Dr. Emily Kreger is an Acute Care Surgeon specializing in Trauma Surgery, Emergency General Surgery and Surgical Critical Care, currently working at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center in Long Beach, California. On her days off you can find her doing long swims in the Pacific Ocean. Dr. Kreger has long held an interest in Global Health. Her first opportunity to work in-country was as a medical student when she organized an experience working in the peri-natal HIV clinic at Johannesburg General Hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa. As a surgery resident, she participated in a multi-city, multi-hospital medical mission in Ethiopia. Her most formative Global Health experience was on a subsequent trip that included the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Kigali and King Faisal Hospital in Kigali, Rwanda, where she was part of a team working with local surgery residents to provide complex surgical care for members of the community.
Dr. Kreger earned a degree in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology from Yale University. She enjoyed her work as a high school biology teacher at the Bronx High School of Science and the Peddie School while she trained as an elite rower with the United States Rowing National Team. She returned to her education to earn a Master’s degree in Neuroscience at the University of Michigan prior to starting her medical career. She earned her Medical Doctor degree and surgical residency training from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. She completed a Pediatric and Fetal Surgery Research Fellowship at the University of California San Francisco, and trained in Surgical Critical Care at the University of California San Francisco campus in Fresno, California.
Dr. Kreger’s varied research career has ranged from basic science to translational medicine. She is most proud of her work as a co-author for an FDA approved clinical trial: In Utero Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation for the Treatment of Fetuses with Alpha Thalassemia Major, during her research fellowship under the mentorship of Dr. Tippi MacKenzie. She was instrumental in securing over $12 million in grant funding for this work which developed a novel use of stem cell therapy to treat a fatal blood disorder for fetuses before birth. In the next phase of her career, Dr. Kreger is excited to direct her research energy toward solving global health challenges, with a focus on empowering young women in surgical training programs to become leaders in the pursuit of equitable access to safe surgical care.
