Officers

Dr. Timothy Huber, President

Dr. Timothy Huber is an Interventional Radiologist with a focus in interventional oncology and minimally invasive thyroid interventions. Following residency and fellowship in vascular and interventional radiology at the University of Virginia, he established a multidisciplinary thyroid RFA program at Oregon Health and Science University. After returning to the east coast, he has built a thyroid intervention practice at Jefferson Radiology in central Connecticut. He is a founding member of the North American Society for Interventional Thyroidology, and the current president-elect. He speaks regularly on the role of minimally invasive thyroid interventions for benign and malignant thyroid disease. He has authored and co-authored a number of peer reviewed articles on thyroid nodule radiofrequency ablation.

Dr. Ralph Tufano, President Elect

Dr. Tufano was the Charles W. Cummings MD Endowed Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine from 2012-2021. Dr. Tufano had served as the department’s Director of the Division of Head and Neck Endocrine Surgery from 2011-2021 as its first director. He also established the American Head and Neck Society accredited fellowship in Endocrine Surgery there in 2014. He has served on the Board of the American Thyroid Association (ATA). He was also instrumental in the establishment of the Surgical Affairs Committee for the ATA and served as its inaugural co-chair. He is a past chair of the American Academy of Otolaryngology’s Endocrine Surgery Committee and served on the American Head and Neck Society’s Endocrine Section Board. He has authored over 260 peer-reviewed papers, and more than 40 textbook chapters related to thyroid and parathyroid diseases. He has also edited two textbooks in the field. His research interests include novel directed therapies for the treatment of thyroid and parathyroid diseases, clinical outcomes research including transoral thyroid and parathyroid surgery, and determining the value propositions for thyroid and parathyroid surgical care episodes. After 21 years at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Dr. Tufano joined the Sarasota Memorial Health Care System in 2021 to direct the First Physicians Group Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Endocrine Center that consists of a dedicated Thyroid and Parathyroid Center and Head and Neck Cancer Center. He was appointed the FPG Director of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery in May 2024 and has already grown this program in all disciplines. He is now a Clinical Professor of Surgery at the Florida State University College of Medicine.

Dr. Claire Graves, Secretary

Dr. Claire Graves is an Associate Professor of Surgery in the Section of Endocrine Surgery at the University of California Davis in Sacramento, specializing in the treatment of patients with disorders of the thyroid, parathyroid, and adrenal glands. She completed general surgery residency at Columbia University Medical Center and clinical fellowship in Endocrine Surgery at the University of California San Francisco. One of the first physicians to offer RFA for thyroid nodules in Northern California, she is Co-Director of the Center for Interventional Thyroidology at UC Davis. She is a recipient of the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons’ Paul LoGerfo Research Award and an invited lecturer and instructor nationally on thyroid ablation techniques.

Dr. Maria Papaleontiou, Treasurer

Maria Papaleontiou, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine in the Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology and Diabetes and a Research Assistant Professor in the Institute of Gerontology at the University of Michigan. Dr. Papaleontiou’s clinical practice focuses on thyroidology. She also conducts health services research in the field of thyroidology and aging and has received funding from the National Institute on Aging, the Claude D. Pepper Center, the Elizabeth Caroline Crosby Research Fund, and the University of Michigan Biology of Cardiovascular Aging Core, among others. She is a nationally recognized expert in thyroid disease and has served in several leadership positions in multiple national societies. She is a recipient of the ATA’s Women Advancing Thyroid Research Award, the Young Physician-Scientist Award from the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Rising Star in Endocrinology Award from AACE.