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Dean and Chief Academic Officer, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
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Biography
Dr. Ford is an internationally renowned physician scientist, pediatric surgeon and the dean and chief academic officer of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Since joining the Miller School in 2018, as the first Haitian American dean of a U.S. medical school, 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 $174 million in 2023. The Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research ranked the Miller School No. 1 in Florida for these federal research grants.
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.
In October 2023, Dr. Ford was installed for a one-year term as the 104th President of the American College of Surgeons, a scientific and educational organization that has approximately 90,000 members and is the largest organization of surgeons in the world. 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. -
Education & Training
Education
Post Graduate Training
Licensures and Certifications
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Honors & Awards
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Research Interests
I have spent most of the past 3 decades studying the pathogenesis of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). My lab has been instrumental in defining the molecular mechanisms by which upregulation of inducible nitric oxide synthase leads to gut barrier failure in NEC. In 2018, I transitioned from Chair of the Department of Surgery at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) and Professor of Surgery and Vice Dean for Medical Education at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine to become the Dean and Chief Academic Officer of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. As a result, I closed my research lab to focus on developing the next generation of transformative leaders who will shape the future of medicine, direct health systems to deliver value-based health care, and champion discovery and its translation into clinical interventions to improve the health of humanity. Over the past 3 decades, I have mentored numerous clinician-scientists who are now successful, independent NIH-funded investigators and leaders in academic surgery. I have an excellent track record of mentoring underrepresented minorities in medicine to become successful academic surgeons. In fact, the Association for Academic Surgery recently honored me by establishing the “Henri Ford Fellowship Award” to support underrepresented minority researchers. The FIRST grant is a great vehicle to help promote health equity by ensuring a more diverse medical and research work force. -
Publications
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