‘This Is How We're Going to Make Your Child Better'

Pediatric neurosurgery is technically and emotionally complex—and traditionally dominated by men. As Novant’s first female pediatric neurosurgeon, Dr. Erin Kiehna Richardson has had to learn the intricacies of a demanding field and battle sexism along the way

- By Lauren Levine Corriher

Dr. Erin Kiehna Richardson, the chair of neurosurgery at Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center, is a rarity in the neurosurgical field and unique in the Novant system. She’s the Novant group’s only female neurosurgeon and, at Novant’s Hemby Children’s Hospital, the only pediatric neurosurgeon—a physician who diagnoses, treats, and manages nervous system issues in children. Those can include brain and spinal deformities, epilepsy, brain tumors, and severe head injuries.

Even in the male-dominated world of general surgery, neurosurgery stands out in its gender imbalance: In 2015, less than 8% of neurosurgeons in the U.S. were women. The disparity shows signs of lessening—the number of female neurosurgery residents rose from 10% to 17% from 2005 to 2015—but Kiehna remains a member of a distinct minority. (She got married last year and took her husband’s surname but wanted to use her maiden name for this story.) Her residency at the University of Virginia, where she landed after her graduation from Yale School of Medicine in 2006, drove that point home. She was UVA’s first-ever female neurosurgery resident and the only woman in the program.

Kiehna, 40, has lived and worked all over the world but, having grown up in West Columbia, South Carolina, and Huntsville, Alabama, considers herself a Southerner. She was drawn to neurosurgery as an undergraduate at Vanderbilt, when she enrolled in the oncology education program at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis and spent summers at the world-renowned institution, observing surgeons as they worked. She says she knew then what she wanted to do with her life.