Katharine A. Yao MD

Katharine Yao, MD, is Chief, Division of Surgical Oncology at NorthShore University HealthSystem and is a Clinical Professor of Surgery with the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. Dr. Yao has also served as Director of the Breast Clinical Program at NorthShore and previously served as director of the breast cancer program at Loyola University Medical Center, where she was also a Clinical/Translational Leader for surgical oncology research at the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center.

Dr. Yao is also the Vice-Chair for Research and Development at NorthShore and participates in many research projects on breast cancer including multiple clinical trials, translational research projects, and clinical outcome studies. She serves on multiple committees including the Prevention Committee for the Alliance for Clinical Trials, she was Chair of the Quality Improvement Committee of the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers (NAPBC) for several years and was recently elected Vice-Chair of the NAPBC. She was also a Principal Investigator for the National Cancer Data Base (NCDB) Breast Participant User File and has participated in multiple outcome studies utilizing the NCDB. She was program chair for the American Society of Breast Surgeons meeting in May 2018.

Dr. Yao earned her MD from the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine and graduated with institutional honors and AOA. She completed her internship and residency in general surgery at Northwestern University in Chicago, where she won the Harold L. Method Surgical Resident Award. She completed a research fellowship in breast cancer research there as well. Dr. Yao then became a fellow in surgical oncology at John Wayne Cancer Institute in Santa Monica, California.