Klingensmith named chair of American Board of Surgery
Board certifies surgeons, oversees continuous certification
Klingensmith
Mary Klingensmith, MD, the Mary Culver Distinguished Professor and vice chair for education in the Department of Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been named chair of the Board of Directors of the American Board of Surgery (ABS).
The ABS is the national certifying board for general surgeons and related specialists. Klingensmith, who became chair in June, is leading the board’s efforts to revamp the continuous-certification process and to initiate a strategic-planning process.
A general surgeon with an emphasis in minimally invasive surgery, Klingensmith is a former director of the university’s general surgery residency program. Outside of the university, she is vice president and advisory council chair of the Surgical Council on Resident Education (SCORE), a nonprofit consortium of organizations whose aim is to improve general surgery training. She also is an associate editor for Annals of Surgery.
Klingensmith is the fourth Washington University surgeon to chair the ABS. Evarts Graham, MD, the inaugural chair of the Department of Surgery, became the first ABS chair in 1937. Samuel Wells Jr., MD, surgery department chair from 1981 to 1987, was named chair in 1988-89; and Eugene Myron Bricker, MD, formerly an associate professor in surgery, was named chair of the ABS in 1965.
