CHICAGO (November 2, 2021): The American College of Surgeons (ACS) Board of Regents has confirmed Jeffrey D. Kerby, MD, PhD, FACS, as the next Chair of the ACS Committee on Trauma (COT). Dr. Kerby serves as the Brigham Family Endowed Professor and Director of the Division of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery for the department of surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine, and as the state trauma consultant to the Alabama Department of Public Health.
A decorated U.S. Air Force veteran, Dr. Kerby was deployed as an active-duty combat trauma surgeon in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (2002). He has served as a trauma and acute care surgeon at UAB since 2003 and was the chief of general surgery at the Birmingham VA Medical Center (2009-2014). Dr. Kerby has established a military-civilian partnership between the University of Alabama at Birmingham and U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) to support the ongoing training of Special Operations Surgical and Critical Care teams. This program currently hosts nearly 30 active duty Air Force personnel and has also established trauma skills sustainment programs for Air Force Pararescue Jumpers.
Dr. Kerby’s clinical expertise is in trauma, critical care, and emergency general surgery. He serves on the editorial board of Prehospital Emergency Care and the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery. His research interests focus on interventional trials and outcomes in the pre-hospital emergency care setting. He is part of a collaborative group of investigators that has published a large body of research in the medical literature on this topic. For 10 years (2005-2015), he was principal investigator of the Alabama Resuscitation Center of the Resuscitation Outcomes Center network, a multi-center trials network funded by the National Institutes of Health that focused on prehospital interventional trials in trauma and cardiac arrest.
Dr. Kerby has served on the ACS COT since 2016, serving as the Membership Committee Chair and on the Executive Committee for the last four years. In his role as Membership Committee Chair, he has shepherded the Mentoring for Excellence in Trauma Surgery program; supported the ACS COT Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives; renewed the rigor of the search and selection process for the Scudder Orator; increased the engagement of subspecialty surgeons; and captured the history of the ACS COT for the centennial celebration planned for 2022. He also has served on the COT Research Committee, the Trauma System Evaluation and Planning Committee, and the Emergency Medical Services Committee.
Dr. Kerby assumes the leadership of the ACS COT in March 2022, becoming the 21st Chair of the COT during its 100th year as an ACS Committee. Dr. Kerby succeeds Eileen M. Bulger, MD, FACS, Seattle, Washington. “We look forward to Dr. Kerby’s visionary leadership as the COT enters this historic centennial year working to prevent injuries and ensure the optimal care of the injured patient. He is the perfect person to lead the COT into its next century of transforming care and reducing injuries across the globe,” Dr. Bulger said.
“FACS” designates that a surgeon is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.
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About Jeffrey D. Kerby, MD, PhD, FACS
A Missouri native, Dr. Kerby, earned an undergraduate degree and a medical degree (1989) from the University of Missouri, Kansas City. He completed surgical residency training in general surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (1999), and a postdoctoral research fellowship in 1996, earning a PhD in biochemistry and molecular genetics from UAB (1997).
About the American College of Surgeons (ACS)
The ACS is a scientific and educational organization of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical practice and improve the quality of care for all surgical patients. The College is dedicated to the ethical and competent practice of surgery. Its achievements have significantly influenced the course of scientific surgery in America and have established it as an important advocate for all surgical patients. The College has more than 84,000 members and is the largest organization of surgeons in the world.
About the ACS Committee on Trauma (ACS COT)
Formed in 1922, the ACS COT has put forth a continual effort to develop and implement programs that support injury prevention and ensure optimal patient outcomes across the continuum of care. Today, trauma activities are administered through a 100-member committee overseeing a field force of more than 3,500 Fellows who are working to develop and implement meaningful programs for trauma care in local, regional, national, and international arenas. These programs incorporate advocacy, education, trauma center and trauma system resources, best practice creation, outcome assessment, and continuous quality improvement. The COT strives to eliminate preventable deaths and disabilities across the globe by preventing injury and improving the outcomes of trauma patients before, during, and after hospitalization.
