Become a member and receive career-enhancing benefits
Our top priority is providing value to members. Your Member Services team is here to ensure you maximize your ACS member benefits, participate in College activities, and engage with your ACS colleagues. It's all here.
Become a member and receive career-enhancing benefits
Our top priority is providing value to members. Your Member Services team is here to ensure you maximize your ACS member benefits, participate in College activities, and engage with your ACS colleagues. It's all here.
Gary L. Timmerman, MD, FACS, MAMSE, Course Chair serves as professor and chair of the surgery department at the University of South Dakota Sanford Medical school. For over 15 years, he has served as his hospital’s Level II trauma director, a surgeon physician advisor, been on numerous hospital boards and committees, and is the past hospital chief-of-staff and past South Dakota state trauma director. He was recently appointed the Undergraduate Medical Education (UME) medical director for the Sanford Healthcare Enterprise. He previously worked in private practice in his hometown of Watertown, SD, for nearly ten years. Dr. Timmerman received his medical degree from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and completed a general surgery residency at Rush Presbyterian St. Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago.
Dr. Timmerman volunteers extensively with the ACS, having served as President of the South Dakota Chapter, Governor of both the South Dakota Chapter and the Association of Surgical Education, member and Chair of the Committee on Young Surgeons, Vice-Chair and Chair of the Board of Governors, and on the Advisory Council for Rural Surgery. He is also the past chair of the Health Policy and Advocacy Group (HPAG) and a member of the Board of Regents. With the assistance of his medical center and the ACS, he helped lead the creation of a new general surgery residency program in South Dakota to train rural and community general surgeons.
James W. Fleshman Jr., MD, FACS, FASCRS is Chief of Surgery and Sparkman Endowed Professor and Chairman of the department of surgery at Texas A&M Health Science Center, Baylor University Medical Center. Dr. Fleshman specializes in the treatment of colorectal diseases. He is board certified by the American Board of Colon and Rectal Surgery and the American Board of Surgery. Dr. Fleshman graduated from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO, before completing a residency and fellowship in General Surgery at The Jewish Hospital of St. Louis, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO. He is also fellowship trained in Colon and Rectal Surgery from the University of Toronto in Toronto, Canada. Dr. Fleshman has developed an international reputation in the laparoscopic treatment of colorectal cancer, the training of surgeons in the laparoscopic resection of colorectal problems and the development of randomized controlled trials to evaluate the use of laparoscopic techniques in the treatment of colorectal cancer. Prior to moving to Dallas as the Chairman of the Department of Surgery at Baylor University Medical Center, part of Baylor Scott & White Health, Dr. Fleshman served as the Chief of the Section of Colon and Rectal Surgery and Professor of Surgery at Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Fleshman has also served as President of the American Board of Colon and Rectal Surgery, President of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons and President of the ASCRS Research Foundation. He is currently a Regent of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and serves as Chair of the Division of Research and Optimal Patient Care for the ACS Board of Regents.
Julie A. Freischlag, MD, FACS, FRCSEd(Hon), DFSVS, is chief executive officer of Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, chief academic officer of Advocate Health and executive vice president for health affairs of Wake Forest University. As a member of the executive leadership team, she is responsible for the academic core of Advocate Health, the third largest nonprofit integrated health system in the United States. In this role, she oversees research and discovery for the entire Advocate Health system, including all educational and research programs at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Atrium Health Cabarrus College of Health Sciences and Atrium Health Carolinas College of Health Sciences. As CEO of Wake Forest Baptist, Freischlag has overall responsibility for the health system’s clinical, academic and innovation enterprises and its annual operating budget of more than $4 billion.
With more than 15 years of leadership experience, Freischlag, who has been CEO of Wake Forest Baptist since 2017, joined Atrium Health in October 2020, when Atrium Health underwent a strategic combination with Wake Forest Baptist Health and Wake Forest University School of Medicine. A practicing vascular surgeon specializing in the treatment of thoracic outlet syndrome, Freischlag has led education and training programs at top medical schools in her role as professor and chair of surgery and vascular surgery departments. Freischlag also has more than 30 years of experience leading patient-care services as chief of surgery or vascular surgery at nationally ranked hospitals. Previously, she served as professor, chair of the surgery department, and surgeon-in-chief at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. Additional leadership positions held throughout her career include vice chancellor for Human Health Sciences and dean of the School of Medicine at UC Davis.
Her national leadership includes serving as the 2021-2022 President of the American College of Surgeons, a former Governor and Secretary of the Board of Governors and a Regent and past Chair of the Board of Regents of the American College of Surgeons. She is the past president of the Society for Vascular Surgery and the Society for Vascular Surgery Foundation, and past president of the Association of VA Surgeons and the Society of Surgical Chairs. Freischlag was the editor of JAMA Surgery for 10 years (2005-2014) and is currently a member of the JAMA Oversight Committee and the editorial boards of the Annals of Vascular Surgery, Journal of the American College of Surgeons, British Journal of Surgery and the Journal of the American Medical Association. Currently, Freischlag serves on the Board of Directors of the Association for American Medical Colleges, National Institute of Health Clinical Center Research Hospital Board and Aga Khan University Board of Trustees. She is also chair of the Health Services Committee, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Board of Visitors and the University of Illinois Health Advisory Council. Most recently, the Association of American Medical Colleges named Freischlag as chair-elect of its board of directors, with her term to begin in November 2024.
Freischlag has received numerous teaching and achievement awards, including an achievement award from the Department of Veterans Affairs. She was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2015. Freischlag holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Illinois and a Medical Degree from Rush University. She completed her general surgery residency and fellowship training in vascular surgery at UCLA Medical Center. She holds a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons credential, a distinguished fellow of the Society for Vascular Surgery designation, and a fellowship of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons.
Andrea A. Hayes Dixon, MD, FACS, FAAP, became the first black woman dean of Howard University’s College of Medicine in 2022. With the distinction of becoming dean, Dr. Hayes Dixon adds to an already extensive list of groundbreaking accomplishments. In 2004, Hayes Dixon became the first African American woman in the nation to become a board-certified pediatric surgeon. In 2006, she became the first surgeon in the world to perform a high-risk life-saving procedure in teens with rare forms of abdominal cancer. Just last year, she became the first woman chair of the Department of Surgery at Howard University. Prior to joining Howard University, Dr. Hayes Dixon served as the surgeon-in-chief and division chief of pediatric surgery at the University of North Carolina (UNC) Children’s Hospital, where she also served as a professor of pediatric surgery and surgical oncology. She leads a basic science laboratory, which focuses on rare sarcomas and maintains clinical research efforts. Dr. Hayes Dixon specializes in refractory and resistant tumors in children, specifically soft tissue sarcomas in children. Patients from around the world request her services because of the rare diseases she investigates. She previously served as the section chief of pediatric surgery at the University of Texas (UT) MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Dr. Hayes Dixon obtained her bachelor’s degree in religion from Dartmouth, followed by her Doctor of Medicine from the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College. She completed a residency program at the University of California Davis, East Bay, and a molecular biology fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Hayes Dixon then completed a pediatric surgical oncology fellowship at the St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, and a pediatric surgery fellowship at the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children. She also participated in a special fellowship in melanoma and sarcoma at the UT MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Dr. Hayes Dixon has earned membership into the American Surgical Association and has served as chair of the cancer committee for the American Pediatric Surgical Association. She has also been selected to the pediatric disease query PDQ, a national committee that vets every publication on pediatric cancer and summarizes it on the NIH website. She is a past President of The Society of Black Academic Surgeons and is a member of the Board of Regents of the American College of Surgeons. Additionally, she was appointed by President Trump to the National Cancer Advisory Board.
Matthew M. Hutter, MD, MBA, MPH, FACS is a general and gastrointestinal surgeon at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), where his clinical work focuses on advanced laparoscopic, foregut and bariatric surgery. He is the director of the Codman Center for Clinical Effectiveness in Surgery at MGH, serves as an executive director of the Department of Surgery Quality and Safety Program, and is also a professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Hutter was elected as president of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS) in 2019-20. He has been the chair of the Data Committee for the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program (MBSAQIP®) and has helped to lead the development and implementation of the national data collection system for bariatric surgery since its inception in 2005. Dr. Hutter has served as a member of the Board of Governors for the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons, as chair of the Health Care Quality and Outcomes Committee for the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract, and as member of the Board of the Fellowship Council.
Dr. Hutter graduated from Harvard University and Harvard Medical School, completing his surgical residency and a fellowship in advanced laparoscopic and bariatric surgery at MGH. He earned a master’s in public health (MPH) from Harvard’s School of Public Health and a master’s in business administration (MBA) from the MIT Sloan School of Management. His overall academic focus is on the development, implementation, and responsible use of data collection systems in surgery, with a focus on assessing and improving the quality of surgical care.
Larry R. Kaiser, MD, FACS is a managing director with Alvarez & Marsal’s Healthcare Industry Group Health Systems practice. He is a cardiothoracic surgeon by training and specializes in working with healthcare systems, primarily in restructuring, process improvement and strategy. With more than 20 years of leadership experience in a variety of healthcare institutions, Dr. Kaiser was most recently the president and CEO of the Temple University Health System. He was responsible for the acquisition of the Fox Chase Cancer Center and spearheaded the development of several nationally recognized programs, including the #1 lung transplant program in the country. During his time at Temple, he also served as the inaugural Lewis Katz Dean of the Lewis Katz School of Medicine.
Immediately prior to joining Temple, Dr. Kaiser served as president of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, the largest of the health-related institutions of the University of Texas, where he was responsible for six schools and a 950-member multi-specialty physician practice. Prior to that he spent 17-years at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was the John Rhea Barton Professor and chairman of the Department of Surgery and surgeon-in-chief of the Penn Health System. Other positions he has held include faculty appointments at Washington University, St. Louis, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Cornell University.
Dr. Kaiser is board certified in both surgery and thoracic surgery. He earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry and medical degree from Tulane University, completing his residency and a fellowship in surgical oncology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He completed his residency in cardiovascular and thoracic surgery at the University of Toronto under the tutelage of Joel Cooper, Robert Ginsberg, and F. Griffith Pearson, where he participated in both the first and second successful lung transplants.
Currently he is an adjunct professor of surgery at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Dr. Kaiser has served in a number of leadership capacities for professional societies and associations, including his time as a director of the American Board of Surgery and the American Board of Thoracic Surgery. In 2005 he was elected to the National Academy of Medicine. Dr. Kaiser’s clinical interests include lung cancer, malignant mesothelioma, and mediastinal tumors. He has authored 17 books and more than 350 peer-reviewed publications, and currently serves on the editorial board of four major surgical journals.
Melina R. Kibbe, MD, FACS, has been the University of Virginia (UVA) School of Medicine’s dean and chief health affairs officer since 2021. She is also James Carroll Flippin Professor of medical science, professor of surgery and professor of biomedical engineering at UVA. Dr. Kibbe is a nationally renowned researcher in the field of vascular surgery and former chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of North Carolina (UNC). Prior to UNC, Dr. Kibbe was vice chair of Research in the Department of Surgery and deputy director of the Simpson Querrey Institute for BioNanotechnology at Northwestern University. She graduated from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, completed her internship, residency, and research fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and completed her vascular surgery fellowship at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
Clinically, Dr. Kibbe has significant experience with both open and endovascular surgery, including the treatment of carotid stenosis, peripheral vascular disease, abdominal aortic aneurysms and vascular access. She is board certified in general and vascular surgery and is a Registered Vascular Technologist and a Registered Physician in Vascular Interpretation. Dr. Kibbe’s research interests focus on developing and evaluating novel therapies for patients with vascular disease. She co-founded and is the chief medical officer for VesselTek BioMedical, LLC, a company that specializes in the development of medical devices to treat vascular disease. She has been continuously funded for her research since 2005 and her research was recognized by President Obama in 2009 with a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers Award.
A member of the National Academy of Medicine and the American Society for Clinical Investigation, Dr. Kibbe is the editor-in-chief for JAMA Surgery and has served as president for the Association for Academic Surgery, the Midwestern Vascular Surgical Society, and the Association of Veterans Affairs Surgeons. Her bibliography includes over 300 peer-reviewed publications and has contributed to over 250 nationally and internationally presented abstracts. She has received numerous awards, including the Society of Vascular Surgery (SVS) Lifeline Research Award, SVS Women’s Leadership Award, American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA) Gender Equity Award, AMWA Women Leaders in Medicine Award, Northwestern University Tripartite Award, Thomas Sheen Award from the New Jersey Chapter of ACS, Presidential Citation from the Association of VA Surgeons, and the University of Chicago Distinguished Service Award. This year she received the Virginia Business 2023 Women in Leadership award. In addition, she has received 24 awards for teaching excellence as a faculty member.
Carlos A. Pellegrini, MD, FACS, FRCSI(Hon), FRCS(Hon), FRSCEd(Hon), FWACS(Hon), is a surgeon with expertise in surgical education, simulation, professionalism, and leadership. He is a pioneer in the development of technological surgical advancements and a world leader in minimally invasive gastrointestinal surgery. The son of two physicians, Dr. Pellegrini spent his childhood years in rural Argentina. He attended the University of Rosario Medical School and remained there for surgical training until 1975, when he emigrated to the US and completed a second surgical residency at the University of Chicago. In 1979, he was appointed to the faculty of the University of California, San Francisco. He remained there until 1993, when he moved to the University of Washington in Seattle, WA, to become chair of the Department of Surgery. In his 23 years as department chair, he assumed many leadership roles in the highest decision-making bodies across UW Medicine and chaired many committees overseeing a vast array of initiatives, including continuous professionalism improvement, diversity, and multidisciplinary practices.
In 2015, Dr. Pellegrini was appointed as the first chief medical officer of UW Medicine and as vice-president for medical affairs, University of Washington to provide senior leadership for clinical practice standards across all UW Medicine sites of practice, a position he held until December 2018. As he retired from UW Medicine, Dr. Pellegrini decided to apply his experience of more than 4 decades as a mentor, teacher, advisor and trusted colleague to help healthcare providers develop to their full potential, with particular emphasis on leadership skills. He sought additional training at SeattleCoach and became an executive coach focusing on coaching/mentoring healthcare executives.
Dr. Pellegrini is a Past-President of the ACS and the American Surgical Association. He is a Founding Member of the ACS Academy of Master Surgeon Educators and a member of the Academy Steering Committee. He participates in the highest leadership roles in regional, national, and international surgical societies. He is chair of the board of The Joint Commission and his bibliography lists more than 400 peer-reviewed articles, chapters, editorials, and books.
Ajit K. Sachdeva, MD, FACS, FRCSC, FSACME, MAMSE, is the Founding Director of the Division of Education of the American College of Surgeons (ACS). Dr. Sachdeva established this Division, which is responsible for developing and implementing innovative education and training programs for surgeons, surgery residents, medical students, and surgical teams. Major innovative programs launched under Dr. Sachdeva’s leadership have established new benchmarks. These include the Academy of Master Surgeon Educators; Program for Accreditation of Education Institutes (Simulation Centers); multidimensional Patient Education Program; Program for Validation and Verification of Surgical Knowledge and Skills; education and training programs to promote expertise and excellence in surgery; cutting-edge simulation-based education and training programs; Fundamentals of Surgery Curriculum; Entering Resident Readiness Assessment Program; and Objective Assessment of Skills in Surgery. Also, transformational redesign of the Surgical Education and Self-Assessment Program and the Annual Clinical Congress has been implemented. He has led several major national research and development projects in surgical education and training. Dr. Sachdeva also serves as adjunct professor of surgery at The Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University.
Prior to joining the College, Dr. Sachdeva was the Leon C. Sunstein, Jr., Professor of Medical and Health Sciences Education and professor and vice chairman for Educational Affairs, Department of Surgery, at the MCP Hahnemann School of Medicine. He also held the positions of associate dean for medical education and director of the university’s Academic Center for Educational Excellence, and served as Chairman of three successive medical school Education/Curriculum Committees for 12 years. He established a Division of Surgical Education, which was one of the first such Divisions in the country, and a Fellowship Program in Surgical Education.
In addition, Dr. Sachdeva served as chief of surgical services at the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center. He planned and directed the expansion of tertiary care services at the medical center, staffed by two medical schools (University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and MCP Hahnemann School of Medicine). Dr. Sachdeva established a Regional Network Health Care Program for Women Veterans for which he received the Gold Medal in Excellence in Government Awards Program, National Performance Review Award of the Vice President of the United States, and Award of the Deputy Secretary, Department of Veterans Affairs.
Dr. Sachdeva has been inducted as a Founding Member of the American College of Surgeons Academy of Master Surgeon Educators and as member of the Academy of Fellows of the Society for Academic Continuing Medical Education. He was awarded the Distinguished Educator Award (a Lifetime Achievement Award) by the Association for Surgical Education, and the Margaret Hay Edwards, MD, Achievement Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Cancer Education by the American Association for Cancer Education. Dr. Sachdeva has received the Award for Outstanding Contributions to Healthcare Simulation from the Society for Simulation in Healthcare, the Frances M. Maitland Award from the Alliance for Continuing Medical Education, the Theodore A. McGraw, MD, Medal from The Detroit Surgical Association, the Norman B. Kahn, Jr., MD, Award for Exceptional Contributions to the Council of Medical Specialty Societies, and Recognition of Excellence Medallion from the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons. He has also received the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, the Blockley-Osler Award for Excellence in Clinical Teaching, the Board of Trustees’ Award for Teaching Excellence, and several Golden Apple Awards for Teaching Excellence. Dr. Sachdeva has delivered presentations and conducted courses on educational topics in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and Japan. He has been the recipient of major educational grants and has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles on surgical and medical education topics. Dr. Sachdeva is a member of the American Surgical Association and has served as a representative of this association to the Council of Faculty and Academic Societies of the Association of American Medical Colleges. He has chaired the Committee on Surgical Education of The Society of University Surgeons, and also served as Member of the Board of Governors of the American College of Surgeons. Dr. Sachdeva has served as chairman of the Scientific Review Group Education Subcommittee (Study Section) of the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health. In addition, he has served as a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.
Dr. Sachdeva has served as president of the following national organizations – Association for Surgical Education; American Association for Cancer Education; Council of Medical Specialty Societies; Society for Academic Continuing Medical Education; and Alliance for Clinical Education.
Kenneth W. Sharp, MD, FACS is a professor of surgery and vice chair for faculty promotion & development at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Dr. Sharp's clinical interests include the gastrointestinal tract and applications of minimally invasive surgical procedures in that area. He has a particular interest in the use of minimally invasive techniques for anti-reflux procedures, including surgery for esophageal motility disorders. Dr. Sharp has an active practice in inflammatory bowel disease including ileoanal pouch procedures for ulcerative colitis and familial adenomatous polyposis, biliary tract disorders, and pancreatic problems including cancer and chronic pancreatitis. His practice includes the care of benign and malignant breast diseases.
Dr. Sharp received his M.D. from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1977. He completed his internship at Johns Hopkins Hospital in the field of general surgery, completing this training in 1984. Dr. Sharp is a member of the American College of Surgeons, the American Gastroenterological Association, the American Medical Association, the American Surgical Association, the Association for Academic Surgery, the Association for Surgical Education, the Nashville Surgical Society, the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract, the Society of American Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgeons, the Southeastern Surgical Congress, the Southern Surgical Association, and the International Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Association.
Dr. Sharp has active involvement in the leadership of both regional and national surgical organizations. He has served as the President of the Tennessee Chapter of the American College of Surgeons and is a past President of the Southeastern Surgical congress. He has served on committees for the Association for Surgical Education, the Nashville Surgical Society, the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract and the National Board of medical Examiners. He is a current Governor of the American College of Surgeons and is the Secretary-Director of the Southeastern Surgical Congress. He has received three clinical teaching awards at Vanderbilt and has delivered numerous invited lectureships in surgery nationally.
Nathaniel J. Soper, MD, FACS, is a trailblazer in the field of minimally invasive surgery, foregut surgery and surgical education. He was one of the first academic surgeons performing laparoscopic surgery, which has defined his subsequent career. He has published more than 200 manuscripts, edited 17 textbooks and authored more than 100 book chapters.
Dr. Soper is currently the chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of Arizona’s Phoenix College of Medicine. He is also the physician executive director of general surgery at Banner, University Medical Center Phoenix. Prior to this, Dr. Soper was the program director for the general surgery residency at Northwestern, chair of the Department of Surgery at Northwestern University, and surgeon-in-chief at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
His research efforts have revolved around the applications of minimally invasive surgery for gastrointestinal disease, gallstones and benign esophageal disorders, as well as ultrasound and motility of the gastrointestinal tract. More recently, he has been involved in the early clinical experience with Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery, including per-oral esophageal myotomy for achalasia.
Dr. Soper earned his medical degree from the University of Iowa School of Medicine. He completed a residency in General Surgery, including a year of laboratory investigation, at the University of Utah Hospitals in Salt Lake City, Utah. He also spent two years as a NIH-funded fellow at the Digestive Disease Center of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
Since 1991, Dr. Soper has consistently been named in "The Best Doctors in America.” He is a member of numerous professional societies and is past president of the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract, the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons, the International Society of Digestive Surgery, the Central Surgical Association and the St. Louis Surgical Society. Dr. Soper was elected as a Founding Member of the American College of Surgeons Academy of Master Surgeon Educators in 2018.
Beth H. Sutton, MD, FACS, serves as a general surgeon in private practice in Wichita Falls, TX. Dr. Sutton participates in the call schedule for the Level II trauma center and acute care surgery service at United Regional Health Care System, where her practice is located. She has served on almost every hospital committee and the hospital board and is a past-president of the medical staff. She has been secretary and president of the Texas Surgical Society and President of the North Texas Chapter of the American College of Surgeons. Dr. Sutton earned her Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Baylor University and her Doctor of Medicine from Baylor College of Medicine. She completed an internship in surgery at St. Paul Hospital, Dallas, TX, followed by a residency in general surgery at Scott and White Memorial Hospital, Temple, Texas. Dr. Sutton was elected Chair of the ACS Board of Regents in 2019 and has held several other leadership roles within the ACS.
Patricia L. Turner, MD, MBA, FACS is the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the American College of Surgeons and a clinical professor at the University of Chicago Medicine. She was previously Director of the Division of Member Services at the American College of Surgeons, and before joining the College, Dr. Turner spent eight years in full-time academic practice on the University of Maryland School of Medicine faculty, where she was the surgery residency program director. Roles in national professional organizations or institutions include member of the Boards of Directors of the Council of Medical Specialty Societies and OceanFirst Bank (OCFC), corporate member CEO of The Joint Commission, Specialty Society CEO Coalition member, and chair of the Society of Black Academic Surgeons Foundation Fund, Past Chair of the American College of Surgeons’ Delegation to the AMA House of Delegates, AMA Council on Medical Education, and Surgical Section of the NMA, past president of the Society of Black Academic Surgeons and past member of the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center Board of Directors.
A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the Bowman Gray School of Medicine at Wake Forest University, Dr. Turner continued her training as an intern and resident in surgery at Howard University Hospital in Washington, DC. Her fellowship training in minimally invasive and laparoscopic surgery was completed at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Weill-Cornell University School of Medicine, and Columbia University School of Medicine in New York City. Her MBA was completed at the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business. Dr. Turner is board certified in surgery, is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and member of the American Surgical Association, American Medical Association, National Medical Association, Southern Surgical Association, Southeastern Surgical Congress, Society of University Surgeons, Society of Black Academic Surgeons, Association of Women Surgeons, Latino Surgical Society, and an honorary member of EAST, the Excelsior Surgical Society, and Asociación Colombiana de Cirugia.
