Karen E. Gibbs

Karen E. Gibbs, MD, FACS, FASMBS, FABQAURP, DABOM is the current Chair of Surgery at Yale New Haven Health - Bridgeport Hospital — a destination site for fully-integrated digestive health care. Appointed to the position in September of 2021, she is the first black female Chair of Surgery in U.S. history. Dr. Gibbs specializes in laparoscopic, bariatric, foregut and endocrine procedures. Her clinical practice and research focuses on advancing the complex and integrated understanding of weight loss for the management and reversal of obesity-related disease and disorders of aging, including diabetes, and sleep apnea.

Prior to Yale, Dr. Gibbs led several initiatives at Northwell Health, where she served as Associate Chair for the Department of Surgery; Chief of General, MIS & Bariatric Surgery; Director of the General Surgery Residency Program and the Advanced GI MIS Fellowship; and Director of Performance Improvement & Quality and Associate Medical Director for Quality at Staten Island University Hospital.

Dr. Gibbs received a bachelor degree from Boston University, attended Tufts University Medical School and completed her postdoctoral training at Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She is a Board Certified General Surgeon and is fellowship-trained in Minimally Invasive and Bariatric Surgery; she is also Board Certified in Obesity Medicine.