Mentors
Mentors will provide support to their mentees in terms of skill development, knowledge sharing, networking and career guidance. Students are expected to observe and learn from their mentors, seek advice from them on research projects, participate in their mentor's project if interested, and discuss career and service opportunities available to them. Our global health mentors are an invaluable resource available to all students on campus.
See the current Global Health mentors.
Featured Mentor
Erik Hansen, M.D., specializes in pediatric surgery.
Dr. 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 as well as the completion of a Master of Public Health degree program. After finishing his pediatric surgery training at The Children’s Hospital of Alabama and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, he spent the next eight years living and working in Kijabe, Kenya, as a general and pediatric surgeon at AIC Kijabe Hospital and BethanyKids of Kijabe Hospital.
In Kenya, he served as the Head of Paediatric Surgery, as the Clinical Director of BethanyKids of Kijabe Hospital, and as Program Director of East Africa’s first formal pediatric surgery training program. He participated in the training of eleven pediatric surgeons from eight African countries and of dozens of general surgery residents from Africa and North America.
Certified by the American Board of Surgery in surgery and pediatric surgery, he joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 2019.
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 he is a member of the American Pediatric Surgical Association’s global surgery committee.
He has published numerous academic articles, completed several research projects, and contributed to the book Paediatric Surgery: A Comprehensive Text for Africa.
Dr. Hansen’s diversity of clinical experience spans the breadth of pediatric surgery. He has particular interest 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.