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Roberta Elena Sonnino, MD, FACS, FAAP

Contributed-Service Faculty, School of Medicine

MD, 1979, University of Padova, Italy
BS, 1973, University of Michigan
Maturita' Diploma, 1971, Liceo Linguistico Orsoline,
Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy

Dr. Roberta Sonnino
Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs
University of Minnesota Medical School
MMC 293; C694 Mayo Memorial Building
420 Delaware Street, SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Phone: 612-624-5442.
Email: rsonnino@umn.edu

Biography

In May 2008, Roberta E. Sonnino, M.D., FACS, FAAP became the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs at the University of Minnesota Medical School. She continues to hold an appointment at the Creighton University School of Medicine as a Contributed-Service faculty member.

Dr. Sonnino was born in New York, and moved to Venice, Italy with her family as a young child. She completed her secondary schooling in Italy (including high school in the Italian Alps), and received her M.D. at the University of Padova, the oldest medical school in the world. She moved back to the US for her post-graduate training, completing her General Surgery residency at Henry Ford Hospital and her pediatric surgery Fellowship at the Montreal Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Sonnino’s career has been centered around pediatric surgery for more than 30 years. Before joining Creighton, she rose through the faculty ranks at Case Western Reserve University and the Medical College of Virginia. She then served as Professor in the Departments of Surgery and Pediatrics, Chief of Pediatric Surgery, Associate Dean for Special Programs and Assistant Dean for Student Affairs at the University of Kansas School of Medicine and subsequently as Chief of Pediatric Surgery and Surgeon-in-Chief of the Children’s Hospital at Mercer University School of Medicine, in Macon, GA.

Throughout her career, Dr. Sonnino has been actively interested in the ethical issues surrounding the care of pediatric surgical patients, as well as patient safety issues and the prevention of medical errors, particularly in the context of the pediatric operating room and intensive care unit environments. A firm believer in the importance of humanism in medicine, Dr. Sonnino has actively participated in the education of health care professionals across the disciplines for many years, and has used her passion for photography as a tool to enhance interactions among health care providers, as well as with patients and their families.

Dr. Sonnino completed the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) fellowship in 1998. She has accumulated many years’ experience with national organizations dealing with surgery, pediatrics, research, women in medicine and leadership issues. She has served as an officer and committee member for more than 15 professional societies, is a Past President of the Academy of Surgical Research, and is Past President of the Society for Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (SELAM).

Dr. Sonnino’s research career has been focused on the study of ischemic injury to the intestine, bowel transplants and graft preservation. Her research has been funded by the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation. Her accomplishments also include over 75 peer-reviewed published articles and close to 100 national or international presentations. Dr. Sonnino has earned numerous awards, such as the Research Forum Award for the Children’s Hospital Research Foundation in Columbus, OH, the Andreas von Recum Award for Service from the Academy of Surgical Research, and the Italian Pediatric Surgical Association Award.

She is a passionate photographer, and has had several solo exhibits of her series of medical images entitled “Fragile Beginnings”. The March of Dimes Foundation, will be sponsoring a touring exhibit of these images, beginning with an opening at the Jackson Gallery, in Old Market, Omaha in September 2007. A hardcover, coffee-table style monograph, Journey to Authenticity: Voices of Chief Residents, illustrated with photographs by Dr. Sonnino, was published by the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education, in May 2007.

Research Interests

Basic Science:

Causative Mechanisms of Intestinal Ischemic Injury: The Role of Phospholipase A2 and Intestinal Fatty Acid Binding Protein
Small Bowel Transplantation: Graft Preservation and Function

Other:

Ethical issues surrounding the care of pediatric surgical patients
Decision making for children and adolescents – the patient’s role
Patient safety
Prevention of medical errors (particularly in operating room and intensive care units).
Humanism in medicine
Photography as a tool to enhance interactions among health care providers, as well as with patients and their families & the role of photography in the care of patients
Leadership for Women in Health Care Professions

Professional Societies

American Medical Association - Professionalism
Academy of Surgical Research President 1994-95; Chair, Ethics Committee 1991-94
American Academy of Pediatrics Surgical Section, Arnold G. Salzberg Mentoring Award Fund (Chair) 2005-
American College of Surgeons-Task Force on Student Mentoring 2002; International Relations Committee 2005-
Association of American Medical Colleges
Women in Medicine Coordinating Committee 1999-2002; Faculty Affairs Group 2004 -
Women’s Liaison Officer for CU – SOM 2004 -
Association for Academic Surgery- Institutional Representative, Creighton University 2005-
Canadian Association of Paediatric Surgeons-Ethics and Moral Issues Committee 1992 – 95; Education Committee 1995- 2005; Research Committee 2001 - 2002
ELAM (Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine)- Advisory Committee 2005 – 2006
MCV/VCU Women in Medicine Organization Program Committee 1997 - 2000
Metropolitan Medical Society -Greater Kansas City WIM Planning Committee 2000-2003
Richmond Academy of Medicine - Program Committee 1998
SELAM (Society for Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine) President 2005-2006

Awards, Fellowships and Honors

Leadership Award, Richmond Academy of Medicine, 1998
Fellow in the “Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine - A Program for Women”, Philadelphia, PA, Class of 1997-98
Academy of Surgical Research, Andreas von Recum Award for Service, 1999
Honoree, 2001 Celebration of Women, Women's Foundation of Greater Kansas City (June 5, 2001)
Honoree, Holiday Celebration of Women, KC, December 2001
AAUW-LAF Award, October 2003
Runner-up Award, AAMC Reporter Photography Contest, March 2004: “Teamwork”

Selected Publications

Kosoko-Lasaki O, Sonnino RE, Voytko ML: Mentoring for Women and Underrepresented Minority Faculties and Students: Experience at Two Institutions of Higher Education , Journal Of The National Medical Association 98(9): 1449- 1459, 2006

Galt KA, Paschal KA, O’Brien RL, McQuillan RJ Graves JK, Harris B, Mahern C, Schierton LS, Bramble JD, Clark BE, Gleason JM, Hoidal P, Moores K, Mu K, Rule AM, Bradberry JC, Sonnino RE, Gerardi D: Description and Evaluation of an Inter-professional Patient Safety Course for Health Professions and Related Sciences Students. J Patient Saf 2(4):207-216, 2006

Caniano DA, Sonnino RE, Paolo AM: Keys To Career Satisfaction: Insights From A Survey Of Women
Pediatric Surgeons. J Pediatr Surg 39(6):984-990, 2004

Sonnino RE, Calkins J, Greenberger N, Meyer M, Minns G, Rawitch A, Varghese G, Calkins D, and Powell DE: Early experience with Academic Societies at The University of Kansas School of Medicine, Innovations in Medical Education Display - Proceedings, AAMC, 2000

Sonnino RE: Life in the Boys' Club. In: This side of Doctoring: Reflections from Women in Medicine (Lo Chin, Ed). Sage Publications, Inc, pp. 226-228, 2002.

Sonnino RE: Academic Societies: KU Med Vol 51(1):B12, 2001

Sonnino RE et al: Professionalism Document, University of Kansas School of Medicine (Website, June 2001)

Sonnino RE: Professionalism Initiative: Physician's Practice Digest, July-Aug 2000, pp. A1

Sonnino RE: Ethical Issues: Impact of the animal rights movement on surgical research. Pediatric Surgery International 11( 7): 438-443, 1996.

Select Presentations

Sonnino RE: Pediatric Surgery for the Primary Care Practitioner. 4th Annual Regional Pediatric Symposium of the Black Hills, June 22-23, 2007

Sonnino RE, Kosoko-Lasaki S, Enarson CE: Mentoring Program for Minority Faculty in a Private, Jesuit Medical School, Keeping Our Faculties IV Symposium - RECRUITING, RETAINING, AND ADVANCING FACULTY OF COLOR, Minneapolis, MN, April 13, 2007

Sonnino RE, Chatterjee A, Brown A: Making your work, work for you: AAMC Annual Meeting, Seattle, WA, October 28, 2006

Shaw DE, Albritton TA, Sonnino RE: Evaluating Professionalism: Thumb Tacking Jell-O to the Wall.
AAMC- SGEA Annual Meeting, Savannah, GA April 2004

Caniano DA, Sonnino RE, Paolo AM: Keys To Career Satisfaction: Insights From A Survey Of Women
Pediatric Surgeons, American Academy of Pediatrics Conference and Exhibition, New Orleans, Nov 2003

Sonnino RE: "The courage to have a life – tips for successful juggling". Society for Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine, 2003

Sonnino RE: A New Era for Professionalism in Medicine: A Leading Role for Surgeons? KS Chapter, American College of Surgeons, Wichita, KS, Sept. 2002

Select Posters

Sonnino RE, McCloskey L, Enarson CE: Effective Faculty Orientation Programs – What works and what doesn’t. AAMC Group on Faculty Affairs Meeting, San Diego, January 2007

Sonnino RE, Chatterjee A, Gentry-Nielsen M, Drescher K, Scofield M, Enarson, CE: Partnership between a SOM - based Women in Medicine and Science and Minority Faculty Development programs and AAMC: Getting the message across. AAMC Annual Meeting, Seattle, WA, Oct 2006

Sonnino RE, Richman RC, Odhner V, SELAM Board of Directors: Society for Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine - SELAM: Coming of Age, AAMC Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, Nov 6, 2005

Sonnino RE, Gentry-Nielsen M, Drescher K, Scofield M, Chatterjee A: Birth of a Successful Women in Medicine and Science Program in a Private, Jesuit Medical School, AAMC Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, Nov 6, 2005

Sonnino RE, Kosoko-Lasaki S, Bailey C, McCloskey L: Mentoring Program for Minority Faculty in a Private, Jesuit Medical School, AAMC Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, Nov 6, 2005

Select Medical Photography Exhibits

“Fragile Beginnings” - Photographs by Roberta E. Sonnino, M.D., Traveling exhibit throughout Nebraska, Opening September 2007, Jackson Gallery, Omaha, NE

“From ‘Phisition’ to Medical Doctor – A Catalogue on the Evolution of Medical Education”, Permanent Exhibit, AAMC National Offices, Washington, DC - “Teamwork” by Roberta E. Sonnino, M.D.

Selected Published Photographs

Ghost Plane - cover photo, St. Martin’s Press, Released October 17, 2006;

Extreme Makeover – Home Edition (ABC-TV): “Cloud Nine”, March 2006

“From ‘Phisition’ to Medical Doctor – A Catalogue on the Evolution of Medical Education”, Exhibit Brochure, AAMC, Washington, DC (April 22, 2005) - “Teamwork”

NYIP Online Magazine: Student Perspective: The NYI Interview, July 2004
URL: http://www.nyip.com/tips/perspective0704.php

M.D. News, Cover Story: Dr. Roberta Sonnino, Professor of Surgery, Vol. 2, No 2: pp. 6-8 March 2004 URL: http://www.creativeresultsinc.com/sonnino 1.htm

Books

Jacobs J, Editor, Sonnino RE, Photographer: Journey to Authenticity: Voices of Chief Residents. ACGME (Arc Publishing Group), May 2007.

Creighton University - Center for Health Policy & Ethics