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Our top priority is providing value to members. Your Member Services team is here to ensure you maximize your ACS member benefits, participate in College activities, and engage with your ACS colleagues. It's all here.

Become a Member
Become a member and receive career-enhancing benefits

Our top priority is providing value to members. Your Member Services team is here to ensure you maximize your ACS member benefits, participate in College activities, and engage with your ACS colleagues. It's all here.

Become a Member
ACS
Membership

Pivoting from Community Practice to Academic Practice

July 17, 2025 | 5:00-6:00 pm CT

Academic surgery provides many fulfilling opportunities outside of clinical practice, including research, education, and leadership roles that may not always be available to surgeons in pure community practice. Transitioning to an academic setting after being in community practice may be challenging if a surgeon does not have a prior track record of academic productivity. Join us for a moderated discussion on obtaining an academic job after being in community practice and how to navigate the academic landscape once the transition has been made.

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Moderator

Heena Santry, MD, MS, FACS

Dr. Heena Santry is an attending surgeon at Kettering Health and clinical associate professor of surgery at Wright State University. She is also a healthcare principal at Arcadis, a global corporation that delivers sustainable design, engineering, and consultancy solutions for natural and built assets. Previously, Dr. Santry was a healthcare consulting director for NBBJ Design, focusing on the design and built environment of healthcare centers and hospitals, and an associate professor of surgery at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and UMass Medical School UMass Memorial Medical Center. In addition, Dr. Santry has been a federally funded epidemiologist and implementation scientist, where she studied the psychosocial and structural factors that impact health outcomes and the care delivery innovations that might ameliorate adverse social determinants of health.

Dr. Santry received her MD from the University of Massachusetts, holds an MS in Public Health from the University of Chicago, and earned her MBA from Brandeis University, Heller School for Social Policy and Management. She completed her residency at the University of Chicago, a trauma fellowship at John Stroger Hospital of Cook County in Illinois, and an acute care fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Santry was a scholar in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program.

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Panelists

Niru Anne, MD, FACS

Dr. Niru Anne is an associate professor of surgery at Penn State Milton Hershey Medical Center. She received her MD from SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, and completed her general surgery residency training at Northwell Health Systems and a fellowship in surgical oncology at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, NY. With nearly 18 years in clinical practice, Dr. Anne has previously served as the medical director of the breast surgery program at Prisma Health System in Greenville and Columbia, SC, and was appointed to the University of South Carolina School of Medicine. Dr. Anne was also the chairperson for the department of surgery at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital-Guthrie System in Binghamton, NY. 

Dr. Anne’s career is marked by active leadership in several national committees including, the ACS Women in Surgery Committee, serving as the current Chair of the Mentorship Subcommittee; the American Society of Breast Disease, as a past member of the abstract selection committee and the breast specialty training Committee; past president of the Broome County Medical Society, past vice chair of the Medical Society of the State of New York Organized Medical Staff Section at the State level; and past physician leader of the Broome County Health Advisory Board.

Dr. Anne holds appointed roles with the American Board of Surgery EPA writing group for complex general surgery, the Society of Surgical Oncology Breast Surgical Oncology, and the American Society of Clinical Oncology Guideline Expert Panel.

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Chelsea Dorsey, MD, FACS, DFSVS, RPVI

Dr. Chelsea Dorsey is a professor of surgery in the section of vascular surgery and endovascular therapy at the University of Chicago Medicine. She serves as the associate dean for medical student academic advising and advancement at the Pritzker School of Medicine and senior vice-chair of faculty and educational affairs in the department of surgery.

After earning her medical degree from the University of Chicago, she completed a vascular surgery integrated residency at Stanford University. She returned to the Chicagoland area starting out in community practice at Alexian Brothers Medical Center in Elk Grove Village, IL, prior to returning to the University of Chicago as faculty. Her research interests include workforce diversity in surgery, augmentation of inclusive practices in the surgical environment, and optimizing academic resources for diverse learners in the undergraduate medical education space.

Dr. Dorsey was recognized as a distinguished faculty member in diversity and inclusion and was also inducted into the Academy of Distinguished Medical Educators at the University of Chicago. A committed educator and mentor, Dr. Dorsey regularly teaches, advises, and mentors learners at all levels with the hope of having an impact and supporting the next generation of medical professionals.  

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Burnetta Herron, MD, FACS 

Dr. Herron is a clinical assistant professor of surgery at the University of Illinois-Chicago and the director of surgical health equity and community health integration at Sinai Chicago. Previously, Dr. Herron worked at Advocate Good Samaritan and Provena Mercy Hospitals in Illinois as a general, trauma, and bariatric surgeon, and at Advocate Trinity Hospital in Illinois as a community general surgeon, focusing most of her practice on benign and malignant breast disease.

Dr. Herron earned her MD from the University of Texas Medical Branch, completed residency at Loyola University Medical Center, and completed the Hard Medical School Surgical Leadership Program. She is committed to patient education and understanding of their medical conditions and options, both operative and non-operative.

She is passionate about impacting health disparities and inequity in disadvantaged and underrepresented people. Through her work at Sinai Chicago, Dr. Herron engages with the Sinai Community Institute, Sinai Urban Health Institute, and the State Transformation Collaboratives to further advance health equity, eradicate health disparities, and improve the life expectancy of the communities Sinai Chicago serves.