People

Jenna M. Thomas, MB, BCh, BAO, MHPE

Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine

Dr. Jenna Thomas is an Assistant Program Director for the residency program at Washington University in St. Louis. Her broad experiences from medical school in Ireland through Medical Education fellowship in the Midwest piqued a passion for supporting people of diverse personal and professional backgrounds in their own competency based education. She is always looking for ways to collaborate on scholarly projects and share experiences with peers across a variety of institutions and training settings, and is an active member of SAEM's Education Committee.

Erin L. Simon, DO

Cleveland Clinic Akron General/NEOMED

Dr. Erin Simon is a Professor of Emergency Medicine at Northeast Ohio Medical University. She is Research Director for the Cleveland Clinic Akron General Emergency Medicine Program and has published over 160 peer-reviewed manuscripts and abstracts. She is Director for the Cleveland Clinic Akron General's substance use disorder program. Dr. Simon is active in leadership roles on national and international committees for the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine and the International Federation for Emergency Medicine. She is a national oral board examiner for the American Board of Emergency Medicine and a peer reviewer for The Journal of Emergency Medicine and the American Journal of Emergency Medicine. Dr. Simon has been dedicated to resident and medical student education for over a decade. 

Roz King, MSN, RN, CNL

University of Vermont

Roz King has greater than fifteen years of experience in Emergency Medicine. She currently works at the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont, where she holds various roles. As the Director of the Emergency Medicine Research Associate Program, she serves as faculty, teaching four courses in Emergency Medicine Research. As Director of Research in Emergency Medicine and the Chief of the Division of Research, Ms. King is responsible for providing mentorship and guidance to over forty EM faculty members. Under her leadership, research efforts have increased by greater than forty percent. In addition to providing research guidance and mentorship to others, Ms. King is engaged in her own research endeavors, obtaining greater than $4 million dollars in funding over the last three years from various sources, including federal and foundation funding, Her research interests include healthcare disparities, workplace violence, and low barrier access to care.

Kiran A. Faryar, MD, MPH

University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center

Dr. Kiran Faryar, MD, MPH, is a practicing board-certified emergency physician and clinician researcher with a focus on integrating public health and public health services into emergency department settings. Her primary research work is in the field of implementation science, investigating screening and intervention best practices in the ED. She has initiated, managed, and disseminated on community health projects in both academic and community EDs including HIV, HCV, and latent TB infection screening and linkage to care; take-home naloxone distribution; initiation of medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) for ED patients with opioid use disorder with next-day linkage to care; county-wide COVID-19 testing through an $18 million COVID program funded by the CARES Act. To date, she has >20 peer-reviewed publications in top-tier emergency medicine and public health journals and has been awarded numerous industry, local, state, and federal grants for public health and health services.

In 2021, she was appointed Research Director for the Department of Emergency Medicine at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, where she oversees departmental research infrastructure, capacity building, and faculty research development. On a national level, she is the Chair of the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) Research Director’s Interest Group and an active member of the SAEM Research Committee and EMTIDE (Emergency Medicine Transmissible Infectious Diseases and Epidemics) Interest Group.

Sara W. Heinert, PhD, MPH

Rutgers Health/Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

Sara Heinert, PhD, MPH is an Assistant Professor and Co-Director of Research in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, NJ. She holds a PhD in Health Policy and Administration from University of Illinois at Chicago and a MPH in Epidemiology from University of Michigan- Ann Arbor. Dr. Heinert has led research endeavors in emergency medicine for the past 11 years. Her research interests lie at the intersection of public health and the emergency department, and specifically focus on social emergency medicine research that is patient-centered and addresses access to care and health disparities. For many patients, the emergency department is their only “touch point” with the health care system and Dr. Heinert is interested in developing innovative methods to screen and educate ED patients on their health conditions and connect them to primary care. Additionally, she is engaged in collaborative work with colleagues and community partners to develop novel health advocacy opportunities for youth in underserved neighborhoods. This work involves youth as teachers of health information as a catalyst for adult healthy behavior change. Her work has resulted in first-author publications in such journals as the American Journal of Public Health, Academic Emergency Medicine, Western Journal of Emergency Medicine, and Health Promotion Practice (HPP).

Nathan J. White, MD, MS, FACEP, DRTM

Harborview Medical Center/University of Washington

Nathan White M.D., M.S., is Associate Professor and Associate Chair Research, Department of Emergency Medicine and Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Education at the University of Washington, Seattle. WA USA. Dr. White also holds adjunct appointments with the Departments of Bioengineering and Mechanical Engineering and is the inaugural director of the Resuscitation Engineering Science Unit (RESCU), an interdisciplinary research center focused on translating new technology for resuscitation of critical illness and injury. In addition, Dr. White is an attending physician at Harborview Medical Center, a busy level I trauma center admitting almost 6,000 trauma patients every year from the Pacific Northwest and a flight doctor with Airlift Northwest.

Dr. White focuses his research on the blood coagulation response to acute hemorrhage and resuscitation with an emphasis on fibrinogen biochemistry. Dr. White works within cross-disciplinary teams of clinicians, basic scientists, and engineers to focus on problems germane to bleeding emergencies including; Identifying novel post-translational oxidative modifications of fibrinogen and their contribution to traumatic coagulopathy; Identifying the role of platelet mechanobiology in bleeding and outcomes after trauma; Developing new hemostatic agents, including fibrinogen concentrates, and bioengineered synthetic hemostats; and the effect of immunomodulation on trauma-induced inflammation and coagulopathy. Dr. White has received the Young Investigator Award from the American Heart Association Resuscitation Science Symposium twice along with the best basic science award and young investigator award from the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine.

Kalev Freeman, MD PhD FACEP

University of Vermont

Kalev Freeman M.D., Ph.D. is a physician-scientist and associate professor at the University of Vermont with expertise in emergency medicine and trauma. His lab studies the endothelial cell responses to injury that lead to thrombo-inflammation, seeking novel targets for endothelial restoration that may ultimately improve recovery in trauma patients.

Katarzyna M. Gore, MD

Rush University

Dr Gore is an Associate Program Director for Rush University Emergency Medicine. She has published and spoken national on Feedback at national conferences such as CORD and SAEM. Dr. Katarzyna Gore completed residency training at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Chicago in 2015 after which she started her career at Rush University Medical Center. She was instrumental to the creation of the Emergency Medicine Residency at Rush who's inaugural class started in 2017. Given her dedication to and passion for resident teaching she became the Associate Program Director of the EM residency. She has also become very involved in undergraduate medical education and acts as a clinician educator for the pre-clinical curriculum in the Rush Medical College.

Dr. Gore is particularly interested in faculty development and residency administration and completed the Residency Admin Fellowship through CORD and finished a two year course through the Rush University Interprofessional Leadership Program. She hopes to use these skills to better serve her residents and in particular focus on sponsorship of future female leaders.

Austin Johnson, MD, PhD

University of Utah

Dr. Johnson is an Associate Professor and the Vice-Chair of Research in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Utah. Dr. Johnson received his PhD in Neuroscience and his MD from the University of Wisconsin Madison, followed by residency training in Emergency Medicine at Denver Health in Denver, CO. Dr. Johnson practicing clinical emergency medicine at the University of Utah where he runs a translational research lab focused on the development of new therapies for patients suffering from trauma, cardiac arrest, and stroke. Dr. Johnson's laboratory work has led to over 10 filed patents and over 50 publications. His grant funding has included the Department of Defense, the National Institute of Health, the Zoll Foundation, and the Food and Drug Administration.

Elizabeth Samuels, MD, MPH, MHS

UCLA Emergency Medicine

Dr. Samuels is an emergency medicine physician, health services trained researcher, and Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at UCLA. She completed her emergency medicine training at the Brown Emergency Medicine Residency Program, a health service research and health policy fellowship at the Yale National Clinician Scholars Program, and is board certified in Emergency Medicine and Addiction Medicine. Her work focuses on implementation and evaluation of emergency department-based health equity initiatives.

Preeti Panda, MD

Stanford University

Dr. Panda is a pediatric emergency medicine fellow and pediatric global health subspecialty fellow at Stanford University. She earned a bachelor of science degree from Cornell University in Nutrition and Global Health. She went on to earn an MD, with distinction in advocacy, from Albany Medical College. Dr. Panda completed her pediatric residency training at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital/Case Western Reserve University, where she earned specialized certificates in child advocacy and research. She is currently earning a Master of Science in Health Policy at Stanford University, which she will complete over the course of her fellowship.

Dr. Panda has worked with trafficked youth for over 10 years, with involvement in direct clinical care, research, legislative advocacy, and education. Her research currently focuses on youth violence prevention. Dr. Panda has received awards both locally and nationally for her work, including the SAEM Pediatric Emergency Fellow Award.

Shubhi Goli, MD

Stanford University

Dr. Shubhi Goli is a 3rd year fellow in pediatric emergency medicine at Stanford University. She earned her medical degree at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and completed her pediatrics residency at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. After working as a emergency department pediatrician and pediatric hospitalist, she began her fellowship training in 2021 with a then 9-month-old daughter at home. She was inspired to pursue lactation-related work given her own experiences with lactation as a trainee and is passionate about increasing awareness of trainee lactation and improving related workplace experiences. She will be starting a faculty position at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta/Emory University this fall.

Outside of medicine, she enjoys spending time with her husband and daughter (now 3), telling mom jokes, good movies and reality TV, watching sporting events, and time outdoors hiking and in the vineyards. She is also proud of the number of audiobooks she has "read" on her commute to/from Stanford over the past few years!

Christopher Winckler, MD, LP

UT Health San Antonio

C. J. Winckler serves as the deputy medical director for the San Antonio Fire Department, medical director for North Channel EMS/Wilson County ESD, and Texas Emergency Medical Task Force Region 8. He is an associate clinical professor at the University of Texas San Antonio Health Science Center and Texas A&M College Station. Winckler provides daily clinical supervision to over 2000 EMS providers. Dr. Winckler and multiple stakeholders, worked tirelessly to deploy whole blood in San Antonio. This is the first-time whole blood was available to save prehospital patients in hemorrhagic shock, for an entire American metropolitan city.

Jennifer L. Carey, MD

UMass Chan Medical School

Jennifer Carey, MD is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and a Medical Toxicologist at UMass Chan Medical School. She is the Division Director of Undergraduate Medical Education, and the Education Fellowship Director.

Sofia Chaudhary, MD

Emory University School of Medicine/Children's Healthcare of Atlanta

Dr. Sofia Chaudhary is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine and a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. She completed Pediatrics Residency at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, GA and Pediatric Emergency Medicine fellowship at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She has completed a Health Policy Scholars Fellowship Program through the Academic Pediatric Association this year. She is on the executive board for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta's Injury Prevention Program (CHIPP), is co-chair for the Violence Prevention Task Force for the Injury Prevention Research Center at Emory (IPRCE), and co-PI for the Atlanta Chapter of Injury Free Coalition for Kids. Her research and academic interests are focused on improving the health and well-being of children through injury prevention, specifically firearm injury prevention, and bringing evidence-based preventive interventions to both the bedside and within the community. Her most recent work is focused on primary prevention of pediatric firearm injuries through secure storage and lethal means counseling interventions. She has authored multiple publications looking at the impact of firearm injuries on children and teens.

Francis X. Guyette, MD, MS, MPH, FACEP, FAEMS

University of Pittsburgh

Dr Guyette has spent more than 30 years in Emergency Medicine and EMS and devotes his academic career to acute resuscitation research. He is a Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and serves as the Medical Director for STAT MedEvac the nation’s largest, academic, non-profit critical care transport group. His areas of expertise are in the recognition of shock, prehospital resuscitation, and clinician decision support. He has examined these issues with funding from the Department of Defense, National Institutes of Health, National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety, National Highway and Transportation Safety Administration, National Association of EMS Physicians, and DARPA. Dr. Guyette is the Co-PI of the Linking Investigators in Trauma and Emergency Services (LITES) Network. 

Eric W. Fleegler, MD, MPH

Massachusetts General Hospital

Dr. Fleegler is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a pediatric emergency physician and health services researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Fleegler’s primary interests include firearm injury prevention, understanding and improving families’ health-related social needs and dispariies and health inequities.

Bijan W. Ketabchi, MD, MPH

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Originally from Cincinnati, OH, Bijan Ketabchi completed medical school in Los Angeles at the Keck School of Medicine of USC before returning to his hometown for residency in General Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. His passion for suicide prevention began during residency training and continued to grow as he pursued fellowship in Pediatric Emergency Medicine. During fellowship he obtained his MPH and designed & completed a RCT around the distribution of gun locks in the ED setting for children with mental health concerns. This and other work led to Bijan receiving the Injury Prevention Champion award for the state of Ohio and a leadership role on the AAP's Section on Emergency Medicine Advocacy Subcommittee. His fervor for improving delivery of mental health care in the ED was the impetus for him to develop a first-of-its-kind year-long fellowship in Emergency Psychiatry in partnership with the Divisions of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and Emergency Medicine at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. Bijan is currently Pediatric Emergency Medicine faculty at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania wherere his academic efforts are focused on suicide prevention, mental health advocacy, and agitation management.

Tigist T. Bedane, MD Emergency and Critical Care Physician

St Peter Specialized Hospital

Dr.Tigist Tesfaye is an Emergency and Critical Care Physician specialist from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She is currently working as the Clinical Service Director at the Addis Ababa COVID 19 Field Hospital.
Dr. Tigist was born and raised in capital of Ethiopia, she received her undergraduate medical education at Jimma University College of Public Health and Medical Sciences on 2015 and proceded to do her residency in Emergency and Critical Care Medicine at Addis Ababa University, Tikur Anbessa Hospital in 2017. Dr. Tigist have 8+ years’ experience as a Clinician in emergency response, 5+ years’ experience working in a senior managerial role at St.Peter Specialized Hospital. Dr. Tigist is certified in Leadership in Public Management from Virginia Tech University School of Public and International Affairs, She also have certificate in Project Managment from Addis Ababa University. Dr. Tigist has been an advocate for Emergency Care both nationally and internationally. She has worked as a consultant in different international organizations for over 3 years . She has also led multiple Disaster Medical Assistant Teams (DMAT) for the Federal Ministry of Health in Ethiopia and is the first Master trainer for the WHO-ICRC Basic Emergency Care course for the country. Dr. Tigist is involved in the curriculum preparation for Ethiopia’s Emergency Medicine training with the Federal Ministry of Health and Addis Ababa University and is certified in BLS, ALS, ILS, ETB as well as PHTLS.

Torben K. Becker, MD, PhD, MBA

Chair

University of Florida

Dr. Becker is an associate professor at the University of Florida. He is board-certified in emergency medicine (EM), critical care medicine, and emergency medical services. After obtaining his MD and PhD at the University of Heidelberg Medical School in Germany, Dr. Becker completed his residency in EM at the University of Michigan, followed by fellowships in critical care medicine and emergency medical services at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Florida, respectively. He is the executive director of EM for the University of Florida Health Critical Care Organization. In the department of EM, he serves as chief of the division of critical care medicine and director of the section of global health.