Meet our Faculty

Dr. Lawson completed surgical residency at MCG before completing a one-year trauma fellowship through Emory University at Grady Memorial Hospital and a Surgical Critical Care Fellowship at UT-Houston.  Dr. Lawson is the director of Surgical Critical Care for Augusta University, managing the STICU and SICU.  He also serves as the Surgical Critical Care Fellowship Program Director and has been instrumental in re-designing and implementing the current fellowship didactics, call schedule, and clinical experience.

Dr O’Keeffe was born in England, and went to medical school in Edinburgh, Scotland. He emigrated to the USA in 1996 – where did his surgical residency at Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, Oregon. He then went to Miami, Florida, for a Trauma and critical care fellowship, during which time he also obtained a Master’s in Public Health. His first faculty position was at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas in 2006, following which he moved to the University of Arizona in 2008. During his time in Arizona, Dr O’Keeffe was promoted to full professor with tenure over his more than a decade at that institution. Having served as the interim Division Chief of Trauma at the University of Arizona, he was recruited to Augusta University in 2019 where he is now the Division Chief of Trauma and the J. Harold Harrison Distinguished University Chair in Trauma Surgery. His research interests include critical care medicine, transfusion, traumatic brain injury and injury prevention. He has authored or co-authored over 190 peer-reviewed articles and twenty book chapters.

Dr. Abuzeid has a wealth of operative experience from a diverse global training background and completed his Surgical Critical Care training at Northwestern University. He is heavily involved in quality improvement initiatives.  He is the QITI director for the general surgery residency, leads the departmental morbidity and mortality conference weekly, and is involved with service line process improvement as well.

Dr. Fox completed her surgical training at Brown University before completing a two-year fellowship through Emory University at Grady Memorial Hospital.  Dr. Fox is heavily involved with education and trauma systems work at AU.  She has won 3 out of the last 4 faculty teaching awards and was fundamental in creating many of the didactic conferences for the residents and fellows.  Additionally, she is the faculty director of the Trauma & Acute Care Surgery Research Group.

I grew up in Minnesota and I have been married to my medical school classmate for 23 years and we have two children. I now consider myself a Georgian after moving here in 2006 to complete my military general surgery residency and active-duty army commitment in 2010.  I was in a local private burn group practice for 4 years prior to returning to training in 2014 and completing my surgical critical care fellowship at Augusta University Medical College.  After a brief return to the private burn, acute care surgery and trauma practice, I joined the trauma, acute care surgery and surgical critical care department at the Medical College of Georgia in 2017 and have a special interest in complex wounds.  I love the reconstructive aspect of wound care.

Dr. Bursey is a wonderful part-time addition to our core faculty group.  From an EM background, he brings a wealth of knowledge and diverse experience.  He created the ED ICU and serves as its current service chief.  He additionally has a great deal of ultrasound proficiency and training, giving our fellows a unique experience.  Our fellows look forward to the educational benefits that he affords during his weeks in the ICU.

Dr. Mabes is an enthusiastic addition and has a focus in wound care, education, and surgical simulation. She also has been made an assistant program director for the general surgery program.