Mary Fallat, MD, FACS, FAAP, is Professor of Surgery at the University of Louisville and a pediatric surgeon who has both trained and practiced in Louisville for over 45 years. She is the former Surgeon-in-Chief at Norton Children’s Hospital and Division Director of Pediatric Surgery. Interest areas include access to surgical care, trauma, burn, and prehospital care, particularly in rural and underserved areas of the country. Within this context, Kentucky has provided an ideal setting for both studying and improving emergency and trauma care for children. Dr. Fallat has a history of service and leadership in Pediatric Surgery and is the past President of the American Pediatric Surgical Association and Chair of the Section on Surgery of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). She was a recent First Vice-President of the American College of Surgeons, is a liaison to the Committee on Trauma, and is the Vice-Chair of the ACS Children’s Surgery Verification Program. Dr. Fallat has been funded by HRSA as program director for the Kentucky EMS for Children program since 2001. EMSC is where “pediatric readiness” is championed, and she serves as trauma advisor to the National Pediatric Readiness Program (NPRP). She is a sub-PI for the trauma/burn hub of an awarded HRSA grant to develop a national pediatric pandemic network, which enables the pediatric trauma and burn community to enhance trauma care within an all-hazards network.