Danielle Tatum, PhD

Dr. Danielle Tatum is an Assistant Professor of Surgery, where she has served as the Director of Research for the Department of Surgery since 2021. She earned her Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from LSU in 2011 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Biochemistry at Tulane in 2014. She oversees the Department's research portfolio, including grants, clinical trials, and investigator-initiated projects.

Dr. Tatum has demonstrated exceptional academic productivity, authoring over 100 peer-reviewed publications in journals such as JAMA Surgery and the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. For the past decade, Dr. Tatum's work has focused on patient outcomes, significantly contributing to several areas such as organ donation, prehospital care, and trauma outcomes research. Her work has earned several accolades, including the School of Medicine Faculty Recognition Award for Research – Clinical Science in April 2024 and the 2021 Shipley Award from the prestigious Southern Surgical Association for best scientific paper. She has completed several leadership and mentor training programs, serves as a Situational Mentor for junior female faculty members, is a member of the steering committee for the Group of Women in Medicine and Science (GWIMS), and serves on the institutional Conflict of Interest (COI) Committee.

Dedicated to education, Dr. Tatum leads the "Basics of Clinical Research" course for medical students and mentors trainees on research projects across various surgical subspecialties. Under her leadership, the Department has implemented workshops on study design, presentation skills, and data management and analysis.

Dr. Tatum's commitment to advancing medical knowledge and her leadership in research and education make her a valuable asset to Tulane.

WHY TULANE?

Tulane recruited me to build the Department of Surgery's research infrastructure and grow its portfolio. This showed me that the school and department leadership were actively investing in and supporting research. That, paired with Tulane's standing as a major academic medical center and its national reputation in research, made it clear this was somewhere I could contribute meaningfully to the institution's research mission and grow my career.