Leadership
Uzma Siddiqui, MD
President
Dr. Uzma Siddiqui is Professor of Medicine and Director of the Center for Endoscopic Research and Therapeutics (CERT) at the University of Chicago. Her clinical practice is centered on interventional endoscopy procedures. A dedicated educator and mentor, Dr. Siddiqui has directed or served as faculty for many endoscopy courses around the country and internationally. She has received multiple awards including the 2019 Helio Woman Disruptor of the Year and 2023 ASGE Master Endoscopist. In addition to WIE, Dr. Siddiqui has served on multiple national society committees, including the ASGE’s Quality Assurance Committee, ACG’s Women’s Committee, and Co-Chairing the AGA’s Duodenoscope Innovation Program.
Jennifer Phan, MD
Vice President
Dr. Jennifer Phan is a board certified gastroenterologist and is the Medical Director for the Hoag Irvine Advanced Endoscopy Institute, Director of Bariatric Endoscopy, and Program Director of the Advanced Endoscopy Fellowship. She completed her gastroenterology and advanced endoscopy fellowship at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She is the current Vice President of Women in Endoscopy (WIE), Associate Editor for Techniques and Innovations in Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (TIGE), and is on the Medical Advisory Board for EndoscopyNOW. She currently sits on the ACG Training Committee and previously served on the ASGE Center for GI Innovation and Technology (CGIT) committee. She is active in the ACG, ASGE, AGA, and American Bariatric Endoscopy (ABE) societies. She has given national and international lectures on obesity specifically regarding bariatric and metabolic endoscopy, diagnosis and treatment of pancreaticobiliary cancers, resection of large colon polyps, complex defect closures, and more. She has authored peer-reviewed papers and review articles on the above topics as well.
Amit Desai, MD
Treasurer
Amit Desai, MD is a Senior Partner at Texas Digestive Disease Consultants and the GI Alliance. He is a Clinical Instructor in Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center and an interventional endoscopist at Texas Health Presbyterian in Dallas, Texas. He is a graduate of the University of Texas McCombs School of Business Honors Program (BBA, Finance, 2006) and University of Texas Medical School in San Antonio (MD, 2010). He completed his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School. He went on to complete his fellowships in Gastroenterology at Weill Cornell Medical Center where he served as Chief Fellow, and Interventional Endoscopy at Columbia University Medical Center, both in New York City. He moved back to Texas to start and develop an advanced endoscopy program at Texas Health Dallas, performing several of the first advanced procedures for the flagship hospital of Texas Health. He is a reviewer for peer-reviewed gastroenterology journals and has been featured on Dallas area radio programs.
Amrita Sethi, MD
Past-President
Medical Director | Northwest Medicine Center for Advanced Endoscopy at Central Dupage Hospital
Amrita Sethi is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at Northwestern Medicine and the Medical Director of the Northwestern Medicine Center for Advanced Endoscopy.
She completed her GI fellowship at Medical College of Virginia, and then her Advanced Endoscopy Fellowship at University of Colorado. She then went to Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York, where she remained for 17 years, and was a Professor of Medicine and the Director of Therapeutic Endoscopy. This past year, she was recruited to help build the Northwestern Medicine GI Center of Advanced Endoscopy and currently serves as the center’s Medical Director and the NM DHI Director of Innovation and Training. Her practice interests include ERCP and cholangioscopy, therapeutic EUS, ESD, POEM and other areas of third space endoscopy and endoscopic innovation. During her career, she has trained over 20 advanced endoscopy fellows.
In addition to her work with the national GI societies, such as the ASGE, AGA and ACG, she is the founder and past president of Women in Endoscopy (WIE), a global organization started to foster mentorship and promote leadership for women in interventional endoscopy. She is former past President of the NYSGE. And she has received the ASGE Master Endoscopist Award, which recognizes her accomplishments and contributions to the endoscopic community.
Roberta Maselli, MD, PhD
Councilor
Roberta Maselli, MD, PhD, got her degree in Medicine and Surgery and later the specialty in General Surgery at “Sapienza” University of Rome, Italy. She also attended a one year theoretical and practical fellowship at the SUITE “Showa University International Training Center for Endoscopy”, Northern Yokohama Hospital, Yokohama, Japan under the direction of Professors Haruhiro Inoue and Shin-ei Kudo during which time she achieved the Japanese “Permission of Advanced Clinical Training” for Foreign Medical Practitioner. The fellowship mainly focused on: POEM for esophageal achalasia, Diagnosis (NBI, Magnifying Endoscopy, Endocytoscopy) and endoscopic treatment (EMR,ESD) of GI cancers, SET.
Roberta also attended 6 month theoretical and practical Fellowship at the BIDS, “Baldota Institute for Digestive Sciences”, Mumbai, India directed by Dr. Amit Maydeo, the focus of which was Therapeutic ERCP and Diagnostic and Therapeutic EUS. She was conferred a PhD on “advanced technologies in surgery” at “Sapienza” University of Rome, Italy in 2016.
Since September, 2015 Dr. Maselli has been the Endoscopic Unit of Humanitas Research Hospital, Rozzano, Milan, Italy alongside Dr. Alessandro Repici. Her clinical and research activity is mainly focused on the diagnosis and endoscopic treatment of early GI neoplasia and advanced endoscopic procedures, as well as on the NOTES (Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery).
In April, 2017 she was recognized as recipient of the “Gerry Scotti Award 2017” for the ongoing project of “POEM and Microbial Translocation.” Roberta has authored more than 50 papers published in recognized international scientific journals. She is member of the Italian Society of Digestive Endoscopy (SIED), Italian Society of Young Surgeons (SPIGC) where she is the National Referent for Endoscopic Surgery, European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE) and American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE).
Claudia Patricia Carvallo Guevara, MD
Councilor
Maria Pellisé, MD, PhD
Councilor
Dr Maria Pellisé, MD, PhD, Specialist in Gastroenterology, clinical coordinator of the Population Screening Programme and coordinator of the colorectal cancer MDT at the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona. She is especially devoted to colorectal cancer screening, diagnosis and surveillance and runs a high-risk colorectal cancer clinic. She carried out her PhD program at the University of Barcelona focused on GI cancer staging with endoscopic ultrasound-dine needle aspiration (EUS-FNA). She completed her training with a stage at Westmead Hospital, Sydney University, Australia where she learned complex polypectomy.
She is a national and international leader in advanced imaging and therapeutic endoscopy for colorectal high-risk patients. She has been editor of Endoscopy Journal from 2015-2021. She is currently associate professor at the Universitat de Barcelona where she is the director of the postgraduate master in advance endoscopy, investigator at IDIBAPS, Chair of the Equity and Diversity WG at the European Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE) and is author of more than 144 research papers with an h-index=36 SCOPUS.
Jeanin van Hooft
Advisory Board Member
Dr. Van Hooft is specialist in interventions endoscopy, in particular hepato-pancreatico-biliary interventions. Since 2009 she has been leading a research group with a strong focus on pancreatic diseases and in part on endoscopic treatment of gastrointestinal strictures. Dr. Van Hooft has authored and co-authored over 275 peer reviewed publications and textbook chapters and has lectured at more than 200 national and international meetings.
She has been the chair of the ESGE guideline committee from 2016-2021 and is currently the
secretary general of the UEG. Furthermore she is a member of the board of Women in Endoscopy (WIE) and on National level she is active as member (treasurer) of the Pancreatitis Working group of the Netherlands (PWN) and member of the research board of the Dutch Pancreatic Cancer group (DPCG).