Dr. Terry Treadwell

Surgeon

Dr. Terry Treadwell was born in Temple, Texas, while his father, Dr. M.A. Treadwell, was a surgical resident. After his father completed his training, the family moved to Eastland. Upon graduating high school as Valedictorian and earning First Team All-State Basketball and Texas High School Tennis Finalist, Terry was offered an athletic scholarship at Hardin-Simmons University. He played both basketball and tennis in his freshman year, but concentrated on tennis for his remaining time at HSU.

Terry demonstrated academic, athletic, and leadership excellence at HSU. He was a Scholar Athlete and an Outstanding Tennis Player for multiple years and was later inducted into the Hardin-Simmons University Athletic Hall of Fame. Academically, he graduated magna cum laude and received numerous honors, including the Julius B. Olsen Medal for Scholarship and Character, the Minter Medal for the highest scholastic record, the Science Achievement Award, and membership in the Alpha Chi National Scholastic Society, Beta Beta Beta Honorary Biological Society, and Alpha Mu Gamma National Foreign Language Society. His leadership extended beyond the classroom and court through active service in student government and as president of Alpha Chi. In recognition of a lifetime of achievement and service, he was also honored with the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2016.

However, his most important accomplishment at Hardin-Simmons University was meeting the love of his life, Sheryl Frazier. After meeting at HSU and dating for several years, they were married the summer after graduation and began their 50+ year partnership together.

Terry received the State of Texas Scholarship to attend The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and graduated with his MD Degree. He continued his training in general and vascular surgery at Scott and White Medical Center. Dr. Treadwell practiced surgery in Montgomery, Alabama, until 1998, when he founded The Institute for Advanced Wound Care at Jackson Hospital. He served as Medical Director of the center and treated wound patients on a full-time basis, providing the best possible care to this seemingly forgotten group. Dr. Treadwell has been involved with numerous research initiatives and directs programs to help educate medical personnel in the current therapy of acute and chronic wounds.

Wound care practitioners from around the world have attended preceptorships at the Institute for Advanced Wound Care, which has since moved to the Baptist Medical Center in Montgomery, Alabama. Dr. Treadwell works with the World Health Organization to establish wound treatment centers, train healthcare workers, and research improving care for patients in Ghana, Africa. He is the Clinical Editor Emeritus of Wounds magazine and is a member of the World Association of Medical Editors. He is a member of the Wound Healing Society and the Association for the Advancement of Wound Care, having served as President and Past-President of the AAWC, and two terms as the Physician Member of the AAWC Board of Directors. He is serving on the World Health Organization Committee and is the current Vice-President of the World Alliance for Wound and Lymphedema Care, developing wound education and treatment guidelines for treating acute and chronic wounds in underdeveloped countries.

Dr. Treadwell was invited to teach wound care courses at Hospital Vozandes, a mission hospital in Quito, Ecuador. Following the earthquake in Haiti in 2010, he was invited to Port-au-Prince, Haiti by the Minister of Health to teach local physicians and nurses about caring for wounds after the disaster. To further the training of the Haitian surgeons, he and his wife invite surgical residents from the teaching hospital in Port-au-Prince to their home in Alabama to work with Dr. Treadwell in his wound center for a month before returning to Haiti to work in one of the two wound centers he helped establish in Port-au-Prince. To date, eight surgeons have attended his training course in Montgomery. Because of the success of these centers, he has been asked to help establish three more centers at hospitals in Haiti. For his continued contribution to wound care there, he was named Associate Professor of Wound Care at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Dr. Treadwell also teaches wound care principles to surgical residents in the Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeons’ training programs in mission hospitals across Africa. PAACS is an organization administered by Christian surgeons providing quality surgical training for African surgeons, where they are trained with an American surgical curriculum. In addition, these surgical residents are involved in a Christian Bible Study curriculum as part of their training so that they can minister to a patient’s physical and spiritual condition.

For his achievements, Dr. Treadwell has been honored to receive the 1st Annual St. James Plate for contributions to wound care in infants and children by the International Society for Pediatric Wound Care, the Outstanding Contributions to Wound Care Award from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, the Honor of Merit for Contributions to Development of Wound Care in Haiti, and the Symposium on Advanced Wound Care Evonne Fowler Founder’s Award for Contributions to Wound Care. In 2018, he received the Robert A. Warriner Memorial Award for character, commitment, and ethics, and in 2020, he was named an Inaugural Fellow of the AAWC.

Dr. Treadwell has over 90 publications and 63 posters regarding scientific topics. He has been involved with over 50 research projects evaluating medical treatments and products, and developing new treatments.

Tennis still plays a large role in the Treadwell family. They were named the Tennis Family of the Year by the United States Tennis Association of Alabama. Dr. Treadwell was the tennis coach for his sons’ high school tennis team for three years and was inducted into the USTA Alabama Hall of Fame in 2016.

Dr. Treadwell and Sheryl have three married children, nine grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. They have taught third-grade Sunday School classes for many years, and Dr. Treadwell is an ordained deacon. In addition, he has served in multiple church music ministries, directing youth choirs and handbell choirs, and as interim minister of music. He is an ordained deacon.

For his accomplishments in the medical field and in the kingdom of God, Hardin-Simmons University is proud to induct Dr. Terry Treadwell into the HSU Hall of Leaders.