Dr. Russ White

Dr. Russ White was born in the Belgian Congo to medical missionary parents. He attended Roberts Wesleyan College, the University of Michigan School of Medicine, and the Harvard University School of Public Health. He completed a general surgical residency at Brown University and a fellowship in cardiothoracic surgery in Bristol, England. He is the Director of the new AGC Tenwek Hospital Cardiothoracic Center in Kenya, where he has worked full-time since 1997. He is a clinical professor of surgery at Brown University School of Medicine in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. During his early years at Tenwek Hospital, he was intimately involved in developing post-graduate training programs in Family Practice, OB/GYN, General Surgery, Orthopedic Surgery, Neurosurgery, and Cardiothoracic Surgery. He has also served as the Chairman of the Education and Scientific Research Committee for the College of Surgeons of East, Central, and Southern Africa (COSECSA), responsible for education and research for surgical residents in training in 16 different countries in the region, and as the panel head for cardiothoracic surgery. His passion is for teaching and mentoring young Christian African surgeons both in the art and science of cardiothoracic surgery, and leading lives as Christ-followers that are pleasing and honoring to God. He has special interests in cancer of the esophagus and rheumatic heart disease and has published widely in these fields. Dr. White and his team of surgeons and endoscopists treat more patients with esophageal cancer than any other unit in Sub-Saharan Africa, and they currently perform the majority of open heart surgery in the country of Kenya.