Welcome 2025 Incoming Fellows!

Dr. Shyamin Mehra was chief surgical resident at Rutgers – New Jersey Medical School. She studied Biochemistry and Visual & Dramatic Arts at Rice University and received her M.D. at Georgetown University. She is pursuing a career in Breast Surgical Oncology and is dedicated to reducing healthcare disparities in breast cancer care. Dr. Mehra’s interest and hobbies are photorealism in charcoal, oil painting, animal rescue, youth development and skillset training for undeserved youth.

Dr. Jared Takehiro Su attended the University of Hawaii as a General Surgery resident. He earned his Medical Degree from Stony Brook University in 2020. Outside of his medical career, Dr. Su's activities include cooking, playing volleyball, and watching Shonda Rhimes TV shows. He also explores local food scenes, focusing on finding quality noodles and tacos.

Dr. Patrick Weldon completed his undergraduate studies at Virginia Tech, earned his medical degree from Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM) – Carolinas Campus, and completed his residency at University of Missouri-Kansas City. His clinical interests include endocrine surgery and vascular surgery. In his spare time, Dr. Weldon enjoys running, hiking, snowboarding, college football, fantasy football, traveling, taking his dog Wilson on walks, anything involving a large body of water, craft breweries, grilling/cooking, and playing Jeopardy/trivia.

Dr. Daniel Aliseda graduated in Medicine from the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain, and completed his residency in General Surgery at the Clínica Universidad de Navarra. During this time, he developed a strong interest in Hepatobiliopancreatic diseases and Liver Transplantation, which led him to pursue a PhD with international distinction. His research focused on developing models and strategies to improve survival in patients with liver and pancreatic neoplasm—one of which was nationally recognized as the best research project conducted by a surgical resident in Spain. As part of his academic training, he also completed a clinical and research stay at the Centre Hépato-Biliaire Paul Brousse in Paris. After finishing his residency, he joined the HPB and Liver Transplant Unit at the Clínica Universidad de Navarra as a Junior Attending Surgeon.

His current research focuses on minimally invasive surgery, neoadjuvant systemic and locoregional therapies in HPB diseases, and the evolving field of Transplant Oncology.

Outside of his clinical and academic work, he enjoys spending time with his family, staying active through sports, and discovering great food—now with the added charm of the American West Coast.

Dr. Chibueze Nwaiwu is the incoming 2025–2026 Stanford Minimally Invasive Surgery, Bariatrics, and Foregut Fellow. His clinical interests include bariatric surgery, foregut surgery, complex abdominal wall reconstruction, and surgical endoscopy. His research focuses on medical technology and health equity.

Chibueze previously served as the Surgeon Innovator-in-Residence and a member of the Product Review Board at a medical technology company, where he worked on advanced real-time intraoperative visualization. He is also a co-founder and Senior Director of SURGE (Supporting Underrepresented Research to Generate Equity) Lab at Brown University—a dynamic, multidisciplinary research group that provides structured mentorship and conducts clinical research on social determinants of health and health equity across a wide range of clinical and translational areas.

His research, clinical work, and volunteer efforts—both clinical and non-clinical—have spanned Africa, North America, Europe, and Western Asia. He has presented at multiple local, regional, national, and international conferences and has received numerous research and teaching awards.

Chibueze completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Virginia, earned his medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and is currently completing his General Surgery residency at Brown University.

In his free time, he enjoys catching up with friends and family, listening to stories about the human experience, and engaging in personal growth and development. A global citizen at heart, he is passionate about inspiring others to dream big and leverage their resources—both tangible and intangible—to serve humanity. He lives by the maxim: To whom much is given, much is required.

Dr. Joseph Leong received his bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from UCLA and his medical degree from California Northstate University. He then went on to complete his general surgery residency at the University of Illinois Chicago, Mount Sinai Hospital. Outside of medicine, he enjoys cooking/baking, tennis, and hiking.

Dr. Doreen Chang completed medical school and her general surgery residency at Duke University. At Duke, Dr. Chang’s clinical and research interests focus on outcomes research and finding innovative ways to provide value-based care to their patients in their Laboratory for Transformative Administration (LTA).

Dr. Jeff Choi completed medical school at Stanford University and was the general surgery residency's administrative chief resident. He underwent graduate training in Epidemiology and Biomedical Informatics during professional development time and is looking forward to a career in academic surgery as a surgeon-data scientist. Dr. Choi remains active within the AAST Associate Member Council as Chair of the Scholarship Committee.

Dr. Joseph Krocker graduated from the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Paul L. Foster School of Medicine and went on to pursue general surgery residency at the JFK Medical Center/University of Miami program. During training, he completed an NIH-T32 postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Texas at Houston Center for Translational Injury Research as well as an MS in Biomedical Informatics. His research focus is centered on personalized medicine in trauma related to genetic-predisposition, proteomics and metabolomics. Joe enjoys the beach, scuba diving and coconut shrimp.

Dr. Rejoice (Fari) Ngongoni is a Zimbabwean-born physician and surgical critical care fellow at Stanford University. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Ohio Wesleyan University, where early clinical experiences in South Africa sparked her interest in surgery and global health. She went on to complete both her Doctor of Medicine and Master of Health Science degrees at the Yale School of Medicine, and completed her General Surgery residency at Stanford. In her spare time, she likes to run and hike.