Center for Trauma and Critical Care Education

Faculty Biosketch

Dr. Cole serves as the Associate Medical Director of the CTCCE, helping to supervise and ensure the quality of the education provided. Education and lifelong learning are essential to Dr. Cole and one of the things he loves most about the field of medicine is teaching future medical providers as he was previously taught by his attendings and mentors. In almost no other field is paying it forward as important as it is in medicine and surgery and having the opportunity to share knowledge and learn together is what keeps the job fun and interesting. Dr. Cole held a number of teaching positions during fellowship, residency, and medical school but first learned how to teach as a Special Forces Medical Sergeant in the U.S. Army. He served in the Army from 2004-2010, deploying three times with the 10^th Special Forces Group (Airborne). Downrange his teams constantly worked on cross-training, each Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) teaching their individual skills to the rest of the team. As the detachment medic, he was responsible for arranging Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) training for his team as well as host-nation forces to ensure mission-readiness.

Dr. Cole frequently serves as an instructor for the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) and the ATLS Instructor courses and serves as a course director for the Rural Trauma Team Development Course (RTTDC) and the Advanced Surgical Skills for Exposure in Trauma (ASSET) course. He works closely with VCU’s Military Civilian Partnership (MCP) program, helping to develop training and facilitate rotational experiences for military pre-hospital providers here at VCU.

Dr. Cole received his medical degree from Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine and completed General Surgery residency at Geisinger Medical Center followed by Surgical Critical Care fellowship at Cooper University Hospital. He specializes in trauma, emergency general surgery, and surgical critical care.