Robert S.D. Higgins, M.D., M.S.H.A., is surgical director of the heart failure and cardiac transplant program and professor and chair of the department of cardiovascular and thoracic surgery at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.

Dr. Higgins has served as president and vice president of the OPTN/UNOS board of directors and chair of the OPTN/UNOS membership and professional standards committee (MPSC) as well as its policy compliance subcommittee and its living donor policy advisory work group. He is a member of the OPTN/UNOS patient affairs committee. He also has served on the OPTN/SRTR data working group, OPTN/UNOS thoracic organ transplantation committee and as chair of his region’s review board (heart).

He served as program organizer for the "Diversity and Disparity in Solid Organ Transplantation" conference sponsored by the American Society of Transplantation (AST), and chaired the AST's minority affairs committee. He is a member of the editorial board for UNOS' patient Web site, transplantliving.org. He also has served on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Advisory Committee on Transplantation (ACOT).

Dr. Higgins earned his medical degree at the Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven and a master of science degree in health administration at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.