Dr. Stefan Kreuzer - 2026 Distinguished Alumni

For Dr. Stefan Kreuzer, South Plains College was more than just a school. The institution was the perfect starting point for an aspiring orthopedic surgeon facing life’s challenges thousands of miles from home.

“South Plains College was my first academic and athletic home in the United States,” he said, crediting the welcoming community. “It gave me a place to belong, compete, and begin building confidence while adapting to a new country and educational system.”

Stefan traveled from Switzerland to the U.S. in 1983 and began attending SPC that same year on a tennis scholarship. Enrolling at the College propelled him on the right trajectory.

“If I didn’t get a tennis scholarship, my start in West Texas wouldn’t have happened, and my career wouldn’t be where it is,” he said. “A scholarship opens a door that students can walk through and change their lives.”

Stefan played under Coach Karen Knight and alongside college roommate Glen Richards, who were instrumental in helping him develop a strong work ethic.

“It was good to have an athletic portion to my education because it provided a different perspective,” he said. “It teaches you how to get organized.”

Stefan attended the College and lived in Stroud Hall until he transferred to the University of Texas at Tyler in 1985, remaining on a tennis scholarship and reaching the round of 16 at the NAIA National Tennis Championship. He also spent two consecutive summers playing tennis professionally in Europe on the Swiss satellite circuit and in the Swiss National League.

After UT Tyler, Stefan earned a Master of Science in molecular biology and biochemistry at Texas Tech University in 1991 and his medical degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio in 1995. He then completed his orthopedic surgery residency at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, where he served as administrative chief resident, followed by a fellowship in adult joint reconstruction at Baylor College of Medicine.

“An important part of my story is that I accomplished these things while living with severe, undiagnosed dyslexia,” he said.

Medical school was difficult for Stefan, who studied 12 to 16 hours a day to barely remain in the top half of his class’s ranking. When he spoke with the medical school dean about his dream of becoming an orthopedic surgeon, the dean told him he had no chance.

“Despite the dean’s warning, I earned an orthopedic residency position in Galveston, became administrative chief resident, completed an adult joint reconstruction fellowship, and ultimately became one of the highest-volume joint replacement surgeons in Texas,” he said.

Stefan’s wife of 30 years, Dr. Barbara Schroeder, helped identify his dyslexia, supporting him as he began the process of getting a professional diagnosis. His wife and two wonderful children have been the foundation of every professional achievement and risk he has taken.

The diagnosis changed how Stefan understood his earlier struggles and career achievements. Reading and rote memorization were difficult, but visual-spatial reasoning, anatomy, pattern recognition, and nonlinear problem solving were strengths as a board-certified orthopedic surgeon.

Stefan specializes in primary and revision hip and knee replacement, the direct anterior hip approach, outpatient joint replacement, and robotic and computer-assisted surgery. He performed about 1,200 total joint replacements in 2025, with about 95 percent of these procedures completed in an ambulatory surgery center, and performed more than 8,000 direct anterior hip replacements.

Stefan founded INOV8 Orthopedics, INOV8 Surgical, INOV8 Research, and INOV8 Healthcare and was instrumental in making INOV8 Surgical the first center in Texas to receive the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC) Advanced Orthopaedic Certification for total joint replacement. He also performed more than 5,000 outpatient joint replacements through INOV8 and helped grow the organization into one of the country’s most respected high-volume outpatient total joint programs.

Stefan also co-founded Innovative Orthopedic Technologies in 2006, introducing several products to the field of minimally invasive hip surgery. He helped develop several robotic platforms, most notably MAKO, which became one of the world’s most widely adopted orthopedic robotic systems.

“I was one of three surgeons involved in its initial FDA-approval study, serving as a principal investigator in FDA-clearance clinical work for technologies including MAKO and THINK Surgical’s TSolution One robotic system,” he said.

When not performing surgeries, Stefan utilizes his education and experience to train surgeons across the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Australia. He gives back by providing research scholarships and work opportunities to students who want to gain lab experience.

 “The students come back 10 years later to share their career with us,” he said, regarding the benefits of being a scholarship donor. “It’s a very satisfying thing to do.”

Stefan commends SPC for providing many scholarship opportunities and affordable education to students. He said the College built a good foundation for his career, and he is grateful to receive one of SPC’s greatest honors: the Distinguished Alumni Award.

“South Plains College represents the beginning of my American story,” Stefan said. “The tennis scholarship opened the door, but the faculty and college community helped me believe that a much larger future was possible. The discipline, persistence, and confidence I developed during those years stayed with me through graduate school, medical school, orthopedic training, surgery, entrepreneurship, and teaching.”