Dr. Barbara Kinder, a specialist in endocrine surgery and the chief of the Surgical Service at the West Haven Department of Veteran Affairs Medical Center, VAMC, has been named the William H. Carmalt Professor of Surgery by vote of the Yale Corporation.
Dr. Kinder, a 1971 graduate of the School of Medicine, has spent her entire career at Yale. After medical school, where she won the Ramsey Prize, she completed her internship and residency in surgery at Yale-New Haven Hospital and also served as a postdoctoral fellow in pharmacology.
She became an instructor in surgery at the medical school in 1976, was promoted to assistant professor one year later, and became professor of surgery in 1990. She served as chief of surgery for Yale University Health Services 1985-89 and chief of the division of endocrine surgery in the medical school's department of surgery 1987-92. She has been chief of the VAMC's Surgical Service since 1989.
Dr. Kinder is listed among the "Best Doctors of America" for endocrine surgery. She has authored or coauthored numerous articles for professional publications on topics both in her field, such as hyperparathyroidism and thyroid cancer, and about her field, such as the differences that men and women surgeons experience. When she was appointed to her post at the VAMC, she was one of less than a dozen female chiefs of surgery at Veteran's Administration hospitals nationwide.
Dr. Kinder is a founding member of both the American and International Associations of Endocrine Surgeons. She is also a member of the New England Surgical Society, the Eastern Surgical Society, The Endocrine Society, the Connecticut Society of American Board Surgeons, the New England Cancer Society and the Association of VA Surgeons, among others. She is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons; her other honors include the Leah Lowenstein Award for medical student teaching in 1987 and the American Women Surgeons Distinguished Member Award in 1996.
Dr. Kinder was married to the late Dr. C. Elton Cahow, an international leader in laparoscopic surgery, who was the William H. Carmalt Professor of Surgery, Gastroenterology, at the medical school at the time of his death in January.