Prabhakar Baliga M.D. elected to Board of Governors of ACS

Prabhakar Baliga, M.D. FACS, Chair of the MUSC Department of Surgery, has been elected to the Board of Governors for the American College of Surgeons (ACS) as the Surgical Specialty Society Governor from the Southern Surgical Association (SSA).  As a Specialty Society Governor, he will serve as a direct communications link between the Fellows of the College and the members of the Board of Governors.  The ACS is a scientific and educational association of surgeons dedicated to improving the care of the surgical patient and to safeguarding standards of care in an optimal and ethical practice environment. The College has more than 82,000 Fellows, including more than 6,600 Fellows in other countries, making it the largest organization of surgeons in the world.

The College is governed by a 24-member Board of Regents which includes the ACS President. The board is elected by a geographically balanced and specialty-representative Board of Governors.  

The select group of Governors are surgical leaders who each serve as a communications link between their constituent Fellows of the College and the members of the Board of Governors. During the three-year term, Dr. Baliga will participate in a leadership summit, specialty society meetings, and participate in Board of Governors meetings. Additionally, he will have the opportunity to serve in one of the 13 workgroups that advance the five pillars of the Board of Governors: Advocacy and Health Policy, Communications, Education, Member Services, Quality, Research, and Optimal Patient Care, and Fiscal Affairs.

Dr. Baliga has been a Fellow of the ACS since 1992 and a member of the SSA for the past eight years. He has attended the ACS Leadership and Advocacy Summit and the ACS Surgeons as Leaders: From Operating Room to Boardroom. Additionally, he was awarded the ACS/ASA Health Policy and Management Scholarship to attend Brandeis University’s Executive Leadership Program in Health Policy. And, with support from the ACS SC Chapter and the SC Hospital Association, he launched the South Carolina Surgical Quality Collaborative, sponsored by Blue Cross Blue Shield of SC.

Dr. Baliga has been chair of the MUSC Department of Surgery since 2015, where he leads diverse range of programs and services spanning nine clinical divisions, in addition to the Department’s research and education divisions. His primary focus is on building a premier Department of Surgery that best meets the needs of South Carolinians and the students and surgical residents that come to MUSC to train. Prior to assuming the role as department chair, Dr. Baliga was named MUSC’s ICCE Leader for Transplant, Nephrology & Hepatology and served on the Board of Life Point, an organ procurement agency. He has also served on the Board for the United Network for Organ Sharing and the Board of Directors for the South Carolina chapter of the National Kidney Foundation.