W. P. Andrew Lee, MD is the Dean of University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost of the UT Southwestern Medical Center.  From 2010 to February 2019, he was the Milton T. Edgerton, MD, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.  A hand surgeon and translational researcher, he conducts investigation on tolerance strategy for vascularized composite allografts (VCA) to ameliorate the need for long-term systemic immunosuppression. Dr. Lee established multi-disciplinary programs for hand transplantation at Johns Hopkins and University of Pittsburgh using an immunomodulatory protocol based upon investigations in his laboratory.  He led the surgical team that performed the first bilateral hand transplant (2009) and the first trans-humeral transplant (2010) in the U.S.  A salient feature of the protocol is single-agent immunosuppression that minimizes the long-term risks of VCA.  In 2018, a team under his leadership performed the world’s first total penis and scrotum transplant.

Dr. Lee has authored over 220 original peer-reviewed publications (H-index 42) and 40 textbook chapters on hand surgery and VCA subjects.  He was the principal investigator on multiple federal research grants totaling over $10 millions.  The book co-edited by him, Transplantation of Composite Tissue Allografts, was published in 2008. He has been an invited speaker or visiting professor in over 60 institutions around the world, and served on the editorial boards of Transplantation, Journal of Surgical Research, and Hand.  In 2014 he co-founded the journal Vascularized Composite Allo-transplantation, and serves as its co-Editor.

Dr. Lee has received nearly 100 awards and honors, including the inaugural Mentorship Award from the Plastic Surgery Research Council (2018) and the Distinguished Alumnus Award by Johns Hopkins University (2015). In 2014 he was recognized by the American Association of Plastic Surgeons with the Research Achievement Award for Basic Research.  He received in the same year the Andrew J. Weiland Medal for Outstanding Research from the American Society for Surgery of the Hand.  His other honors have included the Sterling Bunnell Traveling Fellowship (2002-3) and Sumner Koch Award (1995) from the American Society for Surgery of the Hand, and the Kappa Delta Award from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (1991).    

Dr. Lee is currently the President of American Association for Hand Surgery (2019-2020). He co-founded the American Society for Reconstructive Transplantation and served as its President in 2014-16. He was the Chair of the American Board of Plastic Surgery (2012-13) and the President of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand (2011-12). He served as the President of the Robert H. Ivy Society of Plastic Surgeons in 2010 and Chair of Plastic Surgery Research Council in 2001-02.

An honors graduate in physics from Harvard College, Dr. Lee received his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he also completed his general surgery residency. He received his plastic surgery training at the Massachusetts General Hospital and his orthopedic hand fellowship at the Indiana Hand Center. In 1993 he joined the academic faculty at Massachusetts General Hospital, and became the director of Plastic Surgery Research Laboratory and the chief of hand service in Department of Surgery.  In 2002 Dr. Lee was named the Division Chief of Plastic Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh.  He was recruited to Johns Hopkins in 2010 to be the inaugural chairman of the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.  He chaired the Associate Professor Promotion Committee of the School of Medicine in 2014-17.  He was elected as the Chair of the Medical Board at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in 2016 overseeing all medical staff operations including clinical competency and professional conduct.