Jonathan R. Hiatt, MD serves as Emeritus Professor of Surgery and Senior Advisor for Faculty in the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine (DGSOM), a position he has held since retirement in 2021. 

A surgeon, educator and administrator, Dr. Hiatt has been a member of the UCLA family for more than four decades. He served as DGSOM’s Vice Dean for Faculty from 2011 to 2021.  He has held faculty positions on campus as well as at Harbor-UCLA, the West Los Angeles VA, and Cedars-Sinai Medical Centers. Dr. Hiatt served as founding Director of the UCLA Trauma and Emergency Surgery Service (1984-90) and as Vice Chair of Surgery and Director of the Surgical Residency Program and Trauma Services at Cedars-Sinai (1990-98). From 2004-13, he served as Vice Chair for Education in the UCLA Department of Surgery and from 2005-11 as Chief of the Division of General Surgery. In his role as Division Chief, Dr. Hiatt oversaw a significant growth in the faculty and the creation of a number of new programs on campus and in Santa Monica.

Dr. Hiatt is deeply committed to the academic mission and has made education a central focus of his efforts in recent years. In addition to work with the surgical training programs, he was active in undergraduate medical education, including service as co-chair of a second-year Block in the Human Biology and Diseases Curriculum, of the Medical Education Committee, and of the College of Applied Anatomy. He is a four-time winner of the Golden Scalpel Award for Teaching Excellence in the UCLA Department of Surgery, the Morris Press Humanism and Golden Apple Awards at Cedars-Sinai, and the Kaiser-Permanente Award for Excellence in Education and Golden Apple Award, Class of 2014 in the DGSOM.

Dr. Hiatt received his undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences from Stanford University and the MD degree from the University of Southern California. He was trained in general surgery at UCLA. His clinical practice and academic interests have been focused in the areas of trauma, emergency surgery and surgical critical care. This combination has been recognized in recent years as acute care surgery but is a practice model that Dr. Hiatt began at UCLA in 1984. He also has contributed to the surgical literature in areas of education and, working with Dr. Ronald Busuttil’s group, in organ transplantation.  His bibliography includes more than 235 scientific manuscripts, 37 book chapters, and four books.