2011 Outstanding Alumnus Award Winner
He dreamed of being a professional baseball player. Dr. Sellers dominated in everything from football to tennis, but he decided to use his hands in a different way and become a surgeon.
The Missouri native remembers his first surgery — a gastric resection — being “awesome and a little overwhelming” at the same time. It was a pivotal moment in his college career as a pre-med student at the University of Missouri. He went on to receive his medical degree from the University of Tennessee in Memphis.
Following his medicine internship, Dr. Sellers spent two years in the U.S. Army and completed one tour in Vietnam. While in Vietnam, Dr. Sellers received the “greatest gift” when he received notification from the American Red Cross that his daughter, Kim, was born. Sellers and his high school sweetheart, Norma, also have a son, Todd.
After his military stint, Dr. Sellers returned to Memphis and completed his general surgical residency at the University of Tennessee and its affiliated hospitals. With a primary interest in transplantation, he remained on staff and played an active role in the first trauma service at UT. After four years, he left academia and started his own private practice in Blytheville, Ark. In 1992, he returned to the university, where he is the associate professor of surgery. He also serves as medical director of the Mid-South Transplant Foundation.
“As medical director of the Mid-South Transplant Foundation, I now get to meet donor families after they have had time to think about their loved one’s gift,” he says. “This has really changed and touched my life.
“A bad day is not being able to work,” he says.
The grandfather of four says he lives his life inspired by Mark Twain’s quote: “Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.”
View Past Medicine Award Winners