People

Brett Ryan Todd, MD

William Beaumont University Hospital

Dr. Brett Todd is the Associate Residency Program Director at the Corewell Health William Beaumont University Hospital, and is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine. His professional and research interests include medical education, faculty development, clinical decision making, and neurological and hypertensive emergencies.

Donald Apakama, MD, MS

Icahn School of Medicine At Mount Sinai

Dr. Donald (DJ) Apakama Jr. (He/Him/His) is a pioneering figure at the intersection of Emergency Medicine, Artificial Intelligence, and Human Health. Currently, he serves as an Assistant Professor at Mount Sinai Beth Israel and the Mount Sinai Hospital, where he has established himself as a leading force in leveraging data science to improve healthcare outcomes.

Dr. Apakama pursued his medical degree at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, earning his M.D. with a distinction in clinical research. He completed his residency training in Emergency Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital, where he also served as Chief Resident. Committed to advancing his knowledge at the nexus of healthcare and data science, upon graduation he completed a T-32 Clinical Research Fellowship and is currently completing an M.S. in Biomedical Informatics at Oregon Health and Science University.
Dr. Apakama's professional accolades, which include being an NIH Diversity Supplement and a Mount Sinai Biomedical Laureates Awardee, underscore his dedication to excellence and diversity in healthcare.

Beyond his clinical excellence, Dr. Apakama's research focus on the social determinants of health (SDOH) and their impact on minority populations has garnered him international recognition. His innovative approach, utilizing Natural Language Processing and Large Language Modeling, aims to unveil links between social needs and adverse patient outcomes, making significant strides toward reducing health disparities. Additionally, Dr. Apakama's current research is exploring the use of LLMs for the extraction of negative descriptors in electronic medical records (EMRs) to better understand and address the social factors impacting patient outcomes. As a mentor, educator, and researcher, he is dedicated to inspiring the next generation of medical professionals, particularly advocating for the representation of BIPOC doctors. Continuing his mission to educate and innovate, Dr. Apakama recently launched “STAT AI: an Emergency Medicine Podcast” alongside colleague Dr. Ethan Abbott, where they explore the dynamic intersection of Artificial Intelligence and Emergency Medicine, bringing cutting-edge discussions to the forefront of medical and public discourse. STAT AI is available on all major platforms.

Stephanie C. DeMasi, MD

Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Lawrence A. Melniker, MD, MS, MBA

New York Presbyterian Hospital

Dr. Lawrence Melniker is the Vice Chief for Quality Management in the Department of Emergency Medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. He serves as an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Weill Medical College of Cornell University.
Dr. Melniker received his MD from SUNY Downstate Medical Center, then completed an Internal Medicine Residency at Albert Einstein College of Medicine; followed by an Emergency Medicine Residency at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
In 2004, Dr. Melniker completed a Fellowship and Master of Science in Clinical Epidemiology and Health Services Research at the Weill Graduate School of Medical Sciences of Cornell University; and in 2017, he finished a Healthcare MBA at George Washington University School of Business.
Dr. Melniker is a founding member of the World Interactive Network Focused on Critical Ultrasound (WINFOCUS) and the senior methodologist for WINFOCUS – International Consensus Conference Series.
Dr. Melniker has been practicing Emergency Medicine for 30 years.

Lynn P. Roppolo, MD, FACEP

University of North Texas and Texas Christian University

Lynn Roppolo, MD is a graduate of the University of California San Diego School of Medicine and completed her emergency medicine residency at the George Washington University. She did an ultrasound fellowship after 15 years in the residency leadership, the same year she was promoted to full professor at the University of Texas Southwestern where she recently retired. She is currently an Adjunct Professor at the University of North Texas and Texas Christian University. She is core faculty and the Assistant Ultrasound Director at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth and employed by Integrative Emergency Services. She is also a part-time attending in the emergency department at Children's Medical Center in Plano, Texas. She is a Senior Editor for the Journal of Emergency Medicine. As a member of the SAEM Research Committee, she has been instrumental in the development of the new "Research Learning Series". Her scholarly interests include anything related to emergency ultrasound and improving our ability to manage acutely agitated patients to reduce the incidence of physical assaults on ED staff.

Bret A. Nicks, MD, MHA

Wake Forest University School of Medicine

Dr. Nicks is a Professor and Executive Vice Chair of Emergency Medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. During his career at Wake Forest, he has served as the Emergency Department Medical Director, founding Director of the Emergency Department Observation Unit, served as the regional medical director during the emergency medicine physician group expansion, and served as a site PI for a multi-center R01 research study. Within the Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Dr. Nicks served as the founding Associate Dean for the Office of Global Health, building collaboration and growth across local departments locally and Wake Forest affiliations globally. Dr. Nicks is the founding director of the Wake Forest Master of Healthcare Leadership, an executive degree program dedicated to creating transformational leaders in healthcare. He is a past president of the North Carolina College of Emergency Medicine. For nearly a decade, Dr. Nicks served as the Chief Medical Officer of the award-winning Wake Forest Baptist Davie Medical Center, a community-based medical center dedicated to creating the optimal organizational culture while embracing academics in the community.

Ryan C. Gibbons, MD, FAAEM, FACEP, FAIUM

Temple University School of Medicine

Ryan C. Gibbons, MD, FAAEM, FACEP, FAIUM is a proud graduate of the Lewis Katz School of Medicine (LKSOM) at Temple University where he completed his Emergency Medicine (EM) residency, serving as chief resident, followed by an Advanced Emergency Medicine Ultrasonography (AEMUS) fellowship at Temple as well. Currently, Dr Gibbons is an Associate Professor of EM and the Director of Ultrasound in Undergraduate Medical Education (UME) and was appointed the inaugural John M. Daly, MD, & Measey Foundation Endowed Professor in Medical Education Innovation at LKSOM for developing and implementing a 4-year longitudinal point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) curriculum. Additionally, Ryan serves as the AEMUS fellowship director and the Associate Director of the Division of Emergency Ultrasound in the Department of EM. As associate director, Ryan has been instrumental in the success of the emergency ultrasound division, expanding the AEMUS fellowship and starting an IM POCUS fellowship as well. Dr Gibbons has won numerous medical student and resident teaching awards demonstrating his passion for POCUS and education.

Dr Gibbons has published over fifty peer-reviewed manuscripts, abstracts, and book chapters. As a leading POCUS expert, he has given more than one hundred regional, national, and international POCUS presentations and educational workshops. Ryan serves as a peer reviewer for Annals of Emergency Medicine and the Journal of Emergency Medicine (JEM), as well as an ultrasound section editor for the Western Journal of Emergency Medicine (WJEM). His research has been highlighted by leading emergency medicine journals and ultrasound outlets, including AEM, JEM, WJEM, EM-RAP, the Ultrasound GEL podcast, Rebel Cast, Journal Feed, Aunt Minnie, Medical Research, and MedPage Today. Over the last two years, Dr Gibbons has received successive research awards from the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine’s (SAEM) Academy of Emergency Ultrasound (AEUS). Ryan is active within numerous national organizations as well. He founded and served as the first chair of the Emergency Ultrasound Section (EUS) of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM) and as the secretary for the EUS of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP). Likewise, he is a passionate member of the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM), having served as the secretary and vice chair of the Ultrasound in Medical Education community and, presently, as the secretary of the Point-of-Care Ultrasound Community as well as the 2023 Beryl Benacerraf fellow for the Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine.

Prior to his EM training, Ryan served on active duty in the United States Navy where he completed his transitional year internship at the Naval Medical Center Portsmouth followed by a tour on the USS NASHVILLE (LPD-13) as the medical department head and then with Fleet Aire Reconnaissance Squadron 4 (VQ-4) as the squadron flight surgeon. He is currently in the process of returning to the United States Navy reserves as an Emergency Medicine physician.

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