Howard Wayne Francis

Dr. Howard W. Francis, is the Richard Hall Chaney, Sr professor of Otolaryngology and inaugural Chair of the Department of Head and Neck Surgery & Communication Sciences (HNS&CS) at Duke University Medical Center, where he is also the Chief of the Medical Staff of Duke University Hospital. He is a practicing neurotologist with research interests including practice innovations and clinical outcomes in the delivery of hearing health care. He is a senior editor of the Cummings Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Text, is a Director on the American Board of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, a past member of the Otolaryngology Residency Review Committee of the ACGME, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Dr. Francis is a past president of the Society of University Otolaryngologists, past Education Director of the American Neurotology Society, and a recipient of the 2020 American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Presidential Citation.

After completing his high-school education in Jamaica, and his bachelor’s degree at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, Dr. Francis earned his medical degree from the Harvard-MIT division of Health, Science and Technology at Harvard Medical School, and then completed his internship, residency and fellowship training at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He completed his Master’s in Business Administration with a focus in medical services management at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. After 19 years on the faculty at Johns Hopkins during which he served as Residency Program Director, Director of the Johns Hopkins Listening Center and Vice Director of the Department, he was appointed chief of HNS&CS at Duke in March 2017, and then the first Chair of the new Department in 2019.