On behalf of Carol Swallow, Chair, Department of Surgery
Dear colleagues,
I’m happy to announce that Dr. Toni Zhong has been appointed as our University of Toronto Department of Surgery’s Chair, Academic Promotions Committee, effective April 1, 2025.
As Dr. Zhong transitions into this role, we want to thank her predecessor, Dr. Earl Bogoch, who has been Chair of the Promotions Committee since 2020.
We owe a major debt of gratitude to Earl for the time and energy he has given to this role, the dedication he has consistently shown in this sometimes challenging role, and the superb job he’s done in getting our surgical faculty promoted.
Dr. Zhong is the inaugural Belinda Stronach Chair in Breast Cancer Reconstruction at University Health Network (UHN). She is also the Clinical and Research Director for the Breast Reconstruction Program at UHN/Mount Sinai Hospital. Toni has served as a member of the Department of Surgery Academic Promotions Committee since May 2020.
Dr. Zhong is the Provincial Lead of Cancer Care Ontario in the development of clinical guidelines to set new provincial standards for breast cancer reconstruction. She is also on the Advisory Panel for the American Society of Plastic Surgeons for guideline development for breast reconstruction. Her research and advocacy activities focus on improving access to innovative techniques of post-mastectomy reconstruction and developing validated patient-reported outcome instruments designed to evaluate health-related quality of life after breast reconstruction procedures. She currently has over 100 peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals and holds multiple research grants from CIHR and various Canadian and American Plastic Surgery Foundation Funds.
Dr. Zhong is also active in global surgery. She is one of the founding members of Reconstructing Women International, a non-profit international humanitarian organization, and she annually leads international surgical teams overseas. She is a co-founder of the UHN Helps Fund, a humanitarian fund to support patients from developing countries to receive their lifesaving or life-enhancing surgeries at UHN.
I look forward to working with Dr. Zhong as she stewards our excellent surgical faculty through the senior promotion process, and leads the hard-working members of the Academic Promotions Committee.
Carol Swallow
R.S. McLaughlin Professor and Chair
Department of Surgery, Temerty Faculty of Medicine
University of Toronto
