On May 17, the Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeons honored DR. ERIK HANSEN with the Surgical Humanitarian Award at the 2022 meeting of the American Pediatric Surgical Association.
Hansen joined the Department of Surgery at UT Southwestern Medical Center in 2019 where he specializes in pediatric surgery.

Hansen earned his medical degree at Baylor College of Medicine and performed his general surgery residency at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, which included two years of metabolic research and completion of a Master of Public Health degree.

After finishing his pediatric surgery training at The Children’s Hospital of Alabama, Hansen served in Kenya for eight years as the Head of Paediatric Surgery, as the clinical director of BethanyKids of Kijabe Hospital. He also served as the program director of East Africa’s first formal pediatric surgery training program.

With the training program Hansen participated in training of eleven pediatric surgeons from eight African countries and of dozens of general surgery residents.
Dr. Hansen is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the College of Surgeons of East, Central, and Southern Africa, and is a member of the American Pediatric Surgical Association’s global surgery committee.

Hansen has contributed to publishing numerous academic articles, completed several research projects, and contributed to the book Paediatric Surgery: A Comprehensive Text for Africa.
With Hansen’s diversity of clinical experience in pediatric surgery, Hansen also has interests in medical and surgical education, including global pediatric surgical training; pediatric colorectal disease; minimally invasive pediatric surgery; and gastrointestinal, oncologic, and hepatobiliary disease in children.