Heidi Nelson, a colorectal surgeon from Mayo Clinic, was named medical director of Cancer Programs in the American College of Surgeons Division of Research and Optimal Patient Care.
Nelson succeeds David Winchester as he transitions from the position he has served in for more than 30 years. Nelson comes to the ACS from her position as chair, and vice chair for research, of the department of surgery, Mayo Clinic, as well as professor of surgery, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Sciences, Rochester, Minn. She has master’s faculty privileges in clinical and translation science at the Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science.
As the Fred C. Andersen Professor for the Mayo Foundation and a consultant for Mayo Clinic’s division of colon and rectal surgery, Nelson is internationally renowned for her research in the field of colon and rectal cancer.
Nelson’s work has also helped reduce the cancer burden in patients with locally advanced and recurrent rectal cancer through studies examining the role of complex surgeries and intraoperative radiation therapy. Nelson will be starting at the ACS later this month.
