After sustaining a burn injury on almost half of his body at the age of 12, Jason Heard was drawn to the medical field and knew he wanted to help other burn survivors in the future. He completed his Bachelor of Science degree in Genetics and Biotechnology at the University of Iowa in 2011. During his undergraduate years, Jason completed many burn related research projects leading to multiple peer reviewed publications. He was also able to be heavily involved with a regional burn non-profit organization, Saint Florian Fire and Burn Foundation. Through this organization, Jason was able to not only attend but develop programming for multiple burn survivor programs. He was fortunate to serve on their Board of Directors from 2012-2014. He matriculated into medical school at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine in 2012 and matched into general surgery residency at UC Davis in 2016, and ultimately completed his residency at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in 2021. Jason's passion for burn care and my aspiration of doing a burn/critical care persisted throughout my training and he completed his fellowship at UC Davis in 2022. He is currently the newest faculty member at UC Davis/Shriners Northern California Burn Units, where he continues to care for burn survivors during their initial hospital admission and throughout their recovery, including reconstructive procedures/treatments. Jason was awarded our former PEG scholarship. ​procedures/treatments.