Throughout 2025, faculty, trainees and staff from the Johns Hopkins Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery advanced the field through sustained leadership in education, collaboration and global engagement. With invited lectures, international conferences, educational courses and patient-centered initiatives, members of the department shared their expertise with peers and communities across the United States and around the world. The following highlights reflect a year of impactful scholarship, teaching and service.

January 2025

Considerations for Long-Term Multidisciplinary Care Following Laryngectomy

Speech-language pathologists Rina Abrams and Jessica Maloney helped host this multidisciplinary course, which featured Christine Gourin as the keynote speaker. The program emphasized coordinated long-term care strategies to improve outcomes and quality of life for patients following laryngectomy.

EROC Global Forum — Dubai

David Eisele

David Eisele presented at the 4th International Sialendoscopy Conference hosted by EROC. Nicholas Rowan also delivered a presentation, contributing to international dialogue on advances in salivary gland disease management.

February 2025

Association for Research in Otolaryngology Midwinter Meeting — Orlando, Florida

R25 trainee Andy Ding

R25 trainee Andy Ding presented emerging research, highlighting innovative investigative work and the department’s continued investment in research training and mentorship.

March 2025

6th Annual Olfactory Neuroblastoma Patient Education Meeting and Research Workshop — Northwestern University, Illinois

Directed by Nyall London, this meeting brought together patients, caregivers, clinicians, and researchers affected by olfactory neuroblastoma. For the first time, the program included a dedicated research workshop featuring experts from the National Cancer Institute, Northwestern University, Johns Hopkins, and other leading institutions nationwide. Johns Hopkins faculty contributors included Gary Gallia and Murugappan Ramanathan, along with residency alumnus Bruce Tan (2010). The event was sponsored by the National Cancer Institute.

6th Annual Olfactory Neuroblastoma Patient Education Meeting and Research Workshop

April 2025

Johns Hopkins Center for Global Surgery’s 2025 Spring Symposium — Baltimore, Maryland

Surgical Resilience: Innovation and Capacity Building Across the Globe

Special guest speakers included Wayne Koch, who participated both as a head and neck surgeon and in his role as director of the head and neck fellowship at Mbingo Baptist Hospital in Cameroon, highlighting global partnerships in surgical education and care.

About the Johns Hopkins Global Surgery Symposium

4th Irish Head and Neck Society Annual Conference — Kilkenny, Ireland 

Invited speaker Leila Mady presented on emerging neoadjuvant paradigms in the management of oropharyngeal cancer, contributing to international discussion on evolving treatment strategies.

May 2025

American Society of Pediatric Otolaryngology (ASPO) 2025 Annual Meeting — Montreal, Canada

Resident Elaine Thompson

Resident Elaine Thompson presented a poster during a breakout session titled Optimizing Communication and Surgical Decisions for Pediatric Obstructive Sleep Disordered Breathing: Parent Perspectives, highlighting patient- and family-centered research in pediatric care.

July 2025

10th World Congress of the International Academy of Oral Oncology —  Liverpool, England

Leila Mady led the Epidemiology and Inequalities in Oral Cancer symposium and attended alongside postdoctoral research fellow Wassim Najjar and maxillofacial prosthodontist Nadine Mirza, underscoring the department’s leadership in addressing disparities in cancer care.

Dr. Mady (second from left) with colleagues

Residency Simulation Bootcamp — Baltimore, Maryland

2025 Residency Simulation Bootcamp

The department’s annual residency simulation bootcamp, organized by Carolyn Jenks, provided immersive, hands-on training for residents. Faculty participants included Andrew Lane, Jonathan Walsh and Jenny X. Chen, with teaching support from senior residents Ani Saraswathula and Danielle Trakimas.

August 2025

Skull Base & Head and Neck Training Course — Baltimore, Maryland

Nyall London and Masaru Ishii, in collaboration with colleagues from the Johns Hopkins Department of Neurosurgery, planned and executed a comprehensive training course for residents and fellows. The course drew a record 125 participants and emphasized multidisciplinary approaches to complex skull base and head and neck conditions.

Participants in the Skull Base & Head and Neck Training Course

September 2025

9th Congress of the Slovenian Society of Otolaryngology — Maribor, Slovenia

9th Congress of the Slovenian Society of Otolaryngology attendees

Nyall London, Shaun Desai and Wojciech Mydlarz, along with old and new friends including Johns Hopkins alumni David Smith and Jamie (Ahn) Ku, were invited as American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery guest faculty to present on a multitude of topics, covering multidisciplinary approaches to sinonasal disease and surgery, head and neck surgical oncology, and reconstruction and pediatric airway.

October 2025

XXI International Conference of the Oncology Section of the Polish Society of Otorhinolaryngologists, Head and Neck Surgeons, "Head and Neck Oncology. Advances in Otorhinolaryngology" — Łódź, Poland

Murugappan Ramanathan, Nyall London, Shaun Desai, and Wojciech Mydlarz collaborated with the Polish Society to develop expert panels focused on current and future advances in head and neck oncology. The multidisciplinary Johns Hopkins team was joined by Gary Gallia, Harry Quon, Lisa Rooper and Majid Khan, reflecting the breadth of institutional expertise. Gallia and colleagues, including Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine alumnus Jason Chan, also led a live, televised dissection course, demonstrating endoscopic and combined open skull base approaches and engaging attendees through real-time discussion.

Society of Otorhinolaryngology and Head-Neck Nurses — Indianapolis, Indiana

Melinda DeSell

Melinda DeSell, C.R.N.P., and Kristina Keppel of Children’s Wisconsin delivered an interactive educational session on ENT syndromes, presented in a Jeopardy-style format.

International Surgical Sleep Society Conference — Indianapolis, Indiana

Kevin Motz presented on a novel therapy for obstructive sleep apnea involving non-invasive transmucosal stimulation of the lesser palatine nerve.

American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery Annual Meeting — Indianapolis, Indiana

Maie St. John delivered the Bryan Neel III, M.D., Ph.D., Distinguished Research Lecture, titled Precision Surgery: The Next Frontier for Our Patients.

14th Annual Pituitary Patient Education Day — The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland

This free educational event brought together experts from endocrinology, otolaryngology–head and neck surgery, neurosurgery, radiation oncology and molecular oncology, and the Wilmer Eye Institute to provide comprehensive education for patients and families.

14th Annual Pituitary Patient Education Day

November 2025

HWK Auditory Efferent Systems Study Group Meeting — Delmenhorst, Germany

Amanda Lauer and Philippe Vincent presented their research on top-down brain control of the inner ear, contributing to international collaboration in auditory neuroscience.

XXXIX PanAmerican Congress of Otorhinolaryngology; 81st Chilean Congress of Otorhinolaryngology — Santiago, Chile

XXXIX PanAmerican Congress of Otorhinolaryngology attendees

Simon Best, Shaun Desai, Nyall London, and Wojciech Mydlarz, along with faculty alumnus Peter Vosler, served as invited AAO-HNSF faculty, participating in international expert panels addressing innovations in care for complex otolaryngologic conditions.

December 2025

XIII International Rhinologic Conference, RhinoScope 2025 — Warsaw, Poland

Wojciech Mydlarz and Nyall London were invited to present their work as part of an international consensus team developing a modified Delphi expert consensus statement on the appropriate evaluation and workup of sinonasal masses. In addition to presenting this landmark effort, the Johns Hopkins faculty team led multiple educational sessions, including expert panels on sinonasal tumor management, multidisciplinary surgical approaches, and the complexities of skull base reconstruction. The team further engaged attendees through a live, televised dissection focused on the management of intraoperative and postoperative complications, fostering interactive learning through real-time audience questions.

XIII International Rhinologic Conference attendees

The David M. Rubenstein Hearing Research Symposium 2025 – Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland

Held in December and organized by Elisabeth Glowatzki, the Rubenstein Symposium convened scientists studying hearing restoration, aging, and the effects of altered sensory input on the auditory brain, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and discovery.