About Me
Dr. Rachael Essig is a native of Williamstown, West Virginia and attended college at Butler University in Indiana prior to medical school at West Virginia University. As a general surgery resident at Georgetown University, she has excelled in ACS leadership and ECMO research. She spent two years at the University of Chicago under Dr. Valluvan Jeevanandam as a Fellow in pediatric ECMO, Clinical Ethics and Critical Care during the peak of the COVID pandemic. She left Chicago with a prolific research portfolio, completion of an Ethics fellowship, and board certification in Surgical Critical Care. Rachael has since established a Visiting Professorship in Ethics in Surgery at Medstar with national funding under the Lorna Breen Act. She is also deeply committed to patient and healthcare advocacy and has been closely involved with the Resident Advocacy Society of the American College of Surgeons where she is currently the Vice Chair of their Advocacy and Issues Committee. Rachael declares her professional passion as the surgical management of heart failure, MCS, and transplantation. Rachael loves to ski, and is super excited to bring her dog out to the Utah hiking trails.
