Chair of Surgery at Lawrence + Memorial Hospital (L+M), Geoffrey Nadzam, MD, MHA, has accepted a new position as vice president of medical affairs and chief medical officer at UW Health Northern Illinois (UWHNI). His last day at Yale will be Feb. 15, 2026.
Nadzam has been a valued member of the Yale School of Medicine Department of Surgery faculty for 16 years, specializing in bariatric and minimally invasive surgery. Throughout his tenure, he has held numerous operational leadership roles, including director of robotic surgery and director of the Yale Center for Obesity Surgery at Yale New Haven Hospital’s Saint Raphael Campus (SRC). He also served as site director for bariatric surgery; site director for the surgical residency program; and medical director of surgical services at SRC.
Since assuming his current position as chair of surgery at L+M in 2020, Nadzam has led substantial growth in the Yale Medicine physician team and overseen a 428% expansion of the hospital’s robotic surgery programs. He has also been instrumental in advancing system-wide care standardization—spearheading efforts to unify the surgical debrief process across Yale campuses and contributing to multiple care signature pathways.
As he transitions to his new role at UWHNI — a 350+ bed, Magnet-designated hospital within the academic health system affiliated with the University of Wisconsin–Madison—Nadzam plans to retire from surgical practice to focus fully on operational leadership.
Upon Nadzam’s departure, Stephanie Eosten Joyce, MD, will assume the role of interim chair of surgery at L+M while a search is conducted to identify a permanent successor.