Amy F. Hildreth, MD, MHPE

Treasurer

Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences

I am eager to serve as the Treasurer on the AWAEM Executive Committee. My involvement with AWAEM spans several years, and I am passionate about taking on a more significant role within this group, as I believe it plays a vital part in supporting and empowering female leaders in emergency medicine. With a strong aptitude for financial management and a deep understanding of how fiscal stability can advance our goals and objectives, I aim to contribute to the group's success by responsibly overseeing the budget while allowing for new aspirations.

My journey with AWAEM began six years ago when I first joined as a member of the Newsletter Committee. Over time, I have had the privilege of serving as the Chair of the Newsletter Committee and am currently in the role of Microsite Chair.

I hold a medical degree from the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences and completed my emergency medicine residency at the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency, graduating in 2017. While I have not previously held an official Treasurer position, my extensive leadership experience and adaptability, gained through various roles, make me well-qualified for this position. My previous roles include serving as the Assistant Program Director at the Naval Medical Center San Diego, leading the Combat Trauma Research Group in both San Diego and at Walter Reed, ED Simulation Director, and acting as the Navy Intern Director at Walter Reed. Currently, I hold the position of Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.

I kindly request your consideration in electing me as Treasurer to help AWAEM continue to grow and thrive.

Mia L. Karamatsu, MD

Treasurer

Stanford University

I am an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine. I have been a faculty member at Stanford University since 2020. Previously, I was at Loma Linda University for 2 years and worked in the community for 10 years. I was at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) pediatric emergency department in Oakland and California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) in San Francisco. I graduated from John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii. I completed my pediatric residency at the Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) and pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) fellowship at Loma Linda University.

Since joining SAEM 3 years ago, I have benefited from the support of its members, especially the women of SAEM AWAEM. I currently serve as the co-chair for the AWAEM Wellness Committee. I am also an active member of the SAEM Wellness Committee and SAEM Equity and Inclusion Committee. Within my institution, I serve as the Physician Wellness Champion for my department’s PEM physician group. I am an advocate for physician wellness and strongly believe in supporting and elevating the careers of female physicians. I would love this opportunity to work with other executive team members to continue the mission of AWAEM, which is to recruit, promote, and retain women in academic emergency medicine. If elected, I will continue the work of my predecessors in maintaining a balanced budget to support the mission of this academy. It would be an honor to serve this community. Thank you for this opportunity.

Lauren A. Walter, MD

Treasurer

University of Alabama at Birmingham

Dr. Lauren Walter is a graduate of the University of Michigan Medical School and completed her EM residency training at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). She is currently Associate Professor, Associate Vice Chair, and the Director of Research and Clinical Trials for the Department of Emergency Medicine at UAB. Dr. Walter has been an active member of AWAEM for several years, including recent engagement as the co-Chair for the Didactic Committee for the past two years. Dr. Walter has devoted a significant portion of her career to mentoring women in medicine at all levels. She has previously served as president of the UAB American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA) faculty branch, the AMWA Region 5 governor, and the co-Chair for the ACEP Southeastern Chapters (SEC) Women in EM Interest Group. As a proposed member of the AWAEM Executive Committee, she primarily aims to continue to serve and promote women in academic emergency medicine on a national level.

Rebecca J. Barron, MD, MPH

Vice President of Education

UMass Chan Medical School - Baystate

I am currently an emergency physician at Baystate Health and an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at UMass Chan Medical School-Baystate. I completed my medical and public health degrees at Tufts University School of Medicine. I then did emergency medicine residency as well as a fellowship in Sex and Gender in Emergency Medicine at Alpert Medical School of Brown University. During the latter, I completed a Post-Master’s Certificate in Evidence-Based Teaching in the Health Professions through Johns Hopkins University. In addition to serving as faculty for our emergency medicine residency at Baystate, I lead a small group in the Early Clinical Learning course for first-year students at our medical school. I have also been active in AWAEM since residency, serving as SAEM Didactics Chair as well as Co-Chair of the Regionals Committee. AWAEM has been a critical resource in my own professional development, allowing me to connect with and learn from inspirational women in academic emergency medicine, face challenges with more resources and assistance, and brainstorm ways to make our profession more fulfilling and sustainable. As AWAEM’s Vice President of Education, I hope to pay this forward, harnessing my knowledge and experience to maintain and expand AWAEM’s offerings in support of other women on this journey.

Jennifer Love, MD

Vice President of Education

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

I have been part of the AWAEM team since 2020 as co-chair of the didactic committee and research committee. In these positions, I helped the committees expand their initiatives, through increasing didactic submissions, helping didactic authors align with other collaborators in and outside of AWAEM, assisting junior members with research projects and launching a research writing group. In this work, I have also helped bring new members to AWAEM and provide mentorship to others.

As VP of Education, I hope to bring my organizational, writing and research skills to the AWAEM Executive Board. My past experience with the didactics and research committees, which have strong educational missions, will help inform my role in this position. As VP, I will work with the membership and executive board to review and define annual educational goals both at SAEM and continuously throughout the year. I will also liaise with other SAEM committees to bring additional expertise to annual educational goals. As the VP of Education, I also envision my VP role to promote and sponsor SAEM educational events that may be relevant to members to promote professional development. Finally, I hope to shape AWAEM's strategic educational mission and goals for the future. In this role, I can support AWAEM work to better understand educational gaps in membership needs and design strategic initiatives to fill these gaps.

Alina Tsyrulnik, MD

Vice President of Education

Yale University Department of Emergency Medicine

As a member of AWAEM, I have found this organization to be invaluable as a resource for networking and mentorship. At every meeting I attend, I am delighted by the atmosphere of collaboration, inclusivity, openness, and support through interactions and networking opportunities as well as the organic mentorship that it fosters for its members.

As first an Assistant and then an Associate Program Director at Yale University Department of Emergency Medicine, I have significant experience (over a decade) in graduate medical education (GME). As a course direct for the Yale School of Medicine, I also have ample experience in undergraduate medical education (UGME). Furthermore, I currently serve as the Chair for Council of Residency Directors (CORD) APD Community of Practice as well as the liaison for AWAEM to CORD. Thus, I believe that my prior knowledge of both GME and UGME coupled with leadership and involvement experiences would align with what is needed to be an effective AWAEM Vice President of Education.

I feel it is time for me to step up and continue AWAEM’s tradition of being an invaluable resource for EM Educators. I believe I have the experience in both Leadership and Education to serve as the AWAEM Vice President of Education. I want to give back to the AWAEM community by continuing to promote and foster the very reasons I have continued to be a member: collaboration, mentorship, and leadership in Emergency Medicine Education.

Katja Goldflam, MD

Vice President of Membership

Yale University School of Medicine

I am excited to apply for the position of VP of Membership after working as co-chair of the AWAEM Membership Committee for the last three years.

I have been part of AWAEM for almost a decade now and believe it is one of the most impactful academies in SAEM. There is a palpable difference I feel when participating in the meetings, of women collaborating and strategizing to effect real change while supporting each other in their various personal and professional pursuits in academic EM.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my own work with AWAEM as the Membership Committee co-chair. As such, I believe recruiting new members at the faculty, as well as resident and medical student level, is critical to furthering the mission of AWAEM: I initially heard about AWAEM through word of mouth from a colleague and while this remains an important way for all of us to spread the word, I believe further promotion of our group through various avenues, including a greater presence on social media, in the Pulse newsletter, and at the SAEM annual meeting, will help encourage new members to learn about all the resources and community we have to offer.

Thank you for your consideration and I am looking forward to future in-person opportunities for membership interaction and recruitment in the coming year.

Taylor Stavely, MD

Vice President of Membership

Emory University School of Medicine

I am an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine, which is also where I completed residency training in 2021. At Emory, I am thrilled to mentor medical students as the EMIG Faculty Advisor and also lead as faculty co-chair of our women in EM group. My research focuses on the relationship between gender identity and professional development. AWAEM has been instrumental in my early career, and I hope to continue a history of service to this organization. I currently serve as AWAEM's VP of Membership, and I would be honored to serve another term. I have also served as AWAEM's Executive Committee resident member as well as the AWAEM Didactic Committee Co-chair. In 2022, I was honored as the recipient of AWAEM's Momentum Award to recognize my efforts in furthering AWAEM's mission. In my current VP Membership term, I identified and empowered new leaders for AWAEM's Wellness Committee and lead our new task force in the development of a toolkit to combat gender bias in letters of recommendation. If re-elected, I hope to continue to strengthen the relationship between AWAEM's Global Health Committee and GEMA, and find ways to continue to support global health scholarship at SAEM.

Neha Jia Ahmad, MD

Resident Member

Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency

I moved to the US from Pakistan when I was five, and grew up in the Midwest. I studied Anthropology and Philosophy at Columbia University, and afterwards worked on criminal justice reform for the ACLU. While there I decided to pursue medicine as a career, for which I pursued a pre-med post-baccalaureate certificate at Johns Hopkins. I obtained my MD from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and my MPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and am now an emergency medicine resident in the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency (HAEMR) at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

My interest in this position stems from my passion for addressing gender disparities within EM. Since starting residency I have been struck by the challenges facing women and other gender minorities within our field: from experiencing gendered bias from patients and colleagues on an everyday basis to the structural challenges that decimate female retention in leadership and academics. During residency I have channeled this passion through the HAEMR Women’s Initiative; as co-chair, I have focused on establishing formal and informal peer mentorship opportunities so that junior residents have opportunities to learn strategies for resilience and success from those with more experience. I would love the opportunity to translate this to the national scale by collaborating on individual mentorship programs and collective networking opportunities for women in EM at different stages in their careers, as I believe that strengthening our relationships and peer support as gender minorities is crucial to our collective success.

I am currently the co-chair of the HAEMR Women’s Initiative, my residency’s internal program dedicated to supporting residents who are gender minorities. During medical school, I served for two years as advocacy chair of my school’s chapter of the Student National Medical Association. In that role I engaged students across multiple health related professions in a series of town halls to identify opportunities to improve the University’s policies and practices on diversity and inclusion and served as a liaison to the administration to identify opportunities for actionable change.

Diana Bongiorno, MD, MPH

Resident Member

Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency (MGH/BWH)

I am a PGY-3 resident in the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency (HAEMR) program at the Massachusetts General and Brigham & Women’s Hospitals. I completed my undergraduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania, where I graduated from the Life Sciences and Management dual-degree program between the College and Wharton schools. I then graduated from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and received an MPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where I was a TL1 Trainee in the Predoctoral Clinical Research Training Program. I am passionate about health equity and working to address social determinants of health in the ED.

I also have a strong interest in the promotion of women in EM. I have been fortunate at each stage of my training to be able to learn from exceptional female mentors. I also currently serve as one of the co-leads of the women’s group within my residency program and have found it fulfilling to plan programming aimed at supporting female residents and fostering community within our residency. Through AWAEM, I am grateful to have had opportunities to collaborate with and learn from women in EM beyond my own institution, and I have particularly enjoyed contributing to the AWAEM Research Committee this year. I would be honored to serve as Resident Member on the AWAEM Executive Committee and work towards increased resident involvement with AWAEM.

Kellie LeVine, MD

Resident Member

Emory University

My name is Kellie LeVine, and I am a PGY-2 at Emory. My undergraduate education was at Duke University, where I graduated in 2017 with a major in Biology and minors in Chemistry and French. I worked as a genetics researcher at Duke prior to starting medical school at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, graduating in 2022 with Honors with Distinction in research and as an SAEM award recipient. My experience with SAEM, and more broadly, academic and national Emergency Medicine, includes involvement with SAEM and ACEP throughout medical school. In addition to presenting abstracts at Midwest Regional SAEM in 2020 and the ACEP Research Forum in 2021, I have also been a Medical Student Ambassador with both groups. I was an ACEP Medical Student Scholar in 2021 and an SAEM Medical Student Ambassador in both 2020 and 2021; I was selected as a Lead Ambassador both years. Though the event was cancelled in 2020, I was able to experience SAEM virtually in 2021 as well, and received the 2022 SAEM award upon graduating. I have additional experience in board membership and directorships through multiple groups; most notably, I just finished a tenure as a Co-Director of Social Media for the national educational organization, Foundations of Emergency Medicine (FoEM).

I am running to be the resident member of AWAEM because I want the opportunity to serve the EM community on a national level, and in particular, be a representative and voice for women in the field. I hope to bring energy and enthusiasm to the resident member position of this board and focus my attention on issues facing female and female-identifying physicians and patients alike. I hope that through this role and my own practice I can promote evidence-based, quality women’s healthcare in the ED in our current and continuously changing social and political climates.