Dr. Coblens graduated from the Sackler School of Medicine at Tel Aviv University and completed a fellowship in Head & Neck Surgery and Microvascular Reconstruction at University of California – Davis. She specializes in the management of advanced head and neck cancer treatment and reconstruction. She especially enjoys the collaboration with other physicians when it comes to caring for her patients. She has a strong interest in teaching and enjoys being the program director of the UTMB Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery Residency Program. During her free time, Dr. Coblens enjoys travelling and being with her husband and growing family.

Dr. Naik-Mathuria is the Division Chief of Pediatric Surgery in the Department of Surgery at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), where she?holds the Granville T. Hall Chair in General Surgery.? Dr. Naik-Mathuria?is triple board certified in Pediatric Surgery, General Surgery, and Surgical Critical Care. She is an?experienced pediatric surgeon with over a decade of clinical experience in general pediatric abdominal and thoracic surgery, pediatric surgical oncology, and pediatric trauma.

Dr. Naik-Mathuria was born and raised in Mombasa, Kenya, she immigrated to Houston with her family during high school and graduated from Clements High School in Sugar Land. She attended Trinity University in San Antonio where she graduated Summa Cum Laude with a double major (BS in Biology and BA in Psychology), then matriculated from medical school at Texas A+M Health Science Center where she was nominated to the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society. She joined the General Surgery residency at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston (2003-2009), where she spent an additional year doing a research fellowship in fetal wound healing. Following completion of General Surgery residency, she moved to Los Angeles for Pediatric Surgery fellowship at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles (2009-2011). She was then recruited back to Baylor in the Division of Pediatric Surgery at Texas Children’s Hospital where she was given the opportunity to develop and lead the recently established Level I pediatric trauma program. She completed a second fellowship in Surgical Critical Care and subsequently started the pediatric track of Baylor's surgical critical care fellowship. A few years later, she?obtained a?Master's?in Public Health?from John’s Hopkin’s Bloomberg school.?She was promoted to Associate Professor at Baylor 6 years after completing training (2018) and is currently pending approval for promotion to Professor at UTMB (2022).

Dr. Naik-Mathuria is an experienced and compassionate clinician. She is most passionate about caring for the most vulnerable – those affected by cancer or injury – and believes strongly in equitable, high-quality care for all. During the ten years that she worked at Texas Children's Hospital, she specialized?in surgical oncology and trauma in addition to practicing general neonatal and pediatric surgery. She received multiple awards during this time, including Texas Rising Star in Texas Monthly's SuperDoctors (2018),?Who’s Who in Medicine (2018), Best Doctors in Houston by Houstonia Magazine (2018, 2020, 2021), Texas SuperDoctors in Texas Monthly Magazine (2022). Her clinical academic excellence was awarded by Baylor College of Medicine through the Early Career Faculty Excellence Award (2017), the Women of Excellence Award (2020), and The Texas Children’s Hospital Department of Surgery Faculty Clinical Excellence Award (2020).

Dr. Naik-Mathuria is an avid clinical outcomes, trauma, and public health researcher. She has authored over 100 publications and co-edited the primary textbook in pediatric trauma. In 2017, she was chosen as a Future Trauma Leader by the American College of Surgeons and is now considered a national leader in pediatric trauma. She has contributed to several national initiatives affecting the care of injured children and is frequently invited for national speaking engagements. Dr. Naik-Mathuria has an R01 award from the Centers for Disease Control to understand the epidemiology of firearm injury and violence in Harris County (Houston) and was the only surgeon to be funded by CDC in the first round following a 24-year federal ban on firearm-related funding. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Houston Chronicle. She is a strong advocate for child firearm safety and works with Houston city leadership and law enforcement through her leadership role on the Houston Mayor's Commission Against Gun Violence. Additionally, she is a fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy in the Firearm Injury Prevention and Safety program.

Dr. Naik-Mathuria is involved in several national surgical organizations at the leadership level. She completed a term on the executive board of the Pediatric Trauma Society, is the current Chair of the Advocacy committee of the AAP Section on Surgery, and the Vice-Chair of the Pediatric committee of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma. She also serves on several committees in the American Pediatric Surgical Association and Society of University Surgeons.

Finally, Dr. Naik-Mathuria has a special interest in global surgery, and travels to Africa to the town where she grew up frequently to work with local pediatric surgeons to increase access to high-quality pediatric surgical care, train local pediatric surgical fellows and residents, and build local capacity. She also works with the Rice 360 and bioengineering program to create low-cost innovative solutions for surgical problems in low resource settings. She plans to start a global surgery program at UTMB and train passionate residents and students to be leaders in global surgery.

As the new leader of pediatric surgery at UTMB, Dr. Naik-Mathuria is excited about programmatic development and research to ensure the highest quality of surgical care for the children and families in South Texas, to educate the next generation of surgeons, and to continue to advocate for child health and safety, and the highest level of health for all people.

Ravi S. Radhakrishnan is the Chief of Pediatric Surgery, a Professor of Surgery, and the Surgical Director of the Pediatric ECMO program at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, TX. He received his undergraduate degree in Bio-engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA and an MBA in general management from the University of St. Thomas in Houston, TX.

After graduating from medical school at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX, he completed his general surgery residency and an NIH T32 sponsored research fellowship in Shock, Resuscitation and Intestinal Physiology at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in Houston. In addition, he completed a Pediatric Surgery fellowship at Northwestern University in Chicago, IL.

Dr. Radhakrishnan has won multiple teaching awards and is the author of over 30 scientific publications. He was also recognized as a "Top Doctor" for 2013 by Houstonia Magazine. His clinical interests are in Minimally Invasive Surgery, Surgical Oncology, and Portal Hypertension/Complex Hepatobiliary Surgery.

Dr. Tran grew up in Wichita, Kansas. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Bachelor of Science in Biology at the University of Tulsa. Dr. Tran moved to Texas after her undergraduate studies, where she served two years in AmeriCorps VISTA, a national full-time volunteer service program working in communities of need. She continued her studies at Texas A&M, obtaining her medical degree. She did her general surgery residency at Texas Tech in Lubbock.

Prior to joining UTMB, Dr. Tran was a general surgeon in a rural community in North Texas.

Dr. Zaidi's practice specializes in treating vascular disease with comprehensive treatment options including medical management, minimally invasive endovascular procedures including balloon angioplasty, atherectomy, stent procedures, and open surgical repair including bypass. His interests also include carotid disease, peripheral arterial disease, aortic aneurysms, and complex venous disease. Dr. Zaidi also provides comprehensive dialysis access care including fistula creation and maintenance.

Dr. Cox comes to UTMB after 13 years at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina. Prior to that, he spent 13 years on active duty in the United States Air Force, with multiple wartime deployments. He is well-known for handling the most severe and unusual cases of arterial and venous disease, utilizing minimally invasive and traditional surgical treatment options. His academic focus has been the study and implementation of novel endovascular procedures, initially in a combat setting, and subsequently for high-risk patients with aneurysmal and arterial occlusive disease. Dr. Cox has a strong interest medical education and the development of programs to train highly competent vascular surgeons that can perform the full range of vascular procedures. He enjoys working with the talented and compassionate vascular surgical team at UTMB, and coordinating professionals with many areas of expertise to deliver optimal treatment for patients with vascular conditions.

Interests: Complex aneurysmal disease including thoraco-abdominal aneurysms, branched aortic endografting and re-do aortic procedures. Salvage of vascular surgery complications such as infected bypass grafts, endoleaks, and endovascular device failure. High-risk carotid surgery. Vascular Trauma. Mesenteric arterial disease. Thoracic outlet syndrome. Creation of dialysis access in patients with multiple failed fistulas. Central venous occlusions. Congenital vascular anomalies, and unusual vascular conditions in young patients. Vascular resection and reconstruction during cancer operations. Limb salvage options for critical limb ischemia in high-risk patients. Exposure of the lumbar spine for neurosurgical and orthopedic procedures. Device trials for novel endovascular and surgical therapies.

Dr. Christine Shokrzadeh received her MD from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and completed her residency in Vasculary Surgery at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. Clinically her interests relate to aortic disease, carotid artery disease, peripheral vascular disease, venous disease, hemodialysis access creation and management, endovascular and minimally invasive vascular surgery.

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Dr. Whittington grew up in Austin, Texas, attended Baylor University earning a BS in Neuroscience before obtaining his medical degree at Texas A&M College of Medicine. He completed his general surgery residency at the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville, Tennessee followed by a vascular surgery fellowship at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin.

He has returned to Texas with a focus on treating the broad field of vascular disease with special interest in both open and endovascular surgical repair of complex aortic pathology, renal and mesenteric ischemia, carotid disease, dialysis access, and peripheral arterial disease.

Dr. McKinnon joined the University of Texas Medical Branch in 2019, and is Associate Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. Dr. McKinnon is the holder of the J.M. Robinson Distinguished Professorship.

Dr. McKinnon graduated from Boston University School of Medicine and following a surgical internship at National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, MD, spent five years as a U.S. Naval Flight Surgeon. He completed his Otolaryngology training at Naval Medical Center, Portsmouth, VA, and his Neurotology fellowship at the University of Virginia. He is Board Certified in Neurotology, received his M.B.A. from Johns Hopkins University, and his M.P.H. (Biostatistics concentration) from the University of Memphis.

Dr. McKinnon was on the teaching faculty of the National Naval Medical Center/Walter Reed Army Medical Center Combined Otolaryngology Residency, and Staff Otolaryngologist to both the White House Medical Unit and the DiLorenzo Tricare Health Clinic. Following his active duty service, he was Associate Professor, Otology/Neurotology at Georgia Regents University before joining the Shea Ear Clinic. While with the Shea Ear Clinic, Dr. McKinnon was Clinical Associate Professor, Otology/Neurotology, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center, and later concurrently Associate Professor and Vice-Chair Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Drexel Univeristy College of Medicine, as well as Associate Professor, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Pennsylvania College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Dr. McKinnon is a Fellow of the Triological Society, and the American Neurotology Society, Active Member of the American Otological Society, as well as being active in many other organizations. His primary research interests are the management of cochlear implant programs, and the development of novel electromagnetic cochlear arrays.