William P. Didusch Center for Urologic History Governance

Robert Flanigan, MD, FACS
Exhibit Curator (2024 – 2025)

Robert C. Flanigan, MD, FACS, is currently a Professor of Urology at Loyola University Chicago, Stritch School of Medicine. Previously, he served as the Albert J. Speh Jr. and Claire R. Speh Professor and Chair of the Department of Urology at Loyola University for 32 years. He graduated from Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) School of Medicine before completing his residencies in urology and general surgery at CWRU Affiliated Hospitals in 1978 and becoming board certified in both urology and general surgery.

After residency, he served in the U.S. Air Force for two years and was awarded the Air Force Commendation Medal. He then began his academic career at the University of Kentucky before accepting a position at Loyola University Chicago. Dr. Flanigan has been continuously involved in basic, translational and clinical research. His primary research interests have been in the area of urologic oncology, especially renal and prostate carcinoma. His research work with cytoreductive nephrectomy dramatically changed practice patterns in advanced renal cancer. In 2011, he received the Distinguished Contribution Award from the Society of Basic Urologic Research. 

Dr. Flanigan has also made over 450 contributions to medical literature. Dr. Flanigan has served as President of the North Central Section of the American Urological Association (AUA), the American Board of Urology, the American Association of Genitourinary Surgeons, the Society of Urologic Oncology, the Society of University Urologists, the Society of Pelvic Surgeons, and was founder and first President of the Society of Urologic Chairpersons and Program Directors. In 2011, he completed a five year term as AUA Secretary, during which he directed the development of the first Core Curriculum for Urology and initiated the Global Philanthropic Committee. In 2011, the AUA created the Robert C. Flanigan Education Award to be presented every three years to an individual that makes exemplary contributions to the educational goals of the AUA. In 2017, he was awarded the AUA's highest honor, the Ramon Guiteras Award, for outstanding contribution to the art and science of urology. He has also received the Ferdinand Valentine Medal from the New York Academy of Medicine, the Huggins Medal from the Society of Urologic Oncology and the first Distinguished Service Award from the Chicago Urological Society.

Arthur L. “Bud” Burnett II, MD, MBA, FACS
Exhibit Curator (2023 – 2024)

Dr. Burnett is the Patrick C. Walsh Distinguished Professor of Urology and Professor, Oncology Center, at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.  He is an accomplished urologic surgeon and scientist, recognized for diverse leadership and service roles in urologic healthcare, in areas of research, education, clinical practice and advocacy.  Dr. Burnett specializes in sexual medicine, major pelvic reconstruction, voiding dysfunction, prostate cancer, and lower genitourinary tract malignancies.  He is considered the world-authority in the science and medicine of male sexual dysfunction, and among his many academic contributions he made original scientific discoveries in the science of penile erection that paved the way for the development of oral medications to treat erectile dysfunction and was the lead urologic surgeon in the first-ever penis and anterior pelvis transplant surgery.  He has written more than 400 original peer-reviewed articles, 50 book chapters and 3 books, along with numerous editorials and publications related to his biomedical research and clinical activities.  He also founded and directs a non-profit humanitarian organization called UroMissionsWorks Incorporated. 

He received his A.B. degree in Biology from Princeton University and M.D. and M.B.A. degrees from Johns Hopkins University.  He performed his post-graduate training in general surgery, urology and genitourinary reconstructive surgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and was awarded an American Foundation for Urologic Disease new investigator scholarship.  He is an alumni member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society and Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.  Among various awards, Dr. Burnett received the Urology Care Foundation Distinguished Mentor Award in 2016, the Distinguished Contribution Award from the American Urological Association in 2018, the Ferdinand C. Valentine Medal from The New York Academy of Medicine in 2020, and the Hugh Hampton Young Award from the American Urological Association in 2022.

Irwin Goldstein, MD and Sue W. Goldstein, CCRC, AASECT-CSE, IF
Curators (2021 – 2022)

Dr. Goldstein has been involved with sexual dysfunction research since the late 1970s. He has authored more than 350 publications as well as multiple book chapters and edited 6 textbooks in the field. His interests include surgery for dyspareunia, sexual health management post cancer treatment, persistent genital arousal disorder/ genital dysesthesia, physiologic investigation of sexual function in men and women, and diagnosis and treatment of sexual dysfunction in men and women. Dr. Goldstein is Director of Sexual Medicine at Alvarado Hospital, Clinical Professor of Surgery at University of California San Diego, and practices medicine at San Diego Sexual Medicine. He is also Editor-in-Chief of Sexual Medicine Reviews and past Editor of The Journal of Sexual Medicine. He is a Past President of the International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health (ISSWSH) and of the Sexual Medicine Society of North America (SMSNA). He holds a degree in engineering from Brown University and received his medical degree from McGill University. The World Association for Sexual Health awarded the Gold Medal to Dr. Goldstein in 2009 in recognition of his lifelong contributions to the field, in 2012 he received the ISSWSH Award for Distinguished Service in Women’s Sexual Health, in 2013 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the SMSNA, and in 2014 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society for Sexual Medicine. He is happily married to his college sweetheart Sue, and together they have three children and five grandchildren.

Ms. Goldstein, a graduate of Brown University, is Sexuality Educator and Clinical Research Manager at San Diego Sexual Medicine, responsible for sexual medicine educational programming and clinical research. She works with the SDSM team to develop clinical research projects, write protocols and oversee clinical trials. She also arranges for training in sexual medicine for medical students, residents, fellows and clinicians from all over the country. She works with the Sexual Medicine program at Alvarado Hospital and regional support groups to provide education to providers, students and the public. She is managing editor of Sexual Medicine Reviews. She is an associate editor of Textbook of Female Sexual Function and Dysfunction, and Female Sexual Pain Disorders, and author of multiple peer reviewed papers. Mrs. Goldstein is currently President of the International Society for the Study of Women's Sexual Health (ISSWSH) as well as Industry Relations Chair. She has contributed educational content for the ISSM Online University as well as the AUA Core Curriculum and SMSNA Fellowship Curriculum. She is also a member of the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT) and the Association of Clinical Research Professionals (ACRP). She is an AASECT Certified Sexuality Educator and an ACRP Certified Clinical Research Coordinator. Ms. Goldstein, an ISSWSH Fellow, received the Distinguished Service Award from ISSWSH in 2017 as well as from SMSNA in 2017.

John L Phillips MD, FACS
Historian (2024-2026)

Dr. Phillips was raised in Tarrytown, NY amongst the hamlets and vales made famous in the stories of Washington Irving. He graduated from Sleepy Hollow High School and then Wesleyan University with BAs in biology and classics. He received a Howard Hughes research grant while a medical student at Yale University researching cytokine biology in bone remodeling before his urologic training at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Translational research still beckoned, however, and he completed a two-year fellowship, at the dawn of genomics and robotic surgery, at the National Cancer Institute/National Institutes of Health where he was also Program Director for the urology residency at National Naval Medical Center. He returned to his roots in New York thereafter and established a practice in robotics, urologic oncology, and clinical trials. 

Dr. Phillips was in the 2008-2009 Leadership Program of the AUA and served on the Executive Committee of the New York Section of the AUA and of the Valentine Committee of the New York Academy of Medicine. With a primary focus on residency training, he has served as Program Director at Westchester Medical Center and New York Medical College since 2008 and as the department’s Executive Vice Chair since 2022. 

Dr. Phillips’ interest in history may have stemmed from the lore of Washington Irving promulgated through his grammar school curriculum but which parlayed easily into a great interest in medical history. He was president of the Nathan Smith Society while at Yale Medical School, a voluntary organization dedicated to the history of New Haven and Connecticut’s innovative thinkers in health care since colonial times. Yale was the site of copious high altitude research during World War II led by John P Fulton which inspired Dr. Phillips to complete a book, The Bends, on the history of compressed air and its diseases, published by Yale University Press in 1998. The success of the AUA History Forum but the absence of a publishing venue for award-winning papers led to his creation, with Dr. Akhil Saji of USC, of the International Journal of Urologic History (www.ijuh.org), entering its third year in 2023.   

He lives in Sleepy Hollow, NY, with his wife, Katherine, having raised three children there, and now helping with their first grandchild, Sophia, the sixth generation inhabitant of those leafy climes.