World-renowned pediatric surgeon and prolific surgeon-scientist Henri R. Ford, MD, MHA, FACS, FRCS, FAAP, was elected President-Elect of the American College of Surgeons during the Annual Business Meeting of Members yesterday. The First Vice-President-Elect, Tyler G. Hughes, MD, FACS, and Second Vice-President-Elect, Deborah A. Kuhls, MD, FACS, also were elected.

Dr. Ford is dean and chief academic officer of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in Florida. He previously served as senior vice president and chief of surgery at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) in California, 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 in Pennsylvania before joining CHLA.

After earning his undergraduate degree from Princeton University in New Jersey, Dr. Ford received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He then completed his surgical internship and residency at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, 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.

Known for his mission-driven leadership and motivated by a desire to have a positive impact on the world, 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, alongside 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 that 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 groundbreaking 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.

An ACS Fellow since 1996 and this year’s recipient of the Owen H. Wangensteen Scientific Forum Award, Dr. Ford was on the ACS Board of Regents from 2012 to 2021. In addition to being an ACS Regent, he served as a liaison for the ACS Advisory Council for Pediatric Surgery, was a member of the ACS Ethics Committee, as well as Past-Chair of the Nominating Committee and Past-Vice-Chair of the ACS Board of Governors.

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, including The Society of Black Academic Surgeons, the Association for Academic Surgery, the Surgical Infection Society, and the American Pediatric Surgical Association.