Mountain Hawk Heroes: Softball Alum Ali Linsk Butash

Every Wednesday, Lehigh Athletics, Lehigh Valley Health Network and Coordinated Health is proud to recognize a Mountain Hawk Hero - someone associated with Lehigh Athletics who is making a difference in the medical field. We continue today with softball alum Ali Linsk Butash '06.

Previous Mountain Hawk Heroes
July 1: Kimberly Scotto-Wetzel & Jonathan Wetzel (Track and Field/Cross Country Alums)
June 24: Robert Bonow (Men's Basketball Alum)
June 17: Morgan Decker (Softball Alum)
June 10: Jim Guzzo (Former Quarterback)
June 3: Amina Affini (Women's Basketball Alum)
May 27: Natalie Krane (Women's Soccer Alum)
May 20: Tricia Klein (Women's Golf Assistant Coach)

By: Justin Lafleur, Lehigh Sports Communications

Ali Linsk Butash '06 put a lot of trust in Lehigh when she decided to attend the university.

That trust paid off.

Today, countless people are putting their trust in Butash, a surgical oncology fellow at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, New York – one of the highest-regarded cancer centers in the nation.

"I'm currently completing the second year of a complex general surgical oncology fellowship," said Butash, a former softball student-athlete. "Roswell Park has eight surgical oncology fellows at any given time."

Butash is set to complete the two-year program within the month, marking the end of a long journey which included her undergraduate degree in behavioral neuroscience at Lehigh, followed by one year working at a cardiology office, then four years of medical school, seven years of residency and her two-year fellowship in Buffalo.

Needless to say, it's been a long journey, but one she's passionate about. That passion is evident.

"There's nothing better than getting to know a patient and their disease in advance of an operation and they put their trust in you to treat their cancer," said Butash. "We operate on them, then when they wake up in recovery, continue to know them, take care of them and see them through.

"The full breadth of care is fascinating."
Ali Linsk

The full spectrum of Butash's resume is quite impressive as well.

"I operate on soft tissue… patients with melanoma, sarcoma, breast cancer and then endocrine tumors, like thyroid, parathyroid and adrenal cancers," she said. "There's also gastrointestinal tumors, which include esophageal, gastric, intestinal, liver, bile duct, and pancreatic cancers."

Surgical oncology is a broad specialty of general surgery and is focused on multidisciplinary cancer care.

"We're trained not only in the operations, but also in the big-picture management of the cancers with treatments like chemotherapy or radiation, and we also understand the screening guidelines and surveillance guidelines for each of the cancers," said Butash.

For Ali, the intersection of cancer care and surgery has been the best of both worlds.

"Surgical oncology essentially brings together a surgical field with a medical field," she said. "You learn to become the master of the diseases, not just the operations, and can focus on the long-term relationships with patients."

Butash's road to this point has certainly featured a long-term commitment, dating back to well before her time at Lehigh.

"As early as elementary school, I was telling people I wanted to be a doctor; I don't know exactly where the interest came from but I always enjoyed understanding how things worked," said Butash, who doesn't have any medical professionals in her family. "I remember making a heart model with my dad as a young child for a school presentation on cardiac function and feeling inspired. 'Most Likely to Become a Doctor' was an award I received from my science teacher in seventh grade."

Because of her lifelong interest, Butash has been on a pretty straight and narrow path.

"You start to figure out in high school that you have to do some volunteering or shadowing in order to expose yourself to the health care fields and make sure it's something you want to do," she said. "During my senior year of high school, I took part in the Frankford Bucks Premedical Scholars Program in the Philadelphia region and shadowed doctors."

The experience was reassuring that the medical field was for her.

Butash's road eventually led to Lehigh due in large part to the Pool Premedical Scholars Program, along with the ability to play Division I softball for a highly-successful program. She would also go on to play violin and percussion in the Lehigh orchestra and percussion ensemble.

"We met with professors and other Pool Premedical Scholars," said Butash. "We were exposed to research opportunities and received career mentoring."

Ali took advantage of that mentoring, and countless opportunities while at Lehigh. After graduating in 2006, she spent the following year working in her hometown (Langhorne, Pa.) with Mercer Bucks Cardiology.

"At that point, I didn't know what kind of doctor I wanted to be," said Butash. "I was making appointments, filing charts, scheduling tests and answering phones. The team of doctors knew I wanted to go to medical school, so it was a great mentoring opportunity to learn about the field of cardiology, learn about medication names and diagnoses, and some of the realities of practicing medicine."

That year, Butash was also interviewing and applying for medical school. She ended up at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, graduating in 2011.

Ali Butash — Ali with her colleagues at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston

"When I was working at the cardiology office, I would have never guessed that I would end up in surgery," said Butash. "Late in medical school, I became interested in procedure-based specialties, but also wanted to find a way to have long-term relationships with patients.

"I had a couple of amazing rotations late in my time at Jefferson with oncology-focused surgeons who had done it all when it came to the patient management. I thought if I could be like these mentors, I'd be able to accomplish all of my goals within medicine."

Butash's career in surgical oncology was born, and she has since gone on to make her mentors proud.

After medical school, Butash moved to Boston in the fall of 2011 for her seven-year residency training program in general surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, featuring five years of clinical practice and two years of research.

"At that point, my husband Joe and I (who I met at Jefferson) were best friends; he stayed in Philadelphia for an emergency medicine residency at Hahnemann and our paths would cross again a few years later in Boston," she said. "We got married in 2016 in the middle of my surgical residency after Joe was finished with his training."

Today, Butash is so close to finishing her training that has been well over a decade in the making. The next step is becoming an attending physician.

"You're no longer under the umbrella of a training program," she said. "You're the attending of record so you would have trainees under you and you would become the ultimate clinical decision maker and mentor. The training wheels would be off… so that's coming.

"It's been coming for over a decade."

Ali Linsk Butash '06 explains how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected her line of work in cancer care. pic.twitter.com/iUv9VwYKJy
— Lehigh Softball (@Lehighsoftball) July 8, 2020

So many places and so many people have helped Butash reach this point, including Lehigh, which helped set a foundation for years to come.

"Athletics was definitely one of the main reasons I could see I was leaning towards surgery," she said. "Surgery is like a big team sport. At all levels of surgery, there's this huge team-player element to it, especially in the operating room. Everyone has a role and each role is important.

"Surgery requires you to be very physically and mentally active," Butash continued. "It forces you to think on your toes and have high energy and enthusiasm for what you are doing, lending itself to an athlete's attitude."

One of Ali's approaches has always been a relentless work ethic, doing whatever it takes. Butash's resume at Lehigh depicted that very thing.

"I loved how I could get a high quality pre-med education, continue competitive softball and play violin and percussion in the Lehigh orchestra and percussion ensemble," she said. "I was able to do everything I was interested in growing up, and still work towards my ultimate goal of becoming a doctor.

"Lehigh prepared me for medical school, where the learning pace and intensity was even more rigorous," Butash continued. "But I was already practicing this time management and multitasking at Lehigh."

Butash has always had quite the busy schedule, balancing personal demands, all while maintaining close relationships with family (including husband Joe and their infant son Aaron) and friends.

"Balancing the rigors of work with the importance of personal time and being able to celebrate special events and everyday life with family and friends, is an ever-present challenge in the medical field and all lines of work," she said. "But I've found the multitasking at Lehigh helped set the stage for finding a way to be there for family and friends while also performing professionally. And having our son has even escalated this need to multitask and wear various hats at the same time as wife, mom, friend, surgeon, etc.

"Being Aaron's mom is a very special thing and my most important role. He has really given me a new and beautiful perspective on things."

While at Lehigh, Butash learned from one of the best in head coach Fran Troyan, who was focused on winning softball games, but also developing student-athletes.

"Coach Troyan always emphasized relationships and made it a key part of our team to build our team dynamic," said Butash. "We spent time together outside of practices and games and leaned on each other. Having this connection to the other players makes you better on the field.

"I find it to be completely true within surgery as well," she continued. "If you have respectful relationships with the providers that together are taking care of the patient –
and if you get to know each other and care about each other as well as the mission – you do a better job for the patient."

Butash has always been a builder of relationships that keep any team together. As Troyan said, "Ali was more than just a glue player – someone who holds the team together. She was a builder.

"Ali built relationships, she built a true team, she built friendships and she helped build a championship experience for the Lehigh softball family – for her teammates and for those to follow," Troyan continued. "Coaches talk about impact players. Ali is so much more than that. She is an impact human being and we are grateful that she has touched our lives."

Troyan also called Butash the "complete package."

"Ali is intelligent, hardworking and compassionate," he said. "But it is her self-awareness and unflinching determination that makes her distinctive. She has taken her God-given talents and has intentionally and methodically fashioned a career where she can serve and help others."

Butash is more than passionate about helping others.

Softball alums — Butash's former Lehigh teammates at her wedding

She's invested in it.

"You want to love what you're doing and have a connection with the people you're doing it with," she said. "With the amount of hours in surgery, the rigor of training and the length of the training, you wouldn't want to just go through the motions."

A big part of Butash's Lehigh softball teams winning three Patriot League Championships in four years was because they were so invested.

"We'd come into the season thinking about winning the Patriot League, making it to NCAAs and all the small things that had to be done every single day in order to accomplish our goals," she said. "It's very similar in surgery."

Surgery is obviously much higher stakes than college softball, but the breadth of Butash's Lehigh experiences – on and off the field – have helped her take on a wide range of responsibilities today as a doctor.

Butash is a hero in the eyes of her patients for much more than her medical knowledge and skills.

It's because of the way she values relationships.

"I really value the patient-doctor relationship," said Butash. "I love working as a team within health care, everyone devoted to the same patient, the same disease. It clicks with my personality."

"Ali's tremendous work in cancer surgery and care is an inspiration to all of us," said Troyan.

"It's a bit high stakes and high pressure," said Butash.

"But the reward makes it worth it."

Lehigh University Athletics

Completed Event: Softball versus Bucknell on May 10, 2025 , Loss , 3, to, 5

Completed Event: Softball versus Boston U. on May 8, 2025 , Loss , 0, to, 1

Completed Event: Softball at Mount St. Mary's on May 3, 2025 , Win , 4, to, 3

Completed Event: Softball at Mount St. Mary's on May 3, 2025 , Win , 6, to, 1

Completed Event: Softball versus Villanova on April 30, 2025 , Win , 9, to, 8

Completed Event: Softball versus Boston U. on April 27, 2025 , Win , 13, to, 10

Completed Event: Softball versus Boston U. on April 26, 2025 , Win , 3, to, 2

Mountain Hawk Heroes: Softball Alum Ali Linsk Butash

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