Craig D. Newgard, MD, MPH, FACEP, Named Director of the Center for Emergency Care Research, UCSF Department of Emergency Medicine

The UC San Francisco Department of Emergency Medicine is pleased to announce the appointment of Craig D. Newgard, MD, MPH, FACEP, as Director of the Center for Emergency Care Research, effective October 1, 2025. 

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A nationally recognized leader in emergency care research and health systems innovation, Dr. Newgard brings a distinguished record of scholarship, mentorship, and service to the University of California, San Francisco. As Director, he will lead the development of the Center for Emergency Care Research, envisioned to be a multidisciplinary, collaborative initiative within the UCSF Department of Emergency Medicine dedicated to advancing emergency care across the range of specialties, services, and phases of care for patients presenting with acute illness and injuries.

Dr. Newgard joins UCSF from Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), where he served as professor of Emergency Medicine and vice chair for Research and Academic Affairs. He has been the director of OHSU’s Center for Policy and Research in Emergency Medicine (CPREM) for 17 years. 

Dr. Newgard is a physician-scientist whose work has reshaped national conversations around field trauma triage, emergency medical services, trauma systems, emergency department pediatric readiness, and the value of emergency care. He is recognized for serving on two National Expert Panels on Field Triage and as lead author for the 2021 National Guidelines for Field Triage, which are used by more than 14,000 emergency medical services (EMS) agencies across the United States. His research has also been integrated into multiple national guidelines, including field triage, Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support, and Pediatric Advanced Life Support.

Along the way, he has worked with many professional organizations and societies, such as the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, American College of Emergency Physicians, American College of Surgeons, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, National Quality Forum, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Pediatric Readiness Program, Coalition for National Trauma Research, National Institutes of Health, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, among others. In 2019, he was elected to the National Academy of Medicine — one of the highest honors in medicine. For 25 years, Dr. Newgard has held continuous federal research funding. He currently leads three large federal projects to study ED pediatric readiness and pediatric firearm injury prevention. He has been awarded approximately $19 million in extramural research funding as principal investigator (PI), plus an additional $10 million as co-investigator, and over $5 million in career development awards with mentees as PI. Since becoming director of the CPREM, the emergency medicine faculty at OHSU have been awarded over $75 million in extramural research funding.

Dr. Newgard is further distinguished by a prolific history of scholarly contribution, publishing more than 230 peer-reviewed papers in high-impact journals, including JAMA, JAMA Pediatrics, JAMA Surgery, JAMA Open, the New England Journal of Emergency Medicine, Health Affairs, and Annals of Surgery. His scholarly contributions include research on systems science, reengineering systems for value, trauma systems, EMS, and applied methodology and biostatistics in these fields. In addition, he has led four federally-funded research training programs and has 70 mentees across a variety of disciplines and universities.

“I’m honored to join the department at UCSF, to work at Zuckerberg San Francisco General, and for the opportunity to be part of a world-class academic medical center,” shared Dr. 
Newgard. “My first exposure to medicine was as an EMT for an ambulance company in San Francisco at 19, so I’m excited to come back and help catalyze interdisciplinary research in 
emergency care.”

Dr. Newgard received his MD from the Loyola University Chicago’s Stritch School of Medicine and an MPH in Epidemiology from the University of California, Los Angeles’ School of Public Health. He completed his residency and research fellowship training in emergency medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.