Growing up in Georgia, Holly Waller, R.N., MPH, watched her grandfather battle cancer and decided to follow a career in nursing. By the time she had graduated with her bachelor’s degree, she was planning to go to anesthesia school as soon as she could get some experience.
She took a job in UAB’s Surgical Intensive Care Unit, intending to move back to Atlanta the next year. More than three decades later, Waller is still at UAB, where she is now associate vice president for Trauma and Acute Care Surgery.
“When I started working here, I found that I really enjoyed working with patients and families, and I didn’t think they had to be anesthetized for me to do that,” Waller said with a laugh. “I found a passion for trauma in the SICU. Resuscitating a very sick trauma patient is really challenging and rewarding, and that changed my whole career.”
When she arrived in 1992, UAB evaluated about 1,200 trauma patients per year and there were two attending physicians on staff. Today, there are 23 trauma surgeons evaluating more than 6,500 patients annually — more than one-third of all trauma patients in Alabama. At least two trauma surgeons are on-site at all times, because UAB sees an average of 85 trauma patients each day.
That surge in patient volume has not affected quality. In 1999, UAB Hospital became Alabama’s first Level I trauma center verified by the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma. Today, UAB cares for more than 30 percent of Alabama’s trauma patients. Compared to other trauma centers nationwide with similar volumes and injury severity, UAB is in the top 10 percent for survival outcomes for all patients overall, as well as elderly patients, severe traumatic brain injury patients, and patients who have sustained penetrating or blunt multisystem injuries.
Unwavering commitment to care
Waller is a crucial part of that success story, her colleagues say. “There simply isn’t a UAB Trauma program the way it is today without Holly Waller,” said Jeffrey Kerby, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Division of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery. “In every aspect of her career, from bedside nurse to now leader, Holly has shown unwavering commitment to providing the best care possible to trauma and burn patients.”
Waller’s commitment to care means tireless efforts to improve the lives of patients and families at UAB, as well as decades of work in communities around the state to prevent trauma in the first place. She has spearheaded wide-reaching injury prevention initiatives from driver awareness training for teens to fall prevention programs for seniors. She has traveled to most major school systems throughout the Birmingham area and beyond to facilitate Stop the Bleed training, which empowers bystanders to stop bleeding and save lives by teaching techniques like applying pressure and tourniquets. She also regularly connects former patients with current patients who have suffered similar injuries, including traumatic brain injuries, amputations and burns. This often leads to lifelong friendships and invaluable support for families working toward recovery.
“Holly has respect for all people and a special place in her heart for patients, and that compassion impacts every decision she makes,” said Kelly Sheils, manager of Quality Services for Trauma and Burn Services, who has worked alongside Waller for more than 20 years.
Waller’s outstanding accomplishments led to her selection by UAB President Ray Watts for the 2025 President’s Award for Excellence in Shared Values, UAB’s highest honor for staff members. The letters of recommendation from her colleagues demonstrate that Waller exemplifies UAB’s Shared Values: We CARE — Collaborate, Act with integrity, Respect all and Excel. She will be honored at a reception Feb. 25.
Why?
As with many longtime UAB employees, Waller is used to the questions from colleagues who hear that she has been here for 32 years: What keeps you going?
“It’s really twofold,” Waller said. “One is the people that I work with. It was overwhelming to hear that I was receiving this award. I am a person who likes to stay behind the scenes. It is quite an honor, but it is not something I could ever have done on my own. I feel like it is owned by everyone on my team.”
The other reason she has stayed — at UAB and in trauma — is that it is so rewarding, Waller added: “We meet people on their worst days, ones they never planned for. If you are coming into the hospital for surgery, you can prepare. Our patients were just driving to work, or woke up and their house was on fire. To have the chance to care for them, to make their lives better as they start on that journey to recovery, that is still my passion.”
Take advantage of opportunities
Over her career, Waller has moved from bedside nursing into the ranks of senior leaders. What is her advice for fellow employees looking to expand their impact? “It’s all about taking advantage of all the opportunities that we have here at UAB,” Waller said. She earned her master’s degree in public health with a concentration in health care organization and policy at UAB in 2008 — the same year her first child was born. She got her MPH because “trauma is a public health problem,” she said. “Injury prevention is an issue of how to change behavior.” She also has taken part in leadership courses through UAB Medicine.
“In leadership, you are never prepared for all the things that you will face, but you realize that you have to always continue to learn,” Waller said. Part of the benefit of going back to school, she added, “is the content you learn — but the connections you make with other students and professors may be just as important.”
Learn more about Waller’s work in this article from the Department of Surgery.