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    Charles L. Branch, Jr., MD

    Professor and Chair - Retired
    Dept of Neurosurgery Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Health

    After 36 years as an innovative neurosurgeon and faculty leader, Charles L. Branch Jr., MD, Eben Alexander Professor and Chair of Neurosurgery and Professor of Pediatrics and Orthopaedic Surgery, has decided to retire.
    Dr. Branch was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where his father was completing his neurosurgical training, creating an environment that would one day influence his son’s career choices. The Branch family moved to San Antonio, Texas, and Dr. Branch received his BA degree from Oklahoma Christian and his medical degree from University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, before completing his neurosurgical training at Wake Forest University Bowman Gray School of Medicine. He also completed a clinical fellowship in the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of California in San Francisco. Dr. Branch returned to Wake Forest University School of Medicine as a faculty member in the Department of Neurosurgery in 1987. He served as acting Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery in 2000 until his appointment as Professor and Chair in 2001, and was awarded the Eben Alexander Jr. Endowed Chair in July 2002.
    Over the course of his career at Wake Forest, Dr. Branch has helped to train more than 60 neurosurgical residents. As Chair, the number of faculty in the department has more than tripled and the number of residents in training has doubled.
    Dr. Branch has been at the forefront of discovery for neurosurgery and is recognized internationally for the surgical techniques he pioneered and perfected, including the minimally invasive posterior interbody lumbar fusion technique that has transformed the way clinicians perform spinal fusions. His innovative surgical techniques also resulted in the commercialization of numerous state-of-the-art medical devices, including 40 patents, as well as his toolkit for interbody spine fusion that is now used around the world. Dr. Branch’s innovative thinking also sparked several major developments within Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, including the Thomas Hearn Brain Tumor Center of Excellence and the development of the Stereotactic Radiosurgery program and helping bring the Gamma Knife—a type of radiation therapy used to treat brain tumors—to Wake Forest Baptist, where it was the first of its kind in North Carolina.
    In 2004, Dr. Branch was named editor-in-chief for The Spine Journal and subsequently served on the editorial board for The Journal of Neurosurgery – Spine. In 2021 he was appointed editor-in-chief for the International Journal of Spine Surgery. He has published 24 book chapters, 80 journal articles and abstracts. Throughout his career he also served in many leadership and editorial positions at prestigious neurosurgery and spine specialty organizations, including as director and chair of the American Board of Neurological Surgery and as the president of the North American Spine Society. He has been active in international medical mission efforts in numerous countries.
    Dr. Branch often speaks about his love of family, including his wife, Lesa, and their five children, as well as a growing number of grandchildren. Several of his children have continued the Branch legacy by pursuing careers in neurosurgery and surgery.

    Disclosure(s): Medtronic: Consultant (Ongoing), Royalty Recipient (Ongoing)

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