Benjamin Smood, MD is a second year integrated cardiothoracic surgery resident at the University of Pennsylvania. Benjamin has career aspirations of becoming a pediatric heart surgeon and plans to remain in academia with an emphasis on surgical outcomes research. He first realized he wanted to be a congenital heart surgeon while studying the genetics of heart valve development as an undergraduate at the University of Oregon. After graduating, he spent two years teaching 7th grade science in Camden, New Jersey with Teach for America. He then attended medical school at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. As a medical student, the Southern Medical Association awarded Benjamin with the Society of 1924 Scholarship in 2017.

Now in residency, Benjamin is particularly interested in the use of mechanical circulatory support as a bridge to heart transplantation. His research also focuses on the growing population of adults living with congenital heart disease. Benjamin remains committed to legislative advocacy, and serves on the American Medical Association’s Committee on Business and Economics. He believes that active engagement in organized medicine is essential to enacting true change in medicine and improving the lives of patients.