KGI 2026 Professional Achievement Award Recipient
At the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), Erin White ’12, ’13 stepped into a role that would ask more of her than surgical skill alone.
As assistant professor and associate burns director at UAB Medicine, White is leading the effort to bring the center to American Burn Association verification. The work involves rebuilding systems, improving clinical culture, and coordinating the many people involved in burn care including nurses, therapists, and surgeons.
For White, that challenge is part of the appeal. She has repeatedly gravitated toward programs still taking shape, where she can help determine how they work.
Erin White at Quinnipiac University’s White Coat Ceremony
After completing Keck Graduate Institute (KGI)’s Postbaccalaureate Premedical Certificate (PPC) program in 2012 and earning a Master of Business and Science (MBS) in 2013, White joined the inaugural class of the Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University. She later completed a seven-year general surgery residency at Yale New Haven Hospital and specialized in burn surgery, with additional work in trauma and emergency general surgery.
For her pioneering spirit and leadership in surgery, White has been named a recipient of KGI’s 2026 Professional Achievement Award.
Playing the Long Game
White did not set out to become a burn surgeon. Early in her training, she expected to pursue trauma surgery, drawn to its pace and intensity.
Burn care offered something different: continuity. Trauma patients may be treated during a single hospitalization, while burn patients often return for months or years for wound care, reconstruction, and follow-up.
“I like being part of their life and seeing them get back to their normal activities,” she said.
Erin White during a fellowship at the University of Washington
Burn care also demands a broader view of recovery. An operation may be successful, but nutrition, wound care, nursing, and a patient’s home environment can all affect whether treatment succeeds.
“I get to be the team captain, but it’s very much a team sport,” she said.
That mindset is especially relevant at UAB, where White is helping build nursing competency and strengthen coordination across disciplines as the burn center develops.
A Talent for Building
White’s comfort with emerging programs predates her work in Alabama.
She was part of KGI’s second PPC cohort and later joined Quinnipiac’s first medical school class. In both settings, she found advantages in being early: close relationships, a collaborative culture, and the opportunity to help shape a new program.
KGI PPC classes of 2012 and 2013
White initially came to KGI hoping to strengthen her application to medical school. She quickly found herself thriving in the program.
“While at KGI, Erin earned 19 A+ grades while carrying more than 16 credits per semester, quickly becoming a legend among faculty and classmates for her intellect, work ethic, and humility,” PPC Director Joon Kim wrote in his nomination letter.
Kim also highlighted White’s leadership as one of the few women in a historically male-dominated specialty and her continued engagement with KGI students.
White said KGI’s emphasis on collaboration has become increasingly valuable over the years. Group projects require students to navigate different personalities, motivations, and working styles while pursuing a common goal.
Erin White with classmate Melissa Sathavipat
“Understanding what motivates people, what their skill sets are, and how to get the best out of a team has been useful all through my training and even more so now that I’m helping run a burn center,” she said.
The Business of Better Care
KGI also gave White something less typical in medical education: fluency in the business side of healthcare.
Courses in finance and strategy introduced her to concepts such as return on investment, value proposition, and quality-adjusted life years. Those ideas now inform decisions she makes at UAB, where she evaluates new tools and products for burn care and makes the case for their adoption.
“One product I wanted to bring in was more expensive than what we normally use, but it only had to be applied once instead of three times,” she said. “And it takes a lot less labor because you’re not having to reapply. I had to stand in front of a committee and explain why it was a value-added product. That felt like a presentation I would have given any day at KGI.”
Mentorship That Comes Full Circle
White’s path to medicine was not linear, and she credits mentorship with helping her navigate it.
Kim played a particularly important role in her admission to medical school, helping with strategy, advising, recommendation letters, and the challenges of applying as a nontraditional student.
“I could not have gotten in without him,” White said.
Now, White is doing some of the same work for others. She remains connected to KGI as an alumna, returning to support students interested in medical careers and staying involved with the community that helped launch her own.
Her career has continued to follow the instinct that brought her to emerging programs in the first place: she wants to help build.
“I like to be involved in new things,” White said. “It’s exciting to be part of building something new and building it the way I think it should be made.”