Biography

Martin A. Schreiber, M.D., has built his career around service, leadership, and innovation in surgery. He is known internationally as a surgeon, researcher, educator, and military officer whose work has shaped how both military and civilian teams approach emergency care.

He studied chemistry at the University of Chicago before earning his medical degree at Case Western Reserve University. His surgical training took him through Madigan Army Medical Center and the University of Washington, where he served as Chief Resident and completed a fellowship in trauma and surgical critical care. Even early on, he showed a focus on improving the care of patients in the most demanding situations.

Much of his professional life has balanced military service with academic medicine. As a Colonel in the United States Army Reserve, he deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, serving as Chief of Surgery at the 31st Combat Support Hospital in Tikrit and as Chief of Trauma at the 228th Combat Support Hospital at Shank. He directed the Joint Theater Trauma System, where he oversaw efforts to improve and coordinate trauma care across the armed forces. These assignments put him in places where skill and quick decisions made the difference between life and death. His training, from Airborne School to leading combat trauma teams, gave him the tools to shape systems that continue to save lives.

At the same time, Dr. Schreiber built a strong academic career. He taught at Texas Tech University, Baylor College of Medicine, and the Uniformed Services University before joining Oregon Health & Science University. At OHSU, he became Professor of Surgery and also held appointments in physiology, pharmacology, and regenerative medicine. He led the Donald D. Trunkey Center for Civilian and Combat Casualty Care, working to advance trauma science and prepare both military and civilian surgeons. Teaching has been a constant thread in his work, whether in classrooms, operating rooms, or national training programs.

Research has been central to his impact. He has studied how to treat traumatic brain injury before patients reach the hospital, new ways to resuscitate those in hemorrhagic shock, and better methods of stopping severe bleeding. He has also led the development of blood products designed for use when standard supplies are not available. His research has been supported by the Department of Defense, the National Institutes of Health, and private industry, and he has published more than six hundred scientific papers.

Dr. Schreiber has also been active in leadership roles across national organizations. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, where he has served as Region X Chief of the Committee on Trauma and as Chair of the Advocacy Committee of the Board of Governors. He has also chaired the Trauma Center Association of America and led several professional societies at the state and regional level. Today, he serves as National Director of the Definitive Surgical Trauma Care Course, helping set training standards for surgeons across the world.

His work has been recognized with major awards, including the John P. Pryor Distinguished Service Award in Military Casualty Care from the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma and the Henry Harkins Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Washington. He was recently named an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Thailand, showing how far his impact has spread around the world. He continues to lecture widely in the United States and abroad, sharing both scientific insights and the lessons of his military service.

As Adjunct Professor of Surgery at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and a Colonel in the Army Reserve, Dr. Schreiber continues to combine service and science. His work has always carried the same goal: to give trauma patients, whether warfighters or civilians, the best possible chance of survival.