Dr. Catherine K. Hart is a Professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and Division Director of Pediatric Otolaryngology at Cincinnati Children’s. She specializes in the management of pediatric airway stenosis and complex aerodigestive disorders. Her research focuses on advancing the surgical management of airway stenosis and aerodigestive disorders in children with CHARGE syndrome. 

Omura graduated from the Jikei University School of Medicin Tokyo JAPAN in 2004. After completing a short-term exchange at the St. Thomas Hospital in the United Kingdom as an exchange student with the selected grant from the Jikei University. An initial clinical internship started at the Asahi General Hospital and a fellow in the Otorhinolaryngology department in 2006 with a short-term exchange doctor at UCLA in 2006.

Since 2009, he has been admitted to the otorhinolaryngology department the Jikei University School of Medicine. Dr. Omura reports seventeen novel surgical techniques out of over 70 international papers and has transmitted it's techniques of endoscopic approach to tumors in the nasal cavity, skull base, to the world as well as Japan. His operational number of endoscopic approach for sinonasal malignant tumor is the highest in Japan and he has been invited as an operator from national cancer center Japan, and many universities.

Peter Santa Maria, MBBS PhD is Professor and Chief of Otology & Neurotology and Vice Chair of Translational & Clinical Research at the University of Pittsburgh, where he also serves as Co-Director of Pitt SPARK and Director of Faculty Innovation. Originally trained in Australia, he completed his MBBS and PhD at the University of Western Australia and was supported early in his career by a prestigious Garnett Passe and Rodney Williams Surgeon-Scientist Award, which launched his pioneering work in tympanic membrane regeneration.

He completed fellowship and instructorship training in Otology, Neurotology, and Skull Base Surgery at Stanford University, later joining the faculty and serving as Associate Director of the Stanford SPARK Translational Medicine Program. At Stanford, he received multiple Stanford Biodesign and SPARK Awards, and emerged as a leader in global medical innovation—ultimately becoming Director of SPARK Global, overseeing more than 40 international programs and launching SPARK Africa and SPARK Gorongosa, a major initiative advancing healthcare innovation in low-resource settings in Mozambique.

Dr. Santa Maria’s translational portfolio spans both therapeutics and medical devices, including HB-EGF tympanic regenerative therapy (now in phase 2 human clinical trials)and the EarFlo non-invasive autoinflation device for otitis media. His NIH-funded programs investigate mechanisms of sensory hearing loss, innate immune dysregulation in chronic suppurative otitis media, and nanomedicine-based approaches to eradicate bacterial persisters.

A surgical leader in neurotology, Dr. Santa Maria is a core member of UPMC’s comprehensive skull base surgery program, bringing together advanced lateral skull base surgery, radiosurgery, and multidisciplinary tumor care. He is also the lead editor of the forthcoming 3rd edition of Neurotology (Elsevier).

Across surgery, immunology, global health, and medical technology, Dr. Santa Maria’s work continues to define new frontiers in how scientific discoveries translate into real-world therapies and devices that improve hearing and balance care worldwide.

A highly renowned surgeon, scientist and educator, Dr. St. John is Andelot Professor and Director of the Department of Otolaryngology - Head Neck Surgery, Otolaryngologist-in-Chief, Johns Hopkins Medicine. She is the immediate past Professor and Chair of the Department of Head and Neck Surgery and Professor of Bioengineering at UCLA where she held the Thomas C. Calcaterra, M.D., Chair in Head and Neck Surgery and Co-Director of the UCLA Head and Neck Cancer Program. Under her leadership, the Department of Head & Neck Surgery at UCLA rose to #1 nationally by USNWR. Dr. St. John’s laboratory studies the mechanisms of tumor progression and metastasis, incorporating the results of their laboratory-based research into the development of novel therapeutics. She is an outstanding educator who has provided mentorship to numerous trainees and serves as a member of several prestigious organizations including the Executive Council of the AHNS, Triological Society, ACS Board of Governors Advisory Council, and the American Laryngological Association. She is a senior examiner for the ABOto and a reviewer for the AAO-HNS CORE grants, and NIH/NIDCR, NCI and NIBIB study sections. She has been the recipient of multiple awards for teaching and research.

Dr. St. John received her B.S. from Stanford and M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Yale. She completed residency and postdoctoral training at UCLA. Dr. St. John’s clinical expertise is in intraoperative tumor margin delineation in the resection of head and neck cancers to allow for precision surgery. Her efforts have helped in the development of strong interdepartmental research programs in Head & Neck Surgery and Bioengineering. This work has led to clinical trials and patent applications, and has been consistently funded by the NIH, charitable foundations, and industry.

In addition to maintaining a busy surgical practice, Dr. St. John is active in clinical research and is closely involved in training young physician-scientists. She is a prolific author and a sought-out lecturer internationally.