Dr. David Hackam is the Garrett Professor and Chief of Pediatric Surgery at Johns Hopkins University and Pediatric Surgeon in Chief and co-director of the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. He received his M.D. from the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, both his PhD in Cell Biology and General Surgery training at the University of Toronto, followed by a Pediatric Surgery fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Hackam’s clinical expertise is in the management of complex surgical disorders in newborns, including patients with necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), which is the leading cause of death from gastrointestinal disease in premature infants. Dr. Hackam’s research is focused on understanding the pathogenesis and developing novel therapies for NEC, and his laboratory has identified a unifying theory that explains its development, which has led to multiple patents which focus on novel therapeutics. Hackam has been funded by the National Institutes of Health continuously for the past 20 years, as well as many vital industry partners. He is the past president of the Society of University Surgeons, past chair of the Research Committee at the American Pediatric Surgery Association, and past Secretary-Treasurer of the Surgical Biology Club. As Pediatric Surgeon-in-Chief at Johns Hopkins, Hackam oversees all pediatric surgical services, which allows him to help build programs that serve a growing number of vulnerable children, and to help to train the next generation of investigators.