Our Faculty

Michael G. Caty, MD, MMM, is the Robert Pritzker Professor of Surgery and Chief of the Section of Pediatric Surgery in the Department of Surgery. He also serves as the Surgeon-in-Chief of the Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital. Board certified in pediatric surgery, Dr. Caty’s clinical interests include neonatal surgery, thoracic surgery, intestinal motility disorders, pediatric surgical oncology, pediatric laparoscopy, and minimally invasive thoracic surgery. Yale welcomed Dr. Caty in January 2012 after he spent 17 years at the Children’s Hospital of Buffalo, where he was the John E. Fisher Endowed Chair of Pediatric Surgery, Chief of the Division of Pediatric Surgery, Surgeon-in-Chief, and Program Director for Pediatric Surgery. He was the driving physician leader for the planning and development of moving both the inpatient and outpatient services of the Women and Children's Hospital of Buffalo to the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. While in Buffalo, he also served as Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics at the University of Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. Dr. Caty attended Boston College and graduated from the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He underwent his general surgery and research training at the University of Michigan, where he served as administrative chief resident and pursued a research fellowship investigating intestinal injury during ischemia and reperfusion. He finished his pediatric surgery residency at Children’s Hospital of Boston and Harvard Medical School, where he served as chief resident. He obtained a master’s degree in Medical Management in the Heinz School of Public Health at Carnegie Mellon University in 2010. Dr. Caty is a member of the American College of Surgeons, American Pediatric Surgical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, Association for Academic Surgery, and the American Surgical Association. For eight years, Dr. Caty has been named on The Best Doctors in America® List, which represents the top 5 percent of doctors in the country. In 2012 and 2013, Dr. Caty was named among New York Magazine’s best doctors list. In 2009, he received the Kaleida Health Spirit Award, and in 2005 Dr. Caty was awarded the Promising Inventor Award from The Research Foundation of the State University of New York at Buffalo. Dr. Caty has contributed over 130 articles and chapters to pediatric surgical literature and is the editor of the multi-author textbook, Complications in Pediatric Surgery. He has been involved in the leadership of several pediatric surgical societies, including serving as President of the Pediatric Surgery Biology Club, Chair of the Organization of Children’s Hospital Surgeons-in-Chief, and Chair of the Surgical Section of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Meet Section Chief, Dr. Michael Caty.

Emily Christison-Lagay, MD is a pediatric surgeon with broad clinical interests spanning the width pediatric surgery from congenital anomalies in newborns to common childhood surgical conditions (hernias, appendicitis, gallbladder disease) to childhood tumors, trauma, and benign and malignant thyroid disease. She is the surgical director of the Pediatric Thyroid Center at Yale and the Director of Pediatric Trauma. Following completion of her pediatric surgical training, Dr. Christison-Lagay pursued additional training in the medical and surgical management of pediatric solid tumors including thoracic, liver, and renal tumors, as well as neuroblastoma, childhood sarcomas, and pediatric diseases of the thyroid. She is board-certified in surgery and pediatric surgery, Dr. Christison-Lagay completed her medical degree at Harvard Medical School and her general surgical residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital, with research in tumor angiogenesis at Boston Children's Hospital. From there, she completed a pediatric surgical fellowship at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, followed by a "super"-fellowship in pediatric surgical oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She is a member of the Children's Oncology Group and the International Society of Paediatric Surgical Oncology as well the American Thyroid Association Taskforce on Pediatric Thyroid Disease and a founding member of the Child and Adolescent Thyroid Consortium.

Robert A. Cowles, MD is a Professor of Surgery at Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Cowles obtained his undergraduate education at the University of Pennsylvania and his medical degree at Temple University. He completed a residency in general surgery at the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, and spent two additional years pursuing laboratory research which was supported by a training grant from the NIH and by a research grant from the American College of Surgeons. Dr. Cowles then obtained his pediatric surgery training at the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital at Columbia University in New York City.Dr. Cowles practices the full range of pediatric surgery with specific expertise and interest in the care of children with diseases of the gastrointestinal tract including the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, colon, liver and biliary tree. He currently co-manages patients with short gut syndrome and intestinal failure as part of a multidisciplinary team.He has been a Program Director of Pediatric Surgery Fellowships both in New York and now at Yale University with an interest in competency in surgical education.Dr. Cowles directs a research laboratory focused on the neural control of intestinal adaptation and neural processes involved in recovery from intestinal injury.Meet Dr. Robert Cowles.

Matthew Hornick, MD is a pediatric surgeon who treats a broad array of conditions in patients ranging in age from newborns to young adults. He feels very fortunate to have the opportunity to treat surgical problems in children, and as a father of two boys, understands that there is nothing more important to parents than their kids’ health and well-being. His primary goal is to provide his patients with the same level of care that he would want and expect for his own children.   Dr. Hornick earned his medical degree at Yale and completed his General Surgery training at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. As a research fellow at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, he contributed to the development of an “artificial placenta” model to support extremely premature babies. Following residency, he completed clinical fellowship in Pediatric Surgery at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Dr. Solomon is an Assistant Professor working at Bridgeport and Greenwich Hospital. Dr. Solomon is an enthusiastic teacher, a skilled surgeon and most important a team player. Dr. Solomon is a smart and thoughtful surgeon and has a deep knowledge of pediatric surgery. He is extremely committed to taking excellent care of his patients.Daniel received his medical degree at New York University School of Medicine and was then accepted at Yale University, Department of Surgery as an Intern in General Surgery and then a Resident. He was appointed Educational Chief Resident his last year. Dr. Solomon moved to Florida thereafter to complete a Fellowship in Pediatric Surgery at the Shands Hospital for Children at the University of Florida.He has extensive research experience and was the 1st place award winner for the Resident Research Competition in Trauma, Connecticut Chapter of the American College of Surgeons. In 2009 he won first place as the Research Resident in the Trauma Connecticut Chapter of the American College of Surgeons, in 2012 he was Bridgeport Hospital’s Trauma Resident of the Year, in 2013 and 2014 he was awarded the Yale Surgery Outstanding Resident Teaching Award and also the Yale Surgery Outstanding Medical Student Teaching Award recipient. In addition, he won the prestigious Sam Harvey Award for being the Chief Resident of the Year.

David H. Stitelman, MD, is a surgeon in the Division of Pediatric Surgery within the Department of Surgery at Yale.As a clinician, Dr. Stitelman cares for children of all ages. He is the surgical director of the Yale Fetal Care Center. Such a program allows families who are given a fetal diagnosis based on prenatal testing an opportunity to meet with surgeons, pediatric medical specialists, obstetricians and neonatologists to plan for the management of their babies before and after birth.Dr. Stitelman also runs a basic science laboratory with a focus on prenatal therapy. The hope of this line of research is to treat and cure genetic and structural diseases before birth.

Robert James Touloukian MD, FACS, is board certified in Pediatric Surgery. He received his medical degree from Columbia University. Dr. Touloukian was Chief Resident at Bellvue Hospital, New York, NY in the Surgical Division followed by Chief Resident at Babies Hospital, Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, New York, NY in Pediatric Surgery.Dr. Touloukian’s research interests include pediatric trauma, tumors and newborn surgery and his clinical interests include neonatal surgery, trauma, tumors, head and neck surgery, thoracic surgery, and pediatric oncology.