Growing up in a military family, Jason Weaver lived all over the country depending on where his father, an Air Force pilot, was stationed. The youngster was a rolling stone who gathered no moss.

Yet once he came to the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) for his internship in general surgery, his wandering days were over. The doctor put down roots that have firmly taken hold.

Weaver completed his residency at the UT Department of Neurosurgery and at the Semmes-Murphey Clinic in 2007, and upon graduation he joined the staff at Semmes-Murphey, where he has been ever since. The doctor found a home in Memphis.

His only venture elsewhere was to complete a clinical fellowship in spine oncology and neuro-oncology at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

“Memphis is a tremendous medical community,” Weaver said. “I have been blessed to train at the premier cancer center in the country, (but) I can honestly say that the oncology community here offers just as cutting edge, compassionate care. It is a rare circumstance that we would feel the need to send a patient to a large cancer center because they will get just as good, if not better, care here.”

Upon retiring from the military, his father became chief of staff for the Omaha City Council, and Weaver stayed put in Nebraska long enough to take a strong liking to Cornhuskers football. He then matriculated at Drury University in Springfield, Missouri, and, for medical school, at St. Louis University.

His interest in medicine had arisen while he was in high school, when a family member had a ruptured cerebral aneurysm.

“I remember becoming very interested in neurosurgery at that time,” Weaver said. “Shortly thereafter, I read a book by Ben Carson called ‘Gifted Hands,’ and that further sparked my interest in the specialty.

“In early medical school I was somewhat undecided, but I had a great mentor who happened to be a neurosurgeon. He encouraged me greatly and in fact introduced me to Semmes-Murphey Clinic and the University of Tennessee, where I was blessed to do my training.”

Weaver’s interest in spinal oncology evolved as his training continued. At UTHSC, he said, interns are exposed to a wide variety of neurosurgical subspecialties.

“Memphis has some of the best oncologists in the country,” he said, “who are making tremendous strides in cancer therapies. Because patients are living longer and better despite the diagnosis of cancer, there is tremendous opportunity to take a comprehensive approach in the management of brain and spine tumors.

“That concept really hit me when Dr. Laurence Rhines, a neurosurgeon at MD Anderson specializing in complex spine tumor surgery, presented a talk on the oncologic resection of spinal column tumors here in Memphis. I was so captivated by his approach – that is, thinking more like an oncologist than a surgeon in the patient’s management – that I signed on to do a fellowship at MD Anderson.”

Besides neurosurgical oncology, Weaver has a busy general neurosurgery practice, including spinal surgery and outpatient minimally invasive procedures.

When asked to name his proudest accomplishment so far, he said, “It’s not about me,” and quoted a passage from Colossians. “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men. . . . It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.”

“My goal,” he added, “although I readily admit I fall short every day, is to work like it all depends on me and pray like it all depends on God.”

Weaver’s rewards come from “those small victories that we see every day,” he said. “Also, I get a lot of satisfaction when former residents call me to tell me of a difficult tumor case that they were successful within their management. It is gratifying to know that you have trained someone to go out and apply a technique they learned from you and to hear their excitement in bringing a new technique to their community.”

Weaver said that when he earned his medical degree in 2001, Semmes-Murphey was at the top of his list of training programs. The clinic recently celebrated its 100th anniversary.

“I stayed because of the tremendous mentors I have in those who are now my partners,” he said. “There is a reputation for excellence in the medical community that extends beyond just Memphis. Associating with those who have been and continue to be leaders in medicine, neurosurgery, the community is truly an honor. Some of them are gone, but many I still learn from every day.”

Weaver finds encouragement in the advances made over the past decade in fighting cancer.

“Radiosurgery with tools such as Cyberknife® and Gammaknife® and other image-guided radiotherapy technologies allow for the pin-point accurate delivery of radiation to a tumor in the brain or along the spine,” he said. “This allows us to deliver a tumor-killing dose of radiation while sparing the very sensitive surrounding normal neural tissues.

“The tumor control rates and pain improvement effects have been tremendous. Oftentimes we will use this strategy alone or in combination with surgery to achieve optimal results. The surgical technique has also improved dramatically in the last decade with intra-operative image-guided surgery for brain and spine as well as all the complex spinal instrumentation.

“Minimally invasive spine surgery has also come to the forefront in tumor management. Many don’t realize that minimally invasive spinal surgery was pioneered by my partners at Semmes-Murphey right here in Memphis.”

Weaver has been married since 2003 to Virginia “Jenny” Weaver, MD, a bariatric surgeon and medical director of the Saint Francis Center for Surgical Weight Loss. They met on Weaver’s first day of an internship at The MED, where Jenny was chief resident of general surgery.

“We started dating a few months later,” he said. “My fellow interns wondered why I got all the good vacations that year.”