Kathryn Rowland, MD, MPHS, an associate professor in the Division of Pediatric Surgery, has been named director of the Center for Humanism and Ethics in Surgical Specialties (CHESS).
CHESS aims to advance the field of surgical ethics through education, research and scholarship focused on the complex ethical issues facing both surgeons and their patients.
“Dr. Rowland is a remarkable pediatric surgeon, educator and ethicist,” said John A. Olson Jr., MD, PhD, the William K. Bixby Professor and chair of the Department of Surgery. “As director of CHESS, Dr. Rowland will shepherd our faculty and learners through the difficult ethical questions we all face when providing care.”
CHESS is supported by The Barbara and Ira J. Kodner, MD, Endowed Fund for Surgical Ethics, established at The Foundation for Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
“WashU Medicine is fortunate to be one of very few institutions across the country to have a dedicated center for surgical ethics,” said Rowland, who also serves as director of the pediatric surgery fellowship at Washington University School of Medicine. “I am delighted and humbled for the opportunity to lead CHESS and advance the center’s work in surgical ethics education and research!”
As a surgical educator, Rowland has a particular focus on character formation during medical education. She has published peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on surgical and medical training, created innovative curricula for character education for future physicians, and has delivered invited lectures on the shaping and becoming of a “good” doctor at academic hospitals across the country.
Rowland is also vice-chair of the ethics committee for the American Pediatric Surgical Association, the first surgeon to serve on the bioethics committee for the Children’s Oncology Group, and a member of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities.
“Ethics asks the question, how should we live? The answers to this question are essential to our work as surgeons,” Rowland said. “Ethics informs our decision making in and out of the operating room, our interactions and relationships with our patients, and our own well-being and sense of meaning and purpose in our work. A robust understanding of surgical ethics is not only necessary, but critical, to be a good surgeon.”
Rowland earned her medical degree from WashU Medicine, where she also completed general surgery residency training. While at WashU Medicine, she earned a master of population health science degree. She then completed a pediatric surgery fellowship at Oregon Health and Science University. Prior to her current role at WashU Medicine, Rowland served as the course director for the Scholars in Ethics and Medicine program at the Hyde Park Institute in Chicago.
Marguerite Spruce, MD, a voluntary clinical assistant professor in the Section of Acute and Critical Care Surgery, has been named assistant director of CHESS.
“We are excited to continue the unique legacy of the department’s focus on ethics through CHESS, and we are even more thrilled to have Drs. Rowland and Spruce lead us into the future of these endeavors with the continued support of our great benefactors through the Foundation for Barnes-Jewish Hospital,” said Paul Wise, MD, who is vice chair for education in the Department of Surgery.
Additionally, Doug Brown, longtime surgical education specialist in the Department of Surgery at WashU Medicine, will continue in his current role with CHESS.