After 46 years in the U.S. military and eight combat deployments, Dr. Jay Johannigman could have chosen a quiet retirement. Instead, the internationally recognized trauma surgeon came home to Cincinnati with a different plan: to spend his civilian years making sure the Queen City is prepared for whatever comes next.
Johannigman returned to the Cincinnati area in July 2025 and, by November 2025, had officially retired from the military after completing more than four decades of service and reaching the rank of Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve. Nearly a year later, he is anything but idle. He works directly with regional hospitals, emergency medical services, and public safety agencies across Greater Cincinnati to build faster, better-coordinated emergency responses, the kind that save lives when a disaster strikes.
A Cincinnati Career, Decades in the Making
Johannigman’s roots in Cincinnati medicine run deep. After earning his biology degree from Kenyon College and his medical degree from Case Western Reserve University, where he served as president of the Alpha Omega Alpha honor society, he built much of his civilian career at the University of Cincinnati and University Hospital. He served for years as Director of Trauma, Surgical Critical Care, and Acute Care Surgery, and directed the Institute of Military Medicine at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.
Perhaps his most lasting local contribution came in the founding of the Cincinnati Center for the Sustainment of Trauma and Readiness Skills, known as Cincinnati CSTARS, a program that has trained elite Air Force medical teams at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center for years. He was also a driving force behind the development of West Chester Hospital and its designation as a Level III Trauma Center, expanding access to advanced trauma care for families north of the city.
A New Focus: Protecting Cincinnati’s Seniors
Among the priorities Johannigman has taken on since returning is one that speaks directly to Greater Cincinnati’s aging population: a geriatric injury and falls-prevention program.
Falls are the leading cause of injury for adults 65 and older, and older residents make up a significant share of the trauma cases treated in the region. Johannigman’s program focuses on prevention, on improving how falls are treated when they do happen, and on reducing the complications that so often follow a serious fall in an older adult. For the many Cincinnati-area families caring for aging parents and grandparents, it is work with immediate, practical relevance.
The approach reflects a theme that has run through his entire career. Better outcomes come from preparation, not just reaction, and the systems that protect a community are best strengthened before they are tested.
Preparing the Region for the Unexpected
Beyond falls prevention, Johannigman spends his time mentoring surgeons through the American College of Surgeons and advising area hospitals on preparedness plans for a range of large-scale emergencies, from severe weather and tornadoes to active shooter scenarios and mass-casualty accidents. His decades of battlefield experience, earned across combat hospitals in Iraq and beyond, translate directly into civilian readiness at home.
Local leaders have come to value his direct, no-nonsense approach. As Johannigman himself puts it, the best time to strengthen a trauma response system is before a disaster occurs. It is a philosophy Greater Cincinnati is fortunate to have working on its behalf.
For a surgeon who spent nearly half a century serving his country around the world, the mission now is refreshingly local: keeping his hometown, and the people in it, ready and safe.
Learn more about Dr. Jay Johannigman’s work at jayjohannigmancincinnati.com.
