Abdalla E. Zarroug, MD, FACS, FAAP

Professor, UNMC Department of Surgery, Division of Pediatric Surgery
Chief, Division of Pediatric Surgery, UNMC Department of Surgery

As division chief of pediatric surgery and professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and surgeon-in-chief and chief of pediatric surgery at Children’s Nebraska, Dr. Zarroug's goal is ensuring delivery of high standard, patient-focused, transformative surgical care regionally in Nebraska.

After receiving his undergraduate degree at Brown University and medical degree from Cornell University Medical College, he completed his general surgery residency and a National Institute of Health-funded research fellowship at Mayo Clinic Rochester, pediatric surgery fellowship at Emory University in Atlanta, and fetal surgery fellowship at UCSF, in San Francisco, California.

Clinically, Dr. Zarroug's interests include minimally invasive surgery (MIS), robotic surgery, transformative innovation and novel techniques. He has published multiple procedures that are “first of its kind”. Technical surgical expertise and clinical credibility is crucial to maintaining engagement and buy-in of all surgeons, anesthesiologists and staff.

He is the youngest African American surgeon to join the Mayo Clinic Department of Surgery. He is also the first African American to become a pediatric surgeon at Mayo Clinic and in Minnesota; the first African American in 150 years to become a surgical  “Mayo Scholar” in 2006; and the first African American pediatric surgeon in Nebraska.

Dr. Zarroug is the founder and the first President of the American College of Surgeons – Qatar Chapter in 2017, the first surgical organization like this in the history of Qatar. He is actively involved in volunteerism in pediatric surgery. He helped establish a U.S.-styled pediatric surgery residency/fellowship in Sudan in 2010 and served as an official external examiner, multiplying the number of pediatric surgeons in Sudan.