Barbara Bass, MD, FACS is Chair of the Department of Surgery at The Methodist Hospital where she holds the John F. and Carolyn Bookout Distinguished Endowed Chair of Surgery. She is internationally recognized for her contributions to the field of gastrointestinal surgery and for her leadership roles in graduate surgical education policy.
Dr. Bass received her Bachelors of Science, Summa Cum Laude, from Tufts University. She graduated from the University of Virginia School of Medicine, where she was inducted into Alpha Omega Alpha in 1979. She took her general surgery training at George Washington University in Washington, DC. During her training, she completed a research fellowship in gastrointestinal physiology at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Washington, DC, during which time she served as a Captain in the US Army Medical Corps and was awarded the Army Commendation Medal for her scientific contributions. Upon completion of her training, she entered her first academic job on the faculty of George Washington University and the Washington, DC VA Hospital, where she initiated her lifelong program in gastrointestinal amicus injury and repair and developed her surgical expertise in gastrointestinal surgery and surgical oncology. Her laboratory has received continuous extramural funding from the National Institutes of Health and the VA Healthcare System for 18 years.
Dr. Bass has been the recipient of many honors during her career, including the Founding Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract Career Development Award, the American College of Surgeons Faculties Research Fellowship, the Association of Women Surgeons Nina Starr Braunwald Award and numerous teaching awards.
Dr. Bass has held numerous leadership positions in American surgery. She has served as a Director and Chair of the American Board of Surgery, President of the Society for Surgery of Alimentary Tract, Governor of the American College of Surgeons, including a term as Chair of the Board of Governors, Treasurer of the American Surgical Association, and Chair and Member of the Board of Regents of the American College of Surgeons. She is on the editorial board of the leading surgical journals, including the Annals of Surgery, Surgery, Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Journal of the American College of Surgeons, where she serves as Associate Editor, and the World Journal of Surgery. She has served on numerous national advisory boards, including the Surgery in Bioengineering Study Section of the National Institutes of Health, the National Commission on Digestive Disorders, the strategic planning group for the NIH, the Executive Advisory Board for the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program in both the VA Healthcare System and the American College of Surgeons Private Sector Initiative, and others.