Assistant Professor, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Allergy, and Sleep

University of California San Francisco
San Francisco, CA USA
Primary IDN: ALFTX | Primary PC: Research & Immunology

Dr. Calabrese is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Allergy, and Sleep at the University of California, San Francisco and a Staff Physician at the San Francisco VA Medical Center.

He received his undergraduate degree from Washington University in St. Louis and his MD at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. He trained at the University of Washington in Internal Medicine and attended UCSF for fellowship, and completed additional clinical training in Advanced Lung Disease and Transplantation and a research post-doctoral fellowship in NK cell and lung transplant immunity.

Dr. Calabrese's laboratory focuses on the mechanisms of innate immune activation and the cascade of inflammatory responses in the lung during acute and chronic injury. His lab employs animal models of lung transplantation, in vitro modeling, and human tissue samples in concert with modern immune and genomic profiling techniques.

Sabina De Geest, PhD
Professor of Nursing

University of Basel
Basel, Switzerland
Primary IDN: AHFTX | Primary PC: Nursing & Allied Health

A Professor of Nursing at the University of Basel and part-time Professor of Nursing at KU Leuven, Sabina De Geest leads the PIONEER international research group, an interdisciplinary team focused on behavioral and psychosocial issues in chronic illness, including transplantation, rheumatology, and geriatric populations. Her research is driven by implementation science methodologies and centers on developing innovative care models, many of which leverage eHealth technologies.

Tonya Elliott, MSN, RN, CCTC, CHFN
VAD Coordinator

Inova Schar Heart and Vascular
Falls Church, VA USA
Primary IDN: MCS | Primary PC: Nursing & Allied Health

Tonya Elliott has worked in the Ventricular Assist Device (VAD) space since 1990. Over the course of her career, the rapid advancement of MCS technology has inspired Tonya to focus on education and outreach, leading the development of community-based programs designed to support emergency medicine first responders, dialysis staff, and nursing facility teams who care for patients living with durable MCS devices. She is experienced in supporting teams through regulatory preparation, program development, and operational readiness. Tonya is active in ISHLT as a presenter, publisher, and is the incoming Standards and Guidelines Committee Chair.

Tonya is an alumna of the State University of New York at Buffalo and The Catholic University of America. A proud Buffalonian, she is an avid Bills fan and brings the same loyalty, resilience, and team spirit to her professional and mentoring relationships.

Cesar Guerrero-Miranda, MD, FACC, FAST
Medical Director, MCS Program

Baylor University Medical Center
Dallas, TX USA
Primary IDN: MCS | Primary PC: Cardiology

Dr. Guerrero-Miranda is the Medical Director of the Mechanical Circulatory Support Program and an Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiologist at Baylor University Medical Center.

He provides strategic leadership in advanced heart failure, cardiogenic shock, mechanical circulatory support, and heart transplantation, and is actively engaged in clinical research and multicenter trials advancing device-based therapies and hemodynamic optimization.

A recognized national and international contributor to the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation, Dr. Guerrero-Miranda is deeply committed to mentorship, focusing on developing future leaders in academic cardiology through guidance in clinical excellence, research productivity, and programmatic leadership.

Jonathan Hand, MD

Oschner Medical Center
New Orleans, LA USA
Primary IDN: AHFTX | Primary PC: Infectious Diseases

Dr. Hand is the Section Head of Transplant Infectious Diseases and the Medical Director of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program at Ochsner Medical Center. He also serves as Associate Medical Director of the Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency. Dr. Hand leads clinical trials as Research Medical Director of Infectious Diseases for Ochsner Health.

His practice and research interests include infectious complications of transplant donors and recipients, vaccine and antimicrobial clinical trials and antimicrobial stewardship. He has also been actively involved in national transplant policy and is an Associate Editor for Clinical Transplantation. Within ISHLT, Dr. Hand has served as the Infectious Diseases representative on the Early Career and Trainee Committee and has been on the annual meeting program committee 4 times.

Konrad Hoetzenecker, MD, PhD
Professor of Surgery

Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Nashville, TN USA
Primary IDN: ALFTX | Primary PC: Cardiothoracic Surgery

Dr. Hoetzenecker is a Professor for Thoracic Surgery at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center and serves as the Surgical Director of the Vanderbilt Lung Transplant Program. His research focuses on donor lung preservation and the opportunities arising from organ storage at 10°C, ex-vivo lung perfusion, and normothermic regional perfusion.

Another major area of his work is the development of new surgical techniques, including minimally invasive lung transplantation. Vanderbilt is one of few centers worldwide currently offering minimally invasive lung transplantation.

Dr Hoetzenecker has authored numerous peer-reviewed articles and is an editorial board member of the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation. He has been awarded several prizes and grants including the Graham Memorial Traveling Fellowship from the American Association of Thoracic Surgery.

Stephen Juvet, MD, PhD
Respirologist, Associate Professor of Medicine

University Health Network / Toronto General Hospital
Toronto, ON Canada
Primary IDN: ALFTX | Primary PC: Research & Immunology

Dr. Juvet is a transplant pulmonologist and clinician-scientist with the Toronto Lung Transplant Program at Toronto General Hospital, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto. His clinical focus is the care of patients undergoing lung transplantation, and his research lab focuses on identifying novel cellular pathways driving chronic lung allograft dysfunction (CLAD) using animal models and human biospecimens, as well as developing novel therapeutic approaches for CLAD prevention. He is the incoming Research & Immunology representative to the Advanced Lung Failure and Transplantation Interdisciplinary Network Steering Committee, and recently led the forthcoming ISHLT Consensus Statement on Acute Lung Allograft Dysfunction.

Aaron Mishkin, MD
Infectious Diseases Specialist, Associate Professor of Medicine

Temple University
Philadelphia, PA USA
Primary IDN: ALFTX | Primary PC: Infectious Diseases

Dr. Mishkin is a transplant infectious diseases physician at Temple University in Philadelphia, typically the highest volume lung transplant program in the United States. He considers himself a clinician first and spends the majority of his time caring for transplant patients and treating non-tuberculous mycobacterial infections. He is involved in retrospective multi-center studies and enjoys collaborating through ISHLT and other societies. At Temple, Aaron is an IRB board member and assists with PCORnet a U.S. network that uses health data to support patient-centered clinical research. Outside of work, he enjoys skiing, hiking, travel and spending time with his wife and daughters.

Aman Sidhu, MD
Medical Director, Toronto Lung Transpalnt Program

Ajmera Transplant Centre
Toronto, ON Canada
Primary IDN: ALFTX | Primary PC: Pulmonology

Dr. Sidhu is the Medical Director of the Toronto Lung Transplant Program at the Ajmera Transplant Centre and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto.

She completed medical school at the University of Ottawa, internal medicine training at the University of British Columbia, respirology at the University of Alberta, and an MSc in Epidemiology at the University of London (UK), followed by lung transplant fellowship training at the University of Toronto.

Melinda Solomon, MD, FRCPC
Professor of Pediatrics

The Hospital for Sick Children
Toronto, ON Canada
Primary IDN: ALFTX | Primary PC: Pediatrics

Dr. Solomon has been the Medical Director of the Pediatric Lung Transplant Program and Director of the Cystic Fibrosis Clinic at SickKids in Toronto for over 20 years. She is also the Immediate Past President of the Canadian Thoracic Society. She received her medical degree from the University of Toronto and completed her Pediatric residency and Respirology fellowship at The Hospital for Sick Children. Her advanced training in lung transplantation was undertaken at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and Toronto General Hospital.

Dr. Solomon has a longstanding passion for medical education and served as the Pediatric Respirology Training Program Director at the Hospital for Sick Children for over 20 years, and is currently the CF and Lung Transplant Fellowship Director. She is the recipient of multiple awards for excellence in teaching.

Weibke Sommer, MD
Deputy Director, Department of Cardiac Surgery

University of Schleswig-Holstein
Kiel, Germany
Primary IDN: ALFTX | Primary PC: Cardiothoracic Surgery

After finishing Medical School in 2008, Dr. Sommer started training in Cardiac Surgery at Hannover Medical School and at the same time pursued clinical and experimental research in the field of lung transplantation, focusing on immune tolerance induction (experimental, large animal model) as well as aspects and outcome of utilizing marginal donors in lung transplantation (clinical). Along the road, treatment of donor-specific antibodies in patients before and after heart and lung transplantation became a key part of her clinical interest.

Dr. Sommer’s clinical focus since then alongside routine cardiac surgery has always been heart and lung transplantation as well as end-stage heart failure (ECLS, pVAD and tMCS). In order to focus on research, she performed a full-time research fellowship at the Center for Transplantation Science at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston from 2016-2018.

Upon return to Germany, Dr. Sommer worked as an attending in the Dept. Of Cardiac Surgery at Heidelberg University before joining the University of Schleswig-Holstein as deputy director of the Department of Cardiac Surgery. at the University of Schleswig-Holstein in Kiel in Germany. She has been involved with ISHLT more than 15 years, giving talks, chairing sessions at the annual conference, and has served multiple times on the program planning committee.

Barbara Wilkey, MD
Director of Thoracic Transplant Anesthesia

University of Colorado
Denver, CO USA
Primary IDN: MCS | Primary PC: Anesthesiology & Critical Care

Dr. Wilkey is a cardiothoracic anesthesiologist and Director of Thoracic Transplant Anesthesia at the University of Colorado.

Dr. Wilkey's clinical interests include thoracic and abdominal transplant anesthesia, as well as other forms of cardiac and thoracic anesthesia.

She is active in ISHLT, the Society for the Advancement of Transplant Anesthesia, and the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists.