About Metropolitan Washington DC Chapter, ACS

DC Chapter Leadership

Group of Docs

View the current Council and Committees on the Leadership page. You can also express your volunteer interest on this page.

All Chapter activities and affairs are managed by its Council, which consists of the officers of the Chapter, councilors elected by members of the Chapter, and governors and regents of the College residing in the area. Chairs of the Chapter's special interest committees (such as the Young Surgeons Committee, the Program Committee, and the Award Committee), as well as the College's Cancer Liaison and the local Trauma Committee Chair serve as ex-officio members of the Council and are asked to attend its meetings.

Officers of the Chapter include a president, vice president, secretary-treasurer, immediate past president, and six councilors. Officers serve one-year terms and are elected by the Chapter membership during the annual meeting-All Surgeons Day. Councilors also are elected during the annual meeting, and they serve three-year terms.

Awards

Deadline for nominations is February 15 of each year.

The Metropolitan Washington DC Chapter of the American College of Surgeons established the Harry B. Zehner, Jr., Memorial Traveling Fellowship Award to honor the late Dr. Harry B. Zehner, Jr., a founder and prime advocate of the Chapter. The award is given annually to an outstanding Metropolitan Washington surgical or surgical specialty resident that has been nominated by his or her program training director.

The award of $1,500 is to be used by the award recipient to visit another residency training program or laboratory in order to exchange ideas and/or observe surgical techniques. This visit should advance the resident's future endeavors.

The Chapter's Award Selection Committee will review nominations submitted by local program training directors on the merit of scholarship, surgical acumen, judgment, and plans for the use of the award.

Award Eligibility/Submission Information
Eligible entrants must:

Be at least a third-year general surgery or surgical specialty resident in an approved program in the Metropolitan Washington area
Be a resident member of the American College of Surgeons
Be nominated by their program director
Provide a letter of support from the visiting institution
Complete a brief application
Provide a curriculum vitae

Instructions to the Program Training Director
The program training director is responsible for nominationg eligible residents from their program and must discuss with the resident his or plans for use of the award. A letter of support from the proposed visit site is required.

Application Process
The Zehner Memorial Traveling Fellowship Award Committee will review all applications. The finalists will be invited to meet with the members of the Committee as part of the selection process. Announcement of winners will be made at All Surgeons Day.

Complete the Harry B. Zehner, Jr., Memorial Traveling Fellowship Award Online Application.

Each eligible resident is invited to apply. Each application should be submitted to the committee with a letter of recommendation.

Plans for use of the award to attend seminars or national meetings will not be considered. The recipient of the award will be required to report back to the Chapter after the visit has been completed.

In Memoriam
Born in Washington, Dr. Zehner graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University in 1952 and from Harvard University Medical School in 1956. Both his internship and surgical residency were completed at the University of California Medical Center.

Dr. Zehner served on the staffs of Sibley, Doctors, Columbia, Providence, and Georgetown University hospitals, and he was a clinical assistant professor of surgery at the Georgetown University Medical School.

He served as a consultant in surgery to the State Department. He was Chairman of the Mayor's Advisory Committee on Emergency Medical Services and played a role in bringing about the first laws to regulate ambulances and ambulance attendants in Washington.

For several years, Dr. Zehner served on a voluntary basis with the Washington, DC, Fire Department, teaching emergency medical technicians how to treat shock and cardiac arrest.

Dr. Zehner was instrumental in founding the Metropolitan Washington Chapter of the American College of Surgeons. He served on the boards of Group Hospitalization, Inc., Doctors Hospital, and the Washington Hospital Center.

He also served as a lieutenant in the Naval Reserve Medical Corps with the 6th Fleet during 1957-59.

Washington Academy of Surgery Past Presidents

The following surgeons helped shape the Washington Academy of Surgery and, in turn, the Metropolitan Washington DC Chapter of the American College of Surgeons.

1933 - H. H. Kerr	1935 - Charles S. White	1937 - James Cahill
1938 - Daniel L. Borden	1939 - F. R. Hagner	1940 - William B. Marbury
1941 - Edmund Horgan	1942 - Fred Fishback	1943 - Paul Putzki
1944 - J. A. Gannon	1945 - Fred R. Sanderson	1946 - B. F. Dean
1947 - Crenshaw Briggs	1948 - John Lyons	1949 - Alec Horwitz
1950 - Arch Riddick	1951 - William Herbst	1952 - J. Olge Warfield
1953 - George Nutting	1954 - W. Ross Morris	1955 - Harry L. Claud
1956 - Robert M. Moran	1957 - Herbert Schoenfeld	1958 - Edward Cafritz
1959 - Leo Gaffney	1960 - Luther W. Gray, Sr.	1961 - Garnet W. Ault
1962 - Saul Schwartzbach	1963 - Philip Caulfield	1964 - Duane C. Richtmeyer
1965 - Joseph R. Young	1966 - Louis J. Goffredi	1967 - J. Blaine Harrell
1968 - Roy G. Klepser	1969 - John Bayly	1970 - Ernest Gould
1971 - Milton L. Goodman	1972 - William S. McCune	1973 - Brooks G. Brown, Sr.
1974 - George A. Higgins, Jr.	1975 - Edward C. Wilson	1976 - Paul C. Kiernan
1977 - Herbert M. Giffin	1978 - Frederick B. Brandt	1979 - Paul E. Shorb, Jr.
1980 - Jerome L. Sandler	1981 - LaSalle D. Leffall, Jr.	1982 - William F. Feller
1983 - Norman H. Isaacson	1984 - Glenn W. Geelhoed	1985 - William J. Fouty
1986 - Robert B. Wallace	1987 - William E. Matory	1988 - Judson G. Randolph
1989 - Stanley M. Knoll	1990 - Linwood L. Rayford, Jr.	1991 - Luther W. Gray, Jr.
1992 - Peter E. Petrucci	1993 - Ralph G. DePalma	1994 - Thomas J. Calhoun
1995 - Hugh H. Trout, III	1996 - Katherine L. Alley	1997 - Edward A. Ranklin
1998 - Anton N. Sidawy

Metropolitan Washington DC Chapter Past Presidents

The DC Chapter honors all of the leaders who have guided the organization from its founding.

1973 - Harry Zehner, Jr., MD, FACS	1974 - Joseph Rodgers Young, MD, FACS	1975 - Louis J. Goffredi, MD, FACS
1976 - Phillip H. Philbin, MD, FACS	1977 - John F. Potter, MD, FACS	1978 - LaSalle D. Leffall, Jr., MD, FACS
1979 - William H. Cooper, MD, FACS	1980 - George A. Higgins, Jr., MD, FACS	1981 - David C. Wherry, MD, FACS
1982 - Judson G. Randolph, MD, FACS	1983 - William E. Matory, MD, FACS	1984 - Jerome W. Carter, MD, FACS
1985 - Paul E. Shorb, Jr., MD, FACS	1986 - Frederick J. Frensilli, MD, FACS	1987 - William J. Fouty, MD, FACS
1988 - Hugh H. Trout, II, MD, FACS	1989 - James C. Cobey, MD, FACS	1990 - Norman A. Odyniec, MD, FACS
1991 - Edward A. Rankin, Jr., MD, FACS	1992 - John W. Little, MD, FACS	1993 - Lee. E. Smith, MD, FACS
1994 - Mary H. McGrath, MD, FACS	1995 - John R. Kirkpatrick, MD, FACS	1996 - Russell J. Nauta, MD, FACS
1997 - COL David P. Jaques, MD, FACS	1998 - Kurt D. Newman, MD, FACS	1999 - Peter Petrucci, MD, FACS
2000 - Anton N. Sidawy, MD, FACS	2001 - Robert H. Dennis, II, MD, FACS	2002 - Stephen R.T. Evans, MD, FACS
2003 - COL Mary Maniscalco-Theberge, MD, FACS	2004 - Debra Holly Ford, MD, FACS	2005 - Jon C. White, MD, FACS
2006 - Don Colvin, MD, FACS	2007 - Richard Neville, MD, FACS	2008 - COL Craig Shriver, MD, FACS
2009 - Jeffrey Lukish, MD, FACS

Mission

The District of Columbia Chapter of the American College of Surgeons was founded in 1972. Its goals since then have been:

To promote the aims, interests, ideals, and programs of the College in the metropolitan area of Washington, which includes DC as well as suburban Maryland and Virginia.
To hold itself responsible for and use its best efforts to attain the objectives of the College, which are to "elevate the standards of surgery, establish a standard of competency and of character for practitioners of surgery, to provide a method of granting Fellowship, and to educate the public and the profession to understand that the practice of surgery calls for special training and that the surgeon elected to Fellowship in this College has had such training and is properly qualified to practice surgery."
To welcome new Fellows of the College into the Chapter and develop better acquaintances among local Fellows.
To stimulate interest in the Resident-Associate Society (RAS) among surgical residents and young surgeons.

The Chapter is comprised of more than 400 members. These individuals are drawn from all the surgical specialties — from general surgery to plastic surgery, from urology to vascular. The membership is very diverse with significant representation from all local training centers, including the military.