About Operation Walk Chicago
The mission of Operation Walk Chicago is to improve the quality of life of disadvantaged patients around the world through reducing disability from advanced joint disease. Operation Walk Chicago seeks to achieve this goal by:
- Providing joint replacement and rehabilitation services to disadvantaged patients around the world.
- Educating local orthopedic surgeons and their healthcare teams.
- Assisting in-country healthcare systems develop public health and patient care programs for reducing arthritis-related disability.
- Establishing educational fellowships to foster ongoing education and collaboration between the United States and host countries.
Operation Walk Chicago commits to ongoing education and patient care in these impoverished communities, to ensure its contribution will have a long lasting effect. Operation Walk Chicago strives to use only the highest quality educators, administrators, clinicians and equipment, and partners with in-country clinicians to develop a program of arthritis care that is practical and sustainable.
Knee and Hip replacements are among the most cost-effective medical procedures; dramatically relieving suffering and returning patients to active lifestyles.
Founders & Directors

Victoria Anne Brander, MD
Dr. Brander is a board-certified physiatrist with in-depth expertise in arthritis rehabilitation. Her academic responsibilities include appointments in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She serves as a visiting Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Rehabilitation at West China Hospital of Sichuan University in Chengdu, China. She served as consultant to the National Institute of Health’s 2003 Consensus Development Conference on Total Knee Replacement and is an advisor to the International Consortium for the development of rehabilitation guidelines for THA and TKA.
Dr. Brander Currently practices at Global Health Partners at Northwestern.
https://www.globalhealthpartnersnu.com/
“Hip and knee replacements can be miraculous procedures; transforming the lives of disabled patients and their families. There is no reason that patients in poor communities should suffer when we have the ability to treat them.”
Victoria Brander, MD
Co-Director

S. David Stulberg, MD
A pioneer in computer-assisted minimally invasive surgical techniques, S. David Stulberg, MD is universally recognized as being one of the world’s top Orthopaedic surgeons. Dr. Stulberg serves as Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and is the founder and director of the Joint Reconstruction and Implant Service at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. He is a co-founder of the International Society for Technology in Arthroplasty, a founding member of the International Society for Computer Assisted Orthopaedic Surgery, a fellow of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgery, and a member of the Board of Directors of Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.
“It is such a privilege for me to use my experience in this way – helping surgeons in developing countries learn the best joint replacement techniques to enable patients to walk again.”
S. David Stulberg, MD
Co-Director
Board of Directors
William Gilligan, MD
Orthopedic Joint Reconstruction Surgeon, Operation Walk Chicago volunteer
Founder, Hinsdale Orthopedics
Mark Kaufman
Owner and President, Athletico
President’s Distinguished Service Award winner, Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Chicago
Lalit Puri, MD
Orthopedic Joint Reconstruction Surgeon, Operation Walk Chicago
Director, Joint Replacement Services
NorthShore University Health System
Margot Bowen
Owner, Margot Bowen Fine Arts, Winnetka IL
Operation Walk Volunteer
Kiran Chekka, MD
Operation Walk Director, Anesthesia
Global Health Partners at Northwestern
Robert White
Managing Director at Deloitte
Operation Walk Chicago volunteer
David Zyer
General Partner at OCA Ventures
Penne Silverman
Chief of Staff and CFO at Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine
Joseph Mulcahy – Former Deloitte Principal, SVP at Thomson Reuters and Partner at Ryan LLC
Ravi Bashyal, MD – Orthopaedic Surgeon – Director of Outpatient Hip and Knee Replacement Surgery, NorthShore University HealthSystem – Operation Walk Chicago volunteer
Marian Kinney Broderick
Administrative Team
Sophie Sauser, Administrative Director
ssauser@operationwalkchicago.com
Jane Guzman, Accounting & Finance
jsguzman@operationwalkchicago.com
Odell Woods, OR Coordinator
woods4722@gmail.com
Celeste Carlin, Coordinator, Supplies & Industry Relations
celestecarlin@gmail.com
Founders
Victoria Brander, MD
Chairman, Operation Walk Chicago Board of Directors Operation Walk Chicago
Associate Professor, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Global Health Partners at Northwestern
S. David Stulberg, MD
Director, Operation Walk Chicago
Professor, Orthopedic Surgery
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Northshore Orthopedic Institute, Chicago, IL