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Throughout her career, Roxie Albrecht, MD, FACS, FCCM, paired patient care as a trauma surgeon with transformational advocacy for better patient outcomes. During her 20 years as the Director of Trauma for University of Oklahoma Health, she led the state’s first Level 1 trauma center and coordinated trauma care system. Albrecht is an exemplar in her field who has served in leadership roles on 32 regional and national professional societies.  

Albrecht came to the University of Iowa as a student-athlete on the softball team for her undergraduate degree and stayed for medical school. After completing her residency and fellowship training elsewhere, she was recruited to Oklahoma University College of Medicine and OU Health in 2000.  

At the time, the state was still reeling from the aftermath of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which revealed critical gaps in the state’s preparedness for major trauma events. Albrecht came on as the inaugural trauma medical director, leading the effort to build a statewide trauma system in Oklahoma.

OU Health received Oklahoma’s first American College of Surgeons verification as a Level I trauma center and maintained that designation continuously under Albrecht's leadership. She was appointed by the governor to a task force with leaders throughout the state to formalize the new trauma care system in legislation, ensuring patients received the level of care necessary for the best outcomes possible.

“We needed to get patients to get to the right place in the right amount of time,” said Albrecht. “We needed to verify trauma centers at their appropriate levels so that the emergency medicine services know where to take patients, develop criteria for what injuries and physiology of patients go to which centers, and provide education to all to know how to do that.”

Albrecht grounded this work in advocacy for her patients. Responding to common injuries she saw in the emergency department, Albecht worked with trauma care leaders throughout the state to pass legislation for all-terrain vehicle safety for children and to promote bike safety. She published research on how to improve patient outcomes with her colleagues, including the development of triage metrics for geriatric trauma care.

Her national leadership in trauma care includes tenures as region chief for the American College of Surgeons, vice-president of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, and president of the Midwest Surgical Society, the Southwestern Surgical Society, and the Western Trauma Association. In these roles, she advocated for nationwide improvements to trauma care and directly mentored many of the next generation of trauma surgeons and surgeon-scientists.

“Professional societies filled my passion for education and patient outcomes,” Albrecht says. “And some of the societies I belonged to for the camaraderie.”

While she recently retired, Albrecht often steps back in to help at OU Health and currently serves as the Carver College of Medicine’s representative on the Alumni Leadership Council. And as often as she can, she makes time to see former patients and mentees.

“Dedicating your life to helping others and seeing the outcomes of the people that we cared for solidifies why you go through all the hours and hardships,” she says. “That’s what my career was all about — helping people.”