On the heels of her historic appointment as the first female Chair of Surgery at Greenwich Hospital in 2021, Barbara A. Ward MD, has rejoined the Yale School of Medicine Department of Surgery. For the past twenty years, Dr. Ward had been affiliated with Northeast Medical Group. With Dr. Ward’s appointment to the Division of Surgical Oncology (Breast), the Department now has a faculty member at the helm of surgical services at each of the health system’s major hospitals.
“Dr. Ward brings tremendous clinical and research experience to our surgical oncology breast team. Moreover, the faculty perspective and values that she brings to the Chair position positions the entire department optimally, as we remain laser-focused on the alignment and expansion of Yale’s academic mission across the enterprise,” said Chair of Surgery for the Yale New Haven Health System, Dr. Nita Ahuja.
Dr. Ahuja has long promoted system leadership alignment as mission operandi. Since 2018, she has supported the appointments of Associate Professors, Geoffrey Nadzam MD to Chair of Surgery at Lawrence + Memorial, and Associate Professor Karen Gibbs MD to Chair of Surgery at Bridgeport Hospital; Associate Professor Melissa Perkal MD currently holds the interim position of Chair of Surgery at the VA, with a search for a permanent faculty successor underway.
No stranger to Yale, Dr. Ward completed surgical training at YNNH. In 1990, Dr. Ward joined the Division of Surgical Oncology as a Clinical Instructor, rising the ranks to Director of the Yale Comprehensive Breast Care Center — a position she held until 2000.