Pediatric surgeon and surgeon-scientist Henri R. Ford, MD, MHA, FACS, FRCS, FAAP, has been chosen as President-Elect of the American College of Surgeons during the organization’s recent annual business meeting of members. The First Vice-President-Elect, Tyler G. Hughes, MD, FACS, and Second Vice-President-Elect, Deborah A. Kuhls, MD, FACS, also were elected.
Henri R. Ford, MD, MHA, FACS, FRCS, FAAP
Dr. Ford is Dean and Chief Academic Officer of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He previously served as Senior Vice President and Chief of Surgery at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), and Vice Dean of Medical Education at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles. Dr. Ford was Professor and Surgeon-in-Chief at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh before joining CHLA.
After earning his undergraduate degree from Princeton University in New Jersey, Dr. Ford received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School. He then completed his surgical internship and residency at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York and a research fellowship in immunology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Dr. Ford also received a Master of Health Administration degree from USC.
Mission-Driven Leadership
Dr. Ford—who is Haitian-born—regularly returns to his native country to teach, lead operating teams, and assist in developing surgical systems. He led the College’s efforts to provide trauma care for children injured during the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, and in 2015, he performed the first successful separation of conjoined twins in Haiti, along with surgeons he helped train.
With a strong reputation for mentorship and sponsorship, Dr. Ford is passionate about training the next generation of physicians and physician-scientists. He also works to promote health equity and ensure diversity, equity, and inclusion are woven into the educational and clinical fabric of medicine. An international authority on the pathogenesis of necrotizing enterocolitis, Dr. Ford has conducted research on the topic, which has led to new insights into the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of this lethal disease affecting the gastrointestinal tract of newborn infants. He is the author of more than 300 publications, book chapters, invited manuscripts, abstracts, and presentations.
Dr. Ford chairs the Council of Deans of the Association of American Medical Colleges, leading 156 medical school deans in North America. In addition, he has held prominent leadership positions in other organizations, includingtThe Society of Black Academic Surgeons, the Association for Academic Surgery, the Surgical Infection Society, and the American Pediatric Surgical Association.
