Dr. Klingensmith is the Chief Accreditation Officer, overseeing the Department of Accreditation, Recognition, and Field Activities. Dr. Klingensmith joined the ACGME in September 2021 as the Senior Vice President, Accreditation and was promoted to Associate Chief Accreditation Officer in July 2023. She is the Mary Culver Distinguished Professor emeritus and former Vice Chair for Education in Surgery at Washington University in Saint Louis. Dr. Klingensmith was the program director of the general surgery residency at Washington University from 2001-2012, served as the Associate Director for the Simulation Center, and was a Loeb Teaching Fellow at the School of Medicine. She was the founding director of the medical school’s Academy of Educators.

Dr. Klingensmith is board certified in surgery and practiced general surgery at the John Cochran VA Hospital and Barnes Jewish Hospital in Saint Louis. Her research interests are in surgical education, including curricular reform, competency-based education, simulation curricula, surgical ethics, and the impact of regulations on student, resident, and faculty perceptions of the field of surgery. Dr. Klingensmith served as a director for the American Board of Surgery (including as its Chair in 2017-2018) and of the American Board of Thoracic Surgery. Additionally, she served in an employed position as Vice President of the American Board of Surgery (ABS), where she directed the board’s Competency-Based Education/Entrustable Professional Activities Project and for 12 years led SCORE [Surgical Council on Resident Education], a unified curriculum for education and training in surgery, which is delivered via a web portal.

Dr. Klingensmith has served on the Committee on Certification for the American Board of Medical Specialties, including as Vice Chair of that committee. She was an inaugural year inductee of the American College of Surgeons Academy of Master Surgeon Educators in 2018 and participated in the Hedwig van Amerigen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine program in 2018-2019. Dr. Klingensmith is a past president of the Association for Surgical Education (ASE), and a recipient of the 2005 ASE Outstanding Teacher Award. She also received the ACGME’s Courage to Teach Award in 2012. She currently represents the ACGME on the American College of Surgeons and American Surgical Association’s Blue Ribbon Committee on Surgical Education

Originally from Beckley, West Virginia, Dr. Klingensmith received her undergraduate degree in biological sciences from Wellesley College and her medical degree from Duke University. She completed her residency in surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.