COL Brian Eastridge was born in Pennsylvania and grew up in southwestern Virginia and western Maryland. He completed his undergraduate education in biochemistry at Virginia Tech and graduated with honors in 1985. From there, COL Eastridge studied for his MD and did his residency in general surgery at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, MD. From his latter years in medical school, he developed a passion for caring for the injured. In 1988, he accepted a commission as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserve envisioning that his future skills would be useful to the military in a time of war. Subsequently, Dr Eastridge did his fellowship training in surgical critical care at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, TX and then spent 10 years on faculty at UTSW rising to the position of associate professor and associate director of trauma of the Parkland Memorial Hospital.
While at UTSW, he was deployed three times to the battlefield in support of combat operations Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom as a U.S Army Reserve surgeon. During his deployment to Iraq in 2004, COL Eastridge was chief of surgery for the 67th CSH before being recommended as the first Joint Theater Trauma System Director. These moving and powerful experiences lead COL Eastridge to transition to active duty in the U.S Army. He was appointed as the Chief of the Division of Trauma and Chief of Trauma and Surgical Critical Care at the Brooke Army Medical Center at Ft Sam Houston, TX from 2006- 2007. In 2007, COL Eastridge was deployed as the Joint Theater Trauma System Director overseeing combat casualty care process throughout the CENTCOM area of operations. He accepted the position of Director of the Joint Trauma System from 2008-2010 and in late 2010, once again deployed to lead the Joint Theater Trauma System. In 2010, COL Eastridge was appointed as Trauma Consultant to the US Army Surgeon General and served in that position until 2012. During his career, COL Eastridge has published extensively in the peer reviewed literature and edited three books focused upon improving the military trauma system and improving combat casualty care outcomes for our Wounded Warriors.
COL Eastridge has been a visionary leader in military medicine and in reshaping the way trauma and emergency care is delivered on the modern battlefield. We are honored to have COL Brian Eastridge deliver the LTC Mark Taylor Memorial Lecture in Trauma at the inaugural tri-service meeting of the Society of Military Surgeons hosted by SAGES.