Symposium Speakers and Presenters
Mathew R. Morrell, MD
Mathew Morrell, MD, joined the division of Pulmonary and Critical Care as a professor of Medicine. He completed his internal medicine residency and his fellowship in pulmonary and critical care at Washington University in St. Louis/Barnes-Jewish Hospital. Later, he was recruited to the University of Pittsburgh in the division of pulmonary, allergy and critical care medicine as an assistant professor and a lung transplant pulmonologist, the director of the pulmonary stepdown unit at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and then medical director of the lung transplant program. His passion for expanding access to lung transplantation through organ donation led him to be appointed the medical director of the Center for Organ Recovery and Education (CORE), the region’s local organ procurement organization.
Dr. Morrell has been involved in medical education of medical students, residents and fellows and has served as the pulmonary transplant fellowship director at the University of Pittsburgh. He is an active member of the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation and the American Thoracic Society.
Dr. Morrell joined the faculty at the University of Utah and the lung transplant program as the medical director. He hopes to promote organ donation and provide increased opportunities for lung transplantation to the people here in the mountain west. In his spare time, Dr. Morrell enjoys attending his children’s football games and swim meets. He is an avid cross country runner and pipe organ player.
Craig Selzman, MD
Dr. Craig Selzman is the Dr. Russell M. Nelson and Dantzel W. Nelson Presidential Endowed Chair as well as Professor and Chief of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of Utah who specializes in the care of patients requiring heart surgery.
Clinically, Dr. Selzman is the Surgical Director of the Cardiac Mechanical Support and Heart Transplant program and serves as the Medical Director of the Transplant Service Line for the University of Utah Hospital. In addition to his role in the advanced Heart Failure and artificial heart program, he specializes in complex valvular heart disease including reoperative heart surgery, adult congenital heart disease, and aortic root reconstruction. He is one of a few surgeons in the Intermountain West with significant experience with minimally invasive heart surgery for a wide variety of disease, and, in particular, mitral valve repair.
Dr. Selzman is heavily involved with clinical research related to advanced heart failure, transplantation, and ventricular assist devices. He also has an active basic science collaboration with many of our researchers here at the University of Utah. Dr. Selzman is one of a handful of cardiothoracic surgeons that runs a laboratory funded by the National Institute of Health. His research focus is related to examining mechanisms of heart recovery.
Josef Stehlik, MD, MPH
Josef Stehlik, MD, MPH, is a Christi T Smith Professor of Medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine. Dr. Stehlik has received his medical degree from Charles University in Prague and a Master's in Public Health from Harvard School of Public Health. He completed his training in Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Diseases at Allegheny General Hospital, MCP*Hahnemann University, and advanced training in Heart Failure and Transplantation at the Cleveland Clinic.
Dr. Stehlik has been on faculty at the University of Utah since 2004 and serves as Medical Director of the Heart Transplant Program and Co-chief of the Advance Heart Failure Program at the University of Utah Hospital and the Salt Lake City Veterans Affairs Medical Center. He is active in clinical work, education, and research in the areas of advanced heart failure, heart transplantation, and mechanical circulatory support.
Joseph E. Tonna, MD, MS
Dr. Joseph E. Tonna, MD, MS, FCCM, FACEP, is an Associate Professor and Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Surgery at the University of Utah. He is the Section Head of Cardiothoracic Critical Care, the Associate Director of Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) Services, and has previously served as the Medical Director of the Cardiovascular ICU, where he continues to attend clinically. He is funded by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). His clinical and research interests include clinical trials of rescue therapies in critically ill patients, with a focus on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) and extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR).
Andrew L. Freeman, MD
Dr. Freeman is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Pulmonary Medicine at the University Hospital. He practices pulmonary and critical care in the inpatient settings in the medical intensive care unit (MICU), the Huntsman Cancer intensive care unit (HCICU) and on the inpatient pulmonary service at University Hospital. He also sees general pulmonary patients in the outpatient setting at the Farmington Health Center and the Sugarhouse Health Center. He enjoys providing hands on teaching to Internal Medicine residents and Pulmonary and Critical Care fellows on clinical service. He maintains a research interest in the pulmonary and systemic health effects of air pollution, an ongoing health challenge within the Salt Lake Valley.
Luis G. Vargas Buonfiglio, MD
Luis G. Vargas Buonfiglio, MD, specializes in respiratory critical care medicine, practicing at University of Utah Health. Dr. Buonfiglio is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine (Internal Medicine), Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates, and the National Board of Medical Examiners).
Jennalyn Mayeux, DNP, FNP-C
Jennalyn Mayeux joined the University of Utah Pulmonary Division in 2012 as a Nurse Practitioner working alongside expert physicians specialized in asthma and pulmonary arterial hypertension. The Pulmonary Hypertension & Dyspnea Program quickly grew into a multi-disciplinary program focused on treating all types of pulmonary hypertension and those with shortness of breath over a 5 state region. In 2016 the Program was accredited as a Comprehensive Care Center by the Pulmonary Hypertension Association (PHA) with Jennalyn as the Program Coordinator. She and her colleagues continue to pursue state of the art care with complex treatment options for those with PAH and CTEPH while acknowledging the considerable burden of PH on those with other heart and lung diseases. Jennalyn’s primary focus is to improve the quality of life with personalized goals of care and therapeutic regimens for all of her patients regardless of diagnosis.
Jennalyn earned her Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree at the University of Utah. She received her undergraduate degrees from Utah Valley State College as a Presidential Scholar.
She initially developed her appreciation for pulmonary medicine as a registered nurse at the University of Utah Hospital. Her health care experience is diverse and includes work with cystic fibrosis, allergy and asthma, women’s health, internal medicine, and bone marrow transplant. She is a board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner and is licensed as an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse.