Summary
The Kenneth L. Mattox, MD Center for Trauma and Acute Care Innovation at Baylor College of Medicine seeks an internationally recognized trauma and acute care surgeon–scientist to serve as its inaugural Executive Director. This is a senior leadership position for a visionary academic surgeon with an established record of scientific innovation, clinical excellence, and program development.

 The Executive Director will build and lead a multidisciplinary center dedicated to transforming the future of acute care surgery through translational research, clinical innovation, commercialization, and data science. The successful candidate will develop the infrastructure, culture, and collaborative environment necessary to position Baylor College of Medicine as a national leader in acute care innovation while fostering the next generation of surgeon-scientists.

Job Duties
Strategic Leadership

Develop and execute the long-term strategic vision for the Kenneth L. Mattox, MD Center for Trauma and Acute Care Innovation.
Build a nationally recognized research program focused on innovation in trauma, emergency general surgery, and surgical critical care.
Foster collaborations across Baylor College of Medicine, affiliated hospitals, engineering, basic science, industry, and federal agencies.
Serve as a mentor and catalyst for innovation throughout the Division of Trauma, Bariatrics, and Acute Care Surgery.
 

Research Leadership

Create an environment that enables division faculty to successfully compete for NIH, Department of Defense, BARDA, NSF, PCORI, and other peer-reviewed federal and foundation funding.
Mentor junior and mid-career faculty in grant development, study design, manuscript preparation, and career advancement.
Develop internal grant review and mentoring programs that increase funding success.
Promote multidisciplinary translational and clinical research programs that address critical challenges in acute care surgery.
 

Innovation and Commercialization

Develop programs that accelerate the translation of discoveries into commercial products, including medical devices, diagnostics, digital health technologies, therapeutics, and clinical decision support tools.
Establish partnerships with industry, venture capital, engineering programs, and technology transfer offices.
Facilitate intellectual property development, licensing, startup formation, and commercialization activities.
Promote a culture where innovation becomes an integral component of clinical practice and research.
 

Research Infrastructure

Design and oversee a comprehensive shared research infrastructure supporting investigators across the division.
Develop centralized resources including:

Clinical research coordination
Biostatistics and epidemiology support
Regulatory and IRB assistance
Grant development services
Data science and artificial intelligence resources
Biospecimen management
Clinical trials support
Job Duties Continued
Data Science and Clinical Informatics

Lead development of an enterprise-wide acute care surgery clinical database utilizing Epic and other institutional data resources.
Create scalable data pipelines that facilitate observational studies, pragmatic clinical trials, quality improvement initiatives, predictive analytics, and machine learning applications.
Develop standardized data definitions and governance to support multicenter collaborations and high-quality research.
Expand institutional capabilities in clinical informatics and outcomes research.
 

Surgical Critical Care Network

Establish a unified research infrastructure across the five surgical intensive care units covered by Baylor faculty.
Harmonize data collection, research protocols, quality metrics, and clinical innovation initiatives across all ICUs.
Foster multidisciplinary collaboration among surgeons, intensivists, nurses, pharmacists, respiratory therapists, and other healthcare professionals.
Promote multicenter and system-wide research initiatives that improve outcomes for critically ill surgical patients.
 

Clinical Responsibilities

Maintain an active clinical practice in trauma surgery, emergency general surgery, and surgical critical care.
Demonstrate excellence in patient care while serving as a role model for faculty and trainees.
Integrate clinical challenges into innovative research and quality improvement initiatives.