ADIEM Webinar Series – How to Be a Successful EM Applicant: Mentorship and Personal Advocacy

Wendy C. Coates, MD is Emeritus Professor of Emergency Medicine at UCLA Department of Emergency Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and Senior Faculty/Education Specialist at Harbor-UCLA Department of Emergency Medicine. She served as Dean of the UCLA Acute Care College and Director of Education at Harbor-UCLA where she founded the Fellowship in Medical Education Scholarship in 1999. She enjoys continued active mentorship of her fellowship graduates. Coates graduated with honors from Allegheny College, earned her MD from Case Western Reserve University, and completed the EM residency at Allegheny General/Medical College of PA. 

Dr. Coates’ research focus is medical education with an emphasis on faculty and learner development, mentorship, curricular innovation and evaluation, creativity in medicine, and qualitative methods. She is a founding member of the Editorial Board for AEM Education & Training, member of the AEM Editorial Board, and was an ABEM Item Writer for 9 years. 

Dr. Coates began her service to SAEM as the Resident Representative to the Education Committee which she subsequently chaired for several years. She was the inaugural chair of the Undergraduate Education Committee where she led the creation and implementation of the SAEM Virtual Advisor Program and, most recently, led the initial Fellowship Approval Committee that developed metrics for non-ACGME approved fellowships in EM. She has also served on the Nominating Committee, Research Committee, and was the SAEM representative to the national committee on medical student education reform. She currently serves as a member-at-large on the SAEM Board of Directors. Follow on her Twitter at: @CoatesMedEd

Dr. Michelle D. Lall, a board-certified emergency medicine physician, is a Professor at Emory University. She has been on faculty at Emory since 2013 where she served as an Associate Residency Director for 7 years. She is currently the inaugural Vice Chair of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for Emory Emergency Medicine. She previously served as the inaugural Director of Wellbeing, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, as well as, the Medical Education Fellowship Director. Prior to coming to Emory, Dr. Lall was an Assistant Professor at Wayne State University beginning in 2008. She was an Assistant Residency Director at the Sinai-Grace/Wayne State University Emergency Medicine Residency Program and the medical student clerkship site director at Sinai-Grace/Wayne State University beginning in 2009. Dr. Lall is a graduate of Wayne State University School of Medicine. She completed her residency and chief residency at Emory University.  

Dr. Lall is actively involved in medical education. Dr. Lall’s primary interests are physician wellbeing and the negative impact of bias on equity and inclusion in medicine. She is particularly interested in gender differences in burnout and workplace mistreatment among emergency physicians. Dr. Lall serves as the inaugural chair of the All Emergency Medicine Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force, a national emergency medicine work group focused on exploring and addressing bias and disparities in academic emergency medicine. 

Her professional memberships include: American College of Emergency Physicians – where she is a fellow, Society for Academic Emergency Physicians - where she is part of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors, Academy for Women in Academic Emergency Medicine (AWAEM) - where she is a Past President, American Association of Women Emergency Physicians, and Georgia College of Emergency Physicians. She is also a member of the Delta Omega Honor Society. While at Sinai-Grace/Wayne State University, Dr. Lall was a two time "Faculty Teacher of the Year" award winner. At Emory, she has been a two time recipient of the “Faculty Advocate of the Year” award. In 2020, Dr. Lall was named one of the Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association 25 Under 45 Influencers in Emergency Medicine whose contributions embody the spirit of the specialty. Dr. Lall is a recipient of the AWAEM Momentum Award and AWAEM Mid-Career Award. In 2023, Dr. Lall was selected for the prestigious Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine® (ELAM®) program, an intensive one-year fellowship of leadership training with extensive coaching, networking and mentoring opportunities aimed at expanding the national pool of qualified women candidates for leadership in academic medicine, dentistry, public health and pharmacy.

Dr. Lall is committed to caring for underserved patients in a safety net hospital, educating and training the next generation of emergency physicians, and serving the academic emergency medicine community.

Dr. Wendy Sun is an Administration Fellow and Instructor of Emergency Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine. She is passionate about patient quality and safety, physician wellness, and health innovation. Having served as a past President of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Residents and Medical Students (SAEM RAMS) and the Resident Member on the SAEM Board of Directors, she continues to be invested in the advancement of emergency medicine through research, mentorship, education, and advocacy.

Dr. Sun earned her undergraduate degree at Columbia University in Biomedical Engineering. She subsequently obtained her Doctor of Medicine from Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine where she was inducted into the Gold Humanism and Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Societies. Most recently, she completed Emergency Medicine residency at Yale - New Haven Health where she served as Chief Resident. She continues to further her education as a candidate of the MBA for Executives at the Yale School of Management. A Canadian from Toronto, she now resides in New Haven.