Douglas Hanto, MD, PhD, has been named director of the Vanderbilt Transplant Center effective July 1 when he succeeds Seth Karp, MD. Hanto is only the center’s fourth director since its founding in 1989.

Hanto joined VUMC in 2014 as the center's associate director and has worked with the departments of pediatrics and surgery to establish a pediatric liver center at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital. In his new role, he will oversee administrative and clinical aspects of adult and pediatric kidney, liver, heart, lung and pancreas transplantation.

Previously, he was professor of Surgery and associate dean for CME at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, where he also helped start a liver transplant program. He has also served as chief of the Division of Transplantation at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and as a professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School.