Member Spotlight – Erin Burke, MD

Each month, the AAS Membership Committee presents the “Member Spotlight” – an opportunity to introduce you to a member of your association.

Dr. Erin Burke is an Assistant Professor of Surgery in the Division of Surgical Oncology at the University of Kentucky. She received her Bachelor of Science from the University of Notre Dame, where she majored in biology and graduated summa cum laude. Dr. Burke then continued her education at Vanderbilt University for her medical doctorate and went on to the University of Minnesota for her general surgery residency. During her research years, she obtained a Masters in Clinical Outcomes Research from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, where her thesis was centered on the use of a Markov model to analyze the role of completion lymph node dissection for melanoma patients. Subsequently, she then went on to complete a complex general surgical oncology fellowship at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, FL.

Since joining the University of Kentucky in 2019, she has established a practice treating patients with breast cancer, melanoma, and sarcoma. In addition, she serves as co-investigator on a phase 2 trial at the Markey Cancer Center investigating neoadjuvant endocrine therapy in ER-positive, HER2-negative early-stage breast cancers. She also serves as the site principal investigator at the University of Kentucky for the Melanoma Research Lymph Node Prediction Implementation National 001 (MERLIN_001) trial and the SWOG Melanoma Margins Trial (MELMART-II). She has also continued her outcomes research with a focus on surgical oncology and is also beginning work in surgical education research.

She has been instrumental in resident and medical student education. Currently, she is an Associate Program Director for the University of Kentucky general surgery residency and also serves as the third-year medical student surgical oncology clerkship rotation director. She has been recognized with the Excellence in Medical Student and Resident Teaching Award and the Ben Eiseman Award for Excellence in Resident Education.

Dr. Burke has been a member of the Association for Academic Surgery since 2021 and looks forward to getting more involved with the organization.