In 2017, the Steven C. and Carmella R. Kletjian Foundation gave a gift of $1M to establish an endowment for Global Surgery work at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Robert Riviello, MD, MPH, with that gift, has been working to reduce surgical disparities and improve delivery of care in developing nations. Recently, Carmella Kletjian has donated an additional $1M to establish the Steven C. and Carmella R. Kletjian Foundation Distinguished Chair in Global Surgery. Carmella Kletjian is the co-founder of the Steven C. and Carmella R. Kletjian Foundation, which has developed strategic partnerships and invested in hospitals, global surgery groups, and business programs to improve the safety, affordability, and quality of healthcare in the world’s poorest places.
We are pleased to announce Robert Riviello, MD, MPH, as the inaugural incumbent of the Steven C. and Carmella R. Kletjian Foundation Distinguished Chair in Global Surgery. As Chair in Global Surgery and Director of Global Surgery for the BWH Center for Surgery and Public Health, Dr. Riviello continues to dedicate his career to improving surgical access and quality for vulnerable people.
Robert Riviello, MD, MPH
Steven C. and Carmella R. Kletjian Foundation Distinguished Chair in Global Surgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Director of Global Surgery Programs, Center for Surgery and Public Health, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Associate Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School
Associate Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Robert Riviello, MD, MPH, is an associate surgeon in the Division of Trauma, Burn, Surgical & Critical Care at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and serves as director of Global Surgery for the BWH Center for Surgery and Public Health (CSPH).
He received his medical degree from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and MPH from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Riviello completed a General Surgery Residency at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, TN and was a Fulbright International Fellow in Global Surgery at Centro Evangelico de Medicina in Lubango, Angola. He completed both an Acute Care and Burn Surgery Fellowship and Surgical Critical Care Fellowship at BWH.
Dr. Riviello has dedicated his career to improving surgical access and quality for vulnerable people. Over the past decade he has split his time between BWH and sub-Saharan Africa, strengthening surgical services, surgical training programs, non-technical skills for surgery, and providing mentorship to the CSPH’s and Harvard’s global surgery fellows.