Susan B. Promes, MD, MBA

Chair, Emergency Medicine

Penn State University

My interest is serving as Member-at-Large for AACEM. I have served as Chair of Emergency Medicine at Penn State Hershey for the past 9 years. I served as the Chair of Penn State Health's Clinically Integrated Network. I served as Director of Curricular Affairs for USCF's GME office and Interim Assoc Dean and DIO at UCSF. I am on the Board of Trustees for Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute and SAEM Foundation.

I was the recipient of SAEM Hal Jayne Excellence in Education Award. I have received multiple teaching awards from the various institutions I have worked at over the years. I received the ACGME Parker J. Palmer Courage to Teach Award. The Gold Humanism in Medicine Award. I received the CORD Distinguished Educator Award. Beta Sigma Gamma Honor Society Award for my accomplishments during my MBA program.

I believe that AACEM can best serve its members and the profession by being strategic vocal advocates for the advancement of our specialty. I believe the organization must be bold and outspoken to share our value and importance in the house of medicine and for our patients. We must be diligent and strategic in our approach sharing our voice and talents to move our specialty forward. It is my belief that personal connections matter and assuring that each of the Chairs in ACCEM feel they have a safe place to share challenges, make connections, and gain advice are important ways that AACEM can continue to serve members. I would like to see personal outreach to members that we rarely hear from on our list serve to engage them more in the wonderful community that is AACEM. I would work diligently to see our specialty again rise to one of the most desirable specialties for medical students entering residency programs across the county. Medical education is my passion and my love for emergency medicine is something I would bring to the board with my commitment to dedicate my time and talents to do everything I can to assure that our specialty thrives. If I am elected to this position, I promise that I will serve the organization to the best of my ability to advance our specialty and support my fellow chairs and those desiring to be chairs.

Ralph Riviello, MD, MS

Chair, Emergency Medicine

UT Health San Antonio

I have had over 26 years of academic emergency medicine experience. After graduating from Hahnemann University SOM, I completed my EM residency at Allegheny General Hospital in 1997 and served as Chief Resident in my final year of residency. I received a Master's Degree in Clinical Forensic Medicine in 2006, and have applied that experience in building my academic niche. During my career, I have held various roles in several spheres including, Director of Clinical Research, Associate Program Director, Vice Chair of Clinical Operations, and now Chair of Emergency Medicine. My experience as Chair as been in both the community academic and university settings. I am currently the Chair of EM at UT Health San Antonio. I have been a long-standing member of SAEM and AACEM. I currently serve on the AACEM Leader Development Workgroup and DEI Workgroup. I did complete the Chair Development Program and found it invaluable in the transition to Chair, and feel it is one of the most important aspects of what AACEM does. Though I have not served in an SAEM leadership role, I am Past-President and former board member of the Pennsylvania ACEP chapter, and have been a ACEP Section Leader. I am running for office as I feel that giving back to our organizations and my colleagues is an important role. I have benefited from the mentorship, wisdom, and counsel of many past and current members of this organization, that I feel it is my time to pay it forward and help shape the future of the organization. I hope to continue the good work AACEM has done and to move us even further. For me, priorities include increasing DEI across the specialty, especially in the face of hostile state environments and enhancing leader development through the CDP and our newest, eLEAD program. Creating, building, and sustaining a leader pipeline is so crucial for our organization and specialty, that is why I feel the eLEAD program is so important for the continued success of EM. As Chairs, with our various experiences and backgrounds, I think we are crucial in analyzing and responding to what happened in the last match and developing a comprehensive plan, with our other EM organizations, to analyze it, temporize it, and prevent it from ever happening again. Also, with the many other threats to and attacks on Academic EM, I feel the organization needs to be nimble and facile at responding to them, and arming chairs with the tools to help advance their departments at their own institutions. Additionally, my experience on community-based, Board of Directors, and leadership roles in these agencies will provide me a unique perspective in serving in this role.

Rahul Sharma, MD, MBA

Professor and Chair, Emergency Medicine

New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center

I serve as Professor and Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medicine. I also have a secondary appointment as Professor of Population Health Sciences. Prior to this, I was Chief of the Division of Emergency Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and led its promotion to full departmental status in 2018. I graduated from the combined MD/MBA program at Tufts University School of Medicine and completed my residency in Emergency Medicine at NYU/Bellevue Hospital, where I served as chief resident. I have been a longstanding member of SAEM and have actively participated in AACEM since becoming Chief in 2016. Most recently, I served as a member of the AACEM Leader Development Workgroup where I contributed to the development of the Emerging Leader Development program (eLEAD) offered by AACEM.

My academic and research interests focus on the development and use of technological innovation to improve the quality of emergency care and its delivery. Accordingly, I have launched several ED based digital health platforms that transformed healthcare delivery, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. I believe we can advance our specialty by becoming leaders in providing emergency care outside of the hospital environment by utilizing technology, including telemedicine, remote patient monitoring and artificial intelligence. Emergency Medicine providers are uniquely positioned to do this and to also advance the research and education opportunities within this care delivery model. I also founded the Center for Virtual Care at Weill Cornell Medicine in 2019. The mission of the Center is to transform healthcare delivery through telemedicine, with a focus on patient quality and outcomes. It provides robust training and simulation to all clinicians active in the virtual care space, including all GME trainees across the New York Presbyterian Hospital enterprise and other hospital systems. I also developed our annual Virtual Healthcare Conference and Research Forum, one of the first telemedicine research forums established in the nation.

I believe wellness is a priority, particularly in light of the challenges faced by our specialty. Our physician led wellness program has been recognized nationally, including at the National Academy of Medicine and, most recently, at the 2023 SAEM Annual Meeting. I also co-chair the Weill Cornell Medicine Physician Organization Physician Wellness Workgroup which is tasked with providing impactful recommendations to senior leadership at our institution. Our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts have had similar success with investment in opportunities for faculty, residents and students and the establishment of our diversifiED committee. Furthermore, we have devoted a significant part of our research in both global health and telemedicine to the study of health disparities that plague women and underrepresented groups. I would hope to build on the significant progress AACEM has achieved in the areas of wellness and DEI.

My work with AACEM and my interactions with my Chair colleagues have been instrumental in my growth as a chair. It is an invaluable resource and network which provides countless opportunities to collaborate with my chair colleagues, participate in national dialogues, and offer and engage in mentorship. It has also helped me to further realize my goals in education and research. I have launched multiple EM fellowships and programs focused on a wide array of subjects including healthcare administration and leadership, global health research, simulation and innovation. It would be an honor to serve on the AACEM Executive Committee and I believe, if given the opportunity, I would make immediate and meaningful contributions to this esteemed group. I would enthusiastically bring my experience and expertise in academic Emergency Medicine to AACEM and, if elected, I will support and work with other members of the Executive Committee and the organization to launch initiatives focused on the recruitment, development, and retention of faculty, residents and medical students. I will also work to strengthen our national network and to develop a pipeline of future emergency care researchers and academic and clinical faculty.

J. Jeremy Thomas, MD, MBA

Endowed Chair and Chief of Service for Emergency Medicine

University of Louisville

My educational background includes a BS in Biology from Cumberland College, MD from the University of South Alabama. Internship in Internal Medicine at the University of South Alabama. Residency in Emergency Medicine at University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Fellowship in Cardiovascular Emergencies at the University of Virginia. And my Physicians Executive Master’s Degree in Business Administration (PEMBA) from Auburn University.

My career qualifications include 13 years on Core Faculty at UAB Dept. of Emergency Medicine with multiple leadership roles during my time there, including Associate Residency Director, Director of Observation Medicine, System Emergency Department Medical Director, Executive Vice chair of Emergency Medicine and Associate CMO over Sepsis and Emergency Services for the health system. In January of 2020, I joined the University of Louisville Department of Emergency Medicine as Endowed Chair and Chief of Service for Emergency Medicine. In this role, I also serve of the Board of Directors for the University Hospital and the Board of Directors for UofL Physician practice, in addition to multiple other committees across the school of medicine and the health system.

I have been an active member of SAEM for much of my career. My most recent activity is in the AACEM committees (community 2020-22, and DEI – 2022-Present). I am interested in joining the Executive Committee for AACEM because in my 4 years as chair, I have seen the impact that AACEM can have on the training and the practice of Emergency Medicine nationally and internationally. The focus on the training programs in EM and the quality of our residency programs, the wellbeing of our physicians and residents, and the sustainability of the practice of emergency medicine are at the heart of this group and are the parts of my career that I am most passionate about. If elected, one of my focuses would be to increase collaboration and connectivity between the academic chairs of EM. The chair position can be a lonely job, but I would like to look at setting up small regional groups of academic chairs that would be interested in meeting (virtual or in person) quarterly or more frequently, to discuss issues in more detail that just the list serve emails, to share resources and build stronger relationships. I also hope to learn from the tremendous leaders in EM that are already serving on the Executive Committee, so that I can hopefully adequately fill their shoes in the future.