Dr. Paula Ferrada, MD, FACS, FCCM, MAMSE, currently serves as the Chair of the Department of Surgery at Inova Fairfax Medical Campus, Division and System Chief for Acute Care Surgery and Trauma, and Medical Director of Perioperative Services for the Inova Healthcare System. She is also an educator and a Professor of Medical Education at the University of Virginia.

Dr. Ferrada is highly respected for her visionary leadership, dedication to surgical innovation, and her efforts to improve trauma care both nationally and internationally. She is an alumna of the ELAM (Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine) program at Drexel University and the Executive Program at the Darden School of Business, University of Virginia, which have further honed her leadership and strategic skills in healthcare administration.

She trained in general surgery at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, becoming the first Colombian woman to graduate from a general surgery program within the Harvard system. She completed a fellowship in surgical critical care at the University of Pittsburgh and an additional year of fellowship training at the Shock Trauma Center, University of Maryland, as their first Acute Care Surgery Fellow.

After her training, Dr. Ferrada joined Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) as faculty, where she served in various leadership roles, including as a peer-elected member of the Medical College of Virginia Physicians board. She was the Surgical Critical Care Fellowship Director and Director of the Surgical and Trauma Critical Care Units. Her clinical and leadership accomplishments led to her rapid promotion to the rank of full Professor of Surgery at VCU.

Dr. Ferrada is an accomplished educator. She developed multiple ultrasound courses taught through the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and the Panamerican Trauma Society, educating hundreds of surgeons and first responders worldwide on the use of point-of-care ultrasound. She has received numerous teaching awards, including those from Harvard medical students, and prestigious honors from VCU Medical School: the Irby James Teaching Award and the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award, both highlighting her commitment to education. In 2021, she was inducted as a Member for the Academy of Master Surgeon Educators of the ACS.

Within the ACS, Dr. Ferrada has served as Chair of the Young Fellows Association (YFA). Prior to her chairmanship, she led the mentoring program and the education pillar, creating many opportunities for young surgeons within the ACS. While representing YFA, she also served on the Program Committee and the Committee on Trauma of the ACS. Additionally, she has held positions as a Councilor and Secretary-Treasurer for the Virginia Chapter of the ACS, and she has served as its President. Currently, she is a member of the ACS Board of Governors representing Virginia and chairs the Program Committee for the Women in Surgery Committee (WiSC).

Internationally, Dr. Ferrada is the Immediate Past President of the Panamerican Trauma Society. In her various roles within the society, including Secretary and Chair of the Education and Research Committee, she developed a mentorship program for young surgeons, an ultrasound course for first responders, published the first multicenter trial sponsored by the organization, and established a scholarship to support young surgeons and surgeons-in-training.

She has also served as Chair of the Mentoring Committee and Director of the Division of Membership for the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma (EAST). During her tenure, she created a mid-career leadership program, a speakers’ bureau, and a Twitter chat to support members of EAST.

Dr. Ferrada’s passion for patient care has translated into numerous research projects, resulting in significant improvements in clinical practice. She has over 130 publications in peer-reviewed journals and serves as an Associate Editor for the American Journal of Surgery. She is also on the editorial boards of Surgery, the Journal of the American College of Surgeons (JACS), the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, and the British Journal of Surgery.

She has edited several books on the care of traumatized patients and has secured funding from the Department of Defense and the Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Ferrada has led multiple multicenter trials and contributed to the development of practice guidelines for the management of acute care surgical patients.