Colonel Bailey enlisted in the USAF in 1976 and was commissioned in 1982 after completing the Air Force Physician Assistant Program and graduating from the University of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma with a Bachelor of Science. He holds a Master’s in Public Administration from Golden Gate University in San Francisco, California. He graduated from Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri with a Doctor of Medicine Summa Cum Laude. He completed a residency in Surgery followed by fellowship training in Trauma and Critical Care surgery. He is board certified in General Surgery with a special certificate in Surgical Critical Care.

He has served as the Director of the Joint Trauma System Defense Center of Excellence at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas and the USAF Center for Sustainment of Trauma and Readiness Skills in Saint Louis, Missouri. Colonel Bailey has twice deployed during Operation Iraqi Freedom and served as Chief of Trauma at the Air Force Theater Hospital, Balad Air Base Iraq. He has also twice served as the US Central Command Joint Theater Trauma System Director.

Colonel Bailey serves as the Chief of the Military Region of the ACS Regional Committees on Trauma and as a Director at Large of the National Trauma Institute. He is a past-Specialty Governor of the American College of Surgeons and a past-President of the St. Louis Surgical Society. His decorations include the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal (2 Oak leaf clusters), Joint Service Commendation Medal, Air Force Commendation Medal (1 Oak Leaf Cluster), Air Force Achievement Medal, Good Conduct Medal (1 Oak Leaf Cluster), National Defense Service Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, Iraq Campaign Ribbon, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, and the Air Force Expeditionary Service Ribbon with Gold Border, and NATO Medal.

As a retired Colonel in the Army Reserves, Dr. Beilman has deployed five times; serving during his penultimate deployment as the CENTCOM Joint Theater Trauma Director in Iraq and Afghanistan. Dr. Beilman’s research interests include understanding of metabolic pathophysiologic processes during injury, and improving process and outcomes in critically-ill patients. He leads the University of Minnesota Health System Critical Care Program, which involves all of the hospitals in the Fairview system in Minnesota. This includes critical care services delivered at the appropriate level throughout the Fairview system, including direct bedside service and tele-ICU services.

Dr. Eastridge received his BS in biochemistry in 1985 from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Virginia; earned his MD in 1989 from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore Maryland; and completed his residency in general surgery at the University of Maryland Hospital. He completed his fellowship training in surgical critical care at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, TX in 1997.

Dr. Eastridge’s research interests and grant support are focused upon trauma system development, including development of the regional trauma system performance improvement initiatives, predictive modelling of injury outcomes, improved pre-hospital resuscitation strategies for casualties and pre-hospital mortality surveillance and mitigation.

CAPT Elster now serves as the 3rd Chairman and Professor of the Department of Surgery at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences & the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, a department which includes 89 staff surgeons across all surgical specialties, 135 surgical residents and fellows, and supports 170 medical students per year (of which 40 last year matriculated in surgical residency programs). This robust academic department has a research portfolio across the spectrum of surgery with peer review funding from DoD and the NIH and publishes more than 250 papers per year in high-impact journals.

Dr. Elster is also the Director of the Surgical Critical Care Initiative, a joint military and civilian program developing clinical decision support tools for critically ill patients. Dr. Elster was last deployed as a surgeon and Director of Surgical Services at the NATO Role 3 Military Medical Unit in Kandahar, Afghanistan. He is a member of several key organizations including a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, Society of University Surgeons, American Society of Transplant Surgeons, the Southern Surgical Association, the Halsted Society and the American Surgical Association. Dr. Elster and has published more than120 scientific manuscripts in leading journals such as JAMA, Annals of Surgery, American Journal of Transplantation, and Science Translational Medicine, and has received numerous research grants across all aspects of surgery.

For 20 years, Dr. Knudson has served as the Director of the San Francisco Injury Center for Research and Prevention, one of the first CDC-funded Centers nationally. Her research focuses on resuscitation, venous thromboembolic disease, and pediatric injury prevention. Dr. Knudson served on the Committee on Trauma for 17 years, including four years as the Vice-Chair for the central COT. She was awarded the National Safety Council Award from the COT/AAST for her work in trauma and injury prevention. She has also been on the Board of Managers of both the Western Trauma Association and the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma. She is a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, the Journal of the American College of Surgeons and Shock.

She served as the Science Chair for the National Trauma Institute for four years and continues on its Board of Directors. Dr. Knudson has recently been appointed as the Medical Director for the Military Health System Strategic Partnership with the American College of Surgeons.

Dr. Kozar spent much of her career at the University of Texas-Houston. She remains active in trauma surgery and critical care. Her research interests are the impact of enteral nutrients on the post-ischemic gut and hemorrhagic shock and resuscitation, for which she has been NIH-funded for over a decade.

Dr. Kozar is a former Chair of the Education Committee of the AAS and SUS. She has served as the President of the Association of Women Surgeons and on the Board of Directors for the Western Trauma Association. She is active in the American College of Surgeons as current Chair of the Women in Surgery Committee and Chair of the Verification Committee for the Committee on Trauma. She is currently on the Board of Managers for the AAST and is the President of the Shock Society.

Dr. Martin received his BA in psychology in 1990 from Boston University, an MA in Medical Science from Boston University School of Graduate Education in 1995, and his MD from the Boston University School of Medicine in 1998. He completed residency training in General Surgery at Madigan Army Medical Center, and a fellowship in Trauma and Surgical Critical Care at Los Angeles County Hospital + USC Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA.

Dr. Martin maintains an active surgical practice in general surgery, bariatric surgery, and trauma/critical care. He established an active basic science and animal trauma research laboratory at Madigan Army Medical Center in 2005, and his research interests are currently focused on combat injuries and resuscitation, traumatic acidosis and coagulopathy, and ischemia-reperfusion injury.

Dr. Meredith has served as Director of the American Board of Surgery and the American Board of Thoracic Surgery. He is a past-president of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (AAST), the Southern Surgical Association, the Southeastern Surgical Congress, and the Eastern Association of the Surgery of Trauma (EAST). Dr. Meredith served as the Medical Director of Trauma Programs of the American College of Surgeons from 2006 through 2010 and was Chair of the Committee on Trauma from 2002 to 2006.

Dr. Meredith is the author of more than 161 scientific publications and several book chapters and one textbook. In addition, he is serves on the editorial board of the American Journal of Surgery and the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery.

Dr. Meredith was the principal investigator on the Cooperative Agreement with Wake Forest School of Medicine and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in the establishment of the Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network (CIREN) Center of Wake Forest and Virginia Tech until September 2014. In addition, he is the principal investigator of an NIH funded T32 grant for Integrative Training in Trauma and Regenerative Medicine. Dr. Meredith’s research interests include thoracic trauma, biomechanics of crash injury, injury severity measures, and trauma systems development.

Dr. Pruitt, NTI Emeritus Fellow, has been a Clinical Professor of Surgery at the University of Texas at San Antonio, Texas since 1995. He was awarded the Dr. Ferdinand P. Herff Chair in Surgery in 2009. He has also been professor of surgery at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences since 1978. He graduated from Harvard College in 1952; and in 1957 earned his MD from Tufts University School of Medicine. He began his surgical residency at the Boston City Hospital, but in 1959 he was drafted and began a lifelong affiliation with the Army’s burn center when he was assigned to the U.S. Army Surgical Research Unit at Ft. Sam Houston, TX. Dr. Pruitt completed his surgical residency at Brooke General Hospital in 1964 following which he was reassigned to the burn center initially as chief of the Burn Study Branch and shortly thereafter as chief of the Clinical Division. Following a year’s tour in Vietnam, where he served as chief of professional services at the 12th Evacuation Hospital and chief of the trauma research team, Dr. Pruitt returned to the burn center now called the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research as commander and director — a post he held for 27 years. Dr. Pruitt retired from the Medical Corps in December 1995. He is a member of 38 professional societies and has held elected or appointed office in many of those societies including the presidency of the American Burn Association, the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, the Surgical Infection Society, the North American Burn Society, the Halsted Society, the Western Surgical Association, the International Society for Burn Injuries, the American Trauma Society, the Southern Surgical Association, the American Surgical Association, and the Shock Society. Dr. Pruitt has served on 11 editorial boards, including Associate Editor and Editor of the Journal of Trauma for 37 years and remains the Editor, Emeritus. He has also served on the NIH Surgery, Anesthesia, and Trauma Study Section, the V. A. Merit Review Board for Surgery, and the Shriners Hospitals Research Advisory Board. He is a senior member of the American Board of Surgery. He has authored and co-authored over 440 published papers, 172 textbook chapters, and 13 books and monographs. He presently serves on the board of directors of the American Trauma Society

Dr. Valadka maintains a strong clinical and research interest in neurotrauma and critical care, including numerous papers, presentations, research grants, courses, seminars, and visiting professorships. He co-edited the textbook Neurotrauma: Evidence-Based Answers to Common Questions. He has served as Chair of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons/Congress of Neurological Surgeons Section on Neurotrauma and Critical Care; as Chair of the Neurosurgical Specialty Group of the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma; as Chair of the Washington Committee for Neurosurgery; and on the Boards of Directors of the Coalition for American Trauma Care and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. He currently serves on the Board of Governors of the American College of Surgeons and as Treasurer of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons.

Before his career in medicine, Dr. Venticinque entered military service in the United States Navy where he served as an Aircrewman on the EP-3 Orion electronic reconnaissance aircraft. He later obtained his undergraduate degree in biology from the University of West Florida, and then attended medical school at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Following medical school graduation in 1994 he completed his surgical internship, anesthesiology residency, and anesthesiology critical care fellowship at Wilford Hall Air Force Medical Center in San Antonio.

While later serving as faculty at Wilford Hall, Dr. Venticinque helped to organize and develop the TRISAT Critical Care Fellowship Consortium, which now trains critical care fellows from four anesthesia and surgery critical programs in San Antonio. Dr. Venticinque also served as a Critical Care Air Transport Physician, moving critically ill patients by air to higher echelons of care in peacetime and in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.

Dr. Venticinque received the Air Force Association’s annual Paul W. Myers award for his significant contributions to Air Force Medicine. After retirement from the Air Force, Dr. Venticinque accepted a position at UTHSCSA, where he practices cardiac anesthesiology and critical care medicine. He currently serves as Program Director of the Anesthesiology Critical Care Fellowship, and he was recently awarded with the UTHSCSA President’s Clinical Excellence Award. His academic interests include point-of-care ultrasonography cardiovascular monitoring, and the anesthesia workstation. He has served as the anesthesiology section coordinator at the National Trauma Institute Annual Symposium, and he is the Director of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit at the Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans’ Hospital.