CHICAGO — Marshall Z. Schwartz, MD, FACS, an emeritus surgeon-in-chief at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, will receive the Distinguished Service Award — the highest honor of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) — during the ACS Clinical Congress 2025 in Chicago.
This award, established in 1957 by the ACS Board of Regents, recognizes the exceptional and continuous service of an ACS Fellow, as well as a career with outstanding emphasis on patient care and commitment to the ideals of surgical practice.
Dr. Schwartz, a pediatric surgeon, called his lengthy involvement with the ACS “truly a labor of love.”
Longstanding Service
An ACS Fellow since 1982, Dr. Schwartz initially brought his expertise to the Advisory Council for Pediatric Surgery and Pediatric Surgical Forum. He served on the advisory council for many years in a variety of roles, including as a board member, representative of the surgical forum, Chair, and representative of the ACS BoR, and on the Surgical Forum as both a member and Chair.
In the early 1990s, Dr. Schwartz’s career in pediatric surgery led him to a role as surgeon-in-chief of Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC, and he began to recognize the potential for the ACS to become more engaged in health policy and advocacy—areas that were just coming into focus. Thus began his longtime involvement in promoting ACS advocacy efforts.
Dr. Schwartz became a member of the ACS Health Policy and Advocacy Group, and “I became the squeaky wheel,” he said. “I felt it was important that our government know our positive history in promoting patient surgical quality of care, access, and cost containment.”
He served on the Health Policy and Advocacy Group for many years and ascended to roles as Vice-Chair and later Chair. He shared that his proudest advocacy-related achievements included the fact that, with the excellent support and hard work of the ACS Division of Advocacy and Health Policy: “We gradually educated federal legislators on what the ACS did in the past and currently are doing. It took a while but fast forward, they call us now for advice on health policy.”
Leadership at the ACS and Beyond
Dr. Schwartz’s leadership extended to serving on many ACS committees, including Patient Education, Member Services, Finance, Investment, Honors, and Research and Optimal Patient Care. He has been Chair of the ACS Surgery Advisory Chairs, was a member of the Board of Regents from 2009 to 2018, and served as its Vice-Chair from 2017-2018. A prolific researcher, he served as an associate editor of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons from 1996 to 2023.
His leadership in academic surgery also is significant. In addition to his roles at Children’s National Hospital and St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, he served as surgeon-in-chief at the Child Health Center of The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. Currently, he is a professor at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and conducting tissue engineering research the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
Dr. Schwartz also served as director of the American Board of Surgery, including as chair of the Pediatric Surgery Board, president of the American Pediatric Surgical Association, and a member of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education’s Residency Review Committee for Surgery.
For all his leadership and guidance in these and other roles, Dr. Schwartz received a University of Minnesota Department of Surgery Alumnus of the Year Award and an honorary fellowship from the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
