Donald H. Jenkins, MD, FACS, is Vice Chair for Quality, Department of Surgery, at UT Health San Antonio. He is also a professor in the Division of Trauma and Emergency Surgery, the Betty and Bob Kelso Distinguished Chair in Burn and Trauma Surgery and Associate Deputy Director of the university’s Military Health Institute.

Dr. Jenkins has decades of experience in care of the injured patient, trauma system development, and advanced resuscitation of patients with hemorrhage, and collaborates locally, regionally, nationally and internationally to further the science of health care delivery as it relates to these fields of expertise. He also has a wealth of experience related to surgical quality measures, performance improvement and patient safety.

Dr. Jenkins is also an Adjunct Professor of Surgery at America’s Medical School at the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, MD. He retired in 2008 from the U.S. Air Force, having served as the Trauma Medical Director at Lackland AFB, TX. He was responsible for all trauma medical care and administration of the USAF’s only American College of Surgeons Verified Level 1 Trauma Center at Wilford Hall USAF Medical Center in San Antonio in the decade prior to his retirement. He was also the Flight Commander and Chairman of General Surgery for 59MDW.

Dr. Jenkins was formerly Professor of Surgery and Director of Trauma in the Division of Trauma, Critical Care and General Surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where he worked from 2008 (upon his retirement from the USAF) until 2016. In this role, he helped establish the first regional trauma organization in the State of Minnesota, oversaw a nearly 50 percent decline in trauma mortality at Saint Mary’s Hospital in Rochester and led a team in the use of plasma in the pre-hospital setting as well as initiated the use of cold stored platelets and whole blood.

Dr. Jenkins received his BS in biochemistry from the University of Scranton, Pennsylvania; earned his MD from the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Maryland; and performed residencies at Wilford Hall and Lackland AFB. He was a trauma/critical care fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and received the Diploma Medical Care of Catastrophes from the Society of Apothecaries of London.

Dr. Jenkins is Past President of the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma (EAST) and a founding board member and Past Chair of the National Trauma Institute. He now serves in an emeritus role.

Dr. Kang represents the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) on the NTI Board. He is an emergency physician, serving at Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, WA since 2001. He also holds assistant professorships at Baylor University, the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences and the University of Washington. In the Army, he served in many roles including Battalion Surgeon, Staff Flight Surgeon, and Field Surgeon for the 52nd Medical Battalion, the 121st General Hospital, Joint Task Force-Bravo, the 296th Brigade Support Battalion, 1-14 Cavalry Squadron, and 5-20 Battalion. Dr. Kang is on the Board of Directors of the American College of Emergency Physicians and is a past president of the Washington Chapter of ACEP. He is a peer reviewer for the Journal of Wilderness and Environmental Medicine. He is a decorated officer, serving as a flight surgeon in the U.S. Army.

M. Margaret (Peggy) Knudson MD, FACS attended medical school at the U. of Michigan. After completing her surgical residency at U. of M., she joined the surgical faculty at Stanford University, where she served as the Assistant Trauma Director. In 1989, Dr. Knudson was recruited to the University of California at San Francisco and has attained the rank of Professor in the ladder series. Her practice is based primarily at the San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, where she is an attending surgeon on the trauma/critical care/emergency surgery service.

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.

Colonel Matthew J. Martin is currently the Trauma Medical Director and Chief of Surgical Critical Care at Madigan Army Medical Center (MAMC), Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington. He is also the Director of Surgical Research and the former Associate Program Director for the MAMC General Surgery residency program. He is a Clinical Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Washington School of Medicine, and Associate Professor of Surgery at the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, MD. COL Martin also serves as a staff trauma surgeon and the Director of Trauma Informatics at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland, Oregon. He is the current Chair of the Army State, Region 13, for the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma. He has deployed twice in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and twice in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

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.

COL Shawn Nessen is Director of the US Army Institute of Surgical Research in San Antonio. COL Nessen’s Military education includes graduation from the AMEDD Officer Basic and Advanced Courses, the US Army Flight Surgeons and Airborne Courses, and Command and General Staff College where he received a Masters of Military Arts and Sciences in the field of Strategy. He deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan. He is the lead editor and author of the award winning textbook War Surgery in Afghanistan and Iraq: A Series of Cases 2003-2007. His research focuses on combat casualty care and blood transfusion of trauma patients.

Anna Newcomb, PhD, is the Research Manager for Trauma and the Surgical Simulation Center at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Virginia, where she coordinates research and evaluation, providing guidance on study and curriculum development as well as research methodology, implementation, analysis and dissemination. Dr. Newcomb obtained her PhD in Health Services Research from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, studying under Ellen MacKenzie and the Center for Injury Research and Policy; her dissertation work focused on the family’s experience of trauma at the hospital and home.

Dr. Newcomb had served as the trauma and emergency department clinical social worker at Inova Fairfax Hospital from 1994 – 2011 during which time she started a trauma support group, “Rebuild.” The group expanded into a program to include support for orthopedic survivors, TBI, SCI, family members, parents of TBI, and provided education to trauma providers about the experience of injury and recovery. Based on the Rebuild model, Dr. Newcomb partnered with the American Trauma Society to develop the Trauma Survivors Network (TSN).

Dr. Newcomb’s continuing research focuses on the development and evaluation of interventions addressing patient and family stress following trauma, such as the surgical residency communication curriculum she initiated and is disseminating nationally. The curriculum integrates patient volunteers as simulated patients and provides ongoing practice and evaluation of surgical residents’ patient and family centered communication skills. She is the liaison member of the American Trauma Society.

Dr. Nirula is a Professor of Surgery at the University of Utah, where he is the Chief of the Division of General Surgery, Trauma Medical Director, SICU Fellowship Director and co-director of the SICU. He is currently a member of the Board of Managers of the AAST and is a past Chair of its Multi-Institutional Trials Committee. His research interests include comparative-effectiveness research in trauma and emergency surgery with specific emphasis on thoracic trauma and TBI.

Dennis Rowe is the President of the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians NAEMT) and lives in Tennessee. NAEMT is the recognized leader in advancing the profession of emergency and mobile health care. Mr. Rowe began involvement with NAEMT in 1976, rising soon to board and leadership positions. He was the trauma coordinator for the Level One Trauma Center at the University of Tennessee Medical Center—Knoxville, where he was actively involved in research publications, Trauma Center financial analysis, and day-to-day operations. Currently, Mr. Rowe is the Director of Government and Industry Relations for Priority Ambulance Corporation. Also, he is a member of the Tennessee Emergency Medical Services Board. He represents NAEMT on the ACS-COT EMS Committee and is a liaison to the STB Steering Committee. He has given more than 1,150 national and international presentations and has participated in multiple clinical trials. Mr. Rowe is the liaison member from NAEMT.

Ronald M. Stewart graduated from medical school and completed his surgical residency at UT Health San Antonio. He then completed a Trauma and Surgical Critical Care Fellowship at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis. 

He returned to San Antonio in 1993 as the Director of the Trauma Service. Dr. Stewart has served as the Board Chair of the Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council for Trauma since 1996. In 1999 he was awarded the Faculty Member of the Year Award from The University Health System. That same year he and the Shattered Dreams development team were awarded the Bronze Quill for writings on the award winning injury prevention program Shattered Dreams/D.E.A.D. (Drinking and Driving End All Dreams).

In 2000, Governor George W. Bush appointed Dr. Stewart to the Governor’s Emergency Medical Services and Trauma Advisory Council where he served until 2014. He was the chair of the South Texas Chapter of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Committee on Trauma for six years, and followed for another six years as the ACS COT Region VI Chief (Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana and Arkansas). He currently serves as the Chair of the ACS Committee on Trauma. Dr. Stewart was a founding member and the first Chair of the National Trauma Institute. 

At UT Health San Antonio he is a tenured Professor of Surgery and Anesthesia, and since 2008, he has served as the Chair of the Department of Surgery, holding the Dr. Witten B. Russ Chair in Surgery.

Dr. Stewart has received numerous awards for teaching and service. A partial listing of these includes the Presidential Award for Clinical Excellence (2004), the Distinguished Alumnus of the UT Health San Antonio School of Medicine (2005) and the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award (2007). 

In 2013 he was the recipient of the National Safety Council Surgeons Award for Service to Safety and the American College of Surgeon’s Arthur Ellenberger Award for Excellence in State Advocacy. 

He is a member of the American Surgical Association, the Southern Surgical Association, the Western Surgical Association, Immediate Past President of the Southwestern Surgical Congress and the Secretary of the Texas Surgical Society.

Dr. Stewart is an emeritus member of the NTI Board.