Newswise — BOSTON (October 19, 2023): World-renowned pediatric surgeon and prolific physician-scientist Henri R. Ford, MD, MHA, FACS, FRCS, FAAP, will be installed for a one-year term as the 104th President of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Sunday evening, October 22, during the Convocation ceremony that precedes the opening of the ACS Clinical Congress 2023. The Clinical Congress, one of the largest educational meetings of surgeons in the world, is convening in Boston, Massachusetts, this year.
“The past three decades have not only reinforced the concept that we achieve our best together but have also demonstrated convincingly and unequivocally that inclusive excellence is essential to accelerate progress and heal all patients with skill and trust,” Dr. Ford said. “It is our pledge to carry the mantle in the struggle for health equity and to never waver from our core values as surgeons. This is our duty, this is our purpose, this is our calling.”
Dr. Ford is the dean and chief academic officer of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Since joining the Miller School in 2018, Dr. Ford has focused on developing the next generation of transformational leaders who will shape the future of medicine. Under Dr. Ford’s leadership, the Miller School has increased its research funding from the National Institutes of Health from $128 million in 2018 to more than $175 million in 2022. The Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research ranked the Miller School 38th in the nation and No. 1 in Florida for these federal research grants. In addition, U.S. News & World Report cites the Miller School as one of the most diverse in the nation.
ACS service
Dr. Ford has been an ACS Fellow since 1996 and was on the ACS Board of Regents from 2012 to 2021. He also served as a liaison for the ACS Advisory Council for Pediatric Surgery, was a member and Chair of the ACS Ethics Committee and is a Past-Chair of the Nominating Committee and Past-Vice-Chair of the ACS Board of Governors. In addition, he was the 2022 recipient of the ACS Owen H. Wangensteen Scientific Forum Award. He currently serves as Vice-Chair of the ACS Health Outreach Program for Equity in Global Surgery (ACS H.O.P.E.) (formerly Operation Giving Back), the College’s surgical volunteerism initiative that serves the U.S. as well as countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
Background and career highlights
Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Dr. Ford moved with his family to Brooklyn, New York, when he was 13 years old. He excelled in high school and received a full scholarship to Princeton University, where his interest in medicine burgeoned. He graduated cum laude from Princeton in 1980 with a bachelor of arts degree in public and international affairs, then earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School. Dr. Ford completed his surgical internship and residency at New York/Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical College and — inspired to pursue a career in academic surgery — he also completed a research fellowship in immunology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and a clinical fellowship in pediatric surgery at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.
Following this training, he became the Benjamin R. Fisher Chair in Pediatric Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh and surgeon-in-chief at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. In 2005, he was appointed vice president and chief of surgery at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles in California and professor of surgery at the University of Southern California (USC) Keck School of Medicine. He was later promoted to vice dean of medical education at Keck. During this time, Dr. Ford also received a master of health administration degree from USC.
Dr. Ford is an internationally recognized authority on necrotizing enterocolitis, a lethal disease that causes inflammation of intestinal tissue in premature infants. He is the author of more than 300 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, invited articles, abstracts, and presentations. He has a strong reputation for mentoring physicians and physician-scientists, and he regularly returns to Haiti to teach, lead operating teams, and assist in developing surgical systems. In 2015, he performed the first successful separation of conjoined twins in Haiti alongside surgeons he helped train.
Honors and awards
In 2022, Dr. Ford was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Medicine — an honor that reflects his remarkable professional achievements and commitment to service in health and medicine. In addition, Dr. Ford chairs the Council of Deans of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), leading 157 medical school deans in North America. He is also a recipient of the AAMC’s Arnold P. Gold Foundation Humanism in Medicine Award. In 2021, Dr. Ford received the Arnold Salzberg Mentorship Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Excellence in Education Award from the National Medical Fellowship.
His other notable positions include serving on the Board of Trustees of Princeton University and the Board of Directors of the AAMC. In addition, he is past president of the Society of Black Academic Surgeons, and the first Black president of the Surgical Infection Society, the American Pediatric Surgical Association, and the Association for Academic Surgery, which established the “Henri Ford Junior Faculty Research Award” in his honor.
In addition to Dr. Ford, Tyler G. Hughes, MD, FACS, will be installed during the Convocation as ACS First Vice-President, and Deborah A. Kuhls, MD, FACS, FCCM, as ACS Second Vice-President.
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About the American College of Surgeons
The American College of Surgeons is a scientific and educational organization of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical practice and improve the quality of care for all surgical patients. The College is dedicated to the ethical and competent practice of surgery. Its achievements have significantly influenced the course of scientific surgery in America and have established it as an important advocate for all surgical patients. The College has approximately 90,000 members and is the largest organization of surgeons in the world. "FACS" designates that a surgeon is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.
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