Ursuline Bankhead, PhD- Presenter

Betsy Dexter, MD received her Medical Degree from Case Western Reserve University in 1990.  She completed her both her residency in General Surgery and Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, In Iowa City, Iowa.  She completed a fellowship in Cardiac Surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston MA and in General Thoracic Surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.  She a diplomate of the American Board of Thoracic Surgery and the American Board of Surgery.

Doctor Dexter is currently Attending Surgeon, in Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Department of Thoracic Surgery and also serves as Associate Professor of Oncology and Quality Assurance Officer for the Department of Thoracic Surgery.  In addition, she is Clinical Associate Professor of Surgery at the Jacobs School of Medicine.

Her areas of expertise include benign lung disease such as emphysema, lung cancer, benign esophageal disease such as achalasia, hiatal hernia, gastroesophageal reflux, Zenkers diverticulum, esophageal cancer, mediastinal and chest wall tumors and cysts, mesothelioma, navigational bronchoscopy, endobronchial ultrasound, and intrabronchial valve placement.

Her main focus of clinical research is that of improving the quality of perioperative thoracic surgery patient care.  Specific projects include studying risk factors and methods to decrease perioperative morbidity and mortality including patient selection, preoperative optimization (e.g. smoking cessation) and postoperative care pathways (e.g. pain control).  She is also researching how to improve hospital and clinic processes such as optimizing operating room case scheduling.

Assistant Medical Center Director

Danielle Bergman is currently serving as Assistant Director at VA Western New York Healthcare System (VAWNYHS). Prior to this assignment, she has served as Human Resources Manager for VA NYHS. She began her VA career in 2007 at the Canandaigua VA Medical Center as a Human Resources Technical Career Field Intern and then served as a Human Resources Specialist. Following her service at Canandaigua, she worked for VA Health Care Upstate New York - Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN 2) in Albany, NY as a Supervisory Human Resources Specialist. 

Bergman graduated summa cum laude from St. John Fisher College in 2005, with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and a certification in Service Leadership, and in 2007 summa cum laude with a Master’s degree in Human Resource Development. She is also a 2016 graduate of the VA Health Care Leadership Development Program.

Katie has over 15 years of broad-ranging experience in public and private sector work in Buffalo, NY, Washington, DC, New York City and Seoul, Korea. She has extensive expertise in developing and implementing targeted communications strategies aimed at reaching internal and external stakeholders, as well as the media. Katie has a proven track record of managing a wide range of successful creative projects and is particularly adept at making strategic recommendations tailored to an organization’s unique needs, goals and objectives. She has a Bachelor of Science in Public Affairs from Indiana University Bloomington. Katie currently resides on the boards for the Richardson Center Corporation and the Eric Wood Fund and is a founding board member of Persistence Preparatory Academy, a K-8 charter school located on Buffalo’s East Side. She is a graduate of Leadership Buffalo (2016), a 40 Under 40 honoree (2016) and an ATHENA Young Professional Leadership Award Finalist (2018)  and 2019 ATHENA Award winner (2019).