GEMA Awards

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2025 Awards: COMING SOON!

Award nominations for the 2026 season will open in January 5, 2026 and close February 6, 2026. All GEMA awards will be presented at the GEMA All-Member meeting at SAEM26 in Atlanta.

To be awarded to deserving individuals no more than once per annum. Awards will be presented at each year's Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) Annual Meeting. Awardees will be selected by the GEMA Awards Committee.

If you have any questions about the GEMA awards process, please contact governance@saem.org.

Individual Awards

GEMA Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award (one per year)

This award is given to a GEMA member, who consistently over the course of his/her career, has embodied the GEMA ideal of improving the delivery of acute/emergent care the world-over through service, leadership, mentorship, and academic endeavor. This award recognizes an individual who has made significant contributions to the subspecialty of Global Emergency Medicine (EM) over the span of his/her career. This individual has clearly put the needs of patients over self. This is GEMA's highest honor awarded to a member and is reserved for an individual whose work serves as a beacon for all Emergency Physicians to follow.

Eligibility Criteria:

Active SAEM member;
Active GEMA member; and
15 years or more of Global Health experience.

GEMA EM Globalization and Advancement Award (one per year)

This award is given to a GEMA member who has advanced the globalization of Emergency Medicine as a specialty. This award is given to an individual who has helped establish or significantly further EM as a specialty in a country where it had not before been recognized. This award may also be given to an individual who has made significant contributions to the improvement of acute/emergent care in an EM-naïve region of the world.

Eligibility Criteria:

Active SAEM member;
Active GEMA member; and
3 years or more of direct engagement in EM specialty advancement/acute care improvement activities.

GEMA Academic Achievement Award (one per year)

This award is given to a GEMA member who has made significant contributions to the subspecialty of Global Emergency Medicine through investigative research and/or educational endeavors. This award is given to an individual whose research has helped to move the field of Emergency Medicine forward. This award may also recognize an individual whose educational endeavors have served to prepare many future leaders in Global Health and Emergency Medicine, as evidenced by publications.

Eligibility Criteria:

Active SAEM member;
Active GEMA member; and
Contribution to the peer-reviewed literature of at least 3 Global Health-related articles within the last 3 years.

GEMA Humanitarian Service Award (one per year)

This award is given to a GEMA member who has used specialty-specific skills to provide humanitarian assistance to distressed populations in a disaster situation. This award may also be given to an individual who has dedicated a significant portion of his/her career to providing charity clinical care in austere environments abroad and/or creating access to sustainable care.

Eligibility Criteria:

Active SAEM member;
Active GEMA member

GEMA Global Emergency Medicine Outstanding Educator Award

This award is given to a GEMA member who has demonstrated outstanding teaching contributions, mentorship, or educational development, with significant impact on emergency care learners.

Eligibility Criteria:

Active SAEM member;
Active GEMA member

GEMA Outstanding Medical Student/Resident Award

This award is given to a GEMA member at the medical student, or resident level, who has demonstrated commitment to the Academy and leadership potential. This awardee will have served GEMA with distinction during the year prior to being proposed for the award.

Eligibility Criteria:

Active SAEM member;
Active GEMA member; and
Must be a medical student, or resident

GEMA Outstanding Fellow Award

This award is given to a GEMA member at the fellow level, who has demonstrated commitment to the Academy and leadership potential. This awardee will have served GEMA with distinction during the year prior to being proposed for the award.

Eligibility Criteria:

Active SAEM member;
Active GEMA member; and
Must be a fellow

GEMA Global Scholar Award

This award honors an individual that is currently based in a low- or middle-income country, that has made significant contributions to emergency medicine locally and globally, and been an active member of the GEMA community.

Eligibility Criteria:

Active SAEM member;
Active GEMA member;
Prior or current recipient of GEMA LMIC Scholarship, or GEMA-AWAEM Scholarship

If you have any questions about the GEMA awards process, please contact governance@saem.org.

Group Awards

GEMA Global Emergency Medicine Education Catalyst Award (group award)

This award honors a team or group that has worked to create sustainable education solutions, develop robust educational curriculum or other projects that encourage the growth and development of emergency physicians internationally.

Global Health Endeavors Department Award (group award)

This award celebrates an academic department that enables and supports global emergency medicine work, through initiatives that may include (but are not limited to) flexible scheduling, buy-down for global health activities, career development support, mentorship, and promotion of departmental global health work.

GEMA Global Emergency Medicine Collaborative Research Award (group award)

This award recognizes a team who has worked on an important research project that has advanced emergency medicine globally. Typically, the awardees will be co-authors on a manuscript or other research project of significant impact.

If you have any questions about the GEMA awards process, please contact governance@saem.org.