Natasha Keric, MD, Named Chief of the Division Trauma, Surgical Critical Care and Acute Care Surgery

Natasha Keric, MD — associate professor of Surgery, the co-director of the Surgery Clerkship and inaugural chair of the Program Evaluation Committee — has been named chief of the Division of Trauma, Surgical Critical Care and Acute Care Surgery at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix.

Dr. Keric is a trauma, surgical critical care and acute care surgeon at Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix. In her new role as chief of the division, Dr. Keric will lead the academic medical center team of trauma and critical care specialists at the Banner – University Medicine Trauma and Critical Care Surgery Center and oversee medical student and graduate medical education.

“Dr. Keric’s proven clinical expertise and aptitude for medical student and resident education and training made her the ideal candidate to be named chief of the division. We look forward to our continued work together bringing advanced surgical expertise for all those seeking care at Banner,” said Dr. Venkata Evani, CEO of Banner – University Medical Group.

“Dr. Keric led the division with strong leadership and developed innovative programs while interim division chief over the past year. She is nationally recognized in both education and trauma/critical care circles and looks to grow and diversify this already outstanding group of surgeons,” said Nathaniel Soper, MD, chair of the Department of Surgery. “I am very happy that she has agreed to take on this critical role.”

Dr. Keric supports and holds leadership positions in surgical education at the local, regional and national levels. She serves on education committees for the Association for Surgical Education (ASE), American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, Society of Critical Care Medicine (vice chair) and the Arizona Chapter of the American College of Surgeons (chair).

A co-author for the American College of Surgeons (ACS)/ASE Medical Student Curriculum, she initiated the College of Medicine – Phoenix as one of the first sites in launching this national curriculum in the college’s Surgery Clerkship. She also created and currently directs the inaugural Surgical Intern Readiness Bootcamp at the college. This course serves as a pilot testing site for the ACS/ASE/Association of Program Directors in Surgery National Resident Prep Curriculum.

In addition to these distinctions, the College of Medicine – Phoenix Class of 2021 awarded her the Excellence in Teaching by a Clerkship — which recognizes superior teaching and professionalism across the sites that support students. She was inducted, along with the Class of 2019, to the college’s chapter of the Gold Humanism Honor Society, in recognition of her dedication to compassionate patient care and to serving as a role model, mentor and leader in medicine.

“Dr. Keric has long been an exemplar of the type of clinical faculty we aspire to have training the next generation of physicians,” said Dean Guy Reed, MD, MS. “Her work to pilot a standardized surgery curriculum for our third-year medical students helped put the college at the forefront of innovation in surgical education.”

A graduate of the University of Illinois College of Medicine, Dr. Keric completed her general surgery residency at Baylor Scott & White Medical Center – Temple and her fellowship in trauma and critical care at R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland.