Become Involved with ACS Committees

Membership with ACS committees is an inclusive opportunity open to members in good standing. ACS committees and their work advance the College’s mission To Heal All With Skill and Trust and provide meaningful professional development and networking opportunities for members. Please note that the Resident and Associate Society and Young Fellow Association have liaison opportunities for residents and early-career surgeons to serve on ACS committees. Information on the liaison process is here for the RAS and here for the YFA.  

Applicants should have a desire to advance the ACS’ mission To Heal All With Skill and Trust and an express desire to serve with a special interest in the committee’s area of focus. Applicants should have the ability to meet the time and activity commitments listed below by each committee.

Prior to applying, please ensure your membership dues are current.

Each committee has specific needs and requirements, which are listed below. Please be mindful of these requirements before applying for the opportunity.

Applications will be accepted through July 5, 2024. The committees will review applications from July through October. Appointments will be announced in late October/early November, shortly after the conclusion of the ACS Clinical Congress. Please carefully read the application requirements for each committee and submit your application through their platform. You will receive communications from the staff liaison throughout this process.  

Past experience serving as a member of one of ACS H.O.P.E’s subcommittees (Advocacy, Domestic, Education, or International) is preferred. Applicants must have experience in the global surgery/public health space, whether it be teaching, research, administration, advocacy, volunteering, or any combination of these activities. Applicants should have a programmatic mindset with the ability to both look closely at individual ACS H.O.P.E. programs and see the bigger picture of ACS H.O.P.E. in the global surgery space.

The committee has two virtual meetings and one in-person meeting annually.

Three years with a potential for a second three-year term.

October 2024

Members are expected to attend all three committee meetings per year. Anticipated absences should be communicated at least one day before the meeting to the ACS H.O.P.E. Program Manager and the Committee Chair. Members are expected to review meeting minutes in the case of absence and volunteer to assist with projects or complete tasks when opportunities arise.

N/A

https://www.facs.org/acshope/

Past experience in advocacy and/or connections with US Congresspeople, the World Health Organization, and/or other domestic or international health and surgical equity organizations.

The committee meets virtually every other month.

Three years with a potential for a second three-year term.

 October 2024

Members are expected to attend all six committee meetings per year, with mandatory attendance at four meetings. Anticipated absences should be communicated at least one day before the meeting to the ACS H.O.P.E. Program Manager and the Committee Chair. Members are expected to review meeting minutes in the case of absence and volunteer to assist with projects or complete tasks when opportunities arise.

N/A

https://www.facs.org/acshope/

Past experience in and/or connections with the US surgical volunteerism space.

The committee meets virtually every other month.

Three years with a potential for a second three-year term.

October 2024

Members are expected to attend all six committee meetings per year, with mandatory attendance at four meetings. Anticipated absences should be communicated at least one day before the meeting to the ACS H.O.P.E. Program Manager and the Committee Chair. Members are expected to review meeting minutes in the case of absence and volunteer to assist with projects or complete tasks when opportunities arise.

N/A

https://www.facs.org/for-medical-professionals/membership-community/acs-hope/domestic-programs/

Experience with curriculum development, application creation, review, and scoring, and/or experience in global surgery education.

The committee meets virtually every other month.

Members are expected to attend all six committee meetings per year, with mandatory attendance at four meetings. Anticipated absences should be communicated at least one day before the meeting to the ACS H.O.P.E. Program Manager and the Committee Chair. Members are expected to review meeting minutes in the case of absence and volunteer to assist with projects or complete tasks when opportunities arise.

Three years with a potential for a second three-year term.

October 2024

N/A

https://www.facs.org/for-medical-professionals/news-publications/news-and-articles/bulletin/2022/september-2022-volume-107-issue-9/acs-initiates-new-academic-global-surgery-fellowship/

Past experience and/or connections with the College of Surgeons of East, Central, and Southern Africa (COSECSA) and/or the West African College of Surgeons (WACS) is desirable. Experience working with surgical learners outside the United States and in a low-resource setting is required.  

The committee meets virtually every other month.

Three years with a potential for a second three-year term.

 October 2024

Members are expected to attend all six committee meetings per year, with mandatory attendance at four meetings. Anticipated absences should be communicated at least one day before the meeting to the ACS H.O.P.E. Program Manager and the Committee Chair. Members are expected to review meeting minutes in the case of absence and volunteer to assist with projects or complete tasks when opportunities arise.

N/A

https://www.facs.org/for-medical-professionals/membership-community/acs-hope/international-programs/

Applicants must be from a Commission on Cancer accredited institution. Applicants should have a strong interest in accreditation standards, NCDB data, quality improvement, and education.

The CoC meets virtually on a monthly or quarterly basis. The CoC also meets in-person annually.

Three years with a potential for a second three-year term.

October 2024

• Attend and participate in at least three-quarters (75%) of regularly scheduled virtual meetings.
• Contribute skill and expertise to help improve the CoC and lives for patients with Cancer.
• Contribute ideas and share information back to others.
• Help promote CoC to colleagues and within your institution.
• Sign and submit the ACS Volunteer or Committee Member Agreement Form.
• Complete a committee member self-evaluation at the end of the member’s first three-year term.
• Participate at a CoC accredited program.

N/A

https://www.facs.org/quality-programs/cancer-programs/commission-on-cancer/

Experience educating, overseeing, and/or working with allied health professionals as a part of a surgical team is required.

Committee meets at minimum 3-4 times per year virtually; other meetings may be needed on project basis.

Three years with a potential for a second three-year term.

October 2024

• Members are expected to attend 3-4 60-90 minute virtual meetings per year at minimum.
• Members are expected to contribute to projects pertaining to education and accreditation of allied health professionals; examples include contributing to educational content, position papers, and Clinical Congress presentations.

CIEP appoints liaisons to three allied health professional accreditation bodies. Volunteer opportunities to represent ACS and the House of Surgery to one of these organizations may be available.

 https://www.facs.org/about-acs/governance/acs-committees/committee-on-interprofessional-education-and-practice/

• Strong commitment to medical student education and preferred current leadership role in medical school education.
• Experience designing and implementing innovative educational programs to address the general competencies of surgical medical student education.
• Experience as an educational leader of surgical medical students.
• Experience as a mentor to students pursuing a surgical career.
• Skill in presenting educational content, in-person and virtually, to large groups of medical students.

• Twelve virtual meetings
• Three-day Medical Student Program at Clinical Congress

Three years with a potential for a second three-year term.

October 2024

• Members are required to attend 75% of committee meetings annually and actively participate in all discussions and/or projects.
• Plan, attend, and actively participate in the three-day Medical Student Program at Clinical Congress.
• Plan and actively participate in developing National Professional Development Seminars for medical students.
• Assist with gap analysis and writing sessional proposals for Clinical Congress
• Help create medical student publications and resources.
• Participate in the one-day High School Program at Clinical Congress (optional but strongly encouraged)

Actively work with medical students at an institution setting with a strong interest in addressing issues within medical student education in surgery.

https://www.facs.org/about-acs/governance/acs-committees/committee-on-medical-student-education/

• Involvement in research and peer review
• Involvement with the Scientific Forum sessions of Clinical Congress preferred (as a moderator, presenter, mentoring younger researchers)

• Spring committee meeting held virtually in March/April
• Annual committee meeting held in-person at Clinical Congress in October

Three years with a potential for a second three-year term.

October 2024

• Assist with the abstract grading and selection process:
• Review and grade abstracts submitted to the Scientific Forum program of the ACS Clinical Congress
• Assist with abstract selection for sessions.
• Manage ad hoc-grading team to ensure at least three graders review each submitted abstract.
• Confirm moderators for Scientific Forum sessions at Clinical Congress
• Participate in the two Committee meetings per year.
• Support Scientific Forum-sponsored programs through attendance and participation, and promote the Scientific Forum to their department and colleagues.
• Recommend topics for Clinical Congress panel sessions and for the Seminal Works in Surgery session.
• Nominate a senior surgeon/researcher (must be FACS) for consideration of the annual dedication of the Scientific Forum. After the dedicatee is selected, the Committee member who nominated them will write an introduction to appear in JACS and introduce them at the Dedication session at Clinical Congress.

N/A

https://www.facs.org/about-acs/governance/acs-committees/committee-for-the-owen-h-wangensteen-scientific-forum/

Committee Members

• Experience designing and implementing new and innovative educational programs to address the general competencies in residency and fellowship programs.
• Writing a gap analysis and sessional proposals for Clinical Congress.
• Collaborating in ad hoc workgroups for various projects relating to graduate surgical education curricular issues and competency.

Consultant Members

• Lend specific expertise to an ongoing committee project or represent other organizations or agencies that possess certain special qualifications of value to the committee.

The committee meets bimonthly virtually.

Committee Members

• Three years with a potential for a second three-year term.

Consultant Members

• Two years; not eligible for renewal.

October 2024

• Members are required to attend 75% of committee meetings annually and actively participate in all discussions and/or projects.
• Committee members are expected to participate in workgroups (as needed), create and submit proposals for Clinical Congress, and collaborate on current projects (i.e., Resident Webinars, Successfully Navigating the First Year of Surgical Residency, etc.)
• Annually, committee members will work individually and/or collaborate with others to create and submit the gap analysis and proposals for Clinical Congress.

Applicants should have a strong interest in addressing issues within resident education in surgery.

https://www.facs.org/about-acs/governance/acs-committees/committee-on-resident-education/

• Cardiothoracic Surgery (1)
• Colon and Rectal Surgery (1)
• General Surgery (3)
• Obstetrics and Gynecological Surgery (1)
• Pediatric Surgery (1)
• Plastic Surgery (1)
• Trauma/Acute Care Surgery (2)
• Urology (1)
• Vascular Surgery (1)

One annual committee meeting.

Three years with a potential for a second three-year term.

October 2024

• Attend the annual VBE Committee Meeting.
• Encourage the creation and submission of multimedia presentations.
• Review and select videos submitted for presentation.
• Serve as coordinator for the VBE sessions with a focus on your specialty.
• Review feedback from previous years’ VBE sessions.

N/A

https://www.facs.org/about-acs/governance/acs-committees/committee-on-video-based-education/

• The History and Archives Committee encourages applications from those who have an interest in surgical or medical history.
• These vacancies are for the Organization and Bylaws Subcommittee.

The subcommittee meets at the discretion of the subcommittee chair and not more than three times per year.

Three years with a potential for a second three-year term.

October 2024

Members are required to participate in grading submissions for the History of Surgery poster abstracts. The review occurs in March of each year. The review is part of the process for the History of Surgery poster session at Clinical Congress.

There may be other ad hoc participation requests at the discretion of the subcommittee chair.

 https://www.facs.org/about-acs/archives/history-archives-committee

Please complete this form and return it via email to Michael Beesley, Archivist.

All backgrounds and areas of expertise are welcome.

• One in-person meeting at the Clinical Congress in October.
• Three virtual task force meetings.

Three years with a potential for a second three-year term.

October 2024

• Members are required to attend 75% of committee meetings annually.
• Members are expected to engage in activities and initiatives beyond attending meetings and meeting established deadlines. Examples of participation include developing resources and educational materials on IPV, writing a Clinical Congress session proposal, moderating or participating as a panelist on webinars, Clinical Congress sessions, and other opportunities, generating materials for Intimate Partner Violence Awareness Month, and assisting with researching and writing a topic for an ACS Statement of the College.

N/A

https://www.facs.org/for-medical-professionals/professional-growth-and-wellness/ipv/taskforce/

All backgrounds and areas of expertise are welcome.

• The full committee and each subcommittee meet in person at the Clinical Congress in October.
• Subcommittees meet 3-6 times per year virtually.

Three years with a potential for a second three-year term.

October 2024

• Members are required to attend 75% of committee and subcommittee meetings annually.
• Members are expected to engage in committee and subcommittee activities and initiatives beyond attending meetings and meeting established deadlines. Examples of participation include developing resources for international surgeons, writing Clinical Congress session proposals, interviewing international Fellow applicants, moderating or participating as a panelist on webinars, Clinical Congress sessions, and other opportunities, reviewing applications for international scholarships, and collaborating on projects with other ACS committees.

N/A

https://www.facs.org/about-acs/governance/acs-committees/international-relations-committee/

Applicants must be from a National Accreditation Program for Rectal Cancer (NAPRC)-accredited institution. Applicants must have rectal cancer experience.

The NAPRC meets virtually on a monthly or quarterly basis. The NAPRC also meets in-person annually.

Three years with a potential for a second three-year term.

October 2024

• Attend and participate in at least three-quarters (75%) of regularly scheduled virtual meetings.
• Contribute skill and expertise to help improve the NAPRC and lives for patients with Cancer.
• Contribute ideas and share information back to others.
• Help promote NAPRC to colleagues and within your institution.
• Sign and submit the ACS Volunteer or Committee Member Agreement Form.
• Complete a committee member self-evaluation at the end of the member’s first three-year term.
• Participate at a NAPRC accredited program.

N/A

https://www.facs.org/quality-programs/cancer-programs/national-accreditation-program-for-rectal-cancer/

Open to all backgrounds, specialties, and skills.

• One annual in-person meeting at Clinical Congress.
• Four to six virtual meetings held throughout the year.

Three years with a potential for a second three-year term.

October 2024

1. Review grant applications for the following awards and submit the reviews by the requested due date:
   1. Clowes Career Development Award
   2. Faculty Research Fellowship Award
   3. Resident Research Fellowship Award
   4. Healy Mentorship Travelling Fellowship Award
2. Attend scholarship committee study section meetings to present your reviews of the grant applications listed above. These sessions are run similar to an NIH study section meeting, but are much shorter (typically 1-1.5 hours).
3. During the ACS Clinical Congress:
   1. Attend annual Scholarships Committee Business Meeting (1.5 hours) on Monday
   2. Attend annual Faculty Scholar Presentations (Clowes, Faculty Research, Claude Organ, and Nizar Oweida) (1.5 hours) on Monday (immediately follows business meeting)
   3. Attend the Resident Research Scholarship presentations (1.5 hours) on Tuesday during “Owen H. Wangensteen Scientific Forum Dedication, Excellence in Research, and Resident Research Scholarship” session from 8:00-9:30am
4. Review and approve (via email) scholars suggested by other ACS entities
5. Disclose and maintain active COI within 1 week of request
6. Review potential ad hoc grant/fellowship applications, as requested.

The Scholarships Committee is responsible for reviewing applications in 10 scholarship categories.

https://www.facs.org/about-acs/governance/acs-committees/scholarships-committee/

• Writing Clinical Congress session proposals
• Creating content for personal and professional development
• Coordinating and facilitating mentorship programs
• Writing letters of nomination for leadership positions and awards
• Developing and facilitating career development opportunities

• Two full committee meets per year, offered hybrid
• Subcommittees meet virtually approximately 4 times per year.

Three years with a potential for a second three-year term.

October 2024

• Members are required to attend 75% of assigned subcommittee meetings annually and attend 50% of the full committee meetings annually.
• Members are required to actively participate in a minimum of two subcommittees and their activities and initiatives beyond attending meetings and meeting established deadlines. Examples of participation include writing a Clinical Congress session proposal, organizing a virtual mentoring professional development session, assisting with researching and writing a topic for an ACS Statement of the College, reviewing mentorship applications and matching mentors and mentees, developing resources and programs for personal and professional development, writing a letter of nomination for a leadership position or award, supporting the creation of leadership development and succession programs.

N/A

https://www.facs.org/about-acs/governance/acs-committees/women-in-surgery-committee/