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APSA’s President and President-Elect elected to the National Academy of Medicine – October 2025

Dr. Andrea Hayes-Dixon

Andrea Hayes-Dixon, MD, PhD(h)

APSA President 2025–2026

Dean and Senior Vice President of Health Affairs, Howard University College of Medicine, Washington, DC.

For pioneering cytoreductive therapy for rare pediatric cancers, increasing survival rates from 30% to 70%. As the first African American woman pediatric surgeon in the US and the first female dean of Howard University College of Medicine, she is inspiring and training the next generation of physicians from underrepresented backgrounds.

“I am truly honored and blessed to have been accepted into the National Academy of Medicine. The American Pediatric Surgery Association has been one of the main organizations through which I have been able to present my research and I am thankful and grateful for the opportunity to participate in NAM. I also congratulate Dr. Gail Besner, a co-inductee and President Elect of APSA.”
- Dr. Andrea Hayes-Dixon

Dr. Gail Besner

Gail E. Besner, MD

APSA President-Elect 2025–2026

H. William Clatworthy Jr. Professor of Surgery, Ohio State University; and Allen Distinguished Scholar in Pediatric Research and principal investigator, Center for Perinatal Research, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus, Ohio.

For being an internationally renowned expert on novel therapeutics to prevent necrotizing enterocolitis since her seminal discovery of heparin-binding epidermal growth factor-like growth factor (1990). Her pioneering research on administering probiotics in their biofilm state to protect the intestines and brain has progressed to a recently completed first-in-human FDA-approved Phase 1 clinical trial.

“It is humbling to be included in this group of accomplished scholars. It is indeed remarkable for APSA that two of its senior leaders are among this year’s slate of new NAM members. I am incredibly honored to share this year’s membership group with our APSA President Andrea Hayes-Dixon.”
- Dr. Gail Besner