CDEM Candidate Statements

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President-Elect Candidate(s)

 

Amy Cutright, MD

President-Elect

University of Nebraska

I have served on the CDEM Executive Board for several years as both secretary and treasurer. My hope is to continue to serve the interest of emergency medicine student educators further as president elect.

 

Secretary Candidate(s)

 

Bradley S. Hernandez, MD

Secretary

Regions Hospital/HealthPartners

I have been a clerkship director and assistant residency director at the Regions Hospital/HealthPartners EM residency since 2014. Over that time I have advised hundreds of medical students, written countless SLOEs and developed curriculum to improve medical student education. I graduated from the University of Wisconsin Madison (1994) and the University of Iowa College of Medicine (1998) and the Regions Hospital Emergency Medicine residency (2001). While I have enjoyed all 22 years of my EM career, my professional highlight has been the last 10 years while serving in the role of CD and APD.

I am excited to run for the position of CDEM secretary. As a member at large for the last 2 years I have learned the basic functions of the committee and am excited to continue to contribute to executive committee. In particular I have enjoyed meeting the bright, energetic, like-minded members and collaborating to develop a dynamic curriculum which will continue to support the CDEM members. I sincerely hope to continue to serve SAEM in this capacity.

 

Treasurer Candidate(s)

 

Alejandro Palma, MD

Treasurer

University of Chicago

Dear SAEM/CDEM members,

I am honored to present my candidacy for the position of Treasurer on the CDEM Executive Committee. In my role as an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Chicago, where I serve as the EM Clerkship Director and contribute to various leadership roles, I bring a robust background in medical education. I am proud to have been recognized as a premier educator, receiving multiple teaching awards, and securing grant funding for curriculum development from the Academy of Distinguished Medical Educators. Additionally, I hope to leverage my prior experience in investment banking to augment my role as CDEM treasurer.

My commitment to medical education extends beyond my institution. Currently, I serve as the SAEM education subcommittee co-lead, focusing on creating best practices for clinician educators and developing curricula for educating both novice and experienced learners. Further, as part of CDEM, I was the editor for the Acute Pain module in the M3 curriculum on the SAEM website.

I seek this position on the CDEM Executive Committee with a vision to make a substantial impact on the CDEM community, particularly in the crucial area of student advising. Recognizing the decline in student interest in Emergency Medicine (EM), attributed in part to post-COVID perceptions and the 2030 EM Workforce projections, I am driven to address these concerns head-on.

If elected, my goal is to initiate a grassroots effort to educate mentors within and outside of EM who guide medical students. Collaborating with other organizations, I plan to develop and disseminate tools nationally, with the aim of reshaping the narrative around EM and reaffirming its attractiveness as a specialty. This initiative aligns with the evolving priorities of our members and serves as a proactive response to the current recruitment trends in EM.

As part of the Executive Committee, I envision a dynamic and responsive CDEM that adapts to the needs of its members each year. Together, we can revitalize student interest in EM, viewing the recent decline as a call to action. If entrusted with the role of Treasurer, I am committed to helping lead this charge, providing our members with the necessary tools to shape a positive narrative about EM and foster a thriving community.

Thank you for considering my candidacy, and I look forward to the opportunity to contribute to the continued success of CDEM.

 

Member-at-Large Candidate(s)

 

  • Jennifer Carey, MD

    Member-at-Large

    University of Mass Chan Medical School

    I graduated from New York Medical College and completed residency at Brown University followed by Toxicology Fellowship at UMass. I am currently an Associate Professor at UMass Chan and Division Director of Undergraduate Medical Education. My roles include developing curriculum and teaching in the pre-clinical and clinical setting, clerkship director and education fellowship director. Since residency, I have been involved in SAEM and CDEM in several areas, including Program Committee, Education Committee, Curriculum and Assessment Committee and co-chair of the Career Development and Mentorship Committee. As a CDEM board member, my aim is to continue to recruit new junior faculty members, improve resource sharing, mentorship and foster collaboration among members.

  • Bryanne Macdonald, MD

    Member-at-Large

    UMass-Chan Baystate

    I graduated from the University of Massachusetts-Chan Medical School and completed my EM residency at UMass Chan-Baystate Medical Center where I also served as chief resident. I have served as Baystate’s Assistant Clerkship Director for the past two years while completing a Medical Education fellowship and obtaining my Master’s in Health Professions Education from Boston University. Like all members of CDEM, I am passionate about undergraduate education and introducing students to our wonderful specialty. My specific interests include student advising, curriculum design and reform, and pursuing diversity and equity within EM. If elected, I hope to work with the committee to identify and address commonly encountered challenges faced by undergraduate educators, further develop the educational materials provided to CDEM members while incorporating highly effective educational methods, and to disseminate updated advising guidance to those in advising roles in conjunction with CORD. Furthermore, I hope to work with the CDEM community to develop enhanced guidance on equitable application processes and application review to better serve and support all of our learners. As a young educator and physician, it would be an honor to serve as an executive committee member for a community that has already provided so much support and guidance to myself and my colleagues, while providing me the opportunity to help in continuing to improve this wonderful organization.

  • Jose V. Nable, MD

    Member-at-Large

    Georgetown University School of Medicine

    Thank you for considering me for a Member-At-Large position on CDEM’s executive committee! I graduated from the University of Virginia School of Medicine and completed my EM residency training at the University of Maryland. I have been Georgetown’s EM clerkship director since 2016. I have served as CDEM's secretary (2022-23) and treasurer (2023-24). I chaired CDEM's Visiting Students Task force (2019-2020).

    If elected, I will work to continue the exceptional progress CDEM has made to build us all up to succeed as clerkship directors. I credit CDEM for facilitating the relationships and developing resources that I leverage to inspire our students to thrive. I firmly believe in cultivating equity and inclusion in our various clerkships, celebrating the diversity of our students, patients, and our faculty. As a member of the Executive Committee, I will champion the sharing of best practices related to equity initiatives within CDEM. I will also work with CDEM leadership to improve how our specialty handles away rotation applications, making for a fairer and more transparent process for both our students and clerkship directors.

  • Meredith Thompson, MD, FACEP

    Member-at-Large

    University of Florida

    After completing my undergraduate education at the University of Florida (Go Gators!), I went on to complete my medical education at the University of Virginia. I continued my residency education in Emergency Medicine at the University of Virginia as well where I served as chief resident and additionally completed a medical education fellowship. After fellowship I returned to Gainesville to join the faculty at the University of Florida in 2018 as an Assistant Clerkship Director. I have had the privilege to serve in many departmental educational roles throughout my career thus far including Assistant Clerkship Director (2018-2021), residency core faculty member (2019-present), (Clerkship Director (2021-present), and Director of Undergraduate Medical Education (2022-present). Additionally, I have been involved in educational committee work locally and nationally including as a member of our college’s Curriculum Committee, ACEP Academic Affairs Committee member, CORD ASCEM member/distribution chair, SAEM CDEM Curriculum and Assessment Committee member, and SAEM Educational Research Interest Group Member. I am also in my last year of a master's degree in education where I have been able to learn many important skills with respect to program evaluation as well as educational study methodology and techniques.

    I firmly believe in the mission of CDEM to serve as a voice for EM educators and provide a forum for the development of resources and solutions to shared challenges. This forum is even more needed given the recent jobs report, a rapidly changing residency application landscape, and evolving viewpoints on the specialty of EM in the house of medicine. I am committed to advocating for the specialty that I love and that has so much to offer not only to future EM trainees but students who pursue other specialties alike. As a member at large I would like to ensure current initiatives to update and modernize the CDEM curriculum and testing platforms are successfully completed and remain useful/relevant to the membership. Additionally, I hope to continue current efforts for faculty development. This includes mentorship as well as creating additional resources for members to collaborate and advance scholarship efforts. Lastly, I would like to help CDEM champion initiatives for our specialty to promote educational equity for our students. Resources to support faculty education initiatives and for our membership to learn about best practices/innovations in evidence-based assessment techniques such as grading committees are needed.

    I would be honored to serve as a Member-at-Large for CDEM to advocate for our students and their amazing educators!