Dr Lukish is a 1987 graduate of the United States Naval Academy. He attended Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia where he graduated in 1991.  He completed his internship and residency in general surgery at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and his pediatric surgery fellowship at the Children’s National Medical Center.  As a staff pediatric surgeon, he was assigned to Walter Reed Army and National Naval Medical Centers where he became the division chief of pediatric surgery in 2005. He retired from the military in 2010 and joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins until 2018.  He was recruited to Children’s National and is currently a member of the faculty.  He holds academic appointments as a Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics from the Uniformed Services University, and Associate Professor of Surgery at George Washington University. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the American Academy of Pediatrics, and is a member of several prominent professional societies, including the American Pediatric Surgical Society, the International Pediatric Endosurgery Group and the Pediatric Cancer Oncology Group.

He has authored over 100 abstracts, book chapters and publications and is a nationally recognized expert in advanced minimally invasive surgery in infants and children and pediatric surgical innovation. He has received numerous clinical and research awards including the Washington D.C. Academy of Surgery award for clinical and basic science research, the Children’s Research Institute award for scientific and academic achievement, the Harry B. Zehner Travelling Fellowship of the American College of Surgeons and the Society of Pediatric Research basic science research award.  He was awarded the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society Clinical Faculty of the year and has received numerous research grants, most notably, the St Baldrick’s Cancer Foundation grant to implement his project focused on ovarian cryopreservation in young girls with cancer.

Voted a Baltimore Top Doctor by his peers, he has been interviewed on Fox News and National Public Radio for his role as a mission director for the World Pediatric Project providing humanitarian pediatric surgical care globally and other clinically relevant surgical issues impacting children and their families. In January 2025, his team completed their 12^th general pediatric surgery mission totaling over 1.5 million dollars in gift in kind surgery delivered over the past decade for children in the West Indies.

He was awarded the American College of Surgeons/American Pediatric Surgical Society Health Policy Scholarship and functioned as the 2019-2020 Health Policy Scholar for these organizations. Currently, he is the sole pediatric surgeon and a voting member of the Pediatric Advisory Board for the FDA.

Most recently, his research team was awarded the 2022 Innovation Award by the American Pediatric Surgical Association for their project utilizing rare earth magnets to safely extract metal soft tissue foreign bodies in children. This represents the 2^nd Innovation Award his team has received from a national organization.  His team received the 2009 Innovation Award from the International Pediatric Endosurgery group, for his work developing a thoracocopic approach to patent ductus arteriosus ligation in very low birth weight infants.  They are the only team to have received both of these awards from APSA and IPEG.

Dr Lukish’s goal has always been focused on providing outstanding, timely and effective care to children who require pediatric surgical intervention.  He and his wife, Donna, have raised their six children, Nick, Danielle, John, Annamarie, Peter and James, in Maryland.  He is an avid little league football, baseball and basketball coach in the community. His love for little league coaching is surpassed only by his passion and energy for the care of children.