Dr. Beck was a Distinguished Graduate of the USAF Academy and attended medical school at
the University of Miami. He completed his residency in general surgery at Wilford Hall USAF
Medical School, Lackland AFB, Texas and completed a fellowship in colorectal surgery at the
Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio. He is board certified in general and colon and
rectal surgery and is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the American Society of
Colon and Rectal Surgeons. After retiring from the Air Force, where he was Chairman and
Residency Program Director of the Department of General Surgery at Wilford Hall USAF
Medical Center and the Military Consultant to the Air Force Surgeon General in Colon and
Rectal Surgery, Dr. Beck joined Ochsner in 1993, served as Chairman of the Colon and Rectal
Surgery Department from 1995 to 2014, and Chairman Emeritus from 2014 to 2018. In 2019, he
moved to Tennessee and joined the surgical faculty at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.
Dr. Beck conducts research into colorectal diseases, has authored and edited nine medical
textbooks, and written over 350 scientific publications. He was the President of the American
Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons (ASCRS) from 2010-2011 and is a member of many other
medical associations. He served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Ochsner Clinic
Foundation from 2005 to 2012 and currently serves as President-elect of the American Board of
Colon and Rectal Surgery. Dr. Beck has served on the editorial board of several prestigious
medical journals and is a Clinical Professor of Surgery at Vanderbilt. Dr. Beck is listed in
Who’s Who, Best Doctors in America, and Good Housekeeping’s Top Cancer Doctors for
Women. Dr. Beck is a nationally recognized expert in inflammatory bowel disease, anal, rectal
and colon cancer, stomas, adhesions, bowel preparation, sphincter saving surgery for cancer,
laparoscopic surgery, and postoperative pain management.
