Barbara L. Anderson, JD
Associate Director, Accreditation and Practice Affairs
American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology (AANA)
Healthcare Policy Advocate:  Fostering Anesthesia Excellence in Healthcare
Barbara is an attorney and leader in health policy analysis and advocacy with over 20 years of experience.  Barbara lives and works in the Chicago metropolitan area and serves as the primary staff liaison between the AANA and many external organizations, including the American College of Surgeons, other healthcare stakeholders, and national facility accrediting organizations. She uses her expertise in government affairs and deep knowledge of accreditation standards and healthcare policy to develop and facilitate anesthesia-related solutions to healthcare system challenges, often in rural areas where CRNAs are the predominant anesthesia professionals. In addition, she develops, refines, and updates evidence-based anesthesia resources with the AANA professional practice team. Her passions include quality improvement, patient safety, and patient-centered, equitable care.

Pamela Bourg, RN, PhD, TCRN, FAEN
Dr. Bourg is medical volunteer coordinator Copper Mt Ski Patrol, Colorado. She retired from full time practice after many decades in emergency and trauma nursing at Level 1 trauma centers around the country. Recognized as a leader in the field of Emergency and Trauma Nursing. She is a fierce patient advocate with a strong desire to improve patient care no matter the location. Her research interests are varied from geriatric trauma care to recreational marijuana use and its impact on trauma care. Her career has taken her to many cities, New Orleans to Boston Mass, now Colorado her true home.

Jonathan Bousman, BS
Jonathan is a product informaticist at Epic, having spent nearly 20 years installing Epic software in OR suites with a focus on academic and international organizations. He is responsible for guiding new development, keeping organizations up to date, and connecting surgeons to solutions with Epic to improve user experience and patient outcomes.

Todd W. Costantini, MD, FACS
Professor of Surgery
Division of Trauma, Surgical Critical Care, Burns and Acute Care Surgery
UC San Diego School of Medicine
Dr. Todd Costantini serves as Trauma Medical Director at UC San Diego Health. Dr. Costantini has an NIH-funded basic research laboratory that aims to understand the biology of human inflammation after injury.  His clinical research focuses on management of severe pelvic fracture and optimizing venous thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis for injured patients. He has enjoyed recent work identifying trauma research gaps as part of the National Trauma Research Action Plan (NTRAP) and developing clinical protocols as a leader of the AAST/ACS-COT Trauma Protocols project.  He believes that developing and disseminating evidence-based clinical protocols can standardize and improve trauma care for all.

Dr. Nicholas Cozzi, MD, MBA
Dr. Cozzi is an MBA-trained ABEM-board certified Emergency Medicine and Emergency Medical Services Physician. Nicholas graduated as a Chief Resident of Spectrum Health / Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and completed an EMS Fellowship with the Fire Department of New York City/ Northwell Health. Dr. Cozzi serves as the EMS Medical Director and Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Rush University Medical Center and also serves as an Online-Medical Control (OLMC) Physician for the Fire Department of New York City.

Susan Cronn, DNP, RN
As a trauma nurse practitioner and researcher, using each role to inform the other has led to interesting directions in research. My doctoral work focused on the interface between diffusion of innovation theory and quality improvement initiatives, and my current work on disparities in crash injury highlights the need for equity in trauma research. I aim to always work on issues using cross-disciplinary teams, and firmly believe that varying perspectives accelerate problem solving. A fun fact about me is that I teach Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and was on the US Pankration team.

Rochelle A. Dicker, MD
Dr. Rochelle Dicker is Professor in Residence of Surgery and Anesthesia at UCSF. She is the Division Chief for Acute Care Surgery and heads the departmental efforts in Population Health. Prior to moving back to UCSF she served as the Vice Chair for Critical Care and as the Trauma Medical Director At UCLA. She also co-Chaired the UCLA Health Equity and Translational Social Science Theme for the School of Medicine and was co-Director of the Program for the Advancement of Surgical Equity (PASE). In 2003 she founded the Wraparound Project at San Francisco General Hospital, one of the first hospital-based violence intervention program based on integrating credible messengers and addressing the social determinants of health.

Chris Dodgion, MD
Chris is an Associate Professor of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW). Locally, he is deeply entrenched in quality improvement efforts as the physician lead of the Wisconsin State Trauma Quality Improvement Program Collaborative and Associate Trauma Medical Director at MCW.  Internationally, as the co-lead of the trauma subcommittee in the American College of Surgeons Operation Giving Back (ACS HOPE)/COSECSA collaboration with Hawassa University in Ethiopia he has been partnering to build trauma systems and strengthen trauma education efforts throughout the region.  Through global collaboration he seeks to strengthen trauma systems, expand quality improvement initiatives in low resource settings and address the global surgical workforce shortage through education innovation.

Susan Evans, MD, MBA, FACS, FCCM, FACHE
Professor of Surgery; Chief, Surgical Critical Care; Vice Chair of Research, Department of Surgery; Executive Director, Carolinas Center for Surgical Outcomes Science, Atrium Health
Dr. Susan Evans is a healthcare leader determined to bridge the gap between new clinical knowledge and improved patient care. With a passion for empowering and aligning teams, she accelerates clinical practice optimization to address healthcare gaps. She has established a Virtual approach to provide Surgical Intensivist access for patients in the most rural settings and has directed the development of a departmental research agenda investigating solutions to healthcare disparities throughout the region. Dr. Evans, and her husband, have close relationships with people whose social determinants drive disparities through the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization as well as their diverse church. She enjoys many outdoor activities, in continuous quest for embracing health, as much as healthcare.

Jaclyn Gellings, MD
General Surgery Research Resident, PGY4; Global Surgery Fellow
Medical College of Wisconsin
Your Global Surgery Ally in Improving Patient Outcomes
Jaclyn is a global surgery research fellow and categorical general surgery resident at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Her research focuses on implementation of safe surgical care both domestically and abroad. She works with hospital and prehospital systems in Lima, Peru to improve communication and coordination of care for the prehospital phase of care for patients who sustained traumatic injuries. Her local research focus involves determination of the barriers to surgical care for uninsured patients, and design of systems for improvement. Jaclyn was born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and plans to pursue a fellowship in Trauma and Critical Care following completion of her residency. She is passionate about improving surgical access and designing systems for surgical care integration.

Jake Higgins, RN

Lisa Hollister, DNP, MSN, RN, LSSBB
Lisa Hollister is an experienced Trauma and Acute Care Surgery Director with the leading regional healthcare system, Parkview Health.She has over 32 years of experience in trauma, trauma registries, data analysis, injury prevention, outreach, and trauma research. She is skilled in the identification of issues and application of process improvement that achieves desired outcomes. Dr. Hollister has served on the Trauma Center Association of America’s Board of Directors since 2020. In addition, she is the Indiana Trauma Commissioner and a Healthcare Coalition Board Member.

Chris Kang, MD
Chris is an emergency physician, residency faculty member, and the immediate past president of the American College of Emergency Physicians. For over twenty years, he has engaged in various aspects of institutional and community emergency preparedness and response, including research, grants, and coordination of care. He currently works at and affiliated with multiple hospitals in western Washington State, including county and state trauma centers.

Lisa M. Kodadek, MD, FACS
Chair, Guidelines Committee, Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma (EAST)
Assistant Professor of Surgery, Yale School of Medicine
Empowering Trauma and Acute Care Surgeons with Evidence-Based Guidelines
Dr. Kodadek is a trauma and acute care surgeon in New Haven, Connecticut and has developed rigorous and transparent practice management guidelines (PMGs) as a member of the EAST Guidelines Committee for the past 6 years. With over 100 published PMGs in the peer-reviewed literature, EAST is a national leader in the development and dissemination of guidelines in trauma, emergency general surgery, surgical critical care, and injury prevention. Dr. Kodadek currently serves as Guidelines Committee Chair and will lead the committee’s efforts for the next 3 years. She is excited to participate in Design for Implementation on behalf of EAST.

Meera Kotagal, MD, MPH
Pediatric Surgeon, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical center
Pediatric Surgeon, Committed to Closing Equity Gaps for Children
Meera Kotagal is a pediatric surgeon at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC).  She earned her medical degree from Harvard Medical School, and completed her general surgery residency at the University of Washington.  During her residency she completed a two-year research fellowship in surgical outcomes at the Surgical Outcomes Research Center in Seattle, as well as a Masters in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health.  After her general surgery residency, Dr. Kotagal completed her pediatric surgery fellowship at Cincinnati Children’s and joined the faculty in 2018.  Dr. Kotagal serves as the Director of Trauma Services at CCHMC and Director of the Pediatric Surgery Global Health Program at CCHMC. She was named a Future Trauma Leader of the American College of Surgeon’ Committee on Trauma (COT) in 2019. Within the COT, Dr. Kotagal services on the iSAVE (improving social determinants to attenuate violence) committee as well as the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Workgroup.

Morgan Krause
Research Coordinator: Putting the Chaos on Paper
Morgan is a trauma nurse, a research coordinator, and a leader in the trauma research program. She has a decade of nursing experience, primarily in trauma. She has served as an educator, a leader, a preceptor, a mentor, and an innovator. She has helped create the trauma research program at her institution and works collaboratively with the surgeon team and nursing staff. Morgan was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, but has been in North Georgia for almost 20 years. She participates in the regional advisory committee that helps ensure the large catchment area of North Georgia has the same quality of care, even in rural communities.

John C Kubasiak MD FACS
Burn & Trauma Surgeon 
Loyola University Chicago
Dr Kubasiak is an Assistant Professor of Surgery at Loyola University Chicago and a Burn Surgeon at The Burn Center at Loyola University Medical Center. He received his medical degree from the University of Northwestern Medical School and trained in General Surgery at Rush University Medical Center and Cook County Hospital System. Subsequently, he completed fellowships in Critical Care / Trauma as well as Burn Surgery at UTSouthwestern Medical Center and Parkland Hospitals. His clinical specialty is burn and acute care surgery. His research interests focus on the host immune response to burn and trauma. Specifically, how severe injury predisposes to infectious complications and sepsis. Dr Kubasiak serves on the ABA Burn Research Network (ABuRN) and the Burn Science Advisory Panel (BSAP).

Travis Maynard, Ph.D.
Senior Associate Dean & Professor of Management
Colorado State University College of Business
Travis is a Professor in the College of Business at Colorado State University and has done research projects centering on healthcare teams over the past 20 years. He feels that healthcare is a potent area to study teamwork not only because teamwork is important in this context but also because of the impact that enhancing teamwork can have on patient’s lives. He has studied teamwork in a variety of healthcare contexts including OR, trauma, L&D, and ICU. He is currently collaborating with the team working on the teamwork section of ATLS training materials. He is interested in bringing his knowledge of teamwork to this group in hopes that it helps in bringing trauma skills to a wider audience and create more consistency in patient care.

Christopher P. Michetti, MD
Trauma Surgeon
American Trauma Society
Dr. Michetti is the Chief of Trauma and Trauma Medical Director at the University of Maryland Capital Region Medical Center, and Professor of Surgery, University of Maryland School of Medicine. He is privileged to represent the American Trauma Society at the DFI Conference. He has a passion for striving to improve patient care through guideline and consensus development. He hopes to promulgate best practices and promote evidence-based management to reduce variation and optimize patient outcomes.

Ashley Moreno, MS
Research Associate
Coalition for National Trauma Research (CNTR)
Research Associate with a knack for collaboration.
Ashley has been working alongside the CNTR team since 2021 where she has contributed to the productive execution of various CNTR projects. With a background in Sociology and Psychology, her professional interests include health disparities research and project management. She has previously taught courses at both the University of Texas at San Antonio and San Antonio College. In every work and personal circumstance, Ashley uses her positive attitude to encourage others to succeed.

Todd Nickoles, MBA, BSN, RN, TCRN
Director, Trauma Services, Children’s Surgery, Research, and Injury Prevention Phoenix Children’s
With over two decades of healthcare experience spanning emergency, critical care, trauma, and pediatric settings across Michigan and Arizona, Todd is an accomplished trauma nurse whose career has been defined by dedication and leadership. His extensive expertise is marked by leadership roles in trauma-related professional organizations, influential contributions to state and national trauma committees, and a sustained focus on trauma program advancement. Having achieved notable recognition for his clinical research published across various esteemed journals, Todd’s academic journey includes a Bachelor of Science in Nursing acquired in 2004 and a Master of Business Administration earned in 2016. Currently directing the Level 1 Trauma program, injury prevention program, trauma and surgery research endeavors, and the Level 1 Children’s Surgery program at Phoenix Children’s, Todd’s dynamic leadership captures his commitment to performance management, simulation, high reliability, nursing research, and prevention – all pivotal facets within his accomplished healthcare portfolio.

Nirav Patel, MD

Michelle Price, PhD, MEd
Executive Director/Adjunct Assoc. Professor
Coalition for National Trauma Research (CNTR)/University of Texas Health – San Antonio
Michelle is the Executive Director of CNTR, a non-profit research organization, and an Adjunct Associate Professor at UT Health San Antonio in the Division of Trauma and Emergency Surgery. She partners with trauma researchers throughout the US to secure extramural funding and conduct injury research. Michelle is a public health researcher with 30+ years of experience. She strives to help clinician-researchers create knowledge that will improve patient outcomes and translate that knowledge into evidence-based practice.

Patrick M Reilly MD FACS
C William Schwab Professor of Surgery
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Reilly has been at the University of Pennsylvania since 1993, first as a fellow in Trauma & Surgical Critical Care, then as a faculty member, serving as Fellowship Director, Trauma Medical Director, and finally Division Chief.   He has served as President of Eastern Association of the Surgery of Trauma, Chair of the Pennsylvania Trauma System Foundation, and Vice-Chair of the American College of Surgeons’ Committee on Trauma.  He currently serves as the President of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma.  His research interests focus around trauma system development and performance as well as surgical education.

Linda Reinhart MSN RN CNS CCRN TCRN
President, Society of Trauma Nurses (STN)
Trauma CNS/Program Manager:  Turning Community Based Care into Level II Trauma Center
Linda is a Registered Nurse, a trauma nurse, and Clinical Nurse Specialist with 37 years of experience in critical care and emergency nursing, mostly at a Level I Trauma Center. Three years ago, she joined a diverse group of trauma team members to transform a small community hospital into a Level II Trauma Center. Linda’s primary role was to ensure hospital readiness by preparing clinical staff to become educated and skilled in the care of trauma patients across the continuum. From prehospital, emergency department, ICU, OR, PACU and med-surg areas,  Linda focused her efforts on education and skills based training. She believes in the “boots on the ground” method of assisting and supporting clinical staff while they are caring for patients.  Empowerment comes to those who feel supported in all that they do. Leading by example and being “present” is at the core of Linda’s values. She promotes professional development for trauma nurses through her leadership in STN. Linda values community involvement by being an active firefighter (volunteer) for the last 42 years in a very busy department.

Heather Rhodes, PhD, DHS, RT(R)(ARRT)CT
Trauma Scientist
Marshfield Clinic Research Institute
I am a research scholar and administrator with 23 years of professional experience in research, teaching, and clinical development. With my strong ability to collaborate with colleagues and other professionals to define best practices and procedures, I lead teams that streamline efficient clinical pathways. I have a strong focus on subjects relating to traumatic brain injury (TBI) and optimizing rural trauma care. Much of my research aims to improve guidelines in trauma and acute care surgery and describe rural trauma disparities to improve the quality of health care and highlight the unique differences in the rural patient populations.

Jacob W. Ribbing DMSc, PA-C
Director of Doctoral Education, SIU Medicine DMSc Program
Illinois Academy of PAs: Immediate Past President
Rural Family Medicine PA
Dr. Ribbing is a PA educator, leader, and advocate with ten years of experience currently serving as the Director of the SIU Medicine Doctor of Medical Science Program and Assistant Editor of the SIU Journal of Medical Science. He is a practicing Family Medicine PA who has dedicated his career to rural and underserved communities in Illinois. He is specially trained in M.A.T., helping to pioneer one of the first M.A.T. programs in deep Southern Illinois, and he provides frequent clinician and community-facing education on Opioid Use Disorder. Dr. Ribbing serves as the Immediate Past President of the Illinois Academy of PAs and formerly served as IAPA Legislative Committee Chair and Regional Director for Southern Illinois. Ribbing earned a bachelor’s degree in Radiologic Science from SIU, a master’s degree in Physician Assistant from SIU, and a Doctor of Medical Science degree from the University of Lynchburg. In his free time, Dr. Ribbing enjoys venturing into the great outdoors to hike, backpack, paddle, climb, hunt, and fish.

Sheila Sprague, PhD
Research Director and Associate Professor
McMaster University
Clinical Research Career Dedicated to Improving Outcomes in Orthopaedic Trauma Patients
Sheila is a clinical researcher specializing in trial design and implementation in the field of orthopaedic trauma.  She is the Director of a large surgical methods centre which has successfully completed multiple practice changing trials. These trials have been published in The Lancet and The New England Journal of Medicine. Sheila’s research also focuses on the social needs of orthopaedic trauma patients.  She has developed an evidence-based educational program (EDUCATE) that is available to empower orthopaedic surgeons to provide appropriate assistance to patients who disclose intimate partner violence. Sheila’s contributions to clinical research have changed the care of orthopaedic trauma patients.