Donald S. Karcher, MD, FCAP, is a board-certified anatomic and clinical pathologist, and hematopathologist, actively practicing and teaching hematopathology, flow cytometry, and laboratory administration. He is a professor and immediate past chair of the Department of Pathology at the George Washington (GW) University Medical Center in Washington, DC, and has been a member of its faculty since 1984, rising through the ranks to become pathology chair in 1999, a role in which he served for 20 years.
Dr. Karcher earned his medical degree at Louisiana State University (LSU) School of Medicine in New Orleans, Louisiana, and completed his internal medicine internship and residency training in anatomic and clinical pathology at Brooke Army Medical Center in Fort Sam Houston, Texas.
Prior to joining GW, Dr. Karcher served as hematopathology section medical director at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC, a community hospital pathologist in Louisiana, and as assistant professor of pathology at LSU School of Medicine.
Dr. Karcher has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and abstracts, and co-authored and co-edited several book chapters and books. Additional recognitions include several Golden Apple Awards for Excellence in Teaching and Who’s Who in America distinctions and being named for many years as a “Top Doctor” in the Washington Guide to Top Doctors.
Dr. Karcher has been active in many medical and pathology organizations, including the American Society for Clinical Pathology, International Academy of Pathology, the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, Association of American Medical Colleges, American Society for Investigative Pathology, Society for Hematopathology, and the College of American Pathologists (CAP). He also has served as president of the Association of Pathology Chairs, the preeminent organization of academic pathology departments in North America, from 2014 to 2016.
Over the past 30 years, Dr. Karcher has served as a CAP laboratory accreditation inspection team leader and an active member of many of its councils and committees, including chair of the Council on Government and Professional Affairs and Council on Education. He was elected to the Board of Governors in 2016.
In 2021, Dr. Karcher was elected to a two-year term as the CAP’s president-elect with a subsequent two-year term, beginning in fall 2023, to serve as its 38th president.