Pediatric and Congenital Cardiac Surgeon
A native of Silver Spring, Maryland, Dr. Kathleen Fenton completed her undergraduate studies at Johns Hopkins University and earned her medical degree cum laude at University of Maryland.
She did her residency in general surgery at the University of Louisville, during which took two years’ sabbatical to do full time research in fetal cardiac surgery with Dr. Frank Hanley.
Following completion of her general surgery residency, she continued her education as a cardiothoracic resident at Emory University in Atlanta, followed by a fellowship in congenital heart surgery at University of California, San Francisco and a second fellowship with Dr. Frank Pigula at University of Pittsburgh.
She held two academic positions in the United States prior to working full time with Dr. Novick at the International Children’s Heart Foundation. Dr. Fenton focused full time on international cardiac surgery for 12 years, living in Managua, Nicaragua for 10 of them, from 2006-2016. She completed a Master of Science in Bioethics in 2017, and began working full time at the National Institutes of Health in 2018.
Dr. Fenton is a member of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, where she serves on the STS/AATS Joint Ethics Forum, as well as the Southern Thoracic Surgical Association and Women in Thoracic Surgery. She has been working with the Novick Cardiac Alliance since its inception, and although not currently practicing clinical surgery, will always be one of our co-founders and remains a valued member of the NCA family.