Officers and Council Members

Claire T. Cronin, MD, MBA

is the Executive Chair of Specialties and the Chief of Breast Surgery at Atrius Health. She is clinically associated with the Beth Israel Lahey Health System as well as Mount Auburn Hospital. Having trained in Boston, she has been attending the Boston Surgical Society meetings for over twenty years. In 2017, she was invited to join the Executive Council of BSS and was elected Secretary in 2020.

Dmitry Nepomnayshy, MD

is a senior surgeon in General Surgery at the Lahey Hosital and Medical Center in Burlington MA and Associate Professor of Surgery at Tufts University.  At Lahey, he is Director of Professional Development and Simulation, Director of the Bariatric Surgery Fellowship, and Program Director of the General Surgery Residency program.  His clinical specialty includes bariatric and minimally invasive surgery and his research interests focus on surgical education, with special emphasis on how to teach and assess surgical expertise.  Most recently, he was awarded the 2018 Excellence in Teaching Award from the entire Tufts 2018 graduating class.

DanA Fugelso, MD

Dr. Fugelso is a general surgeon in Brookline, Massachusetts at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She received her medical degree from University of California San Francisco School of Medicine and has been in practice for more than 20 years.

Jason Hall, MD, MPH

is the Chairman and Surgeon-in-Chief at Tufts Medical Center.  He is Professor and the Benjamin Andrews Chair of Surgery at Tufts University School of Medicine.

F. Thurston Drake, MD, MPH

is an Associate Professor of Surgery at the Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine. Dr. Drake is Chief of Endocrine Surgery and the Robert M. Beazley Scholar in Surgical Science at Boston Medical Center.  He serves on the editorial boards of Surgery and Journal of Surgical Research, and is co-chair of the Trainees and Career Advancement Committee of the American Thyroid Association.

Dr. Drake earned an AB in English Literature from Princeton University, his MD from the University of Utah School of Medicine, and an MPH from the University of Washington in Seattle, WA. He trained in General Surgery at the University of Washington Medical Center and completed a fellowship in Comprehensive Endocrine Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Dr. Drake serves as a Commander in the United States Navy Reserve Medical Corps.

Alik Farber, MD, MBA

is the Associate Chief Medical Officer for Surgical Services and Chief of the Division of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery at Boston Medical Center.  He is a Professor of Surgery and Radiology at Boston University School of Medicine.

Dr. Farber is a graduate of Brown University and obtained his medical degree from Harvard Medical School.  He completed a residency in general surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, a vascular surgery fellowship at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and an endovascular surgery fellowship at the Southern Illinois School of Medicine. He received his MBA at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University.

Dr. Farber’s clinical and research interest is in treatment of peripheral arterial disease.  He was a National Co-Chair of the National Institutes of Health-sponsored Best Endovascular versus Best Surgical Therapy in Patients with Critical Limb Ischemia (BEST-CLI) trial, a randomized, controlled trial recently completed at 150 sites across North America, Europe and New Zealand.

Dr. Melnitchouk is a board-certified surgeon specializing in the field of colorectal surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) in Boston, USA, as well as an Assistant Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. She is the Program Director for the Colorectal Surgery Fellowship and leads the Program in Peritoneal Surface Malignancy at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

Marc S. Rubin, mD

is a colon and rectal surgeon who has been practicing on Boston’s North Shore for 30 years. He is Chair of the Department of Surgery at Mass General Brigham – Salem Hospital, previously served as Chief of the Division of Community Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, and is an Assistant Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. Regionally, he is a past President of the Massachusetts Chapter of the American College of Surgeons and a member of the Quality and Patient Safety Division of the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine. He chairs the Massachusetts Surgical Quality Improvement Collaborative and co-chairs the Mass General Brigham Colorectal Surgery Collaborative. Nationally, he is a past Governor of the American College of Surgeons and has served as an Associate Editor of the journal Diseases of the Colon and Rectum. He has led or been a member of many committees of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons and the American College of Surgeons.

David McAneny, MD

is Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs at Boston Medical Center and Professor of Surgery and Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs at the Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine.  Dr. McAneny is a past President of the Boston Surgical Society, and he served as Secretary (2015-2019) and Councilor (2007-2010).

Richard J. Ehrlichman, MD

Is an Assistant Surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital and an instructor at Harvard Medical School. He is a member of both the division of Plastic Surgery and the MGH Burn Associates. Dr. Ehrlichman is a Senior Surgeon at Shriners Hospital for Children, Boston. He specializes in postburn reconstruction and reconstruction after skin and breast cancer.

Dr. Ehrlichman is a Colonel in the United States Army Medical Corps. and deployed to Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom in 2011 – 2012. He is the Senior Physician and Flight Surgeon for the Massachusetts National Guard.

Dr. Ehrlichman has also served as Vice President of the Boston Surgical Society.

F. Thurston Drake, MD, MPH

is an Associate Professor of Surgery at the Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine. Dr. Drake is Chief of Endocrine Surgery and the Robert M. Beazley Scholar in Surgical Science at Boston Medical Center.  He serves on the editorial boards of Surgery and Journal of Surgical Research, and is co-chair of the Trainees and Career Advancement Committee of the American Thyroid Association.

Dr. Drake earned an AB in English Literature from Princeton University, his MD from the University of Utah School of Medicine, and an MPH from the University of Washington in Seattle, WA. He trained in General Surgery at the University of Washington Medical Center and completed a fellowship in Comprehensive Endocrine Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Dr. Drake serves as a Commander in the United States Navy Reserve Medical Corps.