Colonel Todd E. Rasmussen is a native of Kansas and received his undergraduate degree in Pharmacy and Premedical Studies from the University of Kansas in Lawrence. He earned his medical degree from Mayo Medical School in Rochester, Minnesota (1993) as an Air Force Health Professions Scholar and performed general surgical training at Wilford Hall Air Force Medical Center on Lackland Air Force Base, Texas (1993-1999). Colonel Rasmussen completed specialty training in vascular surgery again at the Mayo Clinic in 2001 and was assigned to the National Capital Area two months before 9/11/2001. After September 11^th he began caring for the first of the combat injured returning from Afghanistan at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. While in Washington he completed an assignment at The Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, during which time he fell under the tutelage of Drs. Norman Rich, Michael DeBakey, John Hutton and Carl Hughes. 

In 2004 Colonel Rasmussen returned to San Antonio and deployed to Operation Iraqi Freedom at the Air Force Theater Hospital on Balad Air Base. Following this he initiated a vascular injury and hemorrhage control research and innovation program. He has completed tours at Balad Air Base, Iraq (2005, 2008), Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan (2010, 2012) and at the Afghan National Army Hospital in Kabul (2006). Colonel Rasmussen has led surgical training missions in Rabat, Morocco (2006), Rawalpindi, Pakistan (2007) and St. Petersburg, Russia (2005, 2007). He spent more than 600 days on overseas tours during the wars and performed more than 1000 operations on combat injured. Colonel Rasmussen’s research efforts have resulted in 120 publications, 25 book chapters, 2 textbooks and 4 original patents. In 2012 he gave a TEDx talk in San Antonio on the transformation of military trauma care and its positive impact on civilian medicine.  

Colonel Rasmussen served as Deputy Commander of the Army’s Institute of Surgical Research in San Antonio from 2010 to 2013 and was then assigned to direct the broader DoD Combat Casualty Care Research Program at Fort Detrick, Maryland. He has been named the Harris B Shumacker Jr, Professor of Surgery at the The Uniformed Service University and he operates as a surgeon at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Baltimore. He has served as Chairman of the Military Liaison Committee of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma and his awards include the Gold Headed Cane for outstanding clinical and academic practice and the Baron Dominique Jean Larrey for Excellence in Military Surgery. Colonel Rasmussen has been awarded Air Force Achievement and Meritorious Service Medals and Army Commendation Medals