Dr. John B. Fortune has joined the faculty at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine as professor and chair of the general surgery division. He has interests in surgery of the abdomen and gastrointestinal tract, as well as trauma and critical care.

Prior to joining SIU, Fortune was a professor of surgery at the University of Arizona, serving as chief of the general surgery division (1994-2001). He was director of both regional trauma centers in Tucson (1995-2001), which serves a population of 1.2 million in southern Arizona. Previously he was on the faculty of the University of California San Diego (UCSD) (1982-84) and Albany Medical College (AMC) in New York (1984-94).

Fortune received his bachelor's and medical degrees from Duke University in Durham, N.C. (1971, 1975). He completed his residency in surgery at Duke (1975-77) and AMC (1979-82) and studied lung function in shock during a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellowship at UCSD (1977-79).

Fortune is board certified in general surgery and surgical critical care. He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a member of several medical societies including the Society of Critical Care Medicine, the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, the Association for Academic Surgery, the Neurotrauma Society and the Society of University Surgeons. Fortune is the author of nearly 100 articles and abstracts in the field of trauma and critical care.

While at the University of Arizona, Fortune was presented multiple educational awards from the surgery department for teaching. He twice won both the Theodore Guzauskas Award for Excellence in Clinical Teaching (1998, 2001) and the Medical Student Teaching Award (2000, 2001).

A native of Indianapolis, Fortune and his wife, Janellen, are the parents of two children.

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