The Craniofacial Foundation of America has named Dr. Thomas Roy Peterson, M.D., M.B.A. the 2016 Terri Farmer Service Award winner. The Terri Farmer Service Award was established in 2009, in honor of Mrs. Terri Farmer’s 18 years of dedicated service to the Tennessee Craniofacial Center. Each year the CFA pledges to present the award to someone who exemplifies the qualities of dedication and compassion, and who has the mission of creating better tomorrows for patients with facial birth defects, tumors and trauma-related injuries.
Dr. Peterson, a pediatric anesthesiologist with Erlanger Medical Center and TC Thompson Children’s Hospital and co-founder of Anesthesiology Consultants Exchance, Inc., began his work with the TCC at its inception in 1987. The TCC services children from all over the world, with a focus in the Southeast, and specializes in the evaluation and treatment of patients with craniofacial deformities. Its services cover a broad range of reconstructive operations for the treatment of deformities of the face and skull resulting from birth defects, tumors, and trauma.
In his own words Dr. Peterson notes, “the single most salient aspect of my association with the TCC: The remarkable courage, in the face of such a complicated and unfamiliar chapter in their lives, demonstrated by the families of our patients, has always inspired in me a sense of admiration and respect. To have been entrusted with the care of their children in such a circumstance is a privilege and an honor I will forever treasure.”
Dr. Peterson attended Emory University in Atlanta and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville for his undergraduate degree, graduating with high honors. He attended East Tennessee State University to earn his doctor of medicine and then the University of Texas Medical School at Houston for his post-doctoral studies and residency. He gained his fellow in Pediatric Anesthesiology at Boston Children’s Hospital, the teach hospital for Harvard Medical School in 1987. In 2010, he received his physician’s executive MBA from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Terry Smyth, executive director of the CFA said, “The CFA is extremely honored to award Dr. Peterson the 2016 Terri Farmer Service Award. He is an integral part of the TCC team and we commend his dedication to his craft and to helping local children with facial differences lead a normal life.”
Previous Terri Farmer Award winners include Ms.Belinda Foy (2015), Mrs. Lynda Gooden (2014), Dr. Timothy Strait (2013), Ms. Tricia Davies (2012), Ms. Heather Henderson (2011), and Dr. Sidney Cox (2010).