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Become a member and receive career-enhancing benefits

Our top priority is providing value to members. Your Member Services team is here to ensure you maximize your ACS member benefits, participate in College activities, and engage with your ACS colleagues. It's all here.

Become a Member
Become a member and receive career-enhancing benefits

Our top priority is providing value to members. Your Member Services team is here to ensure you maximize your ACS member benefits, participate in College activities, and engage with your ACS colleagues. It's all here.

Membership Benefits
ACS
course

ACS Surgeons as Leaders: From Operating Room to Boardroom

March 23-26, 2025 | Durham, NC

ACS Surgeons as Leaders: From Operating Room to Boardroom

Today’s surgical environment—both in academic and community practice worlds—is challenging, complex, and unpredictable. The need for leadership has never been greater, and the demands on leaders are ever escalating, whether in the operating room or the board room.

The 2025 ACS Surgeons as Leaders Course aims to address today’s evolving challenges in healthcare from a leadership perspective. Features of the course include individual meetings with expert faculty for personalized guidance, working lunches with faculty to promote networking and discussion of challenges identified by course attendees, special concurrent sessions tailored to address issues faced by leaders in community practice and those in academic practice, sessions on diversity, and more. A variety of interactive panel discussions, case-based sessions, lectures, and small group discussions will foster networking and personalized learning throughout the three-day course. The purpose of this course is to provide surgeons with an understanding of leadership at all levels of an organization and to provide them with the skills that are essential for effective leadership.

Leadership

Whether in the operating room or in the boardroom, surgeons in academic medical centers as well as community hospitals must be able to:

  • Exhibit the attributes of a leader to effectively resolve leadership challenges
  • Lead oneself with insight regarding personal effectiveness
  • Build, maintain, and align effective teams to achieve goals
  • Change culture, resolve conflict, and balance demands within the larger environment
  • Utilize innovative approaches to address evolving concerns during organizational change
  • Translate the principles of leadership into action
Intended Participants

The course is designed for surgeons who currently serve in leadership positions, or aspire to such positions, and who seek to enhance their leadership skills across a wide variety of settings, from operating room to boardroom. Surgeons in community practice and academic practice who want to advance their skills in leading people, groups, and organizations will find the course beneficial. The emphasis will be on leadership; management of such entities and the skills generally associated with management will not be addressed in the course.

The course is limited to 72 participants. ACS Members will receive priority consideration. All participants are expected to attend the entire course and remain until the conclusion of the course.

Course Content

Nationally renowned faculty will guide sessions addressing the principles and practice of leadership, including preparing oneself to lead through mental readiness, applying emotional intelligence, leading as a diverse individual, and effectively managing up, down, and across as a leader.  Strategies to address personal and professional stress and burnout will be highlighted, along with approaches for taking on difficult challenges, and leading through change. The roles of coaches in leader development and the value of learning from leadership failures will be explored. Participants will experience different styles of communication, identify their and others’ preferred styles, and apply principles to communicate effectively across all styles and be better prepared to handle difficult conversations.  

Pathways to leadership positions, typical responsibilities of surgery chairs, evaluation of job opportunities, and negotiation of job offers will be discussed, along with envisioning the first 100 days of a new position, managing time and priorities effectively, and defining role responsibilities.

The principles of building and maintaining effective teams will be presented, including aligning surgeons to achieve consensus, and cultivating and leading a diverse work force. Recruiting and retaining surgeons, starting new clinical programs, integrating into health systems, changing culture, and addressing racism and diversity in organizations will be addressed. Other leadership challenges, such as managing conflict and territorial behavior, handling difficult personalities, and dealing with microaggressions will be emphasized. Finally, perspectives will be shared regarding the leadership role in crisis management, advocacy activities, guidance of surgeons with quality or other concerns, and leadership oversight of essential financial matters.

Course Fee

ACS Members: $5,250
Nonmembers: $5,925

Course participants must submit full payment upon notification of acceptance in order to reserve their seat in the course. Additional details will be enclosed with the notification letters. Full payment of the course fee will be due upon acceptance into the course. Personal or Institutional credit cards will be accepted. Please do not include payment information when submitting the application.

Contact

If you have questions about this course, please send an email to SurgeonsAsLeaders@facs.org.  

ACS Course Staff: 

  • Natalie Loper, Administrator
  • Michelle McNeilly, Senior Manager

Application

The 2025 ACS Surgeons as Leaders course application is now OPEN. To apply, please complete the application by clicking the button below.

The application will close on November 15, 2024, at 11:59 pm CT.

Apply Now

Continuing Medical Education Credit Information

Accreditation
The American College of Surgeons is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™
This activity has been approved for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™.

Course Location & Accommodations

The 2025 Surgeons as Leaders Course will be held at the Washington Duke Inn (WDI) in Durham, North Carolina. There will be an ACS hotel block reserved closer to the date for accepted attendees.

Surgeons as Leaders Faculty

Staff Consultants

  • Ajit K. Sachdeva, MD, FACS, FRCSC, FSACME, MAMSE
    Director, ACS Division of Education
  • Patrice Gabler Blair, DrPH, MPH
    Associate Director, ACS Division of Education