Col. Valerie G. Sams, MD, FACS

Dr. Sams serves as the Critical Care Air Transport Team (CCAT) training cadre and director of the Center for Sustainment of Trauma and Readiness Skills (C-STARS) in Cincinnati.

She completed her general surgery residency at the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville in 2013, followed by a trauma critical care fellowship at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, where she graduated in 2015 and remained as a staff surgeon and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation physician.

Following completion of her training, Dr. Sams deployed as the trauma czar for Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan (October 2015–April 2016). She returned from deployment and assumed the role of general surgery element leader and then general surgery and radiology flight commander and associate program director for the acute care surgery fellowship until 2018 when she deployed a second time as the trauma czar in Bagram.

Dr. Sams returned to serve as the Trauma Division research director and performance improvement director, in addition to the 59th Medical Wing Science and Technology Division's Surgical and Technological Advancement for Traumatic Injuries in Combat research program director, as well as Ground Surgical Team Pilot Unit leader. She assumed the role of trauma medical director and assistant chief of trauma and surgical critical care in September 2019 and served in this role until June 2022.