Rondi M. Kauffmann, MD, MPH

Rondi M. Kauffmann, MD, MPH is an Associate Professor of Surgery in the Division of Surgical Oncology and Endocrine Surgery and serves as the Surgical Director of Vanderbilt's Center for Experiential Learning and Assessment and Associate Program Director for the general surgery residency program. She is the inaugural Vice Chair for Global Surgery.

Rondi graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. in physiological Sciences and a minor in cultural anthropology from UCLA and completed her MD/MPH degrees at the University of Minnesota, where she pursued her MPH thesis research in Paris, France and Dakar, Senegal.

At VUMC, her global health leadership roles include Director of the Vanderbilt Global Health Equity and Access Leadership in Surgery (Global HEALS) program, co-director of the Kijabe-Vanderbilt Research Methodologies for Healthcare Providers Course, co-director of the Vanderbilt Collaborative for Global Health Equity, and directs Vanderbilt International Surgery's (VIS) collaborative efforts with AIC Kijabe Hospital in Kijabe, Kenya. She is a previously elected member of the Association for Academic Surgery's Global Affairs Committee and currently sits on the Advocacy and Education committees for the American College of Surgeon’s Operation Giving Back Program. She chairs the Affiliate Committee of the Association for Academic Global Surgery and the Global Surgery Taskforce through the Association for Program Directors in Surgery. Her research focuses on global surgery and capacity building through global surgical education.

In addition to her global health experience in Guatemala, Haiti, Senegal, France, Germany, Cameroon, and Kenya, she is deeply committed to addressing domestic health inequities through her work with Siloam Clinic and the Shade Tree Clinic.

She played an instrumental role in the recent passage of legislation in Tennessee to create a short-term licensure category to facilitate bidirectional surgical education between institutions within Tennessee and faculty/residents from abroad.