James E. Stein, MD, MSc, FACS, FAAP

James Stein, MD, MSc, FACS, FAAP is CHLA's inaugural senior vice president and chief medical officer. Dr. Stein is responsible for developing care delivery systems that set the bar in all metrics including quality, outcomes and institutional operational and financial performance.

Since joining CHLA in 1996, Dr. Stein, professor of Clinical Surgery at Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, has held a variety of leadership roles. He was named vice chair for CHLA’s department of Surgery ahead of the institution’s successful move into the Marion and John E. Anderson Pavilion in 2011. Between 2004 and 2005, he served as the interim chief of the division of Pediatric Surgery. Additionally, he led the Division of Pediatric Surgery’s efforts to offer outpatient care for families in locations that are closer to home, particularly in the San Gabriel Valley.

He has served as a lead surgeon in no less than six conjoined twin separation surgeries—of which he led four—procedures that require intense multidisciplinary planning and coordination and meticulous execution. He was part of a CHLA and Keck Medicine of USC team trip to Haiti to separate that nation’s first set of conjoined twins with an abdominal fusion, which received international attention.

Board-certified in surgery and pediatric surgery, Dr. Stein obtained a bachelor’s degree from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and a medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, where he also fulfilled his internship and residency, and ultimately went on to serve as chief surgical resident. He completed three fellowships: a research fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital; a pediatric surgery fellowship at The Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia; and a pediatric surgery fellowship at Babies and Children’s Hospital in New York. Dr. Stein also obtained a master’s degree in health care management from Harvard School of Public Health.

He is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Surgeons and the American Pediatric Surgical Association, and is on the California Children’s Hospital Association Quality Leaders. He is a member of the Children’s Hospital Association Quality Leaders, and an inaugural board member for the California Hospital Patient Safety Organization and the Hospital Quality Institute. Recently, Dr. Stein was selected to the Quality and Patient Safety Board of the California Children’s Hospital Association. He is a past Morris and Mary Press Humanism Award nominee and has been named a Top Doctor by The Hollywood Reporter, Best Doctors in America, U.S. News & World Report magazine, Castle Connolly America’s Top Doctors, Pasadena Magazine and Southern California Super Doctors.