Member-at-Large

Yale Department of Emergency Medicine

It is an honor to be considered for re-election to the SAEM Board of Directors. Working with such an inspiring and driven membership, as well as a dedicated and innovative staff for the past three years has shown me how much can be accomplished by individuals who truly care about the future of Emergency Medicine. I have seen the career development of so many academic emergency physicians supported and accelerated by the opportunities for networking, mentorship, and leadership within SAEM. Serving on the Board of Directors is my way of paying it forward and translating my experience and ideas into a brighter future for academic emergency medicine.

I am an Associate Professor at the Yale Department of Emergency Medicine where I serve as the Director of Global Health Education. I completed residency at the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency, an MPH at the Harvard School of Public Health and a Global Health Fellowship at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. I have been involved with many aspects of SAEM since residency and can say without hesitation that SAEM has not only shaped but launched my career. After holding various leadership roles with the Academy for Women in Academic Emergency Medicine (AWAEM), I served as President. Through that role, I created new programs, celebrated many successes, and came to recognize the potential for the greater SAEM organization to accomplish even more. I am particularly proud of the AWAEM Internal Funding Award, a program that in only four years has supported over 20 PIs with funding for their research. I have also been actively engaged with the Academy for Diversity & Inclusion in Emergency Medicine (ADIEM), the Global Emergency Medicine Academy (GEMA), the SAEM Equity and Inclusion Committee, the Wellness Committee, as well as several other interest groups. In 2018, I was awarded the AWAEM Momentum Award and in 2023 the AWAEM Social Advocacy in Medicine Award.

We are at an inflection point in Emergency Medicine. Given world events, an important national social conversation, and threats to our workforce, we are compelled to examine and thoughtfully reflect on the work that SAEM does. We must concurrently consider the composition of our membership and leadership to ensure that we are appropriately supporting our diversity while building a community for the next generation of emergency physicians. Actively creating a more inclusive membership and leadership requires being deliberate, strategic, and creative in the development of SAEM programs and initiatives for academic emergency physicians of all types: researchers, educators, administrators, and clinicians. The challenges we face in academic emergency medicine may be substantial, but they are not insurmountable. I would like to continue leading that charge for the greater SAEM membership.

Member-at-Large

Boston University/Boston Medical Center

I am currently the Chair in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Boston Medical Center and Boston University School of Medicine. Before joining BMC, I was the Vice Chair of Academic Affairs at at Brown Emergency Medicine and a physician leader at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. I received my MD degree from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and completed residency training at Brown Emergency Medicine. After residency, I was accepted into the Commonwealth Fund Minority Health Policy Fellowship and earned an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health. As a physician leader at BWH/HMS, I completed the Executive Education program as part of 1st cohort in the Harvard Business School Brigham Physician Leadership program at Harvard Business School. During my mid-career, I was accepted into the National Hispanic Medical Association (NHMA) Mid-Career Executive Leadership Fellowship at the NYU Wagner School of Public Service Leadership Center.

With more than 20 years of senior leadership experience, I have a track record of mentoring and collaborating and built my academic career by helping to create academic programs and projects with multiple academic universities and international organizations. Over the span of my professional career, my passion and “Ikigai” has been focused on vulnerable populations in the US and abroad. I am interested in joining the SAEM Board of Directors because we are in a critical inflection point for the specialty and I want to be a part of the strategic planning to determine our future areas of opportunity for growth, innovation, equity, integration, and collaboration with partners.As a new chair, I believe that I can bring a depth and breadth of experience and perspectives that will help the SAEM Board understand the current state and needs while also preparing for a future state. If elected, I hope to help advance our strategic goals in the areas of workforce development and Professional Development and Support.

Member-at-Large

University of Utah School of Medicine

Jeff Druck, MD, is the Vice Chair for Faculty Advancement, DEI and Wellbeing of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine, as well as being a Professor within the Department of Emergency Medicine. Dr. Druck grew up in Houston, Texas, went to Rice University for his undergraduate degree, received his MD degree from Baylor College of Medicine, and he completed his residency at the Denver Health Residency Program in Emergency Medicine. He is board certified in Emergency Medicine and has served as an oral examiner for ABEM for the past 14 years.

Dr. Druck is an expert in emergency medicine education and in DEI, having served as the chair of his department’s DEI committee, an associate residency director, President of the school’s faculty senate, Student Affairs Dean, and Co-Director of the Office of Professional Excellence at the University of Colorado prior to his move to Utah.

In addition to serving on the SAEM Board of Directors, Dr. Druck has served as President of the Academy for Diversity and Inclusion in Emergency Medicine (ADIEM) as well as Co-Chair of the SAEM Consensus conference on Racism in Emergency Medicine. He has served on SAEM’s Awards committee, Program Committee, Consultation Committee, the Faculty Development Committee, and previously directed the Chief Resident Forum. He can be found on LinkedIn at @JeffDruck

Member-at-Large

University of Michigan

My name is Joseph House. I am currently a Professor of Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Michigan Medical School. I completed medical school at Wayne State University School of Medicine and Emergency Medicine Residency at East Carolina University/Brody School of Medicine in North Carolina. After residency, I completed fellowship in Pediatric Emergency Medicine at University of Michigan. After fellowship I joined the faculty at University of Michigan splitting my clinical time between the Adult and Children's Emergency Departments. During my time at Michigan I have held several academic roles. I have been the Director of Medical Student Education for the last 12 years. I have also served as Director of Interprofessional Education for the UM Medical School, creating longitudinal IPE experiences during each year of medical school. I also created several courses and opportunities for medical students to work with and learn from faculty and students from numerous Health Science Schools on campus. In addition, I served as Assistant Program Director for a few years before refocusing my academic efforts solely on medical students helping to navigate their role during and after COVID.

I have been an active member on the CDEM Executive since 2019 serving as treasurer and secretary and currently serve as the President of CDEM. I have also been active on the SAEM Workforce Committee and CORD Match Taskforce as we have looked at contributors to the recent decrease in applicants to Emergency Medicine. I am also a member of the Aliiance of Clinical Educators which brings together educators across specialties.

I am running for SAEM Board as I believe my experience on many committees and in many leadership positions brings a unique perspective to SAEM. I have seen the impact of many outside forces on EM from the medical student, resident, and faculty point of view and I think SAEM is in a position to help shape what EM will look like for years to come.

Member-at-Large

University of Cincinnati

Ryan LaFollette, MD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Cincinnati. Dr. LaFollette graduated from UC’s Emergency Medicine Residency where he served as a Chief Resident in 2016 and upon graduation became an Assistant Program Director, a title he currently holds. He also serves as a flight physician and a physician member of the Cincinnati SWAT team.

Dr. LaFollette functions as the current SAEM Program Committee Chair, leading the society’s most attended meeting ever in Austin, TX at SAEM23 and is excited about continuing a record setting year at SAEM24 in Phoenix, AZ. He has served a number of roles in the Program Committee, including Chairing the Medical Student Ambassadors where he helped to double our medical student presence at the Annual Meeting. He has also led Didactics from 2018-2022, revamping the grading and selection process while significantly increasing the number of didactic offerings. Additionally, he served as Virtual Presence Committee Chair from 2018-2021, during which the SAEM livestreams contributed hundreds of hours of free SAEM content and oversaw the expansion of the SAEM podcasts and new website creation. He has also been a member of the Awards and Education Committee, creating the FOAMed Excellence in Education Award which was first given out in 2019.

Dr. LaFollette’s academic interests include resident education and knowledge translation, being a leader of the Education Leadership Academy at UC. He serves on the UC GME Executive Committee at the University of Cincinnati, on the Executive Board of the UC Emergency Medicine Program Of Women in LeadERship (EMPOWER) and as an Editor-in-Chief of TamingtheSRU.com. He has won both the Faculty of the Year (2019) and Mentor of the Year (2023) awards. If elected to the board, he would look to forward the technological advances that connect our diverse society and create next-generation resources to curate the vast SAEM resources and knowledge base into career-furthering deliverables.

Member-at-Large

Wayne State University School of Medicine

I have been active within SAEM since 2008, serving on the SAEM Awards, By-Laws, Grants, Program, and Research Committees. For the last three years, I have served as Chair of the Research Committee and a member of the SAEM Bylaws Committee. The overarching theme of my work with SAEM has been to seek out novel ways to combine research and teaching. Within the Research Committee, I led the development of the inaugural Advanced Research Methodology, Evaluation and Design (ARMED) course, grew the Research Learning Series (RLS) from an abandoned concept into a monthly webinar series, prioritized the development of ARMED MedEd, led efforts to improve communication with federal funding agencies, formed initiatives to promote female and URiM EM researchers, and advocated for improved access to federal funding for acute care and medical education research. As Chair of the Bylaws Committee, I have learned to balance respect for our legacy and rich history as an organization representing academic EM physicians with the need to periodically review our mission as a modern organization. Since SAEM’s birth in 1989, we have grown and developed into a mature organization with different needs and priorities than our founders could have anticipated. Board members are charged with guiding the continued evolution of SAEM to ensure that our organization remains relevant in the modern world and continues to address the needs of our current members without losing sight of our mission to advance academic EM. If elected to the Board of Directors, I will continue to seek out novel ways to bring researchers and educators together. I will advocate for unity and collaboration within our organization, recognizing that each member of SAEM brings something valuable to our organization.

My educational background is fairly straightforward. I received my MD (2004) and MBA (2005) degrees from the University of Cincinnati, and completed EM residency at Henry Ford Hospital (Detroit, Michigan). Since completing residency, I have worked clinically in the EDs at Detroit Receiving Hospital (DRH) and Sinai-Grace Hospital (SGH). I am currently an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Wayne State University (WSU) School of Medicine and DRH Director of Clinical Research. I recently completed a five-year term as Chair of the WSU MP2 Institutional Review Board (IRB), and am an active clinical researcher. I believe that my experiences in business administration, regulatory policy, and research administration will make me a well-rounded and valuable member of the Board.

If elected, I will continue to advocate for those who don’t yet feel represented within our SAEM membership and the broader EM community. I am grateful for the opportunities that I have been given to serve SAEM, and feel that these experiences have helped me to develop the confidence and competency that I needed as a clinician, scholar, and leader. But not everyone has had the same opportunities that I have had. As a Board member, I would work towards improving that situation by helping to create new leadership opportunities for individuals from a broad range of backgrounds, including those currently under-represented within our organization’s leadership, and empowering them to lead in their own way. SAEM has many incredible, talented and valuable members who currently feel marginalized or excluded from realizing their true potential within SAEM. As a member of the Board, I would prioritize finding and engaging those who want to help but have not yet been given the chance.

SAEM Bylaws Committee Member

Michigan State University College of Human Medicine

As professor and chair of the Department of EM at the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, I have continued to be an active member of SAEM and AACEM. Over the last 3 decades, I have served in a variety of roles including the Governmental Affairs Committee, External Collaboration Committee (Chair), Finance Committee, Foundation Board of Trustees, and Chair of the Evidenced Based Healthcare and Implementation Interest Group. Having recently completed 5 years of service on the AACEM Executive Committee which included one year as President, I understand the critical importance of organizational bylaws. It was pointed out by one of my fellow Executive Committee members that I have an eye for detail which is critical when reviewing bylaws for proposed changes.

SAEM Bylaws Committee Member

Rush University Medical Center

As an educator, researcher, and long-standing active member of SAEM, I am honored to be considered for the SAEM Bylaws Committee. Over the past decade, my commitment to SAEM has been evident through my involvement in various committees, including the Program Committee, Research Committee, Abstracts Subcommittee, Faculty Development Committee, and Digital Innovation Task Force. I am also a regular contributor to the annual SAEM Strategic Planning sessions. I have served as Chair of the Education Summit, an annual education-focused conference within the Scientific Assembly, and currently serve as the Director of Learner Assessment and Program Evaluation for the SAEM Advanced Research Methodology, Evaluation and Design in Medical Education (ARMED MedEd) program. Based upon these efforts, I was honored to receive the SAEM Program Committee Award for Outstanding Contribution to Advance the Specialty of Academic Emergency Medicine.

My commitment extends beyond SAEM, where I have held national leadership positions in AAEM, ACEP, CORD, ICEP, and SCUF. These roles have provided me with a detailed understanding of organizational bylaws and their pivotal role. As the ACEP EUS section chair, I successfully led the revision of several key policies, including the ultrasound use and transesophageal echocardiography policy statements. Serving as the Publication Committee Chair for the CDC-funded INSPIRE program, I collaborated with a geographically-dispersed group to develop robust guidelines and charters guiding collaborative publications and design.

 If selected for the Bylaws Committee, I will leverage this experience and my robust network to provide thorough and thoughtful recommendations to the Board. I will focus on improving collaboration across groups and ensuring the delivery of excellent, evidence-based, and equitable care to the communities we serve. I am excited about the prospect of contributing my skills and insights to the Bylaws Committee and look forward to the opportunity to play a meaningful role in advancing the mission of SAEM. Thank you for considering my candidacy.

SAEM Bylaws Committee Member

University of Virginia Health Sciences Center

My educational background includes undergraduate and medical school studies at the University of Virginia, followed by emergency medicine residency at Virginia Commonwealth University. I then completed a one year clinical ultrasound fellowship at Thomas Jefferson University. Following this, I returned back to University of Virginia as a faculty member in the Department of Emergency Medicine. I have served on the Academy of Emergency Ultrasound Executive Committee within SAEM since 2020. This includes a 2 year term as Treasurer, 2020-2022, followed by a one year term as President-elect (2022-2023), one year as President (current), and one upcoming year as past-President (2024-2025). Notable roles I have held at the University of Virginia include associate residency director (2019-current), Director of Emergency Ultrasound (2019-current), Director of Emergency Ultrasound Fellowship (2019-current), departmental diversity facilitator (2017-2023), coding/billing liaison to the University Physicians Group (2021-current), School of Medicine Admissions member (2018-2021), and School of Medicine Curriculum Committee member (2021-current).

Contributing to SAEM through AEUS has been a highly instructive and rewarding component of my academic work. Over time, I’ve come to learn that our membership is quite often our greatest asset. When we have properly oriented ourselves to effectively harnessing members’ interests and talents, we have been able to develop quality content and programming for our Academy. It is with this sense that I hope to serve on the Bylaws Committee. Engaging with membership at all levels is critical for the health and vitality of SAEM and this extends to the Bylaws Committee as well. The October 2023 webinar focusing on the Bylaws Committee was a tangible example of demonstrating the scope of the committee to membership at large. My goal would be to find additional avenues for member communication and involvement within the scope of the Bylaws Committee’s work. This could include direct communication with SAEM members about our work, such as in submissions to the SAEM Pulse. This could also include updating members on our efforts and our determinations as we work through the SAEM bylaws and make recommendations to the SAEM board. As bylaws can often seem nebulous to the outsider, it would be interesting to create a quick guide for members to easily get a sense of what the key bylaws are and how they support SAEM’s work. One could also envision occasional ‘bylaw highlight’ communications to members, wherein we seek to highlight a particular bylaw’s scope and importance.

In addition to the above, I certainly appreciate that the Bylaws Committee is one that requires a critical eye and close attention to detail. This is work to be undertaken in a serious and scrutinizing fashion, as the wording and content of the bylaws will undoubtedly have ongoing effects on SAEM’s missions and functions. My goal would be to provide clarity and visibility of the SAEM bylaws, particularly those that might be subject to introduction or amendment. All potential impacts of a bylaw addition or amendment should be thoroughly considered. Ensuring clarity of communication of these impacts to the Board of Directors and other relevant parties would be an ongoing focus of these efforts. Through this work, I would hope to assist the committee in working through each individual bylaw to assess its history, current status, relevance, and appropriateness into the future. The objective would be to not rest on the assumption that the current bylaws are the correct ones into the future, but rather to assess each one for current applicability and long term viability.

SAEM Nominating Committee Member

University of California, Davis

I am a fellowship-trained physician-scientist (University of California, Davis) who strongly supports the mission of SAEM as the premier professional organization for academic emergency physicians. My commitment to SAEM began in 2013, as a resident at the University of Utah and since that time I have maintained an active role within the organization. I recently completed a three-year term as the Chair of the 260-member Sex & Gender Interest Group (SGIG), and despite the challenges of the COVID years, under my leadership we had some of the most successful years since the group’s inception. In the past year alone, the SGIG has developed and sponsored four well-attended and collaborative didactics at our annual meeting, published five peer-reviewed manuscripts focused on sex and gender-specific topics, and led one of ten subgroups at the 2023 consensus conference on precision emergency medicine. I am committed to an academic career and am currently supported by an NIH funded K12 award (Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health) to study sex differences in pulmonary embolism.

Previously I have held leadership positions within the Academy for Women in Academic Emergency Medicine (AWAEM) and led the 2021 pre-conference workshop. I am an active member of both AWAEM and the Academy for Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (ADIEM) and have been a featured speaker on national webinars sponsored by each group. In addition, I have served on numerous SAEM committees through the years, most recently I was selected as a member of the inaugural Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion committee. I am additionally committed to a research career in women’s health.

My extensive SAEM experience has helped me understand the needs of the organization and has given me a front-row seat to observe the traits of highly effective leaders. This insight coupled with my history of building curricula, designing and conducting research studies, and supporting professional development, particularly for underrepresented groups has helped me build a broad professional network that I will deploy to ensure the highest quality of ongoing leadership within SAEM.

Service to SAEM as a member of the nominating committee will allow me to have a significant ongoing impact on the organization and thus the advancement of academic EM. My broad experience across all domains of the SAEM mission makes me an excellent candidate to serve on the nominating committee and I would appreciate your support.

SAEM Nominating Committee Member

Brigham & Womens Hospital/Harvard Medical School

I am currently the Chief of Emergency Medicine at the MGB Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital. Prior to that I was the Vice Chair for Network Operations at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. I am an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School with expertise in the field of Emergency Medicine Operations.  I have  over 20 years of healthcare administration experience. Areas of recent focus include operational improvement, patient flow and throughput optimization, queuing, and schedule optimization.

I am interested in continuing my leadership and service contributions to SAEM. I have been a member of several SAEM committees and currently serve as the Chair of the operations committee. I have also contributed to didactic presentations at SAEM and strive to develop and mentor more junior faculty. If elected I hope to help advance the SAEM mission and help develop the future leaders of Emergency Medicine.

SAEM Nominating Committee Member

Yale School of Medicine

My name is Ambrose Wong, MD, MSEd, MHS, and I am an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine and an academic physician-scientist at Yale School of Medicine. I have been active with SAEM and have been involved in leadership positions consecutively since senior year of residency in 2014. I was on the executive board for the SAEM’s Simulation Academy for the past seven years, including President for 2022-23. My focus has been to support national simulation-based research collaborations, which has led to multiple academy-based publications on topics ranging from virtual mentoring to assessment of models for procedural competency training. I was the recipient of the inaugural Simulation Academy Change Agent Award in 2021, which recognizes transformational leadership in the service of SAEM and the Simulation Academy. I also serve on the SAEM Research Committee, focusing on increasing the pipeline for career development awards in academic emergency medicine and chairing the objective for submitting high-quality research didactics during the Annual Meeting.

My research focuses on teamwork, patient safety, behavioral health, and healthcare disparities. As the Research Director and Fellowship Director at Yale Center for Medical Simulation, I use healthcare simulation technology to improve teamwork and patient safety. I am the recipient of a career development (K23) award from the National Institute of Mental Health to use informatics for preventing symptoms of psychomotor agitation in patients with behavioral crises. I also received an R21 exploratory research award from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities to address disproportionate use of physical restraints on historically marginalized populations in the emergency department. This year, I received approval for funding from PCORI for a $6.9 million, five-year broad pragmatic study to implement peer support enhanced behavioral crisis response teams in the emergency department.

I attended Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. I obtained my Emergency Medicine residency training at NYU & Bellevue Hospitals Center in New York City, serving as chief resident physician in my final year. I subsequently completed a medical simulation fellowship at NYU School of Medicine & New York Simulation Center for the Health Sciences. I received a Master of Science in Health Professions Education at Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions and a Master of Health Sciences from Yale School of Medicine.

I am honored to be considered for a position on the SAEM Nominating Committee. As an elected member of the Nominating Committee, I hope to help ensure that candidates from a wide spectrum of expertise and interests across the society are represented in candidates running for leadership positions. This is especially important for groups with smaller memberships or are otherwise underrepresented within SAEM. In addition, I will aim to objectively represent the broad interests of general membership when assisting in selecting nominees for the Board and elected positions of standing committees.