Richard Stahl

A resident of Alabama since childhood, Dr. Stahl attended Auburn University where he graduated with highest honors and a BS in biology. He received his MD degree from The University of Alabama School of Medicine in 1989, and completed his internship and residency in surgery at Carraway Methodist Medical Center in Birmingham. He entered private practice in 1994, ultimately forming Cahaba Valley Surgical Group, and engaged in a full range of general surgery including gastrointestinal, breast, thyroid, and parathyroid diseases. However, he gradually focused most of his attention on bariatric surgery. Before the advent of advanced minimally invasive surgery, Dr. Stahl was one of only a few surgeons in the state of Alabama performing open gastric bypass surgery in the mid to late 1990s. Following the footsteps of Drs. Henry Laws and Ronnie Clements, Dr. Stahl subsequently became one of the first Alabama surgeons to offer laparoscopic gastric bypass. As his bariatric practice grew, so did his interest in weight loss surgery and the metabolic effects of such surgery. Recruited out of private practice and into academic medicine, he joined the faculty at UAB in 2010 as the Medical Director of Bariatric Surgery. His other professional interest is surgical education. He is the Program Director the Advanced Minimally Invasive Surgery Fellowship, the past Director of the Surgery Clerkship, and he is actively engaged in training the next generation of surgeons through the UAB Surgery Residency Program. He has twice received the Faculty Teaching Award given by the surgery residents. Dr. Stahl is most proud, however, of his wife, Dr. Elizabeth Stahl, an endocrinologist, and their three children.