Education Advisory Board (EAB)

Dr. Rizzo obtained his medical degree at Temple University in Philadelphia. He completed his orthopedic surgery residency at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina and his hand/microvascular surgery fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. After being on staff at Duke University from 2002-5, he joined the faculty at Mayo, where he has since remained. He is a professor of orthopedic surgery and has served as chair of the hand surgery division from 2015 to 2024. He is also Director of the Program for Professionalism and Values and Chair of the Mayo Clinic Values Council for the Mayo Clinic. Dr. Rizzo currently serves as the AONA Education Advisory Board Chair. He has previously served on the AONA ethics, validation and content subcommittee (ECVSC) and was chair of the AONA Hand Education Committee from 2022-2025. He has also completed the Faculty Education Program (FEP), the Chair Education Program (CEP) and the Leadership Education Program (LEP).

Dr. Michelle Clarke is Professor of Neurologic Surgery and Orthopedics at Mayo Clinic where she also serves as program director for the neurosurgery enfolded spine fellowship. She has been on staff at Mayo since 2009. Her undergraduate degree is in Aerospace Engineering from the Princeton University, her medical degree is from Georgetown University, and she completed residency in neurosurgery at Mayo Clinic. She completed a complex spine fellowship focusing on spinal oncology at Johns Hopkins University before returning to Mayo. Dr. Clarke also has a master’s degree in bioethics from Loyola University of Chicago and has completed a Master’s of Education from the University of Cincinnati. She is currently an active member of the AANS, NSA, and the SNS. Dr. Clarke’s involvement in AO Spine NA began as an AOSpine fellow in 2009. She joined the teaching faculty and served on the education committee before joining the board as an ad hoc member. Her current practice focuses on intradural and vertebral column malignancies, although a significant component includes complex spine trauma and degenerative disease.

Dr. Kimberly Mezera is a board-certified orthopaedic surgeon who specializes in both surgical and non-surgical treatment of hand and upper extremity conditions, including fracture and trauma care, nerve compression syndromes, tendinitis and arthritis. She has additional expertise in the treatment of pediatric hand conditions, including congenital differences.

Dr. Laurent Guiot is a world-class orthopedic surgeon with a passion for excellence. He obtained his degree in veterinary medicine from the University of Liege (Belgium) in 2004 and completed a general internship in small animal medicine and surgery at the same institution. Laurent then worked for one year in Paris where he was in charge of the general surgery program. He rejoined academia in 2006 as an international surgical fellow at Michigan State University where he also completed a three-year residency program with a strong emphasis in orthopedic surgery and focus in minimally invasive osteosynthesis under Dr. Loic Dejardin’ s mentorship. He became boarded by the American and European Colleges of Veterinary Surgeons in 2011. Following his residency, Laurent became an assistant professor of orthopedic surgery in the Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences and an attending orthopedic surgeon at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital at Michigan State University. He was then recruited to lead the creation of a new orthopedic surgery facility for the Ohio State University in Dublin, Ohio. In 2016, he created the Bone & Joint Center at ACCESS in Los Angeles with Dr. Reunan Guillou. This center is establishing itself as one of the prime location for advanced orthopedics and includes a comprehensive total joint replacement center, a strong minimally invasive orthopedic surgery program, and a tertiary referral service for revision cases. Dr. Guiot’s major interest is orthopedic trauma and minimally invasive orthopedic surgery. He routinely presents his work internationally and is an active member of major national and international orthopedic programs including the Veterinary Orthopedic Society, the AO, and the Orthopedic Research Society. Laurent is committed to the improvement of patient care through the development of surgical techniques, instrumentation, and implants used for the treatment of orthopedic patients.

A passionate learning strategist, educator who brings more than 20 years of experience and expertise in all areas of education including traditional and online learning, curriculum design and development, measurement and evaluation methods, instructional design, course design and delivery, needs assessments development, process improvement planning, the use of technology in design and delivery of education. She is an Educational Technology expert who has been involved in implementing online learning systems, learning object repositories, integrating technology solutions in learning, leading the design and implementation of tools related to social learning and mobile learning. A nationally and internationally recognized leader and consultant in continuing medical education, she has a deep interest in knowledge management and its effective translation to healthcare practice, with several committee and advisory board appointments, and awards. Dr. Subramaniam has worked in several capacities in education and training in academic, corporate, government, publishing, and not-for-profit organizations.
Before joining AO North America, she served as Principal, Learning and Change within the Premier Research Services group at Premier Inc., where she led the development and implementation of an education, quality improvement, training and Implementation research strategy aligned with the needs of over 3000 hospitals within the Premier network, including business development and marketing. She also served as the Assistant Dean for Continuing Medical Education at the Duke School of Medicine and was the Assistant Director for the Center for Educational Excellence at the DCRI managing over 450 CPD programs including several systems level quality improvement initiatives. In her leadership role within the Duke Center for Educational Excellence, Chitra lead several educational implementation projects and all of the PI/QI efforts working in collaboration with the Health system, the different Duke Departments, research networks and community organizations. She has worked also with the American Society for Clinical Pathology as the Director of Educational Design and Technology, a master designer for IBM, AT & T, CMS and several academic, corporate, government and non-for profit organizations. Her interests include creation and management of knowledge systems for the delivery of outcomes-based education, E-learning, educational research and quality improvement CE.