Speaker Highlight
ACS Update
Edward Barksdale, Jr. MD, FACS, FAAP
Second Vice President, American College of Surgeons
Edward M. Barksdale, Jr., MD, FACS, FAAP, is the Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics at the University of Chicago and the Chief Surgical Officer of the Chicagoland Children’s Hospital Alliance (CCHA). Dr. Barksdale currently works at the nexus of academia, clinical surgery, medical education, public health, and social justice as a passionate advocate for child health and healthcare. He endeavors to inspire individuals and transform communities at the precipice of hope.
Dr. Barksdale is the former Robert J. Izant, Jr. MD Professor and Surgeon-in-Chief at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital/University Hospitals and Case Western Reserve School of Medicine (CWRUSOM) (2007–2024). Prior to that role he was a tenured professor of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Attending Pediatric Surgeon (1994–2007). An NCAA All-American Athlete and honors graduate of Yale University (1980), Dr. Barksdale received his medical degree from Harvard University (1984). He completed a residency in General Surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital (1991) where he became the first black “super chief resident” in the history of this program (1991–92). He completed fellowship training in Pediatric Surgery at Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati, Ohio (1994).
Academically, Dr. Barksdale has a strong interest in pediatric cancer and for many years had a funded laboratory research program studying the immunobiology of neuroblastoma, a common pediatric malignancy. His clinical investigative interests have also included the chronic childhood condition of Short Bowel Syndrome/Intestinal failure. He co-founded the first interdisciplinary program in the world to manage intestinal failure that included the then novel approach of intestinal transplantation (1996) at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. This work has been both foundational and transformational in the advanced care of children with intestinal failure (short bowel syndrome). Numerous institutions nationally and internationally have emulated this program. His current research efforts have evolved toward the translational study on the impact of toxic stress and youth violence on the health of children and communities.
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