Virginia R. Litle, MD is a graduate of the University of Vermont and received her medical degree from the Brown-Dartmouth Program in Medicine. Dr. Litle completed her residency in General Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco, and completed fellowships in both Surgical Oncology and Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Dr. Litle provides minimally invasive approaches to benign and malignant esophageal diseases including but not limited to GERD, paraesophageal hernias, achalasia, and esophageal cancer. In addition, she treats lung cancer, mediastinal disease including thymomas, and nonthymomatous myasthenia gravis with robotic approaches. Dr. Litle’s palliative thoracic interventions include endoscopic ablative therapies of esophageal and airway pathology. Her current research interests include risk-stratification for prevention of venothromboembolic (VTE) events following thoracic surgery, disparities in management of thoracic malignancies and esophageal cancer screening with an encapsulated sponge. Dr. Litle is Immediate Past President of the UCSF Naffziger Surgical Society, a Past President of Women in Thoracic Surgery and a member of the AATS, STS, ESTS, STSA, AFS, EACTS, ISDE, and ISMICS. She serves as Consulting Editor, Thoracic Surgery Clinics, an Associate Editor of The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Senior Associate Editor of Foregut, Associate Editor for Pearson’s ebook, Vice President of The Thoracic Surgery Foundation, and International Councillor for EACTS. Dr. Litle is currently Director of Thoracic and Foregut Surgery at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. Dr. Litle is married to Tony Godfrey, PhD, and they have three children: Jack, age 25, George, age 23, and Caroline, age 20. Her additional interests include mentorship, global surgery, tennis, skiing, hiking, camping, and all activities outdoors.