James Rucinski, M.D., is program director of the surgical residency and director of surgical education at NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. Dr. Rucinski's academic duties include the organization and administration of all educational activities within the Department of Surgery including the undergraduate and post-graduate residency curricula.

A graduate of the University of Michigan Medical School, Dr. Rucinski subsequently served as an intern in the Department of Surgery at the University of Illinois/Cook County Hospital combined residency program in Chicago. His surgical residency training was completed at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City under the chairmanship of professor Michael Eisenberg. Following his surgical residency, Dr. Rucinski began his academic career in the Department of Surgery of Long Island Jewish Medical Center and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine from which he was recruited into this present position.

As a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, Dr. Rucinski currently serves as a member of the Board of Governors and as cancer liaison physician to the Commission on Cancer as well as the surgeon champion for the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program at NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. In addition Dr. Rucinski is a former president of the Brooklyn and Long Island chapter of the American College of Surgeons as well as a former president of the Brooklyn Surgical Society, the Royal Society of Medicine, the Society of Surgery of the Alimentary Tract, the Association of Program Directors in Surgery, the Association for Academic Surgery and the American Society of Breast Surgeons.

In support of the residency education program, Dr. Rucinski's clinical practice encompasses a variety of surgical conditions, including acute care surgery. He has a special interest in surgery of the breast and breast-related disorders.