Patricia L. Turner
I have always wanted to be a surgeon. It is all I've ever wanted to do. I think I decided when I was five or six. Even for someone of that age, like the concrete operational child knew that there was something really fulfilling about being a surgeon, that someone could be sick and that the surgeon could quite literally operate on them, take out what was bad, sew them up and they would be better. I mean, that resonated with me even as a child. So Wake Forest was one of the schools that I really thought was a tremendous school and would be a great opportunity for me to learn. I was in what was at that point called the parallel curriculum. So there were 24 of us that really worked very closely throughout our first 2 years of medical school. So I remember those study sessions very fondly. We had a close relationship with each other and with the faculty that worked with us. So those were all incredibly fond memories.
Wyman T. McGuirt
When I enrolled in medical school, we had a unique class in 1996. We had two different curriculum. There was a traditional curriculum and a parallel curriculum at the time, that was the first time that had ever happened, and I was in the traditional curriculum, and Dr. Turner was in the parallel curriculum. And one thing I remember is she was like a leader. It was a much smaller group that was in the parallel curriculum, and I always felt like she was one of the people that kind of united people and brought people together from the two different curriculums.
Patricia L. Turner
So when I finished Wake Forest, my residency was in DC at Howard University Hospital. I did a couple of years of research at the NIH and then did a clinical fellowship in Manhattan in minimally invasive surgery. So from there, I went to what I thought would be my whole career, which was a position in academic surgery. I joined the faculty at the University of Maryland and was there for eight years and did what I love. I taught residents and students and operated on patients and had a role in our research enterprise, and it was great.
Julie Ann Freischlag
I've known Patricia Turner since she was a resident. We actually were on a committee together 20 years ago, it was the Blue Ribbon Committee from the American Surgical Association looking at surgical training. And actually we're re-looking at it now with her new position as Executive Director and CEO of the American College of Surgeons. Patricia Turner has been a superb surgeon all her life. She did general surgery and then did a specialty training in minimally invasive surgery, really back when it just began. So she was one of the leaders in that surgical specialty and actually did that surgery at the University of Maryland.
Jeffrey B. Matthews
Dr. Turner is an extraordinary leader with a spectacular reputation in the entire house of surgery. She is trained as a general and minimally invasive surgeon and had a busy practice for many years and was known as a surgical educator being a program director. But she really came to national and international leadership through her roles at the American College of Surgeons.
Patricia L. Turner
In 2011, a position opened up at the American College of Surgeons to be the Director of Member Services and the ACS has always been my specialty society, and I've had the privilege and the pleasure of working with so many extraordinary surgeons and iconic leaders in surgery that it really ... I can't compare it to anything else. There isn't anything else I would rather do. And then about two years ago when the Executive Director and CEO, Dr. Hoyt decided to step down, I decided to throw my hat into the ring. Becoming the Executive Director and CEO of the ACS has been the crowning accomplishment of my career. I am incredibly proud and incredibly flattered to have that position, and I think that the responsibility is significant and I take that very seriously.
Jeffrey B. Matthews
Dr. Turner brings a clarity of thought to what it means to be a surgeon in the United States, the pillars of clinical excellence, providing clinical care that is safe, that is high quality. She also is an eloquent advocate for the needs of the surgical patient and for the needs of the surgeon as a professional.
Patricia L. Turner
I knew I would be caring for patients, I knew that being a surgeon was what I wanted, and I have been fulfilled beyond sort of my wildest expectations by what it is that I get to do every day. The opportunity to impact 85,000 members and all of the patients that they care for is what makes this really fulfilling.
Jeffrey B. Matthews
Although I am many years her senior, I have been influenced heavily by her in my understanding about what it means to be a surgical leader, how I should comport myself. I've learned a lot from her and I continue to learn from her every day.
Wyman T. McGuirt
One of the things I think is exciting is when you hear national news about one of your classmates that has done something above and beyond what the rest of us may have done. I think everybody loves medicine and there's some of us that choose private practice like myself, and then there's others who choose academic practice to promote each and also for research reasons, and it's kind of a unique individual who would develop into a national leader. And so I think that needs to be celebrated.
Patricia L. Turner
Honestly, I was speechless when I heard about this. I think that it is just a tremendous honor and I am incredibly grateful. I have been so blessed to have so many people who have been incredibly supportive throughout this entire journey. In particular, I have to thank my family, my parents who did live to see me graduate from medical school, who have been supportive of educational endeavors since forever. My brothers who are here this evening, my children, Jessica and Morgan, and their father, James, who really bore the brunt of the time that I had to be away from home and were loving and supportive throughout the entire journey. I know that there are so many extraordinary classmates across so many extraordinary years that could have received this award. So it is really an honor that I was nominated or that I was selected, and I will continue to try to make Wake Forest proud in everything that I do.
Julie Ann Freischlag
Very inclusive, very upbeat, and always willing to bring people along. And because of her, many other people will achieve their goals too.
Jeffrey B. Matthews
I am thrilled that your alma mater is recognizing you with this distinction because all of us in the house of surgery know that you are well deserving of this accolade. Congratulations.
