Anna Ledgerwood, M.D., F.A.C.S., professor of surgery for the Wayne State University School of Medicine, will be inducted as president of the American Surgical Association this week.

Dr. Ledgerwood will become the association's first female president April 11 at the ASA's 134th meeting in Boston.

The ASA is the nation's oldest - and considered by many the most prestigious - surgical organization. Members include the country's most prominent surgeons from leading academic medical schools. Its primary mission is to be the premier organization for surgical science and scholarship, provide a national forum for presenting state-of-the-art science of general and sub-specialty surgery and elevate the standards of the profession.

Dr. Ledgerwood will serve as president-elect through 2014, and will deliver her presidential address at the association's 135th meeting, which will be held in San Diego in April 2015.

The Grosse Pointe Farms resident, a School of Medicine faculty member since 1972, said that among the issues she plans to address during her term as president are those "related to the resident work hours and their training, and how to increase research productivity of the young faculty."

The trauma director for Detroit Receiving Hospital, Dr. Ledgerwood serves as a trauma site visitor to verify hospitals as trauma centers for the American College of Surgeons.

She continues to give small teaching sessions to groups of WSU residents and medical students twice a week and makes rounds daily with them to educate and mentor at the bedside. She is a frequent guest lecturer at other medical schools and has a special interest in promoting women in the field of surgery.

She has been recognized locally, nationally and internationally for her achievements. She served as president of the Detroit and Michigan surgical associations, and as president of the Midwest Surgical Association, the Michigan chapter of the American College of Surgeons, the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, and as vice president for the ACS and the American Surgical Association.

Other WSU faculty members who belong to the ASA include Charles Lucas, M.D., F.A.C.S.; Larry Stephenson, M.D.; Choichi Sugawa, M.D.; Robert Wilson, M.D.; Lawrence Diebel, M.D.; Scott Dulchavsky, M.D., Ph.D.; and Robert Mentzer Jr., M.D.