Benjamin B. Peeler, M.D., the Chief of Pediatric and Adult Congenital Cardiothoracic Surgery at Levine Children's Hospital and Sanger Heart and Vascular Institute in Charlotte, is the newest member of the Catawba College Board of Trustees. Catawba Trustees approved Dr. Peeler's membership at their October 2013 meeting and will welcome him at their February 2014 meeting.
Catawba President Brien Lewis lauded Dr. Peeler's addition to the board, noting that Dr. Peeler's expertise and renown will certainly be tapped as the college seeks to expand its academic offerings in the health sciences. Lewis noted that Dr. Peeler also has family connections to Catawba College.
Dr. Peeler's grandparents, the late Dr. Banks J. Peeler and Agnes G. Andrew Peeler, were both Catawba graduates from the class of 1919. Dr. Banks J. Peeler was president of the Southern Synod of the then Evangelical and Reformed Church, now the United Church of Christ. Dr. Peeler's grandfather also authored "A Story of the Southern Synod of the Evangelical and Reformed Church," and he served on the Catawba College Board of Trustees from 1937-1974, holding the offices of vice president, president and secretary on that board. Dr. Peeler's father, the late Dr. Robert G. Peeler, was a 1951 Catawba alumnus and a cardiologist in Jacksonville, Fla. His uncle, Dr. Richard N. Peeler '47, and his late aunt, Jean Peeler Arnold '46, were also Catawba alumni.
Dr. Peeler was the fourth generation of his family to attend Catawba. He attended between 1982 and 1984 before transferring to Wake Forest University where he graduated. He attended medical school at Vanderbilt University. After medical school, he completed his general surgery residency at Vanderbilt University Affiliated Hospitals. Following Residency, Dr. Peeler continued his extensive surgical training at the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center, as a fellow in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and Vascular Surgery. He concluded his comprehensive fellowship training at Emory University with a third fellowship in Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery.
Prior to joining the Sanger Heart and Vascular Institute in November 2009, Dr. Peeler served as the Surgical Director of the Virginia Children's Heart Center at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. He also directed the pediatric cardiac surgery program at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond and performed surgery at the Children's Hospital of the Kings Daughters in Norfolk.
Widely published, he has over 30 manuscripts to his credit, along with six book chapters and multiple abstracts, in addition to participating in numerous teaching activities and conference presentations. He won the University of Virginia School of Medicine Dean's Award for Clinical Excellence in 2007, awarded to a faculty member who demonstrates exemplary patient service and a high level of clinical skill.
Dr. Peeler was recognized by Charlotte Magazine as one of the 2012 Charlotte's Top Doctors and was also one of four physicians awarded "2012 Excellence in Health Care: Physicians of the Year" by the Charlotte Business Journal.
