Aline Charabaty

Marla C. Dubinsky received a medical degree from Queen’s University in Canada and completed her clinical pediatric gastroenterology training at Sainte-Justine Hospital, University of Montreal in Quebec, Canada adn her IBD training at Cedars-SInai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA. Dr. Dubinsky is a proud recipient of the 2022 Sherman Prize for Excellence in Crohn’s and Colitis and a 2024 Jacobi Medallion winner for her contibutions to Mount Sinai. Currently, Dr. Dubinsky is Chief of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, as well as the Co-Director of the Susan and Leonard Feinstein Inflammatory Bowel Disease Clinical Center and Co-director of the Marie and Barry Lipman Preconception and Pregnancy Planning Clinic at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, She is a Professor of both Pediatrics and Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine, Her primary research focuses on the influence of genetics and immune responses on the variability in clinical presentations, treatment responses and prognosis of IBD. Her other interests include the impact of IBD on fertility and pregnancy. She has lectured widely both nationally and internationally and has published in over 400 peer reviewed journals including New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Gastroenterology, The American Journal of Gastroenterology, The Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, and of Crohn's and Colitis .

Millie D. Long MD, MPH earned her doctor of medicine degree at the University of Virginia. She completed a residency and chief residency in internal medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She then completed a gastroenterology fellowship at University of North Carolina. She also completed a fellowship in preventive medicine and a masters of public health in epidemiology at the Gillings School of Public Health. She is board certified in internal medicine, preventive medicine, and gastroenterology. She is currently Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the University of North Carolina, as well as Chief of the Division.

Dr. Long’s clinical practice is at the UNC Multidisciplinary Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) center. Her research interests include prevention of complications of IBD, women’s health and clinical epidemiology. Dr. Long has contributed over 200 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, and review articles to the literature. She co-authored the 2025 ACG ulcerative colitis guidelines. She serves Co-Editor in Chief of the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

Dr. Long is a fellow of the American College of Gastroenterology where she is a member of the Board of Trustees. She is also a fellow of the American Gastroenterological Association and a member of the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation. Recipient of the 2024 Sherman Prize for Excellence in Crohn’s and Colitis. She is a member of the International Organization for the Study of IBD.

Dr. Aline Charabaty is Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland and the Director of the IBD Program at the University of Maryland Medical center. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the Crohn’s and Colitis 360 journal, and is past Vice-Chair of the AGA Research Foundation Executive Board, and past ACG Governor for Washington DC. Her work and advocacy were recognized by the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation Excellence in Medicine Award in 2020 , the ACG Diversity Equity and Inclusion Award in 2025, and the AGA Beacon of Hope Award in 2026. Dr Charabaty uses social media to amplify medical education in IBD and is the founder of @MondayNightIBD a CME platform on twitter for which she received the Healio Disruptive Innovator Award in 2019. Dr Charabaty is a strong advocate for diversity and the professional advancement of women in GI. She is the Co-Founder of Scrubs & Heels, a foundation focused on empowering women in GI with the leadership skills, networking and mentorship to achieve professional goals and growth.

Dr. Kara De Felice serves as an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine and the Director of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases at the University of Cincinnati. Leading a multidisciplinary IBD team, her mission is to deliver exceptional patient care and improve long-term outcomes through clinical excellence, participation in clinical trials, and the training of the next generation of gastroenterologists. A dedicated educator, she is a frequent speaker at regional and national conferences with a specialized focus on women in GI and Advanced Practice Provider (APP) education. Outside of the clinic, she enjoys traveling, playing tennis, and hosting dinner and cocktail parties.

Dr. Christina Ha completed her internal medicine residency and fellowship at the Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine and then received additional training as the Present-Levison Inflammatory Bowel Diseases Fellow at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She is Director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Section and Associate Professor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic Arizona. Her clinical research interests focus on the impact of aging on the natural history of the inflammatory bowel diseases, especially the pathogenesis and natural history of late-onset IBD. She is also very involved in IBD related trainee educational initiatives and has served on multiple committees within the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, American College of Gastroenterology, and American Gastroenterological Association.

Dr. Maia Kayal is an Associate Professor in the Division of Gastroenterology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and The Susan and Leonard Feinstein IBD Center. She graduated from New York University School of Medicine Alpha Omega Alpha. She then completed her internal medicine residency at Columbia University Medical Center-New York Presbyterian Hospital and fellowship training in gastroenterology at the Mount Sinai Hospital. Dr. Kayal's research in inflammatory conditions of the ileal pouch is funded by the NIH, Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, and Rainin Foundation. She is a former ACG Young Physicians Leadership Scholar and AGA Future Leader.

Neilanjan Nandi, MD, FACG, AGAF, FCCF, FACP is an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania and is the Co-Section Head and Direcotr of Clinical Operations of the University of Pennsylvania Inflammatory Bowel Disease Program. Dr. Nandi specializes in the complex management of Crohn's disease, Ulcerative Colitis and recurrent C. difficile infection (C difficile). He has also authored numerous abstracts, publications and book chapters on the diagnosis and management of IBD, C difficile and various viral, parasitic, mycobacterial and bacterial infections of the GI tract. Aligning with his interests, Dr. Nandi has conducted several clinical trials focused on the clinical impact of stool derived microbiome therapies in C difficile and IBD. Dr. Nandi servies on the Philadelphia/Delaware Valley Crohn's & Colitis Foundation (CCF) Executive Council and on the Medical Advisory Board of the United Ostomy Associates of America (UOAA). He is a founding non-profit board member and Chair of the South Asian IBD Alliance (SAIA) which elevates culturally competent care in South Asian IBD. He has been recognized with the 2019 Philly Take STeps Physician Hero, the 2022 CCF's National Chairman’s Citation Award and the 2024 CCF's Gold Medallion Physician Award. He is the honored recipient of the 2023 Sidney Cohen GI Faculty Teaching Award and the 2024 Radhika Srinivasan GI Faculty award for Professionalism and Humanism at the Perelman School of Medicine.

Jessiy Salwen-Deremer, Ph.D., DBSM, is the Director of Behavioral Medicine for Digestive Health at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry & Medicine at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. Dr. Salwen-Deremer earned her Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Stony Brook University and completed her fellowship training in behavioral medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Her areas of clinical expertise include behavioral sleep medicine and gastropsychology. Her research expertise encompasses two areas: understanding the impact of sleep disorders on inflammatory bowel diseases and improving access to gastrointestinal behavioral health care. Across both of these areas, she focuses on the integration of telehealth and remote technologies to enhance patient engagement and participation.

Dr. Aline Charabaty is Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland and the Director of the IBD Program at the University of Maryland Medical center. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the Crohn’s and Colitis 360 journal, and is past Vice-Chair of the AGA Research Foundation Executive Board, and past ACG Governor for Washington DC. Her work and advocacy were recognized by the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation Excellence in Medicine Award in 2020 , the ACG Diversity Equity and Inclusion Award in 2025, and the AGA Beacon of Hope Award in 2026. Dr Charabaty uses social media to amplify medical education in IBD and is the founder of @MondayNightIBD a CME platform on twitter for which she received the Healio Disruptive Innovator Award in 2019. Dr Charabaty is a strong advocate for diversity and the professional advancement of women in GI. She is the Co-Founder of Scrubs & Heels, a foundation focused on empowering women in GI with the leadership skills, networking and mentorship to achieve professional goals and growth.

Kelly Issokson, MS, RD, CSDH, LDN, CNSC is the Senior Registered Dietitian of Outpatient Nutrition at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and a nationally recognized expert in gastrointestinal nutrition. With over 17 years of clinical experience, she specializes in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and surgical nutrition. Ms. Issokson graduated magna cum laude from Johnson & Wales University and earned her MS in Nutrition from California State University, Northridge. She serves on the National Board of the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation and is a leading voice in advancing nutrition as part of multidisciplinary IBD care. She co-developed the Cedars-Sinai IBD Prehabilitation Program and nutrition education training programs for physicians, APPs, and RDs.

Gil Y. Melmed, MD, MS, is the Clinical Director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Program and Associate Director of the Karsh Division of Digestive and Liver Diseases at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. He earned his medical degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York, and master of science in clinical research from UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles. Dr Melmed completed his gastroenterology fellowship at the University of California, Los Angeles.
He has authored or coauthored more than 250 articles in peer-reviewed journals and several book chapters. Dr Melmed has served as Associate Editor of the American Journal of Gastroenterology, an ad hoc reviewer for several journals, and clinical research editor for Inflammatory Bowel Disease. His research interests include clinical outcomes and quality of care in IBD. He has given invited lectures and presentations nationally and internationally on several clinical topics in inflammatory bowel disease, including quality of care and clinical outcomes. He is a committee member of several professional organizations, including the American College of Gastroenterology and the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, where he serves as co-chair of the IBD Quality of Care committee. He has led or participated in the development of quality measures for IBD with the American Gastroenterology Association, the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, and the Canadian Crohn’s and Colitis organizations.

Neilanjan Nandi, MD, FACG, AGAF, FCCF, FACP is an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania and is the Co-Section Head and Direcotr of Clinical Operations of the University of Pennsylvania Inflammatory Bowel Disease Program. Dr. Nandi specializes in the complex management of Crohn's disease, Ulcerative Colitis and recurrent C. difficile infection (C difficile). He has also authored numerous abstracts, publications and book chapters on the diagnosis and management of IBD, C difficile and various viral, parasitic, mycobacterial and bacterial infections of the GI tract. Aligning with his interests, Dr. Nandi has conducted several clinical trials focused on the clinical impact of stool derived microbiome therapies in C difficile and IBD. Dr. Nandi servies on the Philadelphia/Delaware Valley Crohn's & Colitis Foundation (CCF) Executive Council and on the Medical Advisory Board of the United Ostomy Associates of America (UOAA). He is a founding non-profit board member and Chair of the South Asian IBD Alliance (SAIA) which elevates culturally competent care in South Asian IBD. He has been recognized with the 2019 Philly Take STeps Physician Hero, the 2022 CCF's National Chairman’s Citation Award and the 2024 CCF's Gold Medallion Physician Award. He is the honored recipient of the 2023 Sidney Cohen GI Faculty Teaching Award and the 2024 Radhika Srinivasan GI Faculty award for Professionalism and Humanism at the Perelman School of Medicine.

Jessiy Salwen-Deremer, Ph.D., DBSM, is the Director of Behavioral Medicine for Digestive Health at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry & Medicine at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. Dr. Salwen-Deremer earned her Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Stony Brook University and completed her fellowship training in behavioral medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Her areas of clinical expertise include behavioral sleep medicine and gastropsychology. Her research expertise encompasses two areas: understanding the impact of sleep disorders on inflammatory bowel diseases and improving access to gastrointestinal behavioral health care. Across both of these areas, she focuses on the integration of telehealth and remote technologies to enhance patient engagement and participation.

Dr. Aline Charabaty is Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland and the Director of the IBD Program at the University of Maryland Medical center. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the Crohn’s and Colitis 360 journal, and is past Vice-Chair of the AGA Research Foundation Executive Board, and past ACG Governor for Washington DC. Her work and advocacy were recognized by the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation Excellence in Medicine Award in 2020 , the ACG Diversity Equity and Inclusion Award in 2025, and the AGA Beacon of Hope Award in 2026. Dr Charabaty uses social media to amplify medical education in IBD and is the founder of @MondayNightIBD a CME platform on twitter for which she received the Healio Disruptive Innovator Award in 2019. Dr Charabaty is a strong advocate for diversity and the professional advancement of women in GI. She is the Co-Founder of Scrubs & Heels, a foundation focused on empowering women in GI with the leadership skills, networking and mentorship to achieve professional goals and growth.

Kelly Issokson, MS, RD, CSDH, LDN, CNSC is the Senior Registered Dietitian of Outpatient Nutrition at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and a nationally recognized expert in gastrointestinal nutrition. With over 17 years of clinical experience, she specializes in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and surgical nutrition. Ms. Issokson graduated magna cum laude from Johnson & Wales University and earned her MS in Nutrition from California State University, Northridge. She serves on the National Board of the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation and is a leading voice in advancing nutrition as part of multidisciplinary IBD care. She co-developed the Cedars-Sinai IBD Prehabilitation Program and nutrition education training programs for physicians, APPs, and RDs.

Gil Y. Melmed, MD, MS, is the Clinical Director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Program and Associate Director of the Karsh Division of Digestive and Liver Diseases at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. He earned his medical degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York, and master of science in clinical research from UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles. Dr Melmed completed his gastroenterology fellowship at the University of California, Los Angeles.
He has authored or coauthored more than 250 articles in peer-reviewed journals and several book chapters. Dr Melmed has served as Associate Editor of the American Journal of Gastroenterology, an ad hoc reviewer for several journals, and clinical research editor for Inflammatory Bowel Disease. His research interests include clinical outcomes and quality of care in IBD. He has given invited lectures and presentations nationally and internationally on several clinical topics in inflammatory bowel disease, including quality of care and clinical outcomes. He is a committee member of several professional organizations, including the American College of Gastroenterology and the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, where he serves as co-chair of the IBD Quality of Care committee. He has led or participated in the development of quality measures for IBD with the American Gastroenterology Association, the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, and the Canadian Crohn’s and Colitis organizations.

Gastroenterologist with an interest in inflammatory bowel diseases.

Paulo Gustavo Kotze is Adjunct Senior Professor of Surgery at the Catholic University in Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil. He rcompleted his General Surgery training at the Evangelical University Hospital in Curitiba (2000). He also completed his senior Fellowship in Colorectal Surgery at the Clinics Hospital from the Federal University of Parana (2002). Dr. Kotze achieved his Masters' Degree on Surgery at the Catholic University in 2008 and joined the faculty of medicine at the same university in 2011. He achieved his PhD degree studying the influence of biological therapy on surgical outcomes in Crohn´s disease, in the University of Campinas, in São Paulo, Brazil (UNICAMP) in 2015. Dr. Kotze was also an IBD advanced visiting fellow in the IBD unit at the University of Calgary (Cumming school of medicine), Canada, for the period of 2017-2018. Dr. Kotze is an experienced IBD surgeon and author of 3 books, 250+ pubmed peer-reviewed articles and multiple book chapters focused on Crohn´s disease and ulcerative colitis. He has special interest in the fields of biological therapy, epidemiology and surgery in IBD. Dr. Kotze was formely a committee member of S-ECCO (surgeons of ECCO) from 2015-2018 and a member of the ECCO EduCOM (educational committee), 2018-2021. He is an active member from the International Organization of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IOIBD). Currently, he is Professor of the Health Sciences Postgraduate Program at the Catholic University of Paraná, in Curitiba, Brazil. Dr Kotze is also a senior researcher for the National Brazilian Council of Research (CNPq).

Dr. Aline Charabaty is Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland and the Director of the IBD Program at the University of Maryland Medical center. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the Crohn’s and Colitis 360 journal, and is past Vice-Chair of the AGA Research Foundation Executive Board, and past ACG Governor for Washington DC. Her work and advocacy were recognized by the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation Excellence in Medicine Award in 2020 , the ACG Diversity Equity and Inclusion Award in 2025, and the AGA Beacon of Hope Award in 2026. Dr Charabaty uses social media to amplify medical education in IBD and is the founder of @MondayNightIBD a CME platform on twitter for which she received the Healio Disruptive Innovator Award in 2019. Dr Charabaty is a strong advocate for diversity and the professional advancement of women in GI. She is the Co-Founder of Scrubs & Heels, a foundation focused on empowering women in GI with the leadership skills, networking and mentorship to achieve professional goals and growth.

Katherine Falloon, MD, is a staff gastroenterologist at the Digestive Disease and Surgery Institute at the Cleveland Clinic and an assistant professor of medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. She is also the co-director of the intestinal ultrasound program at the Cleveland Clinic. Her clinical focus is in caring for patients in inflammatory bowel disease and her research interest is in extra-intestinal manifestations of inflammatory bowel disease. She is currently leading the Cohort for Healing Skin, Eye, and Extra-Intestinal Manifestations (CHASE-EIM), a multi-disciplinary research consortia related to extra-intestinal manifestations of inflammatory bowel disease. She has received funding from the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation, Pfizer, and the Digestive Disease and Surgery Institute's Chief Innovation and Research Award.

Phillip R. Fleshner, MD is the Director of Colorectal Surgery Research at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He holds the Shierley, Jesslyne, and Emmeline Widjaja Chair in Colorectal Surgery.

Dr. Fleshner's main clinical and research interests are directed towards optimizing outcomes and techniques in the surgical management of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.

Dr. Fleshner has written numerous articles for peer-reviewed publications, including the Annals of Surgery, Journal of the American College of Surgeons, Diseases of the Colon and Rectum, Gut and the American Journal of Surgery.

Dr. Fleshner received his bachelor's degree from McGill University and his medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He completed his General Surgery Residency at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York and his Colorectal Surgery Fellowship at the Lahey Clinic in Boston.

He received the Sherman Prize in 2021.

Hans Herfarth is Director of the Multidisciplinary IBD Center at the University of North Carolina. His primary research interests focus on the development and evaluation of novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). His work is particularly centered on the conceptualization and conduct of investigator-initiated clinical studies in IBD, supported by funding from the NIH, the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation, and private and industry-associated foundations. Dr. Herfarth has authored more than 350 journal articles, book chapters, and review articles related to IBD.