The Changing Faces of Leadership in Surgery: Study on Presidents of Major Surgical Organizations

To gain an understanding of the changing faces of leadership in surgery, we examined trends in the demographics, additional degrees pursued, and scientific publication characteristics of the past presidents of three major surgery organizations. We queried the BoardCertifiedDocs and Web of Science databases for the demographics, as well as the quantity and quality of publications, of the past presidents of the Association for Academic Surgery, Society of University Surgeons, and American College of Surgeons from 1970 to 2020. Data were analyzed by decade to identify any trends. We identified a total of 140 presidents from the organizations. The proportion of female presidents significantly increased from the 1990s to the 2010s (10% versus 33%, P