Karen Brasel, M.D., M.P.H., Residency Program Director

Dr. Karen Brasel, Professor of Surgery, is the General Surgery Residency Program Director, Vice-Chair for Education and Assistant Dean for GME at OHSU. She is also a member of the Educational Scholars Collaborative. She received her BA from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota and her MD from the University of Iowa. She completed her surgical residency and her Master’s in Public Health at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul and her Surgical Critical Care Fellowship at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. She comes to OHSU from the Medical College of Wisconsin, where she was given a dual appointment as an Assistant Professor of Surgery and as an Assistant Professor in the Health Policy Institute in 1999. At MCW, Dr. Brasel served as a Clerkship Director, member of the Curriculum and Evaluation Committee, Director of Resident Research, Director of the Surgical Critical Care Fellowship Program for eight years, and as a member of the Society of Teaching Scholars. She is the recipient of multiple teaching awards, including the Association of Surgical Education’s Outstanding Teacher Award in 2006. 

Dr. Brasel is a nationally renowned leader in many aspects of surgery, including her role as Contributing Author and Sub-Committee Chair for the Surgical Education and Self-Assessment Program (SESAP®) for many years and as the prior ACS Committee on Trauma ATLS® Sub-Committee Chair and international director of ATLS®. She served two years as Chair of the Curriculum Committee for the Association of Surgical Education and has served on several committees for the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, including currently chair of the Critical Care Committee and member of the Board of Managers. She has also served on the Executive Committee of the American College of Surgeons Board of Governors and is a Director of the American Board of Surgery. She currently leads the American Board of Surgery's pilot program on establishing Enstrustable Professional Activities in General Surgery.

Dr. Brasel’s clinical practice is trauma/critical care and emergency general surgery. Her research focuses on surgical palliative care, ethics, education, and quality of life after trauma.

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Karen Deveney, M.D., Vice-Chair for Education

Dr. Karen Deveney, Professor of Surgery, is the Vice-Chair for Education in the Department of Surgery at Oregon Health & Science University, where she served as the Program Director of the general surgery residency for 18 years, from 1996 to 2014.

Dr. Deveney received her B.A. degree from Stanford University and her M.D. from the University of California, San Francisco, where she completed surgical residency training. Thereafter she joined the faculty at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in San Francisco, serving as Assistant Professor at the University of California, San Francisco. She also served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps in Frankfurt, Germany and later as Assistant Professor of Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Dr. Deveney joined the faculty at Oregon Health & Science University in 1987 and directed surgical education there since that time, serving as the surgery clerkship director and assistant dean for Curricular Affairs in the School of Medicine. In that position, she helped plan and implement a major medical student curricular change under funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation program, Preparing Physicians for the Future. She is the recipient of multiple teaching awards, including the Parker J. Palmer Courage to Teach Award of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. She is a member of fourteen surgical societies, including the American Surgical Association. She represented Oregon on the American College of Surgeons' Board of Governors from 2002-2008 and served as Secretary of the Board from 2006-2008 and Second Vice-President of the American College of Surgeons in 2009-2010.

In addition to her interest and expertise in surgical education, Dr. Deveney's research interests have been in gastrointestinal physiology. Her clinical areas of interest include inflammatory bowel disease, colorectal cancer, rural surgery, and emergency general surgery.

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Pat Southard, MN, JD, Associate Program Director, VirtuOHSU Administrative Director

Pat Southard's educational background is a double Master's Degree in Nursing and Nursing Administration and a Doctorate of Jurisprudence Degree from Northwestern School of Law at Lewis and Clark College here in Portland. Prior to coming to the Department of Surgery, she was one of the hospital administrators at OHSU Hospitals and Clinics.

As one of the Associate Program Directors, Pat is responsible for the monitoring and reporting of compliance with the ACGME duty hour requirements. She works with the GMEC to report the duty hours and to present action plans if they are indicated for non-compliance in relevant rotations. Additionally, Pat is the triage scorer for the applications for the surgery residency. She reviews all of the applications and does the scoring to determine which applicants should be invited for interviews. Finally, she works with the VirtuOHSU Program Director to coordinate the annual golf tournament and dinner auction that solely benefits VirtuOHSU, the surgical skills and simulation center.

Laszlo Kiraly, M.D., Associate Program Director

Dr. Laszlo Kiraly received his medical degree from Northwestern University School of Medicine in 2002 and was accepted into OHSU's residency program that same year. He complemented his general surgery residency with a research year focused on trauma and critical care before completing a surgical critical care fellowship, all at OHSU. He was offered a faculty position within OHSU's Division of Trauma, Critical Care and Acute Care Surgery in 2009. Dr. Kiraly is now Associate Professor of Surgery within the Department, as well as the Surgical Critical Care Fellowship Program Director. He is committed to the education of students and residents and believes the importance of an educator role model and in leading by example.

In addition to his work as a surgeon and educator, Dr. Kiraly is actively involved in research as it relates to the management and outcomes of trauma patients and holds leadership roles within the American Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition, the Oregon Chapter of the American College of Surgeons and the Portland Surgical Society.

Karen Kwong, M.D., F.A.C.S., Associate Program Director, Global Surgery Program Director

Karen Kwong, M.D. is an Associate Program Director of the general surgery residency and Global Surgery Director. She maintains a clinical appointment and is Chief of General Surgery at the Portland VA Medical Center (PVAMC). She is a faculty advisor and Chair of the Clinical Competency Committee which enacts the General Surgery Milestones. Dr. Kwong also teaches the Ethics and Professionalism Skills Lab with Karen Deveney, M.D.  Additionally, she supports the Clerkship Director Enjae Jung, M.D. in the advisement of students desiring to train in general surgery and is a Medical School Faculty Coach for students. Dr. Kwong is very interested in global health initiatives and travels to Haiti twice each year with residents and students to provide medical and surgical care. She is faculty for the Medical Student Elective Surgery and Inequalities course.

Donn Spight, M.D., Associate Program Director and VirtuOHSU Medical Director

Dr. Donn Spight, Associate Professor and Associate Program Director, has also served as the VirtuOHSU Medical Director since 2007. He completed a minimally invasive fellowship at OHSU in 2006 and was then recruited to join the faculty. Dr. Spight is the instructor for laparoscopic skills labs. In addition to his residency program involvement, he serves as Chair of the Medical Student Committee for the Society of Black Academic Surgeons.

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Nick Hamilton, M.D., Assistant Program Director

Nicholas Hamilton, M.D., is an Assistant Program Director for the general surgery residency. Dr. Hamilton received his medical degree from the University of Texas in Houston. He then completed a surgical residency at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, during which time he was also a surgical education research fellow through the Association for Surgical Education. He then came to OHSU to finish his formal training in pediatric surgery. He maintains a clinical appointment as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Pediatric Surgery at OHSU. His clinical interests include minimal access surgery in infants and children as well as pediatric gastrointestinal motility disorders. Dr. Hamilton is the faculty leader for our resident educational conferences. He has received teaching awards for his work with medical students and residents, and spends his free time enjoying the Pacific Northwest with his wife and two daughters.

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Erin Maynard, M.D., Assistant Program Director

Erin Maynard, M.D., is an Assistant Program Director for the general surgery residency. Dr. Maynard received her medical degree from The Ohio State University and completed a surgical residency at Maine Medical Center. She went on to complete a Hepatobiliary and Abdominal Organ Transplant Surgery Fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. She maintains a clinical appointment as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Abdominal Organ Transplantation at OHSU. Her clinical interests include the surgical treatment of benign and malignant disease of the liver, bile ducts and pancreas in addition to abdominal organ transplantation. Dr. Maynard is the faculty leader for our bi-annual mock oral examinations for residents in the 4th and final years of clinical training and she provides post-graduation board preparation for residents who have completed training. She is an outstanding educator and has received teaching awards for her work with medical students, residents and fellows.

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Erin Anderson, Education Manager

Erin Anderson is a graduate of Linfield College and a native Oregonian. She celebrated her 14-year anniversary at OHSU in July 2013, having worked in the OHSU Department of Surgery for the entirety of her tenure here. Erin lives in a suburb of Portland and in her free time enjoys taking advantage of Portland's crafty, DIY culture and sampling the world-famous Northwest cuisine.  

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Camden Boes, Education Coordinator

Camden is a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin with a background in Nutrition and Dietetics. She came to Portland shortly after graduation to explore the Pacific Northwest. Camden had been at OHSU for about a year before joining the department. Her hobbies include cooking plant-based meals, photography, and travelling abroad.

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Molly Barron, Education Administrative Assistant

Molly is a graduate of St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota with a BA in psychology. She joined the Department of Surgery in 2018 after being with OHSU for six years. As a native Arizonian, Molly enjoys working in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. In her free time you will find her sipping coffee, playing cooperative board games and learning new skills online.

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