New Chair, Vice-Chair, and Secretary Are Announced

Internationally renowned fetal and neonatal surgeon Diana L. Farmer, MD, FACS, is the new Chair of the ACS Board of Regents (BoR). Kenneth W. Sharp, MD, FACS, will serve as Vice-Chair, and Christopher R. McHenry, MD, FACS, will serve as ACS Secretary. Their elections were announced yesterday following the Annual Business Meeting of Members, which concluded Clinical Congress 2026.

Dr. Farmer is a Distinguished Professor, the Pearl Stamps Stewart Endowed Chair, and chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis). She also is chief of pediatric surgery at Shriners Children’s Northern California in Sacramento and founder and co-director of the UC Davis Center for Surgical Bioengineering Laboratory.

A leader in pediatric and fetal surgery, Dr. Farmer is known for the surgical treatment of congenital anomalies and her research into prenatal treatment for myelomeningocele, the most severe form of spina bifida. Her research helped lead to the landmark Management of Myelomeningocele Study, a multicenter randomized clinical trial that demonstrated improved outcomes with fetal surgery compared with repair after birth.

Dr. Farmer continues to advance the treatment of spina bifida through regenerative medicine. Her laboratory is developing a placental mesenchymal stem cell therapy designed to augment prenatal surgical repair, which received US Food and Drug Administration Investigational New Drug approval in 2020. Patient enrollment is underway in the CuRe (Cellular Therapy for in Utero Repair of Myelomeningocele) clinical trial.

Dr. Farmer has held numerous surgical leadership positions, including president of the American Pediatric Surgical Association and president of the American Surgical Association. She also founded the Global Initiative for Children’s Surgery in 2016.

Her ACS leadership has included serving as Chair of the Board of Governors (BoG) and as a member of the BoR. She now succeeds Lena M. Napolitano, MD, FACS, as Chair of the BoR.

Dr. Kenneth Sharp Is Vice-Chair

Dr. Sharp, professor of surgery and vice-chair of the Section of Surgical Sciences for Faculty Promotion and Development at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee, is the new Vice-Chair of the BoR. Dr. Sharp, who joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 1984, has broad clinical interests in gastrointestinal surgery, with particular expertise in minimally invasive procedures, inflammatory bowel disease, and biliary and pancreatic disorders.

Dr. Sharp has held numerous leadership roles within the ACS. He was a Governor, including as Chair of the Committee on Physician Competency and Health and Chair of the Nominating Committee of the Governors. He also was Vice-Chair of the Advisory Council for General Surgery and the Advisory Council for Rural Surgery and has been a member of the ACS Program Committee since 2013, including as Vice-Chair from 2015 to 2017 and currently as Chair.

Dr. Sharp was elected to the BoR in 2018. As a Regent, he has served on the Communications Committee, chaired the Member Services Liaison Committee and Nominating Committee, and was Regent Liaison to the ACS Foundation. His longstanding involvement with the Foundation also has included service as a director and board member and as Secretary from 2014 to 2017.

Beyond the ACS, Dr. Sharp has held leadership roles with several surgical organizations, including as a director of the American Board of Surgery and president of the Southeastern Surgical Congress, Halsted Society, and Southern Surgical Association.

Dr. Christopher McHenry Is ACS Secretary

Dr. McHenry, professor of surgery at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, and vice-chair of the Department of Surgery and director of the Division of General Surgery at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio, is the new ACS Secretary. A general and endocrine surgeon, Dr. McHenry has spent his entire academic career at MetroHealth, with expertise in thyroid, parathyroid, and neck surgery.

An ACS Fellow since 1993, Dr. McHenry has been active in the College at the national and chapter levels for more than 30 years. He was a member of the ACS BoG from 2009 to 2015 and spent 8 years on the Advisory Council for General Surgery, including 2 years as Vice-Chair. His ACS involvement has spanned surgical practice, education, communications, nominations, and membership, and he was President of the Ohio Chapter of the ACS from 2008 to 2009.

Beyond the ACS, Dr. McHenry was a director of the American Board of Surgery and chair of its Surgical Oncology Board. He has led several major surgical organizations as president, including the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons, Central Surgical Association, and Midwest Surgical Association, in addition to the Ohio Chapter of the ACS. His academic work has focused extensively on thyroid, parathyroid, and other endocrine surgical conditions, and he contributed to the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons guidelines for the surgical management of thyroid disease in adults.