UVa’s Martin Lends Expertise to Virginia Tech Panel
One of the nation’s preeminent authorities on emergency medicine, Dr. Marcus Martin aims to help the panel learn from the tragedy.

Dr. Marcus Martin was already effortlessly juggling three balls as a professor and an administrator in two offices at the University of Virginia.
Then, in the wake of the tragedy at Virginia Tech on April 16, Gov. Tim Kaine tossed another ball into the rotation.

He appointed Martin as vice chair of the Independent Virginia Tech Incident Review Panel, which has been charged with investigating the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history.

In three months of juggling these four important responsibilities, Martin hasn’t slowed his pace, nor dropped a ball.

In addition to his posts as the new associate vice president of diversity and equity, an assistant dean of UVa’s medical school and a professor in
the department of emergency medicine, Martin has brought his extensive background in emergency medicine to the review panel.

“It has been my honor to serve,” Martin says. “I’ve been focusing mainly on the emergency medical services aspect and reviewing the emergency medical response to the tragedy. I have had the opportunity to interview most of the EMS personnel and hospital emergency department personnel involved in the patient care efforts.”

The eight-member panel has been reviewing the shootings during that fateful April morning, when Seung-Hui Cho fatally gunned down 32 people and wounded 25 others before taking his own life.

Col. W. Gerald Massengill, the retired superintendent of the Virginia State Police and the chair of the review panel, has experience dealing with tragedies and emergencies. He led Virginia’s law enforcement efforts on Sept. 11, 2001, after terrorists crashed a plane into the Pentagon, located in Northern Virginia. And he was in charge during the sniper attacks that terrorized the Washington, D.C., region during the  fall of 2002.