Cliff Connery, MD

Senior Physician Advisor

Cliff P. Connery, M.D., FACS, is the retired Senior Vice President and Chair of the Nuvance Health Cancer Institute.

A thoracic surgical oncologist, Dr. Connery has been recognized as a pioneer in robotics and minimally invasive surgery as well as a contributor to the development of lung screening protocols.

Dr. Connery came to Vassar Brothers Medical Center in 2014, later Nuvance Health, from St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center in Manhattan where he was Director of the Comprehensive Thoracic Oncology Program for Continuum Health Partners and Clinical Professor of Thoracic Surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He had completed a residency in Thoracic Surgery at the University of Rochester, where he was an American Heart Association Research Fellow after his General Surgery Residency at SUNY-Stony Brook. He received his medical degree from Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Virginia after graduating from the College of William and Mary as a scholar athlete.

He has authored or co-authored more than 100 scientific publications and has participated in many national, reg3ional, and international presentations as well as directing symposia and conferences.

Dr. Connery also is an elected member of numerous professional societies, including the American College of Chest Physicians, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, and the American Society of Clinical Oncology. He previously was the New York State Chair for the Commission on Cancer of the American College of Surgeons and is a current site reviewer for reaccreditation.

He served in the US Army Reserve Medical Corps and attained the rank of Major and also was the Chairman of the Institutional Review Board of Vassar Brothers Medical Center.