The Players: who we are

Dr. Piroska Kopar joined the faculty of Washington University in St. Louis as assistant professor in acute and critical care surgery and director of CHESS in 2018. She had earned her undergraduate degree in the Great Books Program of St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland and received her MD as a Woodruff Fellow from Emory University School of Medicine. She trained in general surgery and trauma, critical care, and acute care surgery at Dartmouth and Yale respectively. She was first an academic, then a research fellow at Harvard Medical School’s Division of Medical Ethics, focusing on developing ethics education for surgery residents. This work she continued as a Surgical Education Research Fellow of the Association for Surgical Education.

Dr. Kopar is the course director for Washington University School of Medicine’s Ethics Selective and serves on the Ethics committee at Barnes Jewish Hospital. Nationally, she is active in the American College of Surgeons’ ethics education initiatives and co-edits its Ethics in Surgery online community. Dr. Kopar is the president of the Consortium for Surgical Ethics, a national non-profit organization dedicated to the academic integrity of ethics research and education in surgery. She is a frequent presenter to both professional and community audiences and remains active in surgical ethics education research.

Douglas Brown has been an ethics educator and a qualitative researcher with Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine since January 2007, with the last eight years in the Department of Surgery. Before coming to St. Louis, he worked for a decade as a member of the executive leadership team for a community health center in a rural and impoverished region of East Tennessee Appalachia.

He entered the medical/surgical education sphere in the 1980s through collaborations with faculty at the University of Tennessee School of Medicine and had subsequent affiliations with the schools of medicine at the University of Michigan, the University of Miami, and Louisiana State University. His doctoral studies in the history of pivotal ideas in Western Civilization focused on the collapse of ancient Rome, the formation of universities, the introduction of the scientific method, and the struggle with integrity for the generation that came of age between WWI and WWII. He and his wife reside in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis.

Dr. Jessica Kramer completed her general surgery residency and burn surgery fellowship at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.  She then completed a surgical critical care fellowship at Washington University, in St. Louis.  She is currently a clinical instructor in the acute and critical care surgery department at Washington University. Dr. Kramer is a member of the Barnes Jewish Hospital ethics committee and has a strong interest in surgical ethics education and research.

Ira J. Kodner, M.D., earned both his bachelor’s and medical degrees at Washington University. Following residency in surgery at Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, three years in the Army, and a fellowship in Colon and Rectal Surgery at Cleveland Clinic, he joined the Washington University School of Medicine faculty in 1976 as a clinical instructor of surgery and spent 10 years in private practice before joining the full-time academic faculty and rising to Full Professor of Surgery, where he held the Solon and Bettie Gershman endowed professorship. In 2013, he retired from clinical practice and was granted Emeritus Professor of Surgery status in the WU Department of Surgery.

Kodner founded the Section of Colon and Rectal Surgery at the School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital, and has published more than 100 scientific articles and book chapters relating to medical/surgical ethics and to diseases of the colon and rectum.

Kodner has received many honors for his accomplishments in medicine and teaching, including the American Cancer Society Award for Leadership and the School of Medicine’s Distinguished Alumni Scholarship. He was named Physician of the Year by the St. Louis Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation. For 15 years, Kodner served as attending in the Surgery Clinic at St. Louis Connect Care.

He is also a Past President of the American Board of Colon and Rectal Surgery and the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons and has served as a Director of the American Board of Surgery. He long served as a senior examiner for both surgical boards.

After 20 years of teaching medical students ethical and compassionate care of their patients and dealing with the utilization of recently obtainable genetic information on risk for colorectal cancer, he became a consultant and author for the American College of Surgeons curriculum for teaching ethics to surgery residents. In 2003 he completed a year-long Fellowship in Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago, and in 2004 he created and became director of the Washington University Center for the Study of Ethics and Human Values. In 2018 Barnes-Jewish Hospital Foundation established the Barbara and Ira Kodner Endowed Fund for Surgical Ethics Education.

Ira J. Kodner, M.D., earned both his bachelor’s and medical degrees at Washington University. Following residency in surgery at Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, three years in the Army, and a fellowship in Colon and Rectal Surgery at Cleveland Clinic, he joined the Washington University School of Medicine faculty in 1976 as a clinical instructor of surgery and spent 10 years in private practice before joining the full-time academic faculty and rising to Full Professor of Surgery, where he held the Solon and Bettie Gershman endowed professorship. In 2013, he retired from clinical practice and was granted Emeritus Professor of Surgery status in the WU Department of Surgery.

Kodner founded the Section of Colon and Rectal Surgery at the School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital, and has published more than 100 scientific articles and book chapters relating to medical/surgical ethics and to diseases of the colon and rectum.

Kodner has received many honors for his accomplishments in medicine and teaching, including the American Cancer Society Award for Leadership and the School of Medicine’s Distinguished Alumni Scholarship. He was named Physician of the Year by the St. Louis Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation. For 15 years, Kodner served as attending in the Surgery Clinic at St. Louis Connect Care.

He is also a Past President of the American Board of Colon and Rectal Surgery and the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons and has served as a Director of the American Board of Surgery. He long served as a senior examiner for both surgical boards.