by Christina Echegaray

Jeffrey Upperman, MD, surgeon-in-chief of Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, has been elected president-elect of the Surgical Infection Society (SIS).

He will serve a three-year term as president-elect, president and past president. He will become president of the member society in April 2023. Upperman has served as a councilor-at-large for SIS since 2017, and also serves as the American College of Surgeons representative for the society. In 2002, Upperman was a junior faculty Surgical Infection Society research fellowship award winner.

The Surgical Infection Society is committed to providing leadership in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of infection in surgical patients. The Society’s mission is to educate health care providers and the public about infection in surgical patients and promote research in the understanding, prevention and management of surgical infections.

“I am truly honored to be elected president of the Surgical Infection Society,” said Upperman, professor and chair of the Department of Pediatric Surgery. “I look forward to continuing the work and mission of the Surgical Infection Society to promote the prevention and management of surgical infections, ensure quality and safety in the surgical care of patients and advance mission-critical research and innovation.”

Upperman also recently began serving on the National Advisory Committee on Children and Disasters after he was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. Additionally, he serves as Governor of the American College of Surgeons. Among his many other professional service activities, Upperman has been a member of the disaster committee for the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma and served as secretary of the Pediatric Trauma Society.

Upperman, who arrived at Vanderbilt in 2019, has published more than 200 peer-reviewed publications, 200 abstracts and 20 book chapters on sepsis, inflammation, trauma and pandemic preparedness, and has received research funding support from the National Institutes of Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Department of Health and Human Services.

He graduated from Stanford University with a bachelor’s degree in human biology and a master’s degree in sociology. He earned a medical degree from New Jersey Medical School, did his internship and residency at University Hospital in New Jersey, and completed a fellowship in pediatric surgery at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. Upperman came to Vanderbilt from the USC Keck School of Medicine, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, where he was a tenured professor of Surgery and Trauma medical director.