Annesley Copeland MD

Education

1977-1981 AB Biology, Brown University, Providence RI
1981-1985 MD, University of Connecticut School of the Health Sciences, Farmington CT
1985-1986 Categorical Surgical Internship, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington DC
1987-1991 Residency in General Surgery, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington DC

Biography

Dr. Copeland obtained a bachelor’s degree in Biology from Brown University in 1981 and attended the University of Connecticut Health Sciences School of Medicine on an Army Health Professions Scholarship Program, graduating in 1985. She did a Categorical Surgery internship at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and served as a General Medical Officer at the 121st Evac Hospital in Seoul, Korea for one year. She returned to Walter Reed and completed her General Surgery residency in 1991.
As a general surgeon Dr. Copeland’s first postings were to Dewitt Army Community Hospital in Fort Belvoir, VA, and then to the Institute for Surgical Research in San Antonio. Subsequently she spent five years at the AMEDD Center and School in San Antonio as an Instructor teaching Physician Assistant students, and was voted “Instructor of the Year” nine times. She was subsequently stationed at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and finally at USUHS as a Clinical Coordinator for medical students before retiring from the Army in 2005 at the rank of Colonel.
Since 2005 Dr. Copeland has been a civilian member of the USUHS faculty and served as the Clinical Coordinator at WRAMC and when it merged with Naval Medical Center Bethesda and became Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. In 2012 she was promoted to Clerkship Director of the Surgery Core Clerkship and was extensively involved in the curriculum reform effort at USUHS.
Dr. Copeland is an active clinician with a special interest in breast surgery and in educational research. She is a member of the Association for Surgical Education, and has participated in a Surgical Education Research Fellowship that examined medical students’ perceptions of the value of their clinical education.
Dr. Copeland is a Diplomate of the American Board of Surgery and an Associate Professor of Surgery at the F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine. She is a Fellow and a member of the Board of Regents of the American College of Surgeons, and a member of the Women in Surgery Committee of the ACS. She is a long time member of the Association of Women Surgeons, and served as the national President of that organization in 2008-2009.

Career Highlights: Positions, Projects, Deployements, Awards and Additional Publications

Association of Women Surgeons Member, 1988- Council Member, 2002-2018 Chair, Chapter Development and Liaison Committee, 2003-2004 Treasurer, 2004-2006 Vice President, 2006-2007 President-Elect, 2007-2008 President, 2008-2009 Immediate Past President, 2009-2010 Past President, 2010-2011 AWS Liaison to the ACS Women in Surgery Committee, 2011- 2014 AWS Governor to the ACS, 2012-2018

Fellow, American College of Surgeons, 1994- Member, ACS Committee on Allied Health Personnel, 1996-2002 Member, ACS Women in Surgery Committee, 2011- Member, Board of Governors, 2012-2018 Member, Board of Regents, 2020- Member, Metropolitan Washington Chapter, 2002-

Association for Surgical Education Surgical Education Research Fellow, 2011-2012 Fellow, Academy of Clerkship Directors, 2015-

Member, EPA (Entrustable Professional Activity) Writing Group of the American Board of Surgery 2017

Associate Examiner, American Board of Surgery 2018-

Student, “Surgeons as Educators” Course, American College of Surgeons 2007

Surgery Committee of the National Commission for the Certification of Physician Assistants Committee member 1996-2003 Committee Chair 2002-2003

9/2001-3/2002 Deputy Commander for Clinical Services, 28th Combat Support Hospital (Forward), Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina

author of “Work-Life Balance” chapter, in Navigating Your Surgical Career: the AWS Guide to Success, edited by Susan E Pories, Association of Women Surgeons, 2015

co-author of online teaching module “Feedback”, American College of Surgeons, www.facs.org, 2016

Representative Bibliography

Balcazar LL, Copeland AW, “Breast Health Considerations”, in Women’s Healthcare in Advanced Practice Nursing, 3rd ed., Alexander IM, senior editor, Springer, 2022

Copeland AW, Fraser S, Holder-Haynes JG, Lewis B, “Wounds and Wound Healing”, Essentials of General Surgery and Surgical Subspecialties, 6th ed., Lawrence PF, senior editor, Lippincott, 2019

“Student Assessment of the Value of Clinical ClerkshipSkills: Do They Know What They Need to Know? Results of a Survey”, Copeland AW, Schenarts PJ, poster presented at the meeting of the Southeast Surgical Association, Jacksonville, FL, Feb 10-12, 2013

primary editor of “Pocket Mentor”, 5th edition, Association of Women Surgeons, 2013

Copeland AW, “Gossibypoma: Prevention and Management of Retained Surgical Foreign Bodies” In: UpToDate, Basow DS (Ed), UpToDate, Waltham, MA 2011; updated annually

Lind S (author); Kim J, Wnorowski A, Copeland AJ (assessment). Skin Cancer. In Hopkins MA, Lynch TG (eds): WISE-MD. http://wise-md.med.nyu.edu , 2009

Hopkins, MA (author); Gouge T (section author); Copeland A, Stahl R (assessment). Inguinal Hernia. In Hopkins MA, Lynch TG (eds): WISE-MD. http://wise-md.med.nyu.edu , 2007

“Career Resource: Military Practice”, Jaffin AW and Maniscalco-Theberge M, The American Journal of Surgery 2006;192:403-406

Hopkins MA (author); Macari M (section author); Sanso L; Alseidi A, Copeland AJ, Dubé S, Harzman A, Hebert J, Kaiser S, Luchette F, Lynch T, Patterson L (assessment). Appendicitis. In Hopkins MA, Lynch TG (eds): WISE-MD. http://wisemd.med.nyu.edu , 2005

Jaffin AW: “Nutritional Support of the Burned Patient” In: Problems in General Surgery: Burns, Scott-Conner C, guest editor, Lippincott, Philadelphia, Dec 1994, pp 590-606