Each month, the AAS Membership Committee presents the “Membership Spotlight” – an opportunity to introduce you to a member of your association.
Article by Mediget Teshome, MD
Dr. Allison N. Martin is currently a Complex General Surgical Oncology Fellow at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. She is a talented and dynamic surgeon who has in her early career contributed greatly to the advancement of academic surgery as well as to the AAS.
Dr. Martin was born and raised in Greenville, Kentucky. In 2008, she completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Louisville, earning both a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemistry (concentration in Biochemistry) with summa cum laude distinction. Following this she completed her Medical Degree at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in 2013. While a medical student she also completed a Master of Public Health Degree at the Harvard School of Public Health as well as a Graduate Certificate in Global Health. She then completed general surgery residency training at the University of Virginia (UVA) in 2019, where among her many accomplishments she was a Vanderbilt, Emory, Columbia, Duke (VECD) Consortium NIH Fogarty Global Health Fellow at the University Teaching Hospital of Kigali (Rwanda).
At each stage in her early career Dr. Martin has distinguished herself as a deeply committed, compassionate and gifted researcher, scholar and surgeon who is making a difference in the lives of others. She has a strong passion for ensuring diversity, equity and inclusion in academic surgery, advancing global surgery and harnessing quality improvement to improve outcomes in surgical oncology. The through line connecting each of these passions can be summarized by a desire to meaningfully improve surgical care for each and every patient; and through her work, Dr. Martin inspires us to do just that while simultaneously encouraging growth within our field. Her CV rivals many early career surgeons and Assistant Professors with over 30 peer reviewed publications in highly regarded journals including Journal of Surgical Education, JAMA Surgery, American Journal of Surgery, Journal of American College of Surgeons, Annals of Thoracic Surgery and the Journal of Surgical Oncology. Additionally, she has been invited to contribute to and featured in several blogs and podcasts of national surgical organizations to share her exceptional expertise.
Dr. Martin has been widely recognized and awarded for her excellence in patient care, teaching and research, receiving numerous honors: the Bigger-Lehman Award from the Virginia Surgical Society (2020), the Hilary Sanfey Outstanding Resident Award from the Association of Women Surgeons (2019), the Curtis G. Tribble Award for Resident Teaching from the University of Virginia (2016), the UVA Center for Global Health/Dean’s Global Graduate Medical Award (2016) and the William Dion Outstanding Intern Award at UVA (2014). She has also received several travel scholarships, observerships and grants including to the Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting (2018), Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital in Seoul, South Korea (2017), ACS Leadership Conference and Advocacy Summit (2016) and Association of Academic Surgery (2013).
Currently, she serves on several national committees including the Fellows and Young Surgeons Subcommittee of the Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) Training Committee, Rules and Regulations Committee of the Association of Academic Global Surgery (AAGS), Resident Committee and Fellows Liaison to the Informatics Committee of the Society of Black Academic Surgeons (SBAS) and Resident and Fellows Committee member of the Association of Women Surgeons (AWS). She was also recently elected Member-At-Large for the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center House Staff Senate (2021-22) and has been instrumental in institutional efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion as well as global health.
Dr. Martin has been a member of the AAS since 2012 when she joined as a medical student. She has served as a member of the Global Affairs Committee (2017-19), contributed to the Academic Surgeon blog and attended several annual conferences where she has presented her clinical research. She was drawn to the AAS given the organization’s focus on developing young leaders in surgery and attention to promoting excellence in surgical outcomes. She describes the organization as a place where she felt she belonged and would support her career as an academic surgical oncologist with specialization in hepato-pancreatico-biliary malignancy. We are thankful for you Dr. Martin for your service to the AAS, dedication to advancing the field of academic surgery and for leading by extraordinary example.