SUSTAIN Workgroup and Steering Committee

The SUSTAIN Workgroup provides strategic direction for the ACS SUSTAIN Collaborative by identifying priorities, developing educational resources, and guiding initiatives that advance sustainable, high-value surgical care.

The Workgroup brings together surgeons from diverse specialties with expertise in quality improvement, sustainability, implementation science, and surgical leadership.

Workgroup Objectives

The SUSTAIN Workgroup is committed to advancing practical sustainability initiatives that improve patient care and strengthen resource stewardship.

Objectives include:

• Develop educational resources that support sustainable surgical practice.
• Identify and advance high-impact, low-barrier sustainability initiatives.
• Share evidence-based practices across surgical specialties.
• Foster collaboration among surgeons, healthcare teams, and professional organizations.
• Demonstrate measurable operational, financial, and environmental benefits.

Progress to Date

Since its formation, the Workgroup has:

• Established the ACS SUSTAIN Collaborative.
• Developed a multidisciplinary Steering Committee.
• Created a webinar series focused on sustainable surgical practices.
• Developed the Preference Card Optimization Campaign as the Collaborative's first national initiative.
• Begun building partnerships with specialty societies and organizations interested in advancing surgical sustainability.

Meet the Steering Committee

The SUSTAIN Steering Committee includes nationally recognized leaders in surgery, quality improvement, and sustainability.

Colleen M. Fitzpatrick, MD, MPA, FACS, FAAP
Dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick is a pediatric surgeon at Northwell Health's Cohen Children's Medical Center in New York where she serves as the Surgical Quality Office and co-leads the Sustainability Committee. She also serves on the Northwell Health System Sustainability Team. She is working to incorporate sustainability into the curriculum at the Zucker School of Medicine and in the Northwell Graduate Medical Education program.

Emmanuel (Manny) Gabriel, MD, PhD, FACS, FSSO
Dr. Manny Gabriel is an associate professor of surgery at Mayo Clinic Florida. He specializes in the multidisciplinary management of breast cancer, melanoma, sarcoma, and peritoneal malignancies, including the use of regional therapies. He is the Quality Workgroup Chair of the ACS Young Fellows Association (YFA) and serves on the YFA Governing Council. He is a previously NIH-funded early investigator through the KL2 Mentored Career Development Program. His quality interests include optimizing cancer outcomes and addressing disparities in cancer care. He is also interested in improving surgical sustainability and is involved with ACS SUSTAIN and SSO Sustainability Committee.

Benjamin Miller, MD, FACS
Dr. Benjamin Miller is a general surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. His clinical interests include emergency general surgery, hernia and foregut surgery, and surgical sustainability. He is the Digestive Disease Institute Sustainability Officer and the director of the Ken Lee Fellowship in Healthcare Sustainability and Quality Improvement.

Husein Moloo, MD, MSc, MPH, FACS, FRCSC
Dr. Husein Moloo is a professor of surgery and the inaugural director of planetary health at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. A global leader in planetary health, he is working to align the future of medicine with the future of our planet. Recognized with a Canada’s Clean50 Award, he has helped launch groundbreaking initiatives, from hospital campaigns in Ontario to international collaborations, that are turning healthcare into a force for sustainability. His mission is simple yet urgent: building a healthier world where people and the planet can both thrive.

Mehul V. Raval, MD, MS, MBA, FACS, FAAP
Dr. Mehul Raval is a professor with tenure in the Division of Pediatric Surgery and joint appointment in the Departments of Surgery and Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. He serves as the Orvar Swenson Founders' Board Chair in Pediatric Surgery for the Division of Pediatric Surgery and as a principal investigator in the Northwestern University Institute for Public Health and Medicine. He is also the director of Lurie Children’s Division of Pediatric Surgery Research Scholars Program, which includes mentoring 6–8 surgical research trainees annually. He is passionate about environmental stewardship and is an Eagle Scout who loves spending time outdoors. He uses his expertise in quality improvement, implementation science, and value-based care to make front-line changes to make operating rooms and health systems more sustainable for future generations.

Neelu Tummala, MD, MS, FACS
Dr. Neelu Tummala is a comprehensive ENT physician and clinical assistant professor of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery at NYU Langone Health. She is helping lead the ACS SUSTAIN collaborative, co-leads Surgeons for a Sustainable Future, and is on the Board of the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health. Her work centers around optimizing sustainability in healthcare and addressing how climate change and air pollution impact population health and health disparities.

Elizabeth Yates, MD, MPH
Dr. Elizabeth Yates is a vascular surgeon at the University of Virginia. Her academic interests include the overlap of environmental sustainability, equitable surgical care delivery and climate-related health outcomes.