At Convocation tonight, Charles Mabry, MD, FACS, will receive the Distinguished Service Award, the most prestigious honor the ACS bestows. Established by the Board of Regents nearly 70 years ago, the award recognizes a surgeon who has made outstanding contributions to the ACS while embodying surgical ideals of ethical conduct and excellence in patient care.
Dr. Mabry, who is the chief of surgery at Jefferson Regional Medical Center in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, has been involved with the ACS for more than 45 years.
Education and Trauma Career
Dr. Mabry’s engagement with the ACS began as he completed his surgical training. He earned his medical degree and finished his residency in trauma surgery at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) in Little Rock, where he encountered Advanced Trauma Life Support® (ATLS®). The program, now in its 11th edition and approaching its 50th anniversary, was brand new at the time.
As Dr. Mabry launched his surgical career, he was asked to develop the first trauma service at UAMS Medical Center. As part of that effort, he became an ATLS instructor, remaining so for 12 years.
His involvement with the ACS continued over the ensuing decades through several trauma care programs. This has included serving as the Arkansas state chair of the ACS Committee on Trauma and the course director for the Arkansas Trauma Evaluation and Management (TEAM)TM Course, which united the Arkansas Trauma Society and the Arkansas ACS Chapter in a close collaboration.
Through his leadership, he has helped strengthen connections between the ACS and other trauma organizations. For example, he served as the medical director of the Arkansas Trauma Society and chair of the Governor’s Trauma Advisory Council within the Arkansas Trauma System.
Through his decades at the forefront of transforming Arkansas’s trauma care systems, Dr. Mabry has helped to substantially improve patient outcomes. As lead author of a 2024 study published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, Dr. Mabry helped quantify this progress, showing a reduction in preventable or possibly preventable deaths from 30% to approximately 6%–7% of trauma deaths.
Quick to deflect praise from himself to the teams he leads, Dr. Mabry credits the national and international work of the ACS Committee on Trauma for generating insights and innovations that were applicable to local and state-level trauma systems.
Wide-Ranging Service
Dr. Mabry has served on the ACS General Surgery Coding and Reimbursement Committee (GSCRC) for nearly 35 years, through which he represented general surgeons on the American Medical Association/Specialty Society Relative Value Scale Update Committee. The work focuses on ensuring that Current Procedural Terminology codes and relative value units for surgical procedures are valued appropriately.
His service to the ACS also has included roles as course director for the ACS Basic and Advanced Coding Seminar, President of the ACS Arkansas Chapter, and Chair of the ACS Health Policy Advisory Committee. A past member of the ACS Advisory Councils on General Surgery, Pediatric Surgery, and Health Policy, Dr. Mabry served on the ACS Board of Regents from 2003 to 2011 and as 2016–2017 ACS First Vice-President.
Enduring Commitment
Dr. Mabry’s career reflects his commitment to the ACS motto “To Heal All with Skill and Trust” and the values the Distinguished Service Award recognizes.
His contributions to the ACS also reflect his belief that the benefits of his involvement have been mutual. “I've gained so much from working in the College and working with the Regents, Governors, and Executive Directors, and all the directors in the ACS,” he said.
Convocation will begin at 5:45 pm in Hall B on the Lower Level. The ceremony will be livestreamed and available on demand soon after its conclusion.
