Summary

The Kenneth L. Mattox, MD Center for Trauma and Acute Care Innovation at Baylor College of Medicine seeks a nationally or internationally recognized surgeon-scientist to serve as its inaugural Executive Director. Candidates from surgical disciplines that contribute to the care of injured, critically ill, and acutely ill patients are strongly encouraged to apply, including—but not limited to—trauma and acute care surgery, orthopaedic surgery, neurosurgery, urology, vascular surgery, and other relevant surgical specialties.

This is a senior leadership position for a visionary academic surgeon with an established record of scientific innovation, clinical excellence, multidisciplinary collaboration, mentorship, and program development. The Executive Director will build and lead a multidisciplinary center dedicated to transforming the care of injured and acutely ill surgical patients through discovery, translational and clinical research, implementation science, technological innovation, commercialization, and data science.

Working across Baylor College of Medicine and its affiliated clinical institutions, the Executive Director will establish the Center’s scientific strategy, develop shared research infrastructure, recruit and mentor investigators, expand competitive extramural funding, and create partnerships spanning clinical medicine, engineering, data science, industry, and government. The Director will advance pathways that move discoveries from investigation to clinical implementation and, where appropriate, commercialization.

The position will include protected leadership and research effort, administrative support, and access to institutional resources commensurate with the scope of the Center and the experience of the successful candidate.

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 multidisciplinary research program focused on trauma, acute surgical disease, critical illness, and the full continuum of care for injured and acutely ill patients.
• Build an interdisciplinary faculty network spanning trauma and acute care surgery, orthopaedic surgery, neurosurgery, urology, vascular surgery, anesthesiology, emergency medicine, critical care, rehabilitation, data science, and other disciplines relevant to the Center’s mission.
• Foster collaborations across Baylor College of Medicine, affiliated hospitals and health systems, engineering and basic science programs, industry, foundations, and federal agencies.
• Serve as a catalyst for surgical innovation across Baylor College of Medicine while maintaining close partnership with the Division of Trauma, Bariatrics, and Acute Care Surgery and other participating departments and divisions.
• Recruit, retain, and develop investigators, research faculty, data scientists, and research staff necessary to advance the Center’s mission.

Research Leadership

• Create an environment that enables faculty across participating departments and divisions to successfully compete for NIH, Department of Defense, BARDA, NSF, PCORI, VA, and other peer-reviewed federal, foundation, and extramural funding.
• Mentor junior and mid-career faculty in grant development, study design, manuscript preparation, team science, and career advancement.
• Develop internal grant review, methodological consultation, and mentoring programs that increase the quality and competitiveness of research proposals.
• Promote multidisciplinary translational, clinical, outcomes, and implementation research addressing critical challenges in trauma, acute surgical care, and critical illness.
• Advance multicenter clinical trials, pragmatic studies, translational research programs, and collaborative research networks in which Baylor investigators serve in substantive leadership roles.

Faculty Development and Training

• Develop a durable pipeline for the next generation of surgeon-scientists and multidisciplinary investigators through structured mentorship, research training, and career development.
• Create opportunities for residents, fellows, trainees, and early-career faculty to participate in high-quality research, innovation, and team science.
• Support faculty pursuing career development awards and independent funding, including NIH K-series and equivalent mechanisms, and develop institutional pathways that facilitate transition to research independence.
• Promote cross-specialty mentorship and collaborative scholarship that extends beyond traditional departmental boundaries.

Job Duties Continued

Innovation, Implementation, and Commercialization

• Develop programs that accelerate translation of discoveries into clinical practice and, where appropriate, commercial products, including medical devices, diagnostics, digital health technologies, therapeutics, clinical decision support tools, and artificial intelligence applications.
• Advance implementation science, workflow redesign, care-delivery innovation, and dissemination of effective practices across participating clinical environments.
• Establish partnerships with industry, venture capital, engineering programs, technology transfer offices, and external innovation ecosystems.
• Facilitate intellectual property development, licensing, startup formation, commercialization, and other pathways that move promising innovations from concept to meaningful clinical impact.
• Promote a culture in which innovation is integrated into clinical practice, research, education, and quality improvement.

Research Infrastructure

• Lead and oversee a comprehensive shared research infrastructure supporting investigators across participating departments, divisions, and clinical programs.
• Develop and coordinate centralized resources that may include:
  • • 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
    • Implementation science and research methodology support

Data Science and Clinical Informatics

• Lead development of an integrated acute care and injury research data platform spanning participating Baylor-affiliated clinical sites and relevant surgical specialties, using electronic health record and other institutional data resources.
• Create scalable data pipelines that support observational studies, pragmatic clinical trials, quality improvement initiatives, predictive analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning applications.
• Develop standardized data definitions, governance structures, and data-sharing processes that support multicenter collaboration and high-quality, reproducible research.
• Expand institutional capabilities in clinical informatics, outcomes research, real-world evidence, and responsible use of artificial intelligence in surgical care.

Job Duties Continued

Surgical Critical Care and Acute Care Research Network

• Develop a coordinated research network across the five surgical intensive care units covered by Baylor faculty and other participating acute care environments.
• Harmonize data collection, research protocols, quality metrics, and clinical innovation initiatives where appropriate across participating ICUs and clinical sites.
• Foster multidisciplinary collaboration among surgeons, intensivists, nurses, pharmacists, respiratory therapists, advanced practice providers, rehabilitation specialists, and other healthcare professionals.
• Promote multicenter and system-wide research initiatives that improve outcomes for injured and critically ill surgical patients.

Clinical Responsibilities

• Maintain a focused active clinical practice appropriate to the candidate’s surgical specialty, expertise, and leadership responsibilities.
• Demonstrate excellence in patient care while serving as a role model for faculty and trainees.
• Promote multidisciplinary approaches to the care of injured, critically ill, and acutely ill surgical patients.
• Leverage clinical challenges across surgical specialties to generate innovative research, quality improvement, and implementation initiatives.

Institutional Commitment and Resources

• The Executive Director will receive protected leadership and research effort commensurate with the scope of the position.
• The Center will be supported by administrative and research infrastructure designed to enable cross-departmental collaboration, extramural funding, data science, clinical research, and innovation.
• The Executive Director will work with institutional and departmental leadership to define and deploy Center resources, recruit key personnel, and establish sustainable operating and research support aligned with strategic priorities.

Minimum Qualifications

Required:

• MD, DO, or equivalent medical degree.
• Board certification in an American Board of Medical Specialties surgical specialty, or equivalent certification appropriate to the candidate’s discipline.
• Eligibility for medical licensure in the State of Texas.
• Academic accomplishments appropriate for appointment at the Associate Professor or Professor level at Baylor College of Medicine.
• National or international reputation in a field relevant to trauma, acute surgical care, critical illness, surgical innovation, or the care of injured patients.
• Established record of competitive extramural research funding as principal investigator or substantive program leader, including NIH, DoD, BARDA, VA, PCORI, NSF, foundation, or comparable peer-reviewed support.
• Demonstrated success mentoring investigators and developing productive research programs.
• Significant experience leading multidisciplinary teams, collaborative research initiatives, or cross-specialty programs.
• Outstanding record of peer-reviewed publications and academic scholarship.

Preferred:

• Experience directing a research center, institute, or major academic research program.
• Demonstrated success developing interdisciplinary research programs that span traditional departmental or specialty boundaries.
• Demonstrated success in technology development, implementation, patents, licensing, or startup creation.
• Expertise in clinical informatics, data science, artificial intelligence, large clinical databases, or other emerging technologies relevant to surgical care.
• Experience leading multicenter clinical trials, translational research programs, pragmatic trials, or large collaborative research networks.
• Proven ability to develop partnerships with industry, engineering, governmental agencies, foundations, and other academic disciplines.

Desired Leadership Attributes

The successful candidate will be:

• A visionary leader capable of defining the future of trauma, acute surgical care, and multidisciplinary surgical innovation.
• An accomplished surgeon-scientist with exceptional academic credibility and a record of meaningful scientific contribution.
• A collaborative builder who creates productive partnerships across specialties, departments, institutions, and disciplines.
• An effective mentor dedicated to developing future surgeon-investigators and multidisciplinary research leaders.
• An innovative thinker who embraces emerging technologies, implementation science, translational research, and rigorous team science.
• An entrepreneurial leader capable of moving discoveries from concept to clinical implementation and, where appropriate, commercialization.
• A strategic communicator who can inspire faculty, trainees, institutional leaders, patients, philanthropic partners, industry, and external collaborators.

Success Metrics

Within five years, the Executive Director will be expected to demonstrate measurable progress toward:

• Significant growth in NIH and other federal funding awarded to division faculty.
• Increased number of independently funded surgeon-scientists.
• Development of a comprehensive acute care research data platform spanning Baylor's surgical ICUs.
• Expansion of multicenter clinical and translational research programs.
• Growth in intellectual property, patents, licensing agreements, and commercial partnerships.
• National recognition of the Kenneth L. Mattox, MD Center for Trauma and Acute Care Innovation as a premier center for research, innovation, and translational science in trauma, acute care surgery, and surgical critical care.