Caribbean-Born Surgeon Named Dean At This US University

News Americas, MIAMI, FL, Tues. Mar. 20, 2018: A Caribbean-born pediatric surgeon has been named the dean of the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami.

Dr. Henri R. Ford, was born in the Caribbean nation of Haiti and spent his early childhood in Port-Au-Prince, the country’s capital. He will join the University of Miami from June 1.

Dr. Ford is currently the senior vice president and chief of surgery at the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), vice dean of medical education, and professor and vice chair for clinical affairs in the Department of Surgery at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.

He Ford was professor and chief of the Division of Pediatric Surgery and surgeon-in-chief at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine prior to joining CHLA in January 2005.

Dr. Ford is also a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the Royal College of Surgeons (England), the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. He is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Arnold P. Gold Humanism in Medicine Award from the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Dr. Ford is a fellow of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Surgeons.

He is a member of numerous professional and scientific societies, including the Surgical Biology Club, the American Surgical Association, the American Physiological Society, the British Association of Pediatric Surgeons, the American Trauma Society, the Society of Critical Care Medicine, the American Pediatric Surgical Association, the Society of University Surgeons, the Shock Society, the Surgical Infections Society, the Society of Black Academic Surgeons and the Association for Academic Surgery.

Dr. Ford received his bachelor’s degree in public and international affairs, cum laude, from Princeton University in 1980. He received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1984. He received his M.H.A. (Master of Health Administration) degree from the School of Policy, Planning and Development from University of Southern California in 2009.

Dr. Ford did his internship (1984-85) and residency (1985-87; 1989-91) in general surgery at New York Hospital Cornell Medical College. He completed a research fellowship in immunology (1987-89) in the Department of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh. He completed a clinical fellowship (1991-93) in pediatric surgery at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.

Motivated by a deep desire to have a positive impact on the world and drive important change, Dr. Ford has achieved unprecedented success throughout his career. He has conducted groundbreaking research on the pathogenesis of necrotizing enterocolitis, the most common and lethal disease affecting the gastrointestinal tract of newborn infants. His work has led to new insights into the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of this vexing disease. Under his leadership, CHLA has developed a robust, state-of-the-art minimally invasive surgery program.

Dr. Ford’s research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation through the Injury Free Coalition for Kids, the National Trauma Registry for Children and the American College of Surgeons, among others. He is the author of more than 300 publications, book chapters, invited manuscripts, abstracts, and presentations.

He maintains close ties with his native country. In 2010 he traveled to Haiti after the earthquake to provide surgical care to children injured in the catastrophe. Since then, Dr. Ford has returned to Haiti regularly to provide medical care to its residents. In May 2015, he performed the first successful separation of conjoined twins in Haiti, telling CBS News that it was “extremely gratifying” to be able to perform the operation in his home country alongside Haitian surgeons he helped train.

“He is highly valued by his colleagues for his vision, passion, expertise, and leadership. We are confident that Dr. Ford will be an incredible partner in pursuing our mission to become a truly preeminent academic health system and medical school for the 21st century,” school officials said in a statement.