World-renowned pediatric surgeon and prolific surgeon-scientist Henri R. Ford, MD, MHA, FACS, FRCS, FAAP, was confirmed as President-Elect of the ACS during the Annual Business Meeting of Members in San Diego. Dr. Ford’s 1-year term as ACS President will begin in October 2023 during Clinical Congress in Boston, MA.
As President, Dr. Ford will work collaboratively with ACS leadership, the Board of Regents, and the Board of Governors to set strategic priorities for the College, maintaining a cohesive and influential voice nationally and internationally.
“We must affirm our relevance and exert our influence by taking the lead on issues that affect the national healthcare agenda, fighting for health equity, and promoting a more diverse surgical workforce,” Dr. Ford said. “My job is to empower and inspire others to achieve their best.”
Dr. Ford—an international authority on necrotizing enterocolitis—is dean and chief academic officer of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in Florida. He previously served in leadership roles at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, as well as at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, PA.
An ACS Fellow since 1996 and this year’s recipient of the Owen H. Wangensteen Scientific Forum Award, Dr. Ford has a long and distinguished history of service with the ACS. He was on the ACS Board of Regents from 2012 to 2021. In addition to being an ACS Regent, he served 4 years as Chair of the ACS Program Committee, which is responsible for planning and implementing ACS continuing educational offerings presented during Clinical Congress. He also served as a liaison for the ACS Advisory Council for Pediatric Surgery and was Chair of the ACS Ethics Committee, as well as the Past-Chair of the Nominating Committee and Past-Vice-Chair of the ACS Board of Governors. During his tenure with the Ethics Committee, Dr. Ford co-drafted the “American College of Surgeons Call to Action on Racism as a Public Health Crisis: An Ethical Imperative” in response to the civil unrest that gripped the nation in the wake of the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd in 2020. This call to action resulted in the establishment of the Anti‐Racism Committee by the Board of Regents.
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, performed the first successful separation of conjoined twins in Haiti alongside surgeons he helped train.
First and Second Vice-Presidents-Elect
The First Vice-President-Elect, Tyler G. Hughes, MD, FACS, and Second Vice-President-Elect, Deborah A. Kuhls, MD, FACS, also were elected at the business meeting.
Dr. Hughes is a clinical professor of surgery and director of medical education at the Kansas University School of Medicine, Salina. A Fellow of the College since 1986, Dr. Hughes has served in several ACS leadership positions, including as ACS Secretary from 2019 to 2022; he presently is Editor of the ACS Communities. He was instrumental in establishing the Advisory Council for Rural Surgery, which he also chaired.
Dr. Kuhls is assistant dean for research and professor of surgery at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). Dr. Kuhls is a trauma surgeon, who is board-certified in general surgery and critical care. For the ACS, she has served as the President of the Nevada Chapter and Chair of the Committee on Trauma Injury Prevention and Control Committee. In recent years, Dr. Kuhls has played an important role in developing the ACS’s recommendations for responding to firearm violence.
Read more about the new ACS Officers-Elect.
