My Own Pathway and How I Work to Expand the Pipeline: Attracting Diversity Youth on an International Level

Faculty: Ingrid Perscky, MD, Hugo Enrique López Ramos, MD and Tracy Downs, MD

Moderator: Marisa Clifton, MD

Ingrid Perscky, MD

Dr. Ingrid Perscky Arravanti, MD, Urologist, President and Founder, Global Men´s Health Foundation-APROSACITEC. President AUCA-Urological Association of Central America and the Caribbean. Director of the Office for CAU Female Urologists-American Confederation of Urology. Ad-honorem Clinical Professor of Urology the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Panama.

Graduated from Medical School in Florence, Italy and urology from Gil Vernet´s Professional School of Urology, Hospital Clinic, in Barcelona-Spain. Fellow in Urology from SWU at Dallas-USA.

She has been practicing Urology at the Paitilla Medical Center Hospital and Pacifica Salud , a Johns Hopkisn affiliated Hospital since 1986 and has been part of the Robotics Group of the Hospital Nacional since 2012.

She is a prolific inventor.

Hugo Enrique López Ramos, MD

  • Urologist and Clinical Epidemiologist graduated from the Pontifical Javeriana University with an emphasis on Endourology and Minimally Invasive Surgery with more than seventeen years of experience.
  • Professor and Chairman, Urology Unit of the San Ignacio University Hospital
  • Professor Urology Pontifical Javeriana University
  • Member of the Colombian Society of Urology (SCU). Board of Directors
  • Member of the American Confederation of Urology (CAU)
  • International Member American Urological Association (AUA)
  • Member of the Endourological Society
  • Member of the International Alliance of Urolithiasis (IAU)

Tracy Downs, MD

Dr. Downs is a Professor of Urology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. Administratively he holds two senior leadership roles as both the Senior Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion within the School of Medicine and is also the Chief Diversity and Community Engagement Officer of UVA Health. He was been in academic urology practice for 19 years and specializes in Urologic Oncology. His main clinical research area in urology focuses on improving recurrence and progression outcomes for patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer. Dr. Downs is a Past President of the R. Frank Jones Urologic Society and was Chair of the American Urologic Association's Diversity and Inclusion Taskforce which provided recommendations to the AUA Board of Urology in 2022.    

Marisa Clifton, MD

Marisa M. Clifton M.D, F.A.C.S. is an Associate Professor (PAR) of Urology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and serves as the Urology Residency Program Director and the Director of Robotic Education. Additionally, Dr. Clifton is the Associate Chief Medical Officer for Johns Hopkins Hospital. She is Director of Women’s Health at the Brady Urological Institute and is fellowship trained and board certified in Urology with subspecialty certification in Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery.

Dr. Clifton received her medical degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and completed her residency in urology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. She completed her fellowship in Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery at The Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. Her research interests include medical education, safety and quality, and female sexual health and pelvic floor disorders.