Dr. Jay Wayne Meredith (MD ’78)
By Susan R. Wente
Feb. 19, 2026
Today we honor a surgeon, professor and trauma care pioneer whose extraordinary foundational work transformed trauma treatment in North Carolina and the country. His legacy of achievements helped propel Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist into national prominence as an academic learning health system. For 36 years, he served Wake Forest in the operating room, classroom and boardroom, retiring in 2024 as chief of clinical chairs at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist and chair of surgery at the School of Medicine. This gifted physician is widely admired for his commitment to guiding future surgeons in patient-centered care. I am pleased to recognize Dr. Jay Wayne Meredith as a 2026 Medallion of Merit recipient.
Dr. Meredith has a lifelong connection to Wake Forest Baptist in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He was born at the hospital he later served, and he grew up in resident housing on the medical center campus. He earned his medical degree at Bowman Gray School of Medicine after receiving a bachelor’s degree from Emory University. He then completed residencies in general and cardiothoracic surgery at Wake Forest Baptist. In 1987, following a trauma fellowship in Oregon, he returned to Wake Forest Baptist to work as a surgeon alongside his late father, Dr. Jesse Meredith.
Known as the “father of North Carolina trauma care,” Dr. Wayne Meredith founded the trauma program at Wake Forest and fundamentally transformed pediatric and adult patient care. He engineered a statewide trauma system, establishing a coordinated network of collaboration among state trauma centers and emergency medical service providers. Dr. Meredith also founded and served as president of the Piedmont Regional Trauma System, creating a formal trauma partnership between Novant Health Forsyth Medical Center and Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist. His innovative approach to trauma system management became a national model, and his leadership extended to serving as president of the NC Trauma Registry and chair of the American College of Surgeons’ North Carolina Committee on Trauma.
Dr. Meredith’s dedicated service to the American College of Surgeons culminated in his appointment as chair of its national committee on trauma and his installation as president of the organization in 2020. At Wake Forest, he held numerous leadership roles including chief of clinical chairs at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, chair of surgery at the School of Medicine, and director of the burn center, AirCare, and the surgical fellowship program. He also served on the hospital and medical school boards. In the past decade, he has been a tireless advocate for the construction of Freischlag Tower, a state-of-the-art critical care facility at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist that opened in 2025.
For establishing a lifesaving statewide trauma care system in North Carolina that serves as a national model, for inspiring the highest standards of compassionate patient-centered care in his colleagues and students, and for demonstrating farsighted vision in his support of the innovative critical care tower on campus, Wake Forest confers its highest honor, the Medallion of Merit, on Dr. Jay Wayne Meredith on this nineteenth day of February, two thousand twenty-six.