Mercer University named Dennis Ashley, M.D., the inaugural Will C. Sealy Endowed Chair of Surgery in the School of Medicine (MUSM).
 
The chair recognizes internationally renowned former MUSM surgery chair and Navicent Health surgeon Will C. Sealy, M.D. Dr. Sealy was born in Roberta in 1912 and obtained undergraduate and medical degrees from Emory University and postgraduate training at Duke University. After serving in the United States Army Medical Corps during World War II, he returned to Duke, where he served on the faculty until 1982.
 
After a brief retirement, Dr. Sealy assumed the chair of surgery at MUSM and helped to revitalize the surgery department at Navicent Health. He is best known as “the father of arrhythmia surgery” for his work to map the electrical pathways of the heart and develop operations severing them to treat various arrhythmias.
 
“I had the honor of being a third-year student on MUSM’s first surgery rotation at Navicent, and Dr. Sealy was the chair,” said Jean Sumner, M.D., dean of the School of Medicine. “His skill as a surgeon was second only to his integrity and commitment to professionalism. He focused always on what was best for the patient and held everyone, including students, to the very highest standard. He was kind and thoughtful and respectful of all members of the healthcare team. He was an outstanding teacher and took great interest in students both personally and professionally. I always felt honored to have known him and to have worked under his guidance.”
 
Dr. Ashley serves as director of trauma and adult critical care at Navicent Health and a professor of surgery at MUSM. He practices in general surgery, surgical critical care and critical care medicine at Navicent Health.
 
“Dr. Dennis Ashley is the definition of physician leadership,” said Dr. Sumner. “He is an outstanding surgeon and  has served his patients, Mercer University School of Medicine and Navicent admirably. His commitment to improving care of the trauma patient and surgical care of all patients in this state has led to deserved national recognition. His unwavering drive toward excellence in patient care and medical education has made Georgia a safer, better place. He is truly a leader whose service we should emulate.”
 
Dr. Ashley earned his bachelor’s degree from Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, and M.D. from the University of Kentucky. He completed his general surgery residency at The Medical Center of Central Georgia and MUSM, followed by a trauma fellowship at Grady Hospital, Emory University School of Medicine, in Atlanta. His surgical critical care fellowship was completed at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
 
Dr. Ashley is a member of numerous medical societies, including the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma, the Society of Critical Care Medicine, the Southern Surgical Association and the Society of University Surgeons. He is a member of the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma, where he serves as chair of the Information Technology Committee. He also serves as one of Georgia's Governors for the American College of Surgeons, and is currently the chairman of the Georgia Trauma Care Network Commission.