Medical Advisory Board

Martin Sandler

MD, MBChB

Seno Medical Advisory Board Chair

Dr. Sandler is a fellow of the American Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, the American College of Nuclear Physicians and the College of Physicians South Africa and an honorary fellow of the South African College of Nuclear Medicine. He received the MBChB degrees from the University of Cape Town Medical School in 1972, serving as a resident physician in Medicine, Surgery, Cardiology and Neurology at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa until 1978. He completed a fellowship in Endocrinology and Metabolism at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and subsequently completed residency and fellowship training in Vanderbilt’s Division of Nuclear Medicine. He joined the faculty as Assistant Professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences in 1983. Dr. Sandler has served as Clinical Director of the Nuclear Medicine/PET Division, Director of the Nuclear Medicine Residency Training Program, Director of the Radiological Sciences Research Laboratory and Director of Clinical Nuclear Medicine. In 1992, he was appointed Vice-Chairman of the Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences after which he was named Chairman of the Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences and Carol D. and Henry P. Pendergrass Professor. He became Associate Vice-Chancellor for Hospital Affairs at Vanderbilt in 2006, having oversight of Vanderbilt Hospital, Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital, Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital and Stallworth Rehabilitation Hospital. In 2009, he returned to clinical practice as Professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences. Dr. Sandler has been awarded 18 industry and government-funded grants and awards. He has served as editor for the Journal of Nuclear Medicine and president of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging. In addition, he has edited 9 textbooks, authored over 100 published manuscripts, 16 editorials, 62 textbook chapters, 83 scientific communications and presentations and five educational tapes.  Dr. Sandler serves as the Chairman of the Seno Medical Advisory Board.  

Richard L. Ellis

MD, FSBI

Dr. Ellis is the director of the Breast Imaging Section at Mayo Clinic – Franciscan Health Care and is trained as a clinical breast radiologist. Dr. Ellis’ primary focus is breast disease; counselling patients, interpreting breast imaging examinations, performing breast imaging percutaneous procedures, and helping lead a interdisciplinary breast care research team. 

Dr. Ellis received his medical degree from Southern Illinois University Medical School, Springfield, Illinois and pursued his radiology residency at University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin. In addition to his initial basic science training as a graduate student in molecular biology, Dr. Ellis served as a Howard Hughes/NIH Research Scholar at the National Institutes of Health.  Dr. Ellis also completed a Breast Imaging Fellowship at University of Alabama, UAB Breast Center in Birmingham, Alabama under the prestigious Peter Dempsey, MD, Eva Rubin, MD and Nancy Pile, MD.

Dr. Ellis is a Fellow within the Society of Breast Imaging, and currently serves as a committee member for the American College of Radiology National Mammography Database and the Society of Breast Imaging Patient Care and Delivery Task Force.  His most recent research areas include cell-free DNA serum, cancer detection with dialectical behavior therapy vs. molecular breast imaging, artificial intelligence machine learning and deep learning to aid radiologists and developing applications for decision support for screening mammography.

Steve Harms

MD, FACR

Dr. Harms is a breast-imaging specialist at MANA’s The Breast Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas and is recognized nationally in the area of magnetic resonance imaging, specifically breast MRI. He was named “Komen Foundation Scientist of the Year” by Susan G. Komen for the Cure in 1998 and was given the annual William Beaumont Award by the American Medical Association for the outstanding physician in the nation under the age of 50 in 1995. Dr. Harms was on the faculty at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), where he continues to serve as a clinical professor, Baylor University Medical Center and M.D. Anderson Cancer Institute. Dr. Harms holds an MD from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, Arkansas, and completed his residency in Diagnostic Radiology at UAMS.

Jessica W. T.  Leung

MD, FACR, FSBI

Dr. Leung is Professor of Diagnostic Radiology and Deputy Chair of Department of Breast Imaging at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. She is currently Immediate Past President of Society of Breast Imaging (SBI). She earned her summa cum laude undergraduate degree from Harvard University and medical degree from Harvard Medical School. After completing her medical internship at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, she pursued residency in diagnostic radiology and fellowship in breast/women’s imaging at University of California San Francisco (UCSF). Dr. Leung has worked on both U.S. coasts, having served as faculty in breast imaging at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Center, and UCSF. She also has extensive community practice experience, having served as Medical Director of the Breast Health Center at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco.

Dr. Leung has published extensively and lectured nationally and internationally, having delivered over 300 lectures on 5 continents. She is a Fellow of SBI and Fellow of American College of Radiology (ACR), along with the honors of American Roentgen Ray Society Scholar, UCSF Teacher of the Year, George R. Leopold Lecturer, UCSF Outstanding Alumnus, and MD Anderson Diagnostic Imaging Outstanding Extramural Service Award. Also, she co-edited a large comprehensive textbook in breast imaging, published in June 2019 and is currently a member of the ACR BI-RADS Committee (chairing the BI-RADS ultrasound section) and ACR Stereotactic Biopsy Accreditation Committee. 

Mike Linver

MD, FACR

Dr. Linver is Director of Mammography for X-Ray Associates of New Mexico, P.C. in Albuquerque and Clinical Professor of Radiology at the University of New Mexico. He serves as chair of the subcommittee on BI-RADS Ultrasound for the ACR and is a Fellow of the American College of Radiology. Dr. Linver has presented more than 1,100 lectures in 37 states and 24 countries and is the author of more than 60 articles and chapters of textbooks on mammography. He was voted best doctor in radiology by physicians of Albuquerque in Albuquerque Magazine’s “Top Doc” poll 11 of the past 12 years and was chosen in 2010 as one of the 10 most effective radiology educators in the U.S. by AuntMinnie.com.

Dr. Linver holds an MD from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and completed his post-graduate medical training at the University of California at San Francisco, Vanderbilt University and the University of New Mexico.

Ellen Mendelson

MD

Dr. Mendelson is Professor Emeritus of Radiology at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University. From 2001-2016, Dr. Mendelson was Professor of Radiology and Lee F. Rogers Professor of Medical Education in Radiology at Northwestern where she was Breast Imaging Section Chief and Director of the Fellowship in Breast and Women’s Imaging. Her medical training, radiology residency, and fellowship were all accomplished at Northwestern. 

For many years, Dr. Mendelson has been active in the American College of Radiology where she has been a member of the Breast Commission, chairing the Breast Economics Committee. She twice chaired the ACR subcommittees that wrote the BI-RADS for Ultrasound published in 2003 and 2013. Her major research interests are in breast ultrasound diagnosis, adjunctive breast cancer screening with ultrasound, and emerging technologies. She was a co-investigator of ACRIN 6666, the multicenter study comparing ultrasound with mammography for breast cancer detection in women with elevated risk of breast cancer and dense breast tissue. She also was principal investigator of a two-site study comparing breast lesion detection by physician-performed handheld ultrasound with automated whole breast ultrasound. 

Dr. Mendelson is widely published and an invited speaker nationally and internationally on breast imaging and image-guided interventional procedures. Additionally, she is one of the organizers of the annually-held CME symposium, “The Chicago International Breast Course” as well as on the faculty of the International Breast Ultrasound School. She is co-author with Prof. Helmut Madjar of The Practice of Breast Ultrasound (Thieme, 2008), and currently at work on a new textbook, Breast Ultrasound, to be published by Elsevier.

Pamela M. Otto

MD, FACR

Dr. Otto is a fellowship trained breast imager and interventionalist. For the past 8 years, she has served as chair of the Department of Radiology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.  Dr. Otto retired as chair of the University of Texas Health Radiology in 2022 and as a professor and clinical provider in the Department of Radiology. She continues to serve patients in the Breast Health Center, is a supervising radiologist for University Health System’s (UHS) Breast Cancer Screening Program, and chair of the Multidisciplinary Breast Tumor Board.  Her research interests are in breast cancer detection. 

Dr. Otto’s prior roles include Interim Chair of Radiology, Director of Radiology for UHS, Chief of Staff for UHS, Director of Radiology for the Texas Center for Infectious Diseases, Director of Breast Imaging and Intervention and Director of the Breast Imaging Fellowship Program at University of Texas Health San Antonio. 

Richard L. Wahl

MD

Dr. Wahl is professor and head of radiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, director of the university’s Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology and professor of radiation oncology. 

Dr. Wahl graduated from Wartburg College in Iowa, majoring in Chemistry.  After graduating from Washington University School of Medicine, he held a position in internal medicine and was trained in diagnostic radiology and nuclear medicine. He moved to Johns Hopkins University in 2000, where he served as the first Henry N. Wagner Jr. Professor of Nuclear Medicine and chief of nuclear medicine. He joined the faculty of Washington University in 2014.  

Wahl is a world-renowned leader in molecular imaging and therapy. Over the past 35 years, his contributions have touched nearly every aspect of the field and spans from the bench to the bedside. Dr. Wahl's strong research and clinical interest contributions in radionuclide therapy led to the development of radiolabeled antibodies for the treatment of lymphoma and the translation of this therapy to patients.

Wahl is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and has received honors from multiple organizations. He holds 18 patents and has published more than 400 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts. He is the primary author of several textbooks, including Principles and Practice of PET and PET/CT. He has a strong interest in quantitative imaging, is on the coordinating committee of the Quantitative Imaging Biomarkers Alliance (QIBA) efforts of the Radiological Society of North America and has been a lead investigator in the Quantitative Imaging Network (QIN) of the National Institutes of Health. 

His has also received several awards and was named the “Most Influential Radiology Researcher” in 2005 by AuntMinnie.com, a leading website for medical imaging professionals.