Faculty

Parsia A. Vagefi, M.D.
Professor and Chief, Division of Surgical Transplantation
Ernest Poulos, M.D., Distinguished Chair in Surgery
Dr. Vagefi obtained his undergraduate degree from Johns Hopkins University, and then earned his medical degree at Yale School of Medicine. During medical school he was an HHMI Medical Student Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School. He completed his general surgery residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and subsequently completed his abdominal transplant fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Vagefi’s clinical expertise is in liver transplantation (including split liver and living donor liver transplantation), kidney transplantation, surgery for portal hypertension, and complex hepatobiliary surgery.

Dev Desai, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor
Dr. Desai earned his medical degree and a doctorate in immunology from the University of California at San Francisco School of Medicine. He completed residency in surgery and fellowships in transplant surgery at Stanford University Medical Center. Dr. Desai specializes in liver, kidney, pancreas, and intestinal transplantation. He is also the Chief of Pediatric Abdominal Transplantation at Children’s Health℠ Children’s Medical Center Dallas.

Steven Hanish, M.D.
Professor
Dr. Hanish joins the Department of Surgery from the University of Maryland School of Medicine, where he served as the director of clinical operations for transplantation and the director of hepatobilliary surgery. He received his medical degree from Indiana University School of Medicine and completed his fellowship in transplant surgery at the University of Wisconsin.

Christine Hwang, M.D.
Associate Professor
Dr. Hwang earned her medical degree from Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C. She completed her general surgery residency at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine and recently joined UT Southwestern after completing a transplant fellowship at Stanford University Medical Center in California. Dr. Hwang specializes in liver and kidney transplantation.

Michelle McDonald, M.D.
Assistant Professor
Dr. McDonald earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Texas and her medical degree from the University of Texas School of Medicine in San Antonio, where she was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha honor society. She completed a residency in urology at the University of California, San Diego, followed by a two-year kidney transplant fellowship at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Madhukar Patel, M.D.
Assistant Professor
Dr. Patel received his B.S. in Biomedical Engineering at the University of California, San Diego, and an Sc.M. at Brown University. He subsequently obtained his M.D. at the University of California, Irvine where he also received a M.B.A.. Dr. Patel completed his General Surgery training at the Massachusetts General Hospital followed by a fellowship in abdominal transplant and hepatopancreaticobiliary surgery at the University of Toronto. His current focus is on addressing the shortage of organs in North America through expanded use of living donor liver transplantation and optimization of marginal grafts.

Jigesh Shah, D.O.
Assistant Professor
Dr. Shah earned his bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry at Seton Hall University and his medical degree from Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in New York City. He completed residency in General Surgery at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center, an affiliate of Tufts University, in Boston, Massachusetts. As part of his surgical training, he pursued a NIH-funded T32 research fellowship at the Center for Transplantation Sciences at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he focused on novel methods to improve survival following pig-to-baboon liver xenotransplantation. Dr. Shah completed his fellowship training in abdominal transplantation at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina.