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Dr. John Hunter was born in Hanover, New Hampshire in 1955. He attended Harvard College, where he graduated with a degree in English Literature, and then attended medical school at the University of Pennsylvania. His surgical residency took place at the University of Utah, and he did fellowships in surgical endoscopy at the Massachusetts General Hospital and the University of Western Ontario.
Following his fellowships, Dr. Hunter returned to Utah in 1988 to start the surgical endoscopy and minimally invasive surgery program at the University. In 1992, he relocated to Emory University in Atlanta, where he served as Chief of GI surgery and Vice Chair of Surgery (clinical). Nine years later, in 2001, Dr. Hunter traveled to Oregon Health & Science University to become the Mackenzie Chair of Surgery and Surgeon in Chief of the OHSU health system. He was the Interim Dean of the OHSU School of Medicine in 2016-17, then became the Chief Clinical Officer and Chair of the OHSU Practice Plan. For 7 years Dr. Hunter served as an Executive Vice President of OHSU and the Chief Executive Officer of OHSU Health, a four-hospital University-based system health system in Portland, Oregon. On July 1, 2024 he returned to his role as Professor of Surgery, engaged full-time in the practice, education, and research of foregut surgery.
Dr. Hunter served the American Board of Surgery (ABS) for 13 years, chairing the ABS in 2016-17. He has been President of several international surgical societies including the SSAT and SAGES, and is currently the Past-President of the International Society of Surgery (ISS-SIC). Dr. Hunter is also a member of the Oregon Legislature’s Bridge Program Task Force working on the state’s plan for equity-centered, affordable health insurance coverage. He has received several honorary fellowships, including the European Association of Endoscopic Surgeons, the European Surgical Association, the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and the Spanish Society of Surgeons. He was the Editor in Chief of the World Journal of Surgery from 2005 until the end of 2017. He serves as the international secretary of the James the 4th Association of Surgeons.