John L. Tarpley, MD, FWACS, FACS is from Mississippi. After completing his AB at Vanderbilt, he stayed on for his MD from the Vanderbilt School of Medicine, VMS ’70. General Surgery residency was at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland and included two years of Surgical Oncology research and training at the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, Surgery Branch, in Bethesda, MD and six months of thoracic surgery training under Mr. Ronald Belsey of the Frenchay Hospital in the Bristol, England area. Tarpley’s entry level position was at the Baptist Medical Centre, Ogbomoso, Nigeria and the University Teaching Hospital, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria between 1978-1993 with each fourth year spent back at the Baltimore VA Medical Center and Hopkins. Tarpley returned to Vanderbilt and the Nashville VA MC from 1993-2016 where he served as Program for General Surgery for ~ 20 years. After retiring mid 2016 from the Nashville VA and Vanderbilt as Professor of Surgery & Anesthesiology the two Tarpleys spent five years (July 2016–August 2021) in surgical education at the AIC Kijabe Hospital, Kenya, the University Teaching Hospital Kigali in Rwanda, and the University of Botswana. Tarpley with Motswana colleagues launched the first residency program in General Surgery in Botswana in January 2020; it is now in its third year and viable. On return to Nashville as home base in mid-August 2021 Tarpley accepted the position of Academic Dean for the Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeons (PAACS) which allows him to travel to Sub-Saharan Africa multiple times annually in his current roles in education and administration. ‘tarp’ and Maggie are known as “team tarpley.”  Maggie Tarpley is a librarian and researcher and holds positions in the Department of Surgery at Vanderbilt and the Department of Medical Education at the University of Botswana.