Andrea Hayes Dixon, the first Black woman to serve as dean of the College of Medicine at Howard University, has recently assumed the presidency of the American Pediatric Surgical Association. She will lead the national organization for a one-year term.
Dr. Dixon has served as dean of Howard’s medical school since 2022. With over two decades of experience in academic medicine and pediatric surgical innovation, she previously served as surgeon-in-chief and division chief of pediatric surgery at the University of North Carolina Children’s Hospital and as chief of pediatric surgery at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Currently, Dr. Dixon also serves as chair of the Scientific Management Review Board at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
In 2004, Dr. Dixon became the first Black woman in the United States to achieve board certification in pediatric surgery. Two years later, she became the first surgeon worldwide to perform a high-risk life-saving procedure in teenagers with rare forms of abdominal cancer.
A two-time Ivy League graduate, Dr. Dixon earned both her bachelor’s degree in religion and her medical degree from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.