The Medical Mission

Dr. Glenn W. Geelhoed

Glenn W. Geelhoed was born and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the third of four siblings, and the only boy. As an adult, Geelhoed received his BS and AB cum laude degrees from Calvin College. He also received his Medical Degree cum laude degree from the University of Michigan. After graduating from the University of Michigan Medical School, Geelhoed moved to Boston. Following a Harvard surgical internship and residency at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston and also at the Boston Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Geelhoed served as clinical associate and senior investigator at the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. After completion of his chief surgical residency, Geelhoed joined the full-time faculty at George Washington University as an Associate Professor of Surgery in Washington, DC in 1975.He was awarded an appointment as clinical scholar of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Education:

To assist in developing further volunteer surgical services in underserved areas of the developing world, Geelhoed completed the DT Mental Health in the University of London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 1990

  • Masters degree in International Affairs from the Elliot School of International Affairs at George Washington University - 1991
  • Masters in Public Health degree in Epidemiology
  • Health Promotion/Disease Prevention - 1993
  • Master of Arts cum laude degree in Anthropology with special interests in Biological and Medical Anthropology - 1994
  • Master of Philosophy degree in Human Sciences in the interdisciplinary program at George Washington University completing the Executive Leadership Doctoral Program to be granted an Ed.D. in Education

Currently, Dr. Geelhoed still works as a professor at George Washington University Medical Center and is a member of numerous medical, surgical, and international academic societies, including the Society of University Surgeons and The American College of Surgeons, and is a past president of the Washington Academy of Surgeons. He was selected the James IV Traveling Scholar of 1986, and inducted into the Academie de Chirurgie de Paris in 1990. George Magazine named him Humanitarian of the Year in 2000.

Dr. Geelhoed’s major clinical interests are endocrine surgery, surgical physiology, oncology, and transplantation. He has been a frequent Visiting Professor in most of the United States and on all continents, traveling with a strong interest in global health that includes the third world. Geelhoed is a widely published author accredited with several books and over 500 published journal articles and chapters in books. He has a major interest in medical education in academic, professional, and international organizations. Recent publications include Out of Assa: Heart of the Congo and Surgery and Healing in the Developing World.

Geelhoed has completed a year of research and service in southern Africa, supported by an award as Senior Fulbright Scholar for 1996, in developing the African Regional Research Program. He has led medical students, residents, and physicians into clinical experiences in the developing world on over one hundred medical missions in Africa, Asia, the South Pacific, and South America. Geelhoed has developed both Medical Anthropology and Tropical Medicine programs within the Medical and Master in Public Health schools of George Washington University, and as a George Washington University Professor of International Medical Education, is developing international health and medical education programs.