Meet the Director and Team

Welcome from the Program Director

Welcome to the Mercy Health Addiction Medicine Fellowship training program at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital in Youngstown, Ohio. We are eager to show you what we have to offer physicians who have completed an ACGME-approved residency and are interested in specialized training in addiction medicine. We understand you seek out such training in order to better serve your patients and to successfully work in this field as a career. Our website will help give you an overview of our program that demonstrates our commitment to education and our community. However, there are many unique and important aspects of training in a smaller community hospital fellowship and living in the Mahoning Valley that cannot be easily put into words. I am confident that they will become more apparent to you should you consider these words of encouragement and take the time to visit us personally.

This program was founded on the premise that our community identified a need for more specialized physician care for those who struggle with substance use disorders and this need would best be meet by the medical education of those committed to caring for these individuals. Fellowship education should come from learning to provide that care in an intellectually stimulating, honest and diverse environment. Critical to this process is our ability to provide fellows with clinical exposure to all types of substance use disorders in all age groups and across all social determinants of health, no matter where their patients live, learn, work, play or worship. Our faculty hopes to provide a challenging but supportive and intellectually stimulating environment for fellows to grow and gain essential skills. We understand a fellow in our program needs to be recognized both as a trained physician who has completed residency, in addition to someone who is looking for an educational environment that will foster personal and professional growth. Our high ratio of faculty to fellows will help ensure this. Our goal is to support your personal strengths while building on any weaknesses you may have.                        
We also recognize that play and time off is as important to that growth as work is. Ohio and the Mahoning Valley offer some of the best recreational opportunities in the midwestern United States as well as safe, affordable housing. The area has a lot to offer and is a great place for families. We understand that after fellowship completion, a graduate of this program needs to be ready to enter nearly any clinical opportunity in the field of addiction medicine and find themselves both capable and comfortable in their new work environment. We feel confident in our pledge to ensure that!

If you are looking for an educational experience that will challenge and reward you, look no further. Take some time, read through the site. If this program interests you, please feel free to contact us directly to learn more and ask us questions.

John Sorboro, MD | Program Director Dr. John Sorboro has almost 30 years of experience working with individuals with substance use disorders. He was formerly chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at St. Elizabeth and then ran his own outpatient clinic for 10 years caring for those with substance use disorders. He was the chief medical officer for one of the largest medical quality assurance companies in the U.S. before ultimately returning to Mercy Health to begin work on the addiction medicine fellowship. He has published in the area of buprenorphine regulation and is interested in the intersection of chronic pain and addiction. He has four grown children and he and his wife of 35 years live on 12 acres in Geauga County. He enjoys cooking, jazz piano and fishing in his spare time.

Core Faculty

Raj Koirala, MD
M. Fouad, MD
William Goldman, DO
L. Villaplana, MD
David Gemmel, PhD

Contact Us 

Academic Specialist: Franny Korby
Phone: 330-480-7605