With more than 25 years of experience in academic orthopaedic surgery, Mitchel B. Harris, MD, has been named chief of the Department of Orthopaedics at Massachusetts General Hospital, effective October 1, 2017. Previously, Dr. Harris served as the chief of the Orthopaedic Trauma Service at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). In addition to his leadership role in trauma, he spent 14 years serving as an active member of the Orthopaedic Spine Service at BWH and initiated a weekly multidisciplinary spinal oncology meeting.

After earning his medical degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine in 1984, Dr. Harris completed his residency in Orthopaedic Surgery at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in 1989. He then went to the University of Toronto, Sunnybrook Health Science Center, for his fellowship in Orthopaedic Spine and Trauma in 1990, followed by a fellowship in Orthopaedic Spine and Trauma Surgery at Queen's Medical Centre in the United Kingdom in 1994.

Dr. Harris is a widely respected and beloved teacher. He received the coveted Golden Apple Award, presented to the Harvard Orthopaedic faculty member identified by the residents as the teacher/mentor of the year.  He also has received numerous faculty teaching awards in his previous academic positions. 

Among his many accolades, Dr. Harris received the BWH Hippocrates Society Humanitarian Award and both held the chair position and served as a mentor for the AAOS’s Leadership Fellows Committee. He is the inaugural recipient of the Stepping Strong Distinguished Chair in Orthopaedic Surgery while serving as the founding director of the Gillian Reny Stepping Strong Center for Trauma Innovation. Dr. Harris chaired a Department of Defense peer-reviewed Orthopaedic research program, and has authored or co-authored more than 150 peer-reviewed academic publications.