In 2010, James W. Davis, MD, FACS, was appointed the Steven N. Parks Endowed Chair of Surgery at UCSF Fresno. Dr. Davis currently serves as the Chief of Trauma at Community Regional Medical Center, a Professor of Clinical Surgery and the Program Director of the Acute Care Surgery Fellowship Program at the UCSF Fresno Center for Medical Education and Research.
Dr. Davis earned his medical degree from the University of Iowa in Iowa City. He completed a surgery internship at Highland General Hospital in Oakland, California and completed his surgery residency training at Maricopa Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona. Subsequently, Dr. Davis completed his trauma fellowship at the University of California, San Diego. He is board certified by the American Board of Surgery, with added qualification in surgical critical care.
As Chief of Trauma, Dr. Davis assembled the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma Verification at Community Regional Medical Center Level I Trauma Center, the first such verification in Fresno County. Dr. Davis also served as the first Chair of the Central California Regional Trauma Coordinating Committee (CRTCC) and continues to work with other hospitals in five county regions to improve and standardize trauma care within the area. A number of initiatives from the CRTCC have been noted as “best practices” at the State Trauma Advisory Committee.
Dr. Davis also serves as the Program Director for the Acute Care Surgery Fellowship Program, in which he and his team have expanded coverage of emergency general surgery. Established in 2009, the fellowship program includes trauma, surgical critical care, and emergency general surgery. This is a new fellowship nationally; the UCSF Fresno program was the fourth in the country to be approved and the first to be approved within the state of California.
Dr. Davis has a strong interest in intimate partner violence and domestic violence and has spoken locally, regionally, and nationally since 2008 on this topic and continues to do so.
In October 2011, Dr. Davis served as the Senior Visiting Surgeon from the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (US Army Hospital) in Germany, helping to care for some of the wounded service personnel from Afghanistan and Iraq.
In 1996, he was co-recipient of the UCSF Fresno Faculty Research Award. In 1994, he received the UCSF Fresno Henry J. Kaiser Teaching Award – Honorable Mention.
Dr. Davis is the region nine chief for the Committee on Trauma for the American College of Surgeons. He has served as the president and member of the Western Trauma Association, and as a member of the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery Editorial Board.