Culturally Effective Medicine

Associate Professor

Medical College of Wisconsin

Dr. Padela is a clinician-researcher with scholarship foci at the intersections of religious identity, healthcare, and bioethics.

His empirical work focuses on developing tailored community-based interventions tacking Muslim health disparities, and his normative scholarship focused on the ethics of cultural accommodations of provider and patient identities in the halls of medicine. He also studies the impact of discrimination on Muslim patient and providers.

Member-at-Large

UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas

Ava E. Pierce, MD is a Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center, the Associate Vice Chair of Outreach and Engagement for the Department of Emergency Medicine, the Director of the Emergency Medicine Research Associate Program, a Co-Director of the Joint Admission Medical Program (JAMP) at UT Southwestern and works clinically at Parkland Health and Hospital Systems. She obtained her medical degree from Louisiana State University School of Medicine at Shreveport and completed an emergency medicine residency at Emory University School of Medicine.
Dr. Pierce completed the Medical Education Research Certificate (MERC) Program and the AAMC Healthcare Executive Diversity and Inclusion Certificate Program and is committed to making innovative changes that will improve excellence in health care, thus strengthening a workforce that will provide quality medical care to all. She serves as a member of UT Southwestern Medical Center’s Medical School Admissions Committee and is a faculty liaison for Housestaff Emerging Academy of Leaders (HEAL), which focuses on professional development and mentoring for residents and fellows. Her research interests include medical education, health equity, and cardiac resuscitation.
Dr. Pierce has built a steadfast academic career with involvement in numerous capacities at SAEM. She has been actively involved in the Academy for Diversity and Inclusion in Emergency Medicine (ADIEM) since it was founded. She has served as the Development Officer for the Academy for Diversity and Inclusion in Emergency Medicine (ADIEM), President - Elect for ADIEM for 2017-2018, ADIEM’s President 2018 – 2019 and ADIEM’s Immediate Past President 2019 - 2020. She was awarded the 2016 Outstanding Academician Award by ADIEM in recognition of her impact on the academic success of students and residents underrepresented in medicine. She has also been a member of SAEM’s Membership Committee, SAEM’s Ethics Committee and SAEM’s Diversity and Inclusion Task Force. She is an elected 2020-2023 and 2023 - 2026 Member-at-Large of the Board of Directors of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM). She is also a member of the National Medical Association, the AAMC Group on Diversity and Inclusion, and a fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians. In 2022, she was appointed as holder of the Michael P. Wainscott, M.D. Professorship in Emergency Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

Director, Section of International and Domestic Health Equity and Leadership (IDHEAL), UCLA

Olive View-UCLA Medical Center

Dr. Taira is an emergency physician and the Director of Research for the Department of Emergency Medicine at Olive View- UCLA Medical Center. In 2016, she became director of the Section of International and Domestic Health Equity and Leadership (IDHEAL) for the UCLA Department of Emergency Medicine whose mission is to define and promote the role that academic emergency medicine can play in the promotion of health equity and elimination of health disparities locally, nationally and globally. (www.idheal.org) Her research focuses on improving quality of care and health outcomes for patients with limited English proficiency. She speaks locally and nationally on language justice and communication in health care.

Secretary-Treasurer

University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry

"I am an assistant professor and associate residency program director in the department of emergency medicine at the University of Rochester. I have been interested in diversity and inclusion for several years in the realm of advocating for the deaf ASL user and others who require accommodations, leading me to join ADIEM several years ago. Inspired by leadership in ADIEM, I created the Accommodations Committee to partner with others with similar interests. Together, we have created educational training sessions and publications to disseminate information about a marginalized group. With the experience and knowledge gained through networking and my own self growth/education, I have been able to advocate for a marginalized group locally, regionally, and nationally through workshops (multiple national grand rounds), publications, and didactic sessions (SAME 2019-2021). I was also in charge of planning the pre-conference ADIEM session for the 2020-21 national conference. I am currently a member-at-large (2021-2022) and was previously a general member.

I am running for office out of desire for continued support of an organization with an incredible mission: to advocate for those who cannot advocate for themselves. I have a track record of being well organized and am facile with technology. I will be able to keep track of clear and concise meeting notes, goals/objectives of the meeting, and the trajectory of our group. I also have some previous treasurer role experience as the treasurer of a collegiate extracurricular group where I transitioned our group from paper tracking to a clear and easy-to-follow excel format. I look forward tp contributing to the group in any way I can to support our mission."

Dr. Rotoli is the Assistant Residency Director of the Emergency Medicine residency at the University of Rochester. Through local and national experiential didactics, simulation, and formal assessment, he seeks to improve provider cultural awareness by increasing awareness of the needs of vulnerable populations (especially the culturally Deaf community). Recently, Dr. Rotoli has become the Director of the Deaf Health Pathways, a medical student elective at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. Through this role, he hopes to have a positive influence on students early in their careers in caring for Deaf ASL users, who are a linguistic and cultural minority. He hopes to continue to improve Deaf patient health care delivery and medical knowledge through providing direct access and communication to an ASL fluent physician while working clinically in the emergency department at Strong Memorial Hospital.

Vice Chair of Education and Program Director

UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas

Dr. Velez was born and raised in Puerto Rico, where she studied emergency Medicine before moving to Dallas for a tox fellowship and have been affiliated with UTSW since then. She has been the PD since 2011 and vice chair for education in the last three years. Passionate about education, cultural competency, and anything tox.

Professor & System Vice Chair of Emergency Medicine

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Lynne D. Richardson, MD, FACEP, is Professor of Emergency Medicine and Professor of Population Health Science & Policy at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, and System Vice Chair for the Department of Emergency Medicine of the Mount Sinai Health System. A native New Yorker, she holds Bachelor’s degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Life Sciences and Management; and an MD degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She completed the Emergency Medicine Residency at Jacobi Hospital/Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where she served as Chief Resident. Dr. Richardson became a Diplomate of the American Board of Emergency Medicine in 1985, launching a remarkable career as a clinician, an educator, a researcher and an advocate. Dr. Richardson is now one of the most accomplished investigators in emergency medicine and one of its most respected research mentors; her work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. Dr. Richardson joined the faculty at Mount Sinai in 1995 to establish the Mount Sinai Emergency Medicine Residency, which, under her leadership, emerged as one of the premiere training programs on the East Coast. In 2002, she left the Program Director position to become Director of the Research Division. She has recruited a cadre of talented clinician investigators and, through a strong emphasis on mentoring and multi-disciplinary collaborations, she has built a research program that currently ranks #2 in the country in NIH funding. She remains involved in physician education at both the undergraduate and post-graduate levels. In addition to teaching emergency medicine, she is a member of the Ethics faculty and teaches in the Masters of Public Health program. Her research interests include the use of clinical and administrative data to investigate issues of access, quality and equity; developing and assessing the effectiveness of strategies to eliminate health care disparities, particularly through the use of electronic health record (EHR)-embedded clinical decision support tools; and care redesign featuring innovative models of emergency care and emergency department-based care coordination and care transition interventions to support population health initiatives and improve patient outcomes. She is an expert on community engagement and a national thought leader in the ethics of conducting emergency research. Her mixed-methods "Community VOICES" studies have defined best practices for community consultation in exception from informed consent research. Dr. Richardson has made highly influential contributions to eliminating healthcare disparities in both the research and policy arenas. She is a member of the New York City Board of Health, the first emergency physician ever to serve in that Board's more than one hundred and fifty year history. She serves on the Advisory Committee to the Director (ACD) of the Centers for Disease Control and is the current Chair of the ACD Health Disparities Subcommittee. She has received numerous awards for distinguished service, exceptional leadership, and outstanding teaching from various academic institutions, professional organizations and community groups. In 2016, Dr. Richardson was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.

Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine

Emory University School of Medicine

 Dr. Patrick Meloy joined the Emory University School of Medicine faculty in 2013. He serves as Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, and is currently practicing at Emory University and Grady Memorial Hospitals. He earned his bachelor’s degrees from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and his MD from St. George’s University School of Medicine. He successfully graduated from the Sinai-Grace Hospital/Wayne State University Emergency Medicine residency after serving as chief resident. He is currently a Fellow of the American College of Emergency Physician and was named “Teacher of the Year” twice of the Emergency Medicine program at Emory. He has authored several book chapters, and has published multiple clinical and research papers. He currently is the Site Director of the Emergency Medicine Residency at Emory University Hospital Midtown, and is coordinator of the Mock Oral Boards for the residency program. His interests include trauma care, infectious disease preparedness, pediatric emergency care and EKG instruction. He currently lives in Atlanta, GA, with his wife and two daughters.