A. Brent Eastman Named President-Elect of the American College of Surgeons

Dr. A. Brent Eastman, Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, was named president-elect of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) at the 97th Annual Clinical Congress. Dr. Eastman, a general, vascular and trauma surgeon is chief medical officer of Scripps Health and the N. Paul Whittier chair of trauma at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla.

Dr. Eastman has been instrumental in the development of trauma systems worldwide. He is one of the co-founders of San Diego County’s Trauma System and has helped put trauma systems into place on six continents.

A fellow of the ACS since 1976, Dr. Eastman began serving on the college’s Board of Regents in 2001. He participated in the ACS and American Association for the Surgery of Trauma Distinguished Visiting Surgeon in Combat Casualty Program at the United States military hospital Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Landstuhl, Germany in July 2007. He subsequently was granted and assigned the distinction of honorary member of the United States Army Medical Regiment by order of the U.S. surgeon general.

In 2009, shortly before his election as chair of the Board of Regents, Eastman delivered the Scudder Oration, the signature speech on trauma care, at the annual ACS Clinical Congress, titled “Wherever the Dart Lands: Toward the Ideal Trauma System.”

In addition to serving as a regent, Dr. Eastman has been a member of many ACS committees and served as the chair of the college’s Committee on Trauma from 1990 to 1994. He helped create and was the first chair of the COT Trauma System Consultation Committee and is an instructor for the internationally renowned Advanced Trauma Life Support course. Dr. Eastman also chaired the college’s Scholarship Committee from 2005 to 2008, Central Judiciary Committee from 2007 to 2009 and the Finance Committee of the Board of Regents from 2009 to 2010.

He is an active member of many leading surgical organizations, including the American Surgical Association, American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, International Society of Cardiovascular Surgery, Society of Clinical Vascular Surgery, Pacific Coast Surgical Association, and the Naffziger Surgical Society (UCSF), of which he is president-elect. In addition, Eastman served as chair of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Research Agenda Steering Committee and is a member of the Board of Scientific Counselors, National Center for Injury Prevention.

Throughout his distinguished career, Dr. Eastman has authored or co-authored multiple publications and articles related to trauma. He served on the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committee that in 2006 published the landmark report, “The Future of Emergency Care in the United States Health System.”

A graduate of the University of Wyoming and the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, Dr. Eastman served as student body president at both institutions. At UCSF he completed a surgical internship and residency, and served as chief surgical resident. Dr. Eastman also spent one year as a surgical registrar at Norfolk and Norwich Hospital in Norwich, England.

Dr. Eastman is not the only member of his family to create a lasting legacy at Scripps. His wife, Sarita, also a graduate of the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, is a pediatrician and author. Her recently published biography, “A Trail of Light: The Very Full Life of Dr. Anita Figueredo” chronicles her mother’s journey from Costa Rica to the U.S. where she pursued her dream in medicine and eventually became the first woman surgeon in San Diego. Sarita Eastman, MD, Dr. Figueredo and her husband, Dr. William Doyle, all practiced medicine at Scripps. Dr. Doyle also served as chief of staff at Scripps La Jolla in 1964.