NASS DFNS CLASS OF 2026
Jamie Wilson, MD, FRCS, MSc
Medical University of South Carolina
Charleston, SC
Neurosurgeon
NASS Member Since 2019
What was a pivotal moment in your career that shaped the professional you are today?
Halfway through my Fellowship at the University of Toronto, my Mentor Professor Michael Fehlings sat me down and asked me to make a choice; stay in Canada and put everything towards doing an extended Fellowship and MSc or be content to wrap things up and go back to the UK. The doctrine he relayed to me that day was simple “Conducting and understanding research makes you a better surgeon”. Needless to say, from that day I committed to becoming a Clinician Scientist, and with the support of my amazing wife, completed my MSc in Epidemiology at the University of Toronto, completed my Fellowship and secured my first Attending job at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
How has your involvement with NASS influenced your professional growth or career journey?
All providers strive to deliver the best, evidenced-based, most comprehensive care possible, and I believe NASS provides the necessary tools to help you achieve those goals. I love absorbing clinical snippets from the abstracts and symposia, the networking and ‘fireside chats’ with world leaders in spine surgery at the Annual Meeting, and I have adopted several of these insights directly into my practice. My volunteer positions with NASS have enabled me to have a direct contribution to operations of NASS as well as improving standards of care through interdisciplinary collaboration. These activities have formed the backbone of my early career development and I look forward to being a part of shaping the NASS of the future!
What is something your colleagues may be surprised to learn about you?
During my undergraduate years I was a DJ on student radio, as well as in a number of clubs around Oxford. I played RnB and Hip Hop music back in the days when I had to transport huge numbers of vinyl records around every time I played. My biggest achievement was in 2005 when I was a warm-up act for Pharrell Williams at Magdalen College Ball.