“Diana L. Farmer, an internationally renowned fetal and neonatal surgeon, has been named chair of the Department of Surgery at UC Davis Health System. Farmer is known for her skilled surgical treatment of congenital anomalies and for her expertise in cancer, airway and intestinal surgeries in newborns. She is principal investigator of several National Institutes of Health clinical trials on the effectiveness and safety of spina bifida treatments before birth, and she is researching a novel stem cell therapy for repairing damaged neural tissue in spina bifida patients….Farmer comes to UC Davis from UC San Francisco, where she was chief of pediatric surgery, vice chair of surgery, surgeon-in-chief of the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital and a professor of surgery, pediatrics, and obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences. ”