Gail D. Hughes, Dr.P.H., M.P.H.
Vice President, Research
Chair, Research Advisory Committee
Surgical Review Corporation
Raleigh, North Carolina

Dr. Hughes has over 20 years of experience in conducting research in various sectors — academic, government, private industry and non-profit. She provided research leadership for the Jackson Heart Study’s multi-million dollar Data Coordinating Center funded by NIH-NHLBI. Dr. Hughes is an affiliated faculty to East Carolina University, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson State University and University of Western Cape-South Africa. She is a graduate of the University of California-Berkeley with both master's and doctorate degrees in epidemiology.

Eric J. DeMaria, M.D., FACS
Director
Duke Health System Weight Loss Surgery Program
Durham, North Carolina

Eric J. DeMaria received his medical degree at the Boston University School of Medicine in 1983, and then completed seven years of general surgical training at Brown University. He served on the faculty of the Medical College of Virginia at Virginia Commonwealth University between 1990 and 2005 where he assumed leadership of the Minimally Invasive Surgery Center and the Obesity Surgery Center. In 2001, he was appointed General Surgery Division Chairman and received the Paul Nutter Professorship in Surgery in 2004. Dr. DeMaria joined Duke University in July 2005 where he was named chief of programs in Endosurgery and Obesity Surgery, Chief of Duke Surgery at Durham Regional Hospital, and vice chairman of Duke Network General Surgery.

Walter J. Pories, M.D., FACS
Chairman, SRC Board of Directors
Director, Metabolic Institute and
Professor of Surgery, Biochemistry, Exercise
and Sport Science
Department of Surgery, Brody School of Medicine  
East Carolina University
Greenville, North Carolina

Dr. Pories is an experienced bariatric surgeon who serves as Director of the Metabolic Institute at East Carolina University (ECU). He is also the Principal Investigator of the NIH-funded ECU National Center for the Longitudinal Assessment of Bariatric Surgery, as well as other research programs funded by the Johnson & Johnson Corporation and Golden LEAF. Dr. Pories has served as the President of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery and past president of the North Carolina Medical Board.

Harvey J. Sugerman, M.D., FACS
Chairman, Bariatric Surgery Review Committee
Emeritus Professor, Virginia Commonwealth University
Sanibel, Florida

Dr. Sugerman graduated from Johns Hopkins University and the Jefferson University School of Medicine in 1966. He spent two years in the Army in Nurenberg, Germany and as Lieutenant Colonel at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Dr. Sugerman began at the Virginia Commonwealth University in 1978, where he was the David M. Hume Professor of Surgery and Chief of the General Surgery and Trauma Division. He is retired from clinical practice and is Emeritus Professor of Surgery. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed manuscripts, 20 books and 55 book chapters, many dealing with the improvement in obesity co-morbidity following surgically induced weight loss, as well as the first randomized trial comparing vertical banded gastroplasty to Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. He is a past-president of the ASMBS and is currently Editor-in-Chief of Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases (SOARD), the official peer-reviewed journal of the ASMBS.

Bruce Wolfe, M.D., FACS
Professor of Surgery
Oregon Health and Science University
Portland, Oregon

Dr. Bruce Wolfe received his medical degree from St. Louis University and did his fellowship at Harvard Medical School. Since 1977 Dr. Wolfe has been a professor at the University of California, Davis, School of Medicine. He is also a professor of surgery at Oregon Health and Science University.