The Collaborating Centre is made possible by the work of a multidisciplinary team of clinicians and researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). We are led by co-directors from the UCSF Department of Emergency Medicine and the UCSF Institute for Global Health Sciences, who collaborate with our advisory board to set priorities. However, our work includes many others.
Co-Directors
Carol Chen, MD, MPH
Co-Director, Collaborating Centre
Specialty: Emergency medicine
[email protected]
Carol Chen, MD, MPH, is a pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) physician who serves as Co-Director of the Collaborating Centre. She is also the Co-Medical Director of the pediatric emergency department at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.
She is a graduate of the Duke University School of Medicine and completed a pediatrics residency program at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), before heading to Texas Children’s Hospital/Baylor College of Medicine to complete fellowships in PEM and global health. During this time, she also completed a Master of Public Health (MPH) at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Michael Lipnick, MD
Co-Director, Collaborating Centre
Specialty: Anesthesia and critical care
[email protected]
Michael Lipnick, MD, is an anesthesiologist and intensivist at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. He is a graduate of the UCSF School of Medicine and completed residency programs in internal medicine at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital and anesthesia at UCSF. He also fulfilled a fellowship in critical care at UCSF.
Advisory Board
Marissa Boeck, MD, MPH
Surgery Lead, Collaborating Centre Advisory Board
Specialty: Trauma surgery
[email protected]
Marissa Boeck, MD, MPH, is an assistant professor in the Department of Surgery. She serves as an acute care surgeon at Parnassus and as an acute care and trauma surgeon and surgical critical care intensivist at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. Dr. Boeck is a co-director of the Center for Health Equity in Surgery and Anesthesia (CHESA), as well as the center's director of General Surgery/Trauma.
Teresa Kortz, MD, MS, PhD
Pediatric Critical Care Lead, Advisory Board
Specialty: Pediatric critical care
[email protected]
Teresa Kortz, MD, MS, PhD, is an associate professor of Clinical Pediatrics in critical care medicine, program director of the Faculty Affiliate Program of the UCSF Institute for Global Health Sciences, and co-director of the Pediatric Global Health Scholars Pathway. She has a master’s degree in global health sciences and a doctorate in global health sciences clinical research. Dr. Kortz is a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded researcher who studies pediatric sepsis etiology, prognostic biomarkers, and clinical outcomes in East Africa.
Rebecca Silvers, DNP, CPNP-AC
Nursing Lead, Collaborating Centre Advisory Board
Specialty: Pediatric critical care and neurosurgery; Education
[email protected]
Rebecca Silvers, DNP, CPNP-AC, is the founding director of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Center for Global Nursing (CGN) at the Institute for Global Health Sciences. She also serves as an assistant clinical professor at the UCSF School of Nursing and continues her clinical practice as a pediatric nurse practitioner in the divisions of critical care and neurosurgery at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals. Rebecca is also the Director of Education for the UCSF Center for Health Equity in Surgery & Anesthesia and serves as the nursing lead for UCSF’s WHO Collaborating Center for Emergency, Critical, and Operative Care.
With over 20 years of US-based clinical and global experience as a registered nurse and certified pediatric nurse practitioner. Dr. Silvers has been a key figure in developing sustainable critical and surgical care programs in more than 20 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), which has led to her role as a critical care education technical expert and consultant for the Open Critical Care Project, United Nations, Global Surgery Fund, and various non-governmental organizations, including Friends Without a Border, Partners In Health, and Novick Cardiac Alliance. Currently, she is contributing to the content development for the WHO Basic Critical Care Course and is actively involved in surgical education and workforce development projects.
As the founding director of the Center for Global Nursing, Dr. Silvers has established a platform for nurses and advanced practice providers to engage in global health solutions through education, partnerships, and research. Dr. Silvers earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the Ingram School of Nursing at McGill University in Montréal, Canada. She went on to earn a Master of Science in Nursing and a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree from Vanderbilt University, with minors in education and global health, specializing in quality improvement and program evaluation.
Other Members
Kent Garber, MD
Assistant Professor of Surgery, Division of General Surgery, UCSF
Specialty: Trauma surgery
[email protected]
Kent Garber, MD, is an assistant professor of surgery who earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School and completed his general surgery training at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Prior to completing his MD, Dr. Garber worked as a journalist in Washington, D.C., covering politics and health policy.
Over the past five years, he has provided technical and data analytical support to World Bank collaborations with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Yemen and South Sudan, focusing on strengthening data collection and analyses to assess programming impact and healthcare delivery better. His work incorporates complex household and facility-based survey design, geospatial analysis, quality and cost assessments, and other rapid data collection and longitudinal data analysis approaches
Adrian Gelb, MD
Professor Emeritus
Specialty: Anesthesia
[email protected]
Adrian Gelb, MD, is an emeritus professor in the Department of Anesthesia & Perioperative Care at UCSF, for which he previously served as Vice Chair. He is also the the past president of the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiology (WFSA), an umbrella organization for 135 national anesthesia societies. Dr. Gelb currently serves as director of Advocacy for the UCSF Center for Equity in Surgery & Anesthesia (CHESA).
After training in Cape Town and working in rural South Africa, Dr. Gelb immigrated to Canada where he was the Chair of Anesthesia at the University Western Ontario. He has held leadership roles in multiple national and international Anesthesia Societies and also the G4Alliance. His Global Health interests include National Surgical Obstetric & Anesthesia Planning (NSOAP), Anesthetic Capacity, and Patient Safety.
Doruk Ozgediz, MD, MSc
Professor of Surgery, Division of Pediatric Surgery, UCSF
Specialty: Pediatric surgery
[email protected]
Doruk Ozgediz, MD, MSc, is a professor of surgery, director of the Center for Global Surgery and Health Equity (UCSF), and a member of the UCSF Institute for Global Health Sciences' leadership team. He trained in medicine at UCSF and completed a general surgery residency at UCSF before pursuing a pediatric surgery fellowship at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), of the University of Toronto. Dr. Ozgediz also completed a Master of Science in public health in developing countries at The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
He is a co-founder of the Global Partners in Anesthesia and Surgery (GPAS) collaboration, focused in Uganda, as well as the Global Initiative for Children's Surgery (GICS). He is also on the advisory board of KIDS OR, an international charity dedicated to strengthening surgery and perioperative care in low resource settings.