William Forrest Johnston, MD, FACS, FASCRS

Scott R. Steele, MD, MBA, FACS, FASCRS, FPSCRS (Hon.)

William (Forrest) Johnston, MD, is a Colon and Rectal Surgeon and Assistant Program Director for the Colon and Rectal Surgery Fellowship at the Ochsner Clinic in New Orleans, LA. He was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and moved to Galveston, Texas, at a young age. Living on a small island on the Gulf Coast, he enjoyed surfing and working for the Beach Patrol. He then went to Wake Forest University in North Carolina for under graduation, where he majored in Chemistry and Religion. Next, he went back to Texas to join Medical School at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston before moving to University of Virginia for his General Surgery residency. Initially he wanted to be a vascular surgeon and performed extensive research in that field. When he finished with the laboratory work, he changed his path to pursue colorectal surgery. He went on to complete Colorectal Surgery fellowship at the Lahey Clinic in Burlington, Massachusetts. Following his fellowship, he began his first faculty position at the Ochsner Clinic, where he has served since 2017.

Clinically, Forrest is a very busy clinical surgeon. He is interested in all aspects of colon and rectal surgery as well as abdominal wall reconstruction. He has also published multiple articles in peer-reviewed journals and is authoring multiple book chapters. As a consummate educator, he has given several lectures throughout the United States and serves the Self-Assessment and Young Surgeons Committees of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons.

It was during his medical school that he married his wife, Ashley, and they had two children during residency (Webb [10] and Peyton [8]). His current life goals revolve around balancing his challenging and fulfilling clinical practice and spending as much time as possible with his family. Outside of medicine, he loves to run, fish, and eat. The joy of living in New Orleans is food and festivals.

On behalf of the readers and staff of Clinics of Colon and Rectal Surgery, I sincerely thank Dr. Johnston for serving as a Guest Editor and providing us with a superb issue on anastomotic construction and all the nuances that go along with it.

Publication History

Article published online:
04 November 2022