Three Orthopaedic Surgery Faculty Members Officially Named as D’Aniello Family Endowed Chairs

(October 22, 2025) — At an event that honored the generosity of a grateful patient and highlighted the power of the partnership between Georgetown University and MedStar Health, three Georgetown University School of Medicine faculty members were officially invested as the D’Aniello Family Endowed Chairs of Orthopaedic Surgery.

The September 12 investiture in Riggs Library celebrated one component of the D’Aniello family’s most recent transformational gift to the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Georgetown University School of Medicine and MedStar Health. In 2022, Daniel and Gayle D’Aniello established the D’Aniello Family Endowed Chair and Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, held by A. Jay Khanna, MD, MBA (C’91, M’95), who also serves as physician executive director of the D’Aniello MedStar Orthopaedic Institute at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.

“We have a lot of meetings at Georgetown,” said Robert M. Groves, PhD, interim president of Georgetown University. “Some are tough, maybe some are not. This one is wonderful. This one is all joy; just pure and simple joy to see the benefits from a patron who cares about the mission as deeply as we care about the mission, and realizes that his largess, his wealth, can help us achieve that mission.”

“Your extraordinary gift will echo for generations to come in the healing and the hope that will be brought by the physicians that accept these chairs today and the ones that will hold them in the future,” said Norman J. Beauchamp Jr., MD, MHS, executive vice president for health sciences and executive dean of Georgetown University School of Medicine. “On behalf of Georgetown University, MedStar Health, and all who are touched by this work, thank you for your partnership and for your leadership and for your service to the world.”

The three new D’Aniello Family Endowed Chairs of Orthopaedic Surgery are:

Curtis M. Henn, MD, D’Aniello Family Vice Chair of Quality and Safety and professor of orthopaedic surgery, Georgetown University School of Medicine; hand and upper extremity orthopaedic surgeon, D’Aniello MedStar Orthopaedic Institute at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital

Michael W. Kessler, MD, D’Aniello Family Vice Chair of Education, residency program director and professor of orthopaedic surgery, Georgetown University School of Medicine; chief of hand surgery, D’Aniello MedStar Orthopaedic Institute at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital

Addisu Mesfin, MD, Laconi* Family Vice Chair of Research and professor of orthopedic surgery, Georgetown University School of Medicine, chief of spinal oncology, D’Aniello MedStar Orthopaedic Institute. (*Laconi honors Daniel D’Aniello’s mother, who was an advocate of research and discovery).

A Trusting Doctor-Patient Relationship

Before meeting Khanna, D’Aniello, co-founder and chairman emeritus of the Carlyle Group, was navigating a period of uncertainty about his health. “I had received some discouraging advice that didn’t sit right with me,” D’Aniello recalled. “And I thought, that’s just not the path I want to take.”

When D’Aniello met Khanna for a consultation, Khanna quickly helped him feel at ease. “He looked at my MRI and he turned to me and said, ‘I can do that,’” D’Aniello said. “And that just lifted a million pounds off my shoulders.”

Khanna reflected on the privilege of caring for D’Aniello, describing it as “a huge honor. And for him to pick me and allow me to take care of him is a big deal.”

“The generosity that you’ve demonstrated to me personally at several institutions over the last seven years has been unbelievable and is something that is allowing me to scale and amplify the impact of what we do in clinical care, research and education with my team that I could have never imagined,” Khanna said.

The Power of Partnership

With Georgetown and MedStar Health working together, the D’Aniello family’s generosity will support education, research and clinical care for years to come.

“The partnership of Georgetown University and MedStar Health is very special, and it continues to differentiate us from other clinical academic university partnerships around the country because we truly understand that the only way to accomplish all of the missions that both organizations have had, and have had for so long, is to do it together,” said Kenneth A. Samet, FACHE, president and chief executive officer of MedStar Health.

At MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, plans are underway to consolidate orthopaedic clinical care, education and research, which will include designated spaces for medical students and residents, Khanna said. Additionally, the department has hired a biostatistician, three research associates and a medical editor who will help medical students and residents publish their research.

“Currently, when a faculty member, resident or medical student performs a research project and writes a paper, they have to interact with the journals, format images, manage references and iterate several rounds of edits. So, they might get four to six papers published during their residency,” Khanna said. “But with the medical editor and our whole team, that same resident can now publish 20, 30 or more manuscripts during their residency if they want to, and we have several examples of residents who have been able to do that.”

Khanna added, “Along with its potential to impact and improve the care of patients at the national and global levels, research is one of the new ‘currencies’ of getting from medical school to residency and residency to fellowship. Thus, the increase in research productivity helps our students and graduates of the School of Medicine get into some of the best programs in the country, which continues to increase the impact of our learners and, thus, our institutions. It’s a process that feeds itself and scales the impact our faculty, residents and students can have on our field; it’s incredible.”

“I have great respect for what’s being built here and I truly understand that being a doctor, especially a surgeon, is not a profession, it’s a vocation,” D’Aniello said. “In addition, surgeons have to be lifelong learners, especially in today’s rapidly changing medical and technology arenas. So that’s why the research aspect of this is so important and one that Dr. Khanna fervently promotes.”

Kat Zambon
GUMC Communications