Kurt Newman, MD
Former President and CEO,
Children’s National Hospital

Dr. Kurt Newman served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Children's National Hospital from 2011 through June of 2023. He led Children's National in its trajectory of excellence and growth, rising from #18 to #5 in the U. S. News national ranking of children's hospitals.

Following a general surgery residency at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, he joined Children’s National as a surgical fellow in 1984. He became Surgeon-in-Chief and Senior Vice President for the Joseph E. Robert, Jr., Center for Surgical Care in 2003. He was instrumental in developing the vision and was the founding vice president for the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation at Children’s National, The Institute was created in 2009 with a $150 million gift with the goal to make surgery for children less invasive, more precise, and pain-free. More recently he has led the development of the Children's National Research and Innovation Campus at Walter Reed, a first of its kind innovation ecosystem devoted to science, discovery, and cures for children.

Dr. Newman is a professor of surgery and pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. He is the author of a 2017 medical memoir, Healing Children: A Surgeon’s Stories from the Frontiers of Pediatric Medicine. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He received his medical education at Duke University and was honored with the 2023 Distinguished Alumnus Award by the Duke University School of Medicine. In 2021, Dr. Newman received the CEO of the Year award from the Washington Business Journal. Dr. Newman was also inducted into the Washington Business Hall of Fame in 2023.