Our Team
Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. ... It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.
—Andrew Carnegie
Founders
Dheera Ananthakrishnan, MD
President
Born and raised in Poughkeepsie, New York, USA, Dheera graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1990. After earning a Masters in Bioengineering from the University of Washington in Seattle, she attended medical school at Albany Medical College in New York, followed by orthopaedic surgery residency at University of Illinois at Chicago. She completed her spinal surgery specialty training at University of California San Francisco before starting practice as an Assistant Professor at the University of Washington in Seattle in 2003.
A child of Indian immigrants, Dheera has always felt the pull of the developing world, and in 2007 she left Seattle to work with MSF/Doctors Without Borders as an orthopaedic surgeon in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, followed by a volunteer consultancy at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. At present, she is practicing orthopaedic surgery as an Assistant Professor at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Although Dheera has played tournament-level tennis for more than half of her life and has completed two marathons and triathlons, she brings a spirit of cooperation to her everyday life, and especially to her work with Orthopaedic Link. (Be warned, however, that when it comes to playing Monopoly, all bets are off.)
Jim Kercher, MD
Vice President, Operations
A native of Atlanta, Georgia (USA), Jim Kercher earned his undergraduate degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology while playing varsity (American) football for the university's renowned Yellow Jackets team. (He later used his football talents to land a role in the film Remember the Titans.) Prior to medical school Jim's education and training provided him with a strong background in supply chain management and logistics. He entered medical school at the Medical College of Georgia in 2000, and in 2009, Jim completed Orthopaedic Residency at Emory University in Atlanta. Following residency he underwent his specialty training in sports medicine at the prestigious Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, IL. His is currently in private practice in Atlanta.
Jim's greatest personal achievement (being the proud father to his three children Saylor, Jake and Rachel) is also one of his major interests. When he's not with his family, Jim is passionate about college sports and fly-fishing, and would one day like to fish the chalk streams of southern England.
Heather Kercher
Vice President, Technology
Heather Kercher has been a supply chain consultant at Manhattan Associates in Atlanta, Georgia, USA since 1998. In her tenure there, Heather has focused on using innovation, technology and best practices to streamline supply chains for dozens of well-known national and global consumer brands. She has used best practices to design, implement and manage custom supply chain solutions, working with her clients to address particular needs. In developing the right solution, she addresses planning, inventory optimization, transportation lifecycle, distribution management, supply chain visibility and event management. Heather graduated from Georgia Institute of Technology with a degree in Civil Engineering.
Growing up in Puerto Rico cultivated Heather's love for travel and cultural experiences, specifically the "island lifestyle". Heather presently keeps her schedule full - as a mother of three small children, the wife of an orthopaedic surgeon, a full-time Account Manager, a volunteer, a sister, a daughter and a friend – and one day hopes to slow down to "island time" again to enjoy the beach, sand and sun!
Contributing Consultants
Stacey Colonna, MBA
Professionally, Stacey Colonna has seen firsthand the resources that are used to design, develop and produce medical devices, implants and capital equipment in her roles as a senior product manager with Boston Scientific, and as a product director for a division of Johnson & Johnson. (Prior to those roles, she also designed military jet engines for General Electric.) Stacey's commitment to Orthopaedic Link stems from the awareness that some patients lack access to medical benefits that we take for granted. Like OL's founders, Stacey wants to use these life-changing devices to benefit patients and physicians in underserved areas of the world.
Stacey earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Master of Science degree from Boston University, as well as a Master of Business Administration from the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business.
A Los Angeles resident who believes that anything is possible, Stacey has hiked the Inca trail to Machu Picchu, and dreams of visiting Alaska and summiting Denali.
Vickie Duncan, RN
Vickie Duncan has been an operating room nurse since 1977, and currently works as the team leader of Orthopedic Spine service at the Veterans Administration Puget Sound Health Care System in Seattle, Washington, USA. A graduate of St. Luke's Hospital School of Nursing and Avila College, both in Kansas City, Missouri, USA, Vickie's surgical trauma experience at Truman Medical Center in Kansas City and at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle motivated her to help Orthopaedic Link in our mission to deliver essential surgical implants to qualified clinicians in developing nations.
Although Vickie once learned how to operate an old-fashioned telephone switchboard, she believes her greatest personal achievement is yet to come. She does, however, long to live in Europe for at least a year, so she can travel and learn to cook authentic rustic French and Italian cuisine.
Richard Gosselin, MD, MPH
It seems that Richard Gosselin is fulfilling his life's ambition: when, at the age of five, he was asked by a teacher what he wanted to do when he grew up, his response was "be a neurosurgeon"... perhaps influenced by the fact that his mother (an operating room nurse) was working with a neurosurgeon at the time.
Richard has worked as an orthopaedic surgeon in developing countries since 1999 and knows firsthand the importance of OL's mission. A graduate in orthopaedic surgery from the University of Montréal Medical School with a Master of Public Health degree from University of California, Berkeley and a Master of Science from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Richard's dream is to build a hospital in Africa to care for musculoskeletal infections.
David Katz, MD
David Katz is drawn to Orthopaedic Link because it combines two of the great loves of his life: medicine and world travel. This resident of Atlanta, Georgia, USA looks forward to traveling the world and experiencing different cultures while using his surgical skills to help OL fulfill its mission.
Born in Wisconsin (of a Canadian family), David grew up in Virginia where he earned a BA degree from the University of Virginia before attending University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. David is a unique man whose greatest personal achievement is the close, meaningful friendships he's had in his life, and he's excited to use his skills to improve orthopaedic surgical care in other parts of the world.