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Meet the 2018 - 2019 Mentors
Richard K. Babayan, MD
Richard K. Babayan, MD, is professor and chair of the Department of Urology, Boston University School of Medicine, and Chief of Urology at Boston Medical Center. Dr. Babayan is a graduate of Tufts University and received his medical degree at Indiana University School of Medicine in 1975. He completed his surgical training at Yale-New Haven Hospital before completing his urology residency at Boston University Medical Center in 1980. From 1980 to 1982, Dr. Babayan was an AUA Research Scholar, performing basic science research in the field of hyperthermia at both MIT and BUSM. His clinical interests center on endourology and the use of minimally invasive approaches (including robotics) for prostate cancer, urinary stones, BPH and urologic oncology.
Dr. Babayan has been an active participant in local, national and international urologic organizations. He has held numerous leadership positions in the New England Section of the AUA, including president and treasurer, and served as New England Section representative to the AUA Board of Directors from 2005 to 2009. In 2011, Dr. Babayan received the AUA's Distinguished Service Award, and in 2013, the New England Section awarded him with the Joseph B. Dowd Lifetime Achievement Award. Dr. Babayan has been a member of the Development Council for the AUA Foundation, and has been a mentor in the AUA Leadership Program. He is a past member of the Editorial Board of the Urological Survey for The Journal of Urology®, and Chair of the AUA Publications Committee. Dr. Babayan is the past president and member of the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Association of Practicing Urologists and serves on the Medical Advisory Board of the Massachusetts Prostate Cancer Coalition. He has been a member of the AUA since 1983.
Arthur L. Burnett, MD, MBA, FACS
Dr. Burnett received his AB degree in Biology from Princeton University and MD and MBA degrees from Johns Hopkins University. His post-graduate training in general surgery, urology and reconstructive urology and urodynamics was performed at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He subsequently joined the faculty at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, receiving an American Foundation for Urologic Disease scholarship, and thereafter he ascended to his current rank as the Patrick C. Walsh Distinguished Professor of Urology. Dr. Burnett also holds a faculty appointment in the Cellular and Molecular Medicine Training Program, Honorary Professor, Department of Surgery, Radiology, Anesthesia & Critical Care, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica, and Professor, Oncology Center, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Additional appointments are that of Director of the Basic Science Laboratory in Neuro-urology of the James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute and Director of the Male Consultation Clinic. Dr. Burnett has written more than 300 original peer-review articles and 50 book chapters, along with numerous additional editorials and publications relating to his biomedical research and clinical activities.
Kathleen Kobashi, MD, FACS
Dr. Kobashi is Head of the Section of Urology and Renal Transplantation at Virginia Mason Medical Center and Director of VM's Pelvic Floor Center. She received her BA at Wellesley College and her MD at Hahnemann University in Philadelphia, and completed her urologic residency at the University of California, Irvine followed by a Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery (FPMRS) Fellowship at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles before joining Virginia Mason in 1999. In addition to her passion around clinical medicine, Dr. Kobashi is dedicated to research and education of patients and future urologists. She founded the FPMRS fellowship in 2003 and a new urology residency in 2014, for which she serves as the program director. She is a Clinical Professor at the University of Washington in Seattle. Dr. Kobashi has authored more than 80 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on topics related to urinary incontinence and pelvic prolapse and has been invited faculty on the subject around the globe. She is the current President of SUFU and serves on the American Board of Urology Examination Committee and the Editorial Board of the new AUA journal, Urology Practice. She received the 2006 Continence Care Champion award from the National Association for Continence, the prestigious Paul Zimskind Award from SUFU in 2010, and a Presidential Citation from the AUA in 2013.
Richard A. Memo, MD
Dr. Memo continues to practice clinical urology in the private setting of NEO Urology Associates Inc. in Youngstown, Ohio. He is Professor of Urology at NEOMED in Rootstown, Ohio. He has served in a variety of roles in the Ohio Urological Society, American Association of Clinical Urologists, and the North Central Section of the AUA. His term as AUA Treasurer was from 2009 to 2013. Most recently, he completed a three year commitment to the Urology Care Foundation as its first Chairman. The Foundation infrastructure was redesigned and the endowment for research greatly expanded during that time. He has been a member of the AUA since 1981 and is a Diplomat of the American Board of Urology. He has been selected to receive a Distinguished Service Award at this year's AUA Annual meeting.
Craig A. Peters, MD, FAAP, FACS
Dr. Peters is the Chief, Pediatric Urology, Children's Health, Professor of Urology, University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas. He is currently the interim Surgeon-in-Chief at Children's Medical Center in Dallas. He received a BA and MD degree from the Johns Hopkins University, did his surgery and urology residency at the Johns Hopkins Hospital at the Brady Urological Institute, a Pediatric Urology Fellowship at Boston Children's Hospital and a research fellowship at Children's and Harvard. After joining the faculty of Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, he developed the pediatric urology laboratory and carried on research into basic development and pathophysiology of the fetal urinary tract. His research has been funded by NIH/NIDDK and focused on urinary obstruction, vesicoureteral reflux and bladder dysfunction, as well as quantitative imaging and robotics. Dr. Peters has extensive experience with developing minimally invasive surgical techniques, including robot-assisted procedures and treatment of pediatric urologic problems. He has authored numerous papers and chapters on minimally invasive surgery in children and lectured internationally in this area. Dr. Peters was the John E. Cole Professor of Urology and Director of Pediatric Urology at the University of Virginia, where he continued his work in basic research and minimally invasive surgery, and subsequently was Chief of Surgical Innovation at Children's National and an investigator at the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation in Washington, DC. He has recently served as a member of the Board of Directors of the AUA and the NIDDK Advisory Council. Dr. Peters is on several editorial boards, is the pediatric editor of the Campbell-Walsh Textbook of Urology, and has published more than 180 original articles and over 100 chapters.
Raju Thomas, MD
Dr. Thomas was named Chair of the Department of Urology at Tulane University Medical Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, effective March 1, 1996. He is also a Professor of Urology and the Residency Program Director for the Department of Urology. Dr. Thomas obtained his medical degree from the University of Bombay, India and graduated from the urology residency program at Tulane University. He completed a fellowship program at the Tulane Primate Center, co-sponsored by the AUA and the National Kidney Foundation. Dr. Thomas' primary interests are in minimally invasive urologic surgery, including: laparoscopy, robotic surgery and endourologic procedures. He has pioneered several innovative endoscopic and surgical procedures and developed the principles for their use. He has promoted radical perineal prostatectomy in conjunction with laparoscopy as a minimally morbid alternative for management of prostate cancer. His career has been dedicated to finding minimally invasive therapy alternatives to urologic surgery. He has the distinction of introducing urologic laparoscopy in 1991, and was the first surgeon to perform robotic surgery in the entire Gulf South in 2002. Dr. Thomas has authored over 180 scientific articles and book chapters. He is a member of several national and international scientific societies and is a peer reviewer for several urologic journals. Dr. Thomas is the recipient of the AUA Distinguished Service Award in 2016.