Faculty
Michael E. Zenilman, M.D., F.A.C.S., M.A.M.S.E
Chief, Department of Surgery
NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital
Vice Chair, Department of Surgery, Weill Cornell Medicine
Professor of Surgery, Weill Cornell Medicine
Michael E. Zenilman, M.D., was recruited to NYPBMH in 2016. Under his leadership the Department has grown to over 20 full time faculty, all of whom are faculty at Weill Cornell Medicine. The Department now has surgeons who specialize in Trauma/Critical Care/Acute Care Surgery, Vascular, Bariatrics, Endocrine and Abdominal Wall Reconstruction; the Division of Surgical Oncology includes Colorectal surgery, Breast, thoracic and Hepato-Pancreatico-Biliary surgery. In 2021 he instituted the Mastery in General Surgery program, a mentoring program for junior faculty- they work closely with the general surgery residents and participate in the educational program. The surgical program employs established quality metrics from the American College of Surgeons, including NSQIP, MBSQIP and TQIP; they are establishing NAPBC and NAPRC for breast and colorectal surgery, respectively. Under his leadership, the operating rooms expanded their robotic program, which now include simulations. This has allowed interested residents to graduate with credentials in robotic surgery.
Dr. Zenilman is an established clinician, teacher and researcher. His clinical interests are in gastrointestinal, pancreatic and geriatric surgery; he is nationally recognized in all three. His laboratory effort was funded by an American College of Surgeons Faculty Fellowship and the NIH. An author or more than 120 peer reviewed articles, Dr. Zenilman has contributed over 50 chapters to classic surgical textbooks such as Sabiston’s Surgery, Schwartz’s Surgery and Camerons’ Current Surgical Therapy. He has also published more than 10 books, and edited three editions of the textbook Principles and Practices of Geriatric Surgery.
Dr. Zenilman has been on the faculty of Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Johns Hopkins and SUNY Downstate, where he served as Department Chair for 10 years. He has been on the editorial board of JAMA Surgery, and in 2014 was appointed Associate Editor of the American Journal of Surgery. As a general surgery program director for 12 years, Dr. Zenilman has mentored over 100 surgical residents and over 30 students, fellows, and junior faculty members. To bring surgical education to the web, in 2014 he created the first surgical journal club on Twitter; #IGSJC, which has now expanded to trauma (#EASTjc), surgical residents (#rasjacs) and surgical outcomes (#socjc).
Ryan Lucero, M.D.
Program Director, Department of Surgery
NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital
Assistant Professor of Surgery, Weill Cornell Medicine
Ryan Lucero, M.D., is the program director of the surgical residency at NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. He graduated from the University of Colorado with a degree in Mathematics. He then received his medical degree from The University of Toledo College of Medicine. His general surgery residency training was completed at Cleveland Clinic Akron General. Following surgical residency, Dr. Lucero completed a fellowship in Trauma/Surgical Critical Care at Temple University Hospital, Lewis Katz School of Medicine. His first appointment was at OhioHealth, Grant Medical Center as a trauma and acute care surgeon where he spent 5 years as core faculty and 3 years as site director and associate program director for OhioHealth Doctors Hospital general surgery residency. During that time he established a trauma in situ simulation curriculum.
In 2024, he was recruited to NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital as the program director for general surgery residency.
His clinical practice includes trauma, acute care surgery, and surgical critical care. His special interests include surgical education, curriculum development, and simulation as well as new faculty development and mentorship.
James Rucinski, M.D., F.A.C.S., F.A.C.E.P.
Assistant Professor, Department of Surgery
NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital
James Rucinski, M.D., is program director of the surgical residency and director of surgical education at NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. Dr. Rucinski's academic duties include the organization and administration of all educational activities within the Department of Surgery including the undergraduate and post-graduate residency curricula.
A graduate of the University of Michigan Medical School, Dr. Rucinski subsequently served as an intern in the Department of Surgery at the University of Illinois/Cook County Hospital combined residency program in Chicago. His surgical residency training was completed at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City under the chairmanship of professor Michael Eisenberg. Following his surgical residency, Dr. Rucinski began his academic career in the Department of Surgery of Long Island Jewish Medical Center and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine from which he was recruited into this present position.
As a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, Dr. Rucinski currently serves as a member of the Board of Governors and as cancer liaison physician to the Commission on Cancer as well as the surgeon champion for the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program at NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. In addition Dr. Rucinski is a former president of the Brooklyn and Long Island chapter of the American College of Surgeons as well as a former president of the Brooklyn Surgical Society, the Royal Society of Medicine, the Society of Surgery of the Alimentary Tract, the Association of Program Directors in Surgery, the Association for Academic Surgery and the American Society of Breast Surgeons.
In support of the residency education program, Dr. Rucinski's clinical practice encompasses a variety of surgical conditions, including acute care surgery. He has a special interest in surgery of the breast and breast-related disorders.
Faculty Appointments
Vivian Bea, M.D., M.B.S., F.A.C.S.
Section Chief of Breast Surgical Oncology
Assistant Professor, Weill Cornell Medical College
Raffaele Borriello, M.D.
Assistant Clinical Professor of Surgery, NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital
Hans Burkholder, M.D.
Assistant Clinical Professor of Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College
Olivia Cheng, M.D.
Breast Surgeon
Bashar Fahoum, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College
Director of Trauma and Surgical Critical Care, NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital
Piotr Gorecki, M.D.
Associate Professor of Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College
Professor of Clinical Surgery and Chief of Metabolic and Minimally Invasive Surgery, NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital
John Hunter, M.D., M.M.M.
Professor of Clinical Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College
Vice-Chairman, Department of Surgery, NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital
Chief of Plastic Surgery, NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital
Nicole Ilonzo, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College
Mehraneh Dorna Jafari, M.D.
(Interim) Assistant Professor of Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College
Chief of Colorectal Surgery, NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital
Rajesh Malik, M.D.
Associate Professor of Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College
Chief of Vascular Surgery, NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital
Demetri Merianos, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College
Ziyad Naswari, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College
Rabih Nemr, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College
Tiffany Pinchinat, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College
Minerva Romero Arenas, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Endocrine Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College
Michael S. Segal, D.O.
Assistant Professor of Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College
Vascular Surgeon, New York Presbyterian
Pieter Smit, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College
Justin Steele, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Clinical Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College
Director of Robotic Abdominal Wall Reconstruction
Michael Wayne, D.O.
Assistant Professor of Clinical Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College
Director, Hepatobiliary, Pancreatic Surgery
Mollie Freedman Weiss, M.D.
Pediatric Surgery