Chair of Neurosurgery
Lehigh Valley Health Network
Dr. Walter C. Jean is Chief of Neurological Surgery at Lehigh Valley Health Network and Professor of Neurosurgery at University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine. A native of Hong Kong, Dr. Jean graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University with a degree in molecular biology and obtained his medical degree from Cornell University Medical College, where he earned the John Metcalf Polk Prize, the highest academic award, and joined Alpha Omega Alpha, the medical honor society. Dr. Jean did his residency at the University of Minnesota, during which he was awarded the Preuss Research Prize by the Joint Section on Tumors of the CNS & AANS for his work on immunotherapy. After residency, he spent one year in fellowship for Skull Base Surgery at the University of Cincinnati under Dr. Harry van Loveren.
Dr. Jean joined the faculty and rose to the rank of Professor of Neurosurgery, Otolaryngology and Radiation Medicine at Georgetown University. One of his proudest achievements to date is doubling the size of the neurosurgery residency at Georgetown while he was program director. In 2016, Dr. Jean was recruited to be Professor of Neurosurgery and Director of Skull Base Surgery at George Washington University in Washington D.C., and during his tenure there, he created “Skull Base Surgery: Strategies,” the acclaimed textbook which was published by Thieme Co. in 2019. Along with several of his former trainees, he co-founded Global BrainSurgery Initiative, an organization that promotes neurosurgical education throughout Low-to-Middle-Income countries around the world, with successful missions to Vietnam and Panama prior to the pandemic. As a dedicated educator, tireless in his efforts to teach neurosurgical trainees worldwide, Dr. Jean is also the creator and course director of the internationally-renowned webinar “Surgeons’ Log,” which is produced by the North American Skull Base Society.
With a global reputation as an energetic lecturer and passionate teacher of neurosurgery, Dr. Jean is a much sought-after speaker at international conferences from Beijing to Rio de Janeiro. He is a pioneer in applying mixed-reality technology in neurosurgery, and Virtual / Augmented Reality are frequent topics of his lectures. Dr. Jean also serves as reviewer for many high-impact journals such as Neurosurgical Focus, Acta Neurochirurgica, Journal of Neuro-Oncology, World Neurosurgery, and Operative Neurosurgery. He is an active member of the AANS, CNS, the Society of Neuro-Oncology and Hong Kong Neurosurgical Society. He serves on the Executive Board of the Asian Congress of Neurological Surgeons and the editorial board for Neurosurgery Open.
Dr. Jean lives in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania USA with his wife Maria , and their two indefatigable boys, Sebastian 8 and Adrian 5. While fatherhood has forced him to retire from being a soccer player and semi-professional singer, it has enhanced his love for Italian wines.