UT Southwestern Medical Center Leadership

Benjamin Schneider is an Associate Professor at UT Southwestern Medical Center; Chief, Bariatric and Minimally Invasive Surgery at UT Southwestern Medical Center; and Director of Bariatric Surgery at Texas Health Resources and is based in Dallas, Texas. He has worked as Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School; Director, UT Southwestern Medical Center Multi-Disciplinary Surgical Clinic at UT Southwestern Medical Center; and Director of Bariatric Surgery - BIDMC Milton at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Benjamin studied at Creighton University between 1989 and 1993, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas between 2002 and 2002, and Del Mar Datatrac Inc between 2003 and 2003.

An accomplished healthcare leader, Dr. Christopher McLarty combines diverse experience and perspective as a provider, a nurse, and an operational executive to deliver collaborative, patient centered solutions. Clinically, Dr. McLarty is a board certified Nurse Practitioner with sub-specialty training in Emergency Care. He has spent more than fifteen years in healthcare, taking on roles in ambulatory and emergency services, health system leadership, and multi-site clinical operations. Dr. McLarty's professional foundation consists of six years as a Registered Nurse in the emergency department, two of which were spent in leadership roles combining administrative and clinical responsibilities. Dr. McLarty then completed a Master’s Degree in Nursing with concentration as an Acute Care and Emergency Nurse Practitioner, transitioning to the Nurse Practitioner role and continuing practice today within the specialty of emergency medicine. Dr. McLarty earned the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree from Arizona State University in 2014, during which he examined the implications of integrating nurse practitioners into a previously physician-exclusive academic emergency department. In 2016, Dr. McLarty joined the executive leadership team at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas as an Assistant Director of Advanced Practice Providers. Following a ten month course as Interim CNO, he currently serves as Associate Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer for Ambulatory Services, with responsibility for clinical operations and nursing practice across ambulatory sites at UT Southwestern. Specialties: Advanced Practice, Leadership, Self Care, Burn Out Management, Workforce Development, Emergency Medicine, Urgent Care, Health Innovation, Change Management, New Provider Role Transition, Multidisciplinary Care Delivery Models

Courtney Rottman, JD, MPSA has more than 20 years of experience serving in leadership roles at such global social innovators as ALSAC/St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Baylor Scott & White Health, Susan G. Komen for the Cure and Travelocity.com. Through these opportunities, Courtney has gained extensive experience building and transforming private and public sector organizations in areas such as fundraising and business operations, strategic planning, conflict resolution, global strategic sourcing, domestic and international fundraising, outsourcing, business development, technology and data management, program and performance analysis, contract and grant management, event logistics, outcome and performance measurement, integrated marketing, corporate relations and cause related marketing. Courtney is a dedicated professional committed to working for organizations enriching the lives of others. Academic research interests include the study and evaluation of revenue impact as a result of organizational effectiveness and fiscal stewardship through program evaluation and procedural efficiency.

David McDonagh is a Chief Of Staff Zale Lipshy Hospital at UT Southwestern Medical Center and Vice Chair for the University Hospitals at UT Southwestern Medical Center and is based in Dallas, Texas. He has worked as Professor & Vice Chair for Neurosciences; Department of Anesthesiology at UT Southwestern Medical Center; Chief, Division of Neuroanesthesiology at Duke Health; and Fellowship Director-Neurocritical Care at Duke Health.

Dr. Pfeifer is currently an Assistant Vice President/Chief Technology Officer for the University Health System and Associate Professor at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. As CTO he is responsible for overseeing all technical aspects for the University Health System and works with Executive Management and other VPs of the organization to grow and improve operations through the use of technological resources. He is also responsible for the core services of the Epic EMR system including monthly updates as well as direct responsibility for integration of ancillary systems.

The most recent accomplishment involved responsibility for the technical infrastructure during the construction of the William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital and all aspects of networking, telephones, computers, paging and emergency radio services.

Dr. Desai is The Regents Distinguished Scholar in Medical Research, and Professor of Surgery, Pediatrics and Immunology at The University of Texas, Southwestern School of Medicine. He is Chief of Pediatric Transplantation at Children’s Medical Center, Dallas, one of the largest pediatric kidney transplant centers in the country. Dr. Desai attended the University of California at San Francisco on an NIH Medical Scientist Training Program Fellowship, earning MD and PhD degrees, followed by training in general surgery and multi-organ transplantation at Stanford University.

Dr. Desai’s clinical interest is in pediatric liver and kidney transplantation as well organ allocation policy, for which he has served on both local and national committees. Dr. Desai has served on the National Collaborative panel addressing pediatric donation after cardiac death as well on the national Non-Adherence consensus conference. He been an invited lecturer both nationally and internationally to discuss various topics pertaining to pediatric transplantation. He currently serves on the UNOS pediatric transplantation committee.

Dr. Desai’s laboratory and clinical research efforts focus on elucidating the molecular mechanisms of pediatric liver cancer and post-transplant immunosuppression and infection. His work has been funded by the NIH, the American College of Surgeons, the American Society of Transplant Surgeons and the University of Texas Regents Endowment. He has over 50 peer reviewed publicationsin journals such as Nature, Cell, JBC, Journal of Hepatology, Annals of Surgical Oncology and American Journal of Transplantation.

Dr. Desai also has served the Society of University Surgeons as the Publications chair and Program Co-Chair for the Academic Surgical Congress from 2010-2012. He is also involved in other academic surgical activities - serving on the Amer College of Surgeons Forum Committee and on various committees of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons.

JAMON BLOOD is a Psychiatry Resident at UT Health San Antonio and Chief Fellow at UT Southwestern Medical Center and is based in Dallas, Texas.