People

Lauren Walter, MD, MSPH

University of Alabama at Birmingham

Lauren Walter is an Associate Professor and Associate Vice Chair of Emergency Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Dr. Walter has experience and expertise in both medical education and clinical research. She is currently the Social Emergency Medicine & Population Health Fellowship Director at UAB and conducts externally-funded research with a focus on public health, including universal HIV and HCV screening, as well as a ED-initiated MOUD program.

Daniel W. Markwalter, MD

University of North Carolina

Daniel Markwalter received his medical degree from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He then went on to emergency medicine residency training at UNC, where he served as Education Chief Resident. Following residency, he completed fellowship training in hospice and palliative medicine, also at UNC. He currently works clinically in the emergency department at UNC as well as on the inpatient adult palliative care consult service. His scholarly interests include ED-based advance care planning, transitions to hospice from the ED, and palliative care education for emergency medicine physicians. He is also a contributor to content at PalliEM.org.

Bruce R. Gutierrez, DO

NewYork-Presbyterian: Weill Cornell Medicine

Bruce Gutierrez, DO currently serves as both an emergency medicine and palliative care attending physician at NewYork-Presbyterian Weill Cornell. He is also an instructor in clinical medicine and emergency medicine at the Weill Cornell Medical College. He recently completed his fellowship in hospice and palliative medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. He completed his emergency medicine training at Jacobi/Montefiore Medical Centers in the Bronx. His passions include incorporating palliative care principles in the emergency department, educating other emergency physicians on hospice and palliative medicine, and simulation-based learning. When not at work, he enjoys exploring the city, playing with dogs, trying new restaurants, and traveling.

Dennis Hsieh, MD, JD

Chief Medical Officer

Central California Alliance for Health

Dr. Hsieh is the Chief Medical Officer for the Central California Alliance for Health and works on addressing challenges with the social determinants of health.. He was previously the Chief Medical Officer for Contra Costa Health Plan, Director of Social Medicine and Community Health at the LA County Department of Health Services’ (DHS) Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, and Medical Director of LA County DHS’s Whole Person Care Transitions of Care.

Blake Shultz, MD, JD

Mass General Brigham, Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency

Blake Shultz is an Emergency Medicine resident at the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency program and Associate Research Scholar at the Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School.

Abdoul M. Kone, MD

Baylor College of Medicine

Dr. Kone is from Ivory Coast, West African, a population with a heavy predominance in sickle cell disease. He went to medical school in an elite international military medical school (ESSAL) in Togo on the single scholarship from Ivory coast for that school. He later emigrated to the USA where he started all over from English as a Second Language to college and then Medical school at Howard University. Throughout his 4 years as a medical student, he was heavily involved with the Center for Sickle Cell Disease. He also worked at the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Maryland where he published on a protein marker of graft rejection after stem cell transplant in SCD. Dr. Kone is now an emergency medicine resident aiming to subspecialize in chronic pain management. He plans on making appropriate pain management a priority in the care of patients visiting the emergecy department. His ultimate goal is to find a sensitive marker of pain. Until then, he urges us to mainly rely on what makes us the best: compassion and empathy.

Jason Rotoli, MD

University of Rochester

I have a passion for improving the health literacy and health care for anyone who requires an accommodation, especially the Deaf ASL user. Since learning the American Sign Language as an undergraduate at the University of Rochester, my continuous involvement with the Deaf community demonstrates my dedication to and passion for advocating for the Deaf community. During graduate school and medical school, I worked part time in residential Deaf schools in Philadelphia and Buffalo in order to improve my fluency in American Sign Language. I am currently involved in a volunteer local community deaf health group, Partners in Deaf Health, which is well integrated into the surrounding local deaf community. This organization advocates for the Deaf community and disseminates healthy lifestyle and medical information. Through this group, I have presented locally on a variety of topics including emergency medicine topics and requesting accommodations in graduate medical education in an effort to increase the health literacy of this cultural and linguistic minority population. I am also involved with planning, fundraising, and lecturing at regional Deaf health fairs. Through the department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Rochester, I have had the opportunity to present regional and national universities for Grand Rounds, and at national conferences (SAEM, CORD) on cultural awareness when caring for the Deaf patient. In 2021, I planned and coordinated educational sessions for the Academy for Diversity and Inclusion in Emergency Medicine (ADIEM), part of the Society four Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM), for the national meeting and have also provided numerous didactic sessions on accommodations in the ED at these annual conferences. Most recently, I was elected to a board position (secretary/treasurer) for ADIEM for the 2022-23 academic year.

I am the Associate Residency Director of the Emergency Medicine residency at the University of Rochester. Through experiential didactics, simulation, and formal assessment, I seek to improve provider cultural awareness by increasing awareness of the needs of vulnerable populations. In 2017, I was hired as the Director of the Deaf Health Pathways, a medical student elective at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, which focuses on health disparities in the deaf community and teaching American Sign Language. Through this role, I hope to have a positive influence on students early in their careers in caring for Deaf ASL users, who are a linguistic and cultural minority. I hope 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 as well as through research and dissemination of health disparities information.

Desalegn Keney, MD, MPH

St.Paul’s Hospital Millenium Medical College

MD, MPH, Assistant professor of Emergency medicine and critical care, St.Paul’s Hospital Millenium Medical College. Served as consultant faculty for more than five years. Researcher,published 9 articles in the field. Has been awarded for top score in residency from Addis Ababa university, college of health sciences.
Actively involved in leadership which could improve health care system. As such served as Quality and patient flow focal and academic coordinator in the department of emergency medicine from 2018-2020.
COVID-19 Treatment center director 2020-2022 .Life time learner, Currently studying Intensive care medicine running in collaboration by St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium medical college , Ethiopia and St.Jhon Medical College in Banglore, India.

Grace M. Chatsika, MD

Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital

Grace Chatsika is a wife, mother of two, and an Emergency Medicine physician.
She holds a Masters degree in Emergency Medicine from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa.
Currently, she is the Head of Department at the Adult Emergency Department at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, Malawi, the first emergency department in the country.
She is involved in several hospital management roles including research and drug procurement committees.
She serves as a part-time faculty member at the Kamuzu University of Health Sciences, where she is in-charge of Emergency medicine postgraduate training. She is also involved in undergraduate training and curriculum development.
Her personal interests include to improve emergency care access in Malawi, and she holds special interest in global health, antimicrobial stewardship, trauma and sepsis.

Stephen J. Wolf, MD

Denver Health Medical Center

Dr. Stephen J. Wolf, MD serves as Chair of Emergency Medicine at Denver Health Medical Center and Professor and Vice Chair for Emergency Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He earned his medical degree from the University of Virginia in 1998 and completed his residency in emergency medicine at Denver Health in 2002. In the past, he has worked in the Denver Health and University of Colorado School of Medicine system as Residency Program Director, Departmental Director of Education, and an Assistant then Associate Dean within the University of Colorado School of Medicine. From 2014-18, Dr. Wolf served as Vice Chair for Academic Affairs at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, before returning to Colorado to take his current position. Nationally, Dr. Wolf is past-President for the Colorado Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), past-Director for the Academy of Scholarship for the Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Program Directors (CORD-EM), and past-Chair for the ACEP Clinical Policies Committee, helping to define the standards of care for emergency medicine. Currently, he co-directs the SAEM/AACEM's Emerging Leader Development Program (eLEAD). To date in his career, Dr. Wolf has started multiple faculty coaching programs and leadership curriculums, all geared at advancing emergency medicine and our faculty. His areas of scholarship and research include leadership, mentorship, coaching and career development, medical education, clinical guidelines and thromboembolic disease. He has authored or co-authored over 50 scholarly publications, 60 national presentations, and 20 book chapters.

Joshua D. Niforatos, MD, MTS

BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency Medicine University of Wisconsin School of Medicine & Public Health

Dr. Niforatos graduated with bachelor of arts degrees in ethnology and linguistics, and separately in biology, from the University of New Mexico. He completed a Master of Theological Studies in philosophy, theology and ethics at Boston University School of Theology prior to obtaining his medical degree from the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine (CCLCM).

After medical school, Dr. Niforatos completed his residency training in Emergency Medicine at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine/The Johns Hopkins Hospital. While in residency, he was the resident research committee chair and focused his time on the Emergency Medicine Evidence-Based Guideline Committee, the Improved Clinical Efficiency Committee, and presented lectures on research and biostatistics to residents.

Resa E. Lewiss, MD

University of Alabama at Birmingham

Resa E Lewiss MD is a Professor of Emergency Medicine. A TEDMED speaker and TimesUp Healthcare founder, she’s an internationally renowned point-of-care ultrasound educator and champion for diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplaces. She attended college at Brown University, medical school at the University of Pennsylvania, Emergency Medicine residency at the Harvard Emergency Medicine Residency, and fellowship at Mount Sinai St. Luke’s Roosevelt. She led point-of-care ultrasound sections at St. Luke’s Roosevelt, the University of Colorado, and Thomas Jefferson. A physician healthcare designer at Perkins&Will, her design focus has been ultrasound hardware and workflows. She’s helped to redesign the built environment of a Harvard ICU and an infectious diseases unit in Malawi. As host and founder of the Visible Voices Podcast, she’s interviewed over many subject matter experts in healthcare, equity, and current trends. Her writings are published in the popular press and scientific journals, such as Harvard Business Review, Slate, Nature, and Fast Company. Her new book, MicroSkills: Small Actions, Big Impact is forthcoming from HarperCollins in 2024.

Maxwell Blodgett, MD

Christiana Care Health System

Maxwell Blodgett is an academic faculty member at the Christiana Care Emergency Medicine residency and is an Azssistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Sidney Kimmel Medical College/Thomas Jefferson University. He is a graduate of Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and from the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He completed a medical education fellowship at Temple and is enrolled in the Master of Education in the Health Professions at Johns Hopkins University

John Elliott Schneider, MD

Washington University in St. Louis

Medical School: University of Missouri - Columbia. MD Class of 2017
Residency: Washington University in St. Louis: Class of 2021
Fellowship: Medical Education, Virginia Commonwealth University: Class of 2023


My main interests are in exploring how techniques in mental rehearsal and imagery, deliberate practice, and spaced repetition can be integrated into curricula that addresses skill and knowledge decay. I think this applies for all learning, but I am particularly interested in studying this in high acuity, low occurrence procedures and events as well as novel skills. From a more broad outlook my goals are to be innovative and improve how we integrate and assess active learning strategies within formal and informal curricula.

Kerry McCabe, MD

Boston Medical Center

Dr. McCabe graduated from the University of Massachusetts Medical School and the Boston Medical Center emergency medicine residency. She has spent her career in resident education, including serving as Residency Program Director at Boston Medical Center. She has served on multiple committees within CORD-EM and SAEM, and on hospital committees dedicated to education, diversity and inclusion, and faculty development.

Currently Vice Chair of Education for the Department of Emergency Medicine at BMC and the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Dr. McCabe's interests include developing a culture that serves the objectives of education, equity, and resilience for residents, faculty, and the broader community. Current projects include the United Network for the Study of Human Affect in Medical Education (UNSHAME) collaborative and hospital-wide microaggression response training. Dr. McCabe is a mother of three.

Spenser C. Lang, MD

University of Cincinnati College of Medicine

I am currently an assistant professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Cincinnati. I trained at Northwestern University EM in Chicago, and joined the faculty at Cincinnati after graduation in 2018. I also serve as an APD and the Director of Simulation for our residency program. In this role, I have an interest in medical education through simulation, bedside teaching, and junior learner mentorship.

Moises Gallegos, MD, MPH

Stanford Emergency Medicine

Moises grew up in Southern California. He attended Harvard College where he studied Neurobiology and topics in Mind/Brain/Behavior. He earned his MD from Stanford School of Medicine and concurrently earned a Masters in Public Health from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He completed his residency and was Chief Resident at Baylor College of Medicine while working at Ben Taub General Hospital. He began his academic career as an Assistant Professor in the Henry JN Taub Department of Emergency Medicine at Ben Taub and rejoined the Stanford Department of Emergency Medicine in 2019 as a Clinical Assistant Professor. He is the Clerkship Director for EMED301A, the required/core Emergency Medicine rotation. He is currently completing coursework to obtain his Master of Education in the Health Professions from Johns Hopkins University School of Education.

Andrew Beck, MD, MS

Brown University

Andrew Beck, MD, MS is a graduate of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, OH. He trained in Emergency Medicine at Brown University. Dr. Beck has formal training in medical education, and completed a Fellowship in Global Medical Education with the Department of Emergency Medicine at Brown University. Dr. Beck has seven years of experience in medical education, formally leading MedBoardTutors, LLC, a private medical education tutoring group assisting medical students around the world across the continuum of basic and clinical sciences, during which time he personally instructed over 100 medical students on a one-on-one basis. He frequently travels to Africa to teach Emergency Medicine, often in Kenya and Rwanda. He has taught many WHO Basic Emergency Care Courses in many countries. His main interests include clinical teaching, global medical education, and adult learning theory. He conducts research in global emergency medicine education, specifically on the teaching of resuscitation in the resource-limited emergency setting.

Adam Laytin, MD, MPH

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Adam Laytin, MD MPH is an assistant professor of an Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine and Emergency Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He earned his M.D. at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He completed a Master’s degree in Public Health at the University of California Berkeley. He completed his residency in emergency medicine at Oregon Health & Science University and his fellowship in surgical critical care at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Laytin’s research addresses context-appropriate emergency, trauma and critical care in resource-limited settings, focusing on opportunities for quality improvement and capacity building. He is the chair of the International Federation of Emergency Medicine Critical Care Special Interest Group.

Nana Sefa, MD, MPH

MedStar Washington Hospital Center

Dr. Sefa is an assistant professor of emergency medicine and critical care at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. He completed medical school at the University of Ghana Medical School and his masters in Public Health at the University of Michigan. He completed residency in emergency medicine at William Beaumont Hospital and fellowship in medical critical care at Brigham and Women's Hospital.