• Al-Faraaz Kassam, Meredith Taylor, Alexander R Cortez, Leah K Winer, and Ralph C Quillin.
• Cincinnati Research on Education in Surgical Training (CREST), Cincinnati, OH, USA; University of Cincinnati, Department of Surgery, Cincinnati, OH, USA.
• Am. J. Surg. 2021 Feb 1; 221 (2): 363-368.

BackgroundDiversity in surgery has been shown to improve mentorship and patient care. Diversity has improved among general surgery (GS) trainees but is not the case for departmental leadership. We analyzed the race and gender distributions across leadership positions at academic GS programs.MethodsAcademic GS programs (n = 118) listed by the Fellowship and Residency Electronic Interactive Database Access system were included. Leadership positions were ascertained from department websites. Gender and race were determined through publicly provided data.ResultsNinety-two (79.3%) department chairs were white and 99 (85.3%) were men. Additionally, 88 (74.6%) program directors and 34 (77.3%) vice-chairs of education were men. A higher proportion of associate program directors were women (38.5%). Of 787 division-chiefs, 73.4% were white. Only trauma had >10% representation from minority surgeons. Women represented >10% of division chiefs in colorectal, thoracic, pediatric, and plastic/burn surgery.ConclusionDiversity among GS trainees is not yet reflected in departmental leadership. Effort is needed to improve disparities in representation across leadership roles.Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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