Renowned vascular surgeon, Anton N. Sidawy, MD, MPH, FACS, was elected President-Elect of the ACS during the Annual Business Meeting of Members yesterday. Anne C. Mosenthal, MD, FACS, and Edward M. Barksdale Jr., MD, FACS, also were elected as First Vice-President-Elect and Second Vice-President-Elect, respectively.
Dr. Sidawy, who is the Lewis B. Saltz Chair of Surgery and professor of surgery at The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, DC, said the appointment “fills me with pride and the satisfaction that others see me as a passionate servant leader and consensus builder.”
A native of Syria, Dr. Sidawy immigrated to the US at age 25 after earning his medical degree at the Aleppo University School of Medicine in Syria. He completed his general surgery residency, including a year as administrative chief resident at the Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC, as well as a fellowship in vascular surgery at Boston University Hospital in Massachusetts. He later earned a master’s degree in public health from The George Washington University.
An ACS Fellow since 1987, Dr. Sidawy has served as a member of the ACS Board of Governors (2001–2007) and Board of Regents (2015–2024). The latter role included a year as Chair of the Board of Regents (2021–2022). He also led a joint effort by the ACS and the Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) to create the Vascular Verification Program, an ACS Quality Program that provides hospitals with critical oversight of their vascular surgery programs.
A firm proponent of the ACS mission to “heal all with skill and trust,” Dr. Sidawy said he envisions his year as ACS President will be focused on “working to the benefit of our Fellows and the surgical patients and to improve the practice environment and the quality of surgical care for all in the community at large.”
Vice-Presidents-Elect
Dr. Mosenthal, a trauma surgeon who is the chief academic officer at Beth Israel Lahey Health—Lahey Hospital & Medical Center in Burlington, Massachusetts, is the First Vice-President-Elect. Dr. Mosenthal has done pioneering work to advance palliative care into surgical practice and is a founding member, past Vice-Chair, and current Chair of the ACS Committee on Surgical Palliative Care. She also has held leadership roles in the ACS Trauma Quality Improvement Program, through which she has developed best practice guidelines for palliative care in trauma settings.
Dr. Barksdale, chief surgical officer at the Chicagoland Children’s Health Alliance and a professor of surgery at The University of Chicago, both in Chicago, Illinois, is the Second Vice-President-Elect. He has contributed to many ACS committees for more than 2 decades, including most recently as a consultant to the Committee on Interprofessional Education and Practice. An expert in childhood cancer and chronic intestinal disease, Dr. Barksdale also worked closely with the mayor, chief of police, and other officials in Cleveland and throughout Ohio on successful antiviolence initiatives while serving as surgeon-in-chief at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital/University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio.
