Congratulations to Kristalyn Gallagher, DO and Jason Long, MD, MPH have been promoted to Associate Professors!
Dr. Gallagher graduated with an undergraduate degree in physiology with honors from Oklahoma State University in 2004 and earned her medical degree at the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine in 2008. She then completed an internship and residency at Oklahoma State University Medical Center (2008-2013), then her fellowship in Breast Surgery/ Oncoplastics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. In 2014, she joined the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as Assistant Professor in the Division of Surgical Oncology. In 2018 she was named Section Chief for Breast Surgery and is also the Surgical Director of the Breast Care Program.
She has built a remarkable clinical research portfolio and has been a successful clinical investigator in breast cancer research. Currently, Dr. Gallagher is the principal investigator on 14 clinical trials and co-investigator on 20 more active trials. Her recent study, “A National Survey of Sexual Harassment Among Surgeons” was voted the Best Overall Abstract at the 2019 Academic Surgical Congress. As part of that award, she gave the keynote address at the Surgical Research Society of Australia’s Annual Scientific Congress. In addition, this research garnered another distinguished award—Society of Asian Academic Surgeons Best ASC Abstract—and was highlighted in Forbes magazine.
In terms of clinical scholarship, in addition to 17 peer-reviewed research publications and two book chapters, she has been an invited presenter at 27 national, regional and local meetings, including the ACS Clinical Congress and the American Society of Breast Surgeons. She serves as an ad-hoc reviewer for many journals including the Journal of Surgical Oncology, American Journal of Surgery, Oncologist, and Clinical Breast Cancer.
Clinically, Dr. Gallagher continues to distinguish herself from her peers. Two years in a row, she received the UNC Health Care and Faculty Physicians Award for Carolina Care Excellence, awarded to physicians who create an exceptional care experience and receive high marks in areas of patient care, knowledge, communication, professionalism, and practice- and system-based learning. Her clinical leadership is evident, too, with her role as Director of the UNC Weekly Breast Multidisciplinary Tumor Board. It is obvious that she thrives in an interprofessional clinical environment and acts in service with a broad view of care and advocacy that goes well beyond the individual patient to the community level and ultimately to the population level.
Dr. Gallagher contributes greatly to our educational mission at the national and institutional levels. For the past two years, she served as an Instructor for oncoplastic breast surgery at American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress. She also influences and advances the programming of educational opportunities throughout the UNC health affairs system. She is a member of the Education and Program Evaluation Committees in the Department of Surgery and sits on the Institutional Review Board and Surgical Educators Research Group for UNC. She gladly gives time on the intramural speaking circuit to teach and train our medical students and residents. Her mentees were awarded the 2019 Association for Academic Surgery Outstanding Resident Research Award and the 2018 Sheldon Resident Research Symposium Best Poster Award. As is evidenced by her recent UNC Outstanding Medical Student Teaching Award, Dr. Gallagher is equally committed to providing exceptional training to medical students, and she consistently receives glowing comments on her evaluations from her trainees.
Dr. Long received his BS in Biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1998. He went on to earn a Master of Public Health in International Health from Harvard in 2003. His medical degree was awarded by Wake Forest University in 2004. Dr. Long was a resident in general surgery at the University of Chicago, where he also completed a surgical research fellowship. After his residency, he became a fellow in cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Michigan, 2011-2013. In 2013, Dr. Long was appointed as an Assistant Professor in the UNC Department of Surgery, Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery.
His UNC awards include the Outstanding Medical Student Teaching Award, the Residents’ Choice Award and the Physician Teacher of the Year Award for the Department of Anesthesiology. Dr. Long played a significant part in the Thoracic Surgery service’s Outstanding Service Award for 5 consecutive years. Not surprisingly, he was recently inducted into the Academy of Educators.
His research interests include ex-vivo lung perfusion, use of lungs from non-heart-beating donors for transplantation, and international health. He is a co-investigator on a large national clinical trial studying lung cancer treatment, and a site principal investigator on two additional clinical trials. Regarding scholarship, he has published 10 book chapters and 14 peer-reviewed articles. Notably he was first author on a 2019 Annuals of Thoracic Surgery article on a novel electromagnetic-based system for a minimally invasive pulmonary surgery. On the national stage, he has presented his work at the 2019 annual meeting of the American College of Surgeons and at the CHEST Annual Meeting for two consecutive years. He has a total of 11 presentations at national meetings.
In addition to his clinical, research, and teaching activities, Dr. Long contributes to our profession through service on a steering committee of the American College of Chest Physicians, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Work Force in General Thoracic Surgery, and as an expert panelist for the American College of Radiology. For the past 6 years he has served on the UNC Hospitals ICU Advisory Committee.