Amy Zeidan, MD

President-Elect

Emory University School of Medicine

I am an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine, Adjunct Professor at Rollins School of Public Health, and Co-Director of the Georgia Human Rights Clinic. I received my medical degree from George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences, completed residency at The Hospital of The University of Pennsylvania, and completed an Emergency Ultrasound fellowship at the University of Kentucky. I am currently in my second year as AWAEM Vice President of Communications. Throughout my academic career, AWAEM has always been a constant and integral part of my career. I joined AWAEM during my second year of residency as the resident representative and have been an active part of AWAEM ever since. I recall my first AWAEM meeting as a resident, nervous and intimated to be in the presence of such phenomenal leaders. I was relieved to be instantaneously welcomed with encouragement and support and treated as an equal despite just beginning my journey in emergency medicine. AWAEM has always been this for me – a source of mentorship, sponsorship, collaboration and friendship. The day I joined AWAEM I gained unparalleled mentorship from women all across the US that truly propelled my career. I have had the opportunity to serve in a number of AWAEM roles; resident representative, CORD liaison, awards committee member, awards committee co-chair, treasurer and Vice President of Communications. I have been an active member of the executive committee for four years and am confident that I have the organizational knowledge, motivation, and skills required to serve as the AWAEM president elect. I have experience working with organizations dedicated to gender equity and have engaged in a number of research projects focused on identifying and eliminating gender inequities. Previously, I worked closely with the organization FemInEM as Finance co-chair, assisted with conference planning for FIX17, FIX18, and FIX19, and helped launch FemInEM Forward at FIX19. In addition to my committee experience through AWAEM, I have also been active on a number of other executive boards and committees. I am an Executive Board member of the Georgia Asylum and Immigration Network (GAIN), Co-Chair of the Research Agenda Subcommittee for the Society of Refugee Healthcare Providers, and a member of the Georgia State University Refugee Prevention Resource Center Community Advisory Board. It has been incredible to watch AWAEM grow exponentially over the past six years. AWAEM is now one of the largest academies and provides limitless resources to women at all stages in their careers. As the world of emergency medicine and our world at large has become increasingly complex, the challenges we face as women physicians have grown as well. It is even more important to have a community like AWAEM leading the way as we navigate new struggles and endure existing and novel inequities in our careers. If elected, I will continue to foster the creation of initiatives and resources to serve our members as changes in our practice and professions arise. I am committed to ensuring AWAEM does what it has always done – be a welcoming and safe space for all members. If elected, there are a number of areas I would like to expand upon. Inclusivity has always been a pillar of AWAEM values. I hope to re-commit to this pillar and fully understand what inclusivity means for all of our members. This may include an environmental scan of our members needs and identifying gaps in the resources we provide. It may also include partnering with other academies to share knowledge and experiences as well as thoughtful consideration of our recruitment and retention strategies as an academy. I also hope to expand upon scholarship opportunities for members that will support promotion and advancement. AWAEM already has a number of phenomenal opportunities for scholarship, from the SAEMF/AWAEM grant, to the internal AWAEM grant, and the research committee and consulting service. I am excited to continue to promote these opportunities and facilitate collaboration through shared research endeavors, publications, presentations, etc., but also identify what, if any, barriers exist to accessing these services to their fullest and identifying solutions. This also includes rethinking what ‘scholarship’ means in order to recognize the unique contributions of women in our specialty. Specifically considering how to incorporate scholarly contributions beyond traditional research including administration, advocacy, community-engaged work and appropriate recognition of these contributions. Finally, I hope to enhance our abilities to recognize the contributions of our AWAEM members to our specialty and beyond. Our members have shaped the current and future state of our specialty in noticeable ways. Celebration of these achievements should be the norm and an inherent part of our operations. I am excited to continue to brainstorm with AWAEM members how to expand our current recognition systems, including highlighting the paths of previous AWAEM leaders and harnessing these avenues for newer members. Joining AWAEM has been one of my best decisions both personally and professionally. I was fortunate to have a sponsor who encouraged me to join and apply for AWAEM leadership positions even when I didn’t feel qualified or worthy enough. I hope to provide this for all AWAEM members on a micro and macro level if elected to serve the academy.

Laura Walker, MD, MBA

Secretary

Mayo Clinic

I am currently an Assistant Professor and Director of Digital Health for Mayo Clinic Emergency Medicine and the Chair of the AWAEM Administration/Leadership Committee, which serves to advance women in leadership positions in academic emergency medicine as well as being a co-founder of our residency's Women in EM group. I recently completed my MBA and my prior role was as Regional Hospital Practice Chair for Mayo Clinic Health System in SEMN, overseeing hospital operations for five sites. I also have experience with hospital quality improvement and been an ED medical director. I am currently also on the SAEM Faculty Development Committee. I believe in the mission of AWAEM. I am fortunate to have worked with this amazing group over the last few years, and would like to escalate my involvement by taking on a role within the executive group. My primary aim in doing this is to support my fellow academic women in EM, to represent us and advocate for us and to give back to this wonderful community. Promoting women, and doing so in an intersectional way, is a core value and working within the system is a valuable way to make progress. Learning more about how SAEM works with its academies is something I hope to learn in the role. I feel that I currently have capacity in my life to take on an additional role with AWAEM and give back. With the effects of burnout that have impacted physicians, I am aware that I currently have capacity to take this on, and doing so is healing to me. Working with a group of highly effective women brings me joy and fulfillment and I hope to step up my involvement to the next level in the coming year.

Andrea Fang, MD

Treasurer

Stanford University School of Medicine

I am excited for the opportunity to continue to serve as Treasurer of AWAEM’s Executive Committee, a position I currently hold and enjoy immensely. Using my finance skills from my prior life as an investment banker, I have worked to make our financials robust and developed a user-friendly budget model that I hope to pass down to my successors. I also have longstanding record of service to the AWAEM community and SAEM-at-large. I have served on multiple AWAEM & SAEM committees, starting while a trainee at Harbor-UCLA and continuing as a faculty member at Stanford University. During my tenure as Chair of the AWAEM Awards Committee we saw the number of nominations more than triple and expanded the number of scholarships and awards available to women in academic emergency medicine. I have also chaired the AWAEM microsite committee and served as Chair of the Pediatric Emergency Medicine Sub-Committee on the SAEM Membership committee. My experience shows that I can be an effective leader and team member who generates results. It has been an honor to be part AWAEM and I hope to continue our mission to elevate women in academic in emergency medicine as Treasurer on the AWAEM Executive Committee. Thank you for your consideration.

Margaret Samuels-Kalow, MD, MPhil, MSHP

Vice-President of Communications

Massachusetts General Hospital

I completed residency training at the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency (BWH/MGH) in 2012, followed by a pediatric emergency medicine fellowship and K12 research fellowship at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (2016). My research focuses on developing interventions to reduce disparities in emergency care, and using the emergency department visit to improve health equity, and has been supported by a wide variety of funders including SAEM and NIH (NICHD, NIDCR). Locally, I was part of the founding teams for both our departmental women in EM group, and the Harvard Medical School-wide women’s emergency medicine faculty consortium. Within SAEM, I have been an active member of AWAEM, the Research Committee, and the Social Emergency Medicine and Population Health Interest Group. I was the co-chair of the AWAEM Research Committee from 2019-2022, during which time we developed the research consultation program for AWAEM members. I would love this opportunity to work to help support the broader AWAEM mission. As VP of Communications, I would work to help support the existing AWAEM committees, strengthen our connections within SAEM, and make sure that the important work of the Academy and our members is disseminated effectively.