Dr. Turner is eminently qualified to serve as Executive Director. She is an innovator in surgical quality improvement and outcomes and has published and presented on minimally invasive surgical techniques, leadership, innovation, quality improvement, surgical outcomes, and graduate surgical education.
A champion for issues that are of critical concern to surgeons, Dr. Turner is dedicated to developing clinical excellence and leadership qualities among surgeons in all practice settings. Under her stewardship, the ACS has introduced new programs that address surgeon well-being and resilience, expanded scholarship opportunities, created value for surgeons of all specialties, enhanced member engagement in advocacy efforts, and strengthened Operation Giving Back and our military partnership.
Director of the Division of Member Services
Dr. Turner led transformative changes in the ACS Division of Member Services for a decade, broadening our membership to all individuals who serve on the surgical team by establishing an Affiliate Member category and she has revitalized our Resident and Associate Society and the Young Fellows Association, ensuring that surgeons are supported by our organization through all stages of their career. As a result, the College’s Initiate class has grown steadily year over year—from 1,440 in 2012 to 2,329 in 2021—and surgeons better understand how the College can be their North Star in serving all with skill and fidelity, from medical school to retirement. In addition, she serves as the College’s Research Integrity Official.
She has led the development and implementation of many initiatives that serve the diverse and evolving needs of surgeons in the U.S. and internationally. Dr. Turner has been responsible for streamlining and updating processes that allow greater member engagement and has focused on meeting the needs of surgeons of all specialties and in all practice types and settings.
Additional leadership roles
Prior to joining the Executive Leadership Team at the ACS, Dr. Turner spent eight years in academic practice on the faculty of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, where she was the surgery residency program director and medical director of the surgical acute care unit. Her clinical focus was minimally invasive gastrointestinal surgery and surgical endoscopy. Additionally, Dr. Turner served as the ACS National Surgical Quality Improvement Program champion.
She serves on the board of directors of the Council of Medical Specialty Societies, Wake Forest University/Baptist Medical Hospital, and OceanFirst Bank. She chairs the ACS Delegation to the American Medical Association (AMA) House of Delegates and is past-chair of the AMA Council on Medical Education, past-chair of the Surgical Section of the National Medical Association, and past-president of the Society of Black Academic Surgeons.
She is an active member of several other surgical specialty societies, including the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons, the American Surgical Association, Southern Surgical Association, Southeastern Surgical Congress, Society of University Surgeons, Association of Women Surgeons, Asociación Colombiana de Cirugía (honorary member), and Latino Surgical Society.
A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and the Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, Dr. Turner continued her training as an intern and resident at Howard University Hospital, Washington, DC, during which she spent an additional two years at the National Institutes of Health/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute conducting bench research. 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, New York, NY. She recently completed her master of business administration degree at the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business, graduating with the highest honors.
Dr. Turner has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors dating back to her undergraduate days and has received multiple grants for her research as a surgeon investigator.
Outside of surgery, Dr. Turner is the mother of two daughters—Jessica, who just completed her undergraduate studies at Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, and Morgan, who is in high school.
