Jose Victor ("J.V.") Nable, MD

President-Elect

Georgetown University School of Medicine

Thank you for considering me for the President-Elect 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 served as Georgetown’s EM clerkship director between 2016 and 2025, and have been the department's Director of Undergraduate Medical Education since 2024. In 2025, I was appointed Georgetown's Associate Dean for Core Curriculum. I have been a member of CDEM’s Visiting Students Task Force, and chaired that group in 2019-2020. I have also been on Executive Committee since 2022, having served as Treasurer, Secretary, and Member-at-Large.

If elected to the CDEM Executive Committee, I will advocate continuing the exceptional progress CDEM has made to build us all up to succeed as clerkship directors. I credit CDEM for building the relationships and resources that I leverage to position and inspire our students to thrive. As a leader on the Executive Committee, I will champion the sharing of best practices among our membership.

We are at a dynamic moment for EM, especially for our students, clerkship directors, and other UME leaders. CDEM is the leading voice of UME educators in our specialty. The switch to a new residency application platform, potential changes to EM residency programs from the ACGME, and a renewal of our own CDEM EM curriculum make for exciting times in our specialty. I look forward to partnering with all of you as we continue on our specialty's journey.

Navdeep Sekhon, MD

Secretary

Baylor College of Medicine

Hi! My name is Navdeep Sekhon and I am a clerkship director at the Baylor College of Medicine. I have been involved in undergraduate medical education since 2016. I have been actively involved with CDEM since that time, in particular with the Curriculum and Assessment Committee (I have been chair/co-chair for the past 4 years). I have helped manage the M4 curriculum update, and I have also helped to update the questions to the SAEMTests. I have also led the updates to the M3 and Pediatric EM Curricula. Most recently, I have become heavily involved in creating CDEM's project to create a unified, national clerkship curriculum that all medical students should know.

I am running for this position for a variety of reasons, but the main reason is to ensure that CDEM speaks for all of its members. In the past years, CDEM has created opportunities for faculty such as opportunities to help write questions for the SAEMTests, update and edit the chapters in the CDEM curricula, as well as mentorship. In addition, CDEM is working on projects such as a letter-writer's bureau to help our faculty get promoted. If elected, I will continue CDEM's focus on the needs of our clerkship directors and providing opportunities for growth.

Jennifer Carey, MD

Treasurer

UMass Chan Medical School

I am an Associate Professor at UMass Chan Medical School and serve as the Division Director of Undergraduate Medical Education. In this role, I lead curriculum development and teach across both pre-clinical and clinical phases of medical training. I am core faculty in our residency program and direct the Education Fellowship, mentoring future educators and shaping the next generation of academic emergency medicine physicians. My efforts in education and mentorship have been recognized through multiple teaching awards, which I deeply value.

My commitment to medical education is longstanding and extends beyond my institution. Since residency, I have been actively engaged with SAEM and CDEM, serving on multiple committees. These include my current roles as a member-at-large on the CDEM Board of Directors, Chair of the Career Development and Mentorship Committee, Objective Co-Lead on the SAEM Education Subcommittee, and organizer of the Medical Student Symposium at the 2026 annual meeting. These experiences have allowed me to collaborate with inspiring educators nationwide and advocate for meaningful improvements in academic emergency medicine.

As a member of the Board of Directors, I will continue to support the inclusive and collaborative CDEM community including expanding mentorship opportunities, recruiting and supporting junior faculty, and improving access to shared educational resources. In the role of Treasurer, I will help optimize resource allocation and support initiatives that directly benefit our members, students, and educational programs. I aim to promote a culture that encourages innovation and provides support, ensuring educators at all career stages can thrive.

Joshua Ellis, MD, MPH

Member-at-Large

University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

Dr. Joshua Ellis currently serves as the EM Clerkship Director at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). He has maintained a passion for undergraduate medical education throughout his medical career. He previously served as the Assistant Clerkship Director at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center where he also completed a fellowship in medical education (under the director mentorship of Dr. Nicole Dubosh, former CDEM president) and obtaining his MPH in health policy from T.H Chan Harvard School of Public Health. Prior to that Dr. Ellis served as the resident EM clerkship director while completing his residency in Emergency Medicine at Mayo Clinic.

He has passions for improving the educational experience of students, particularly minority students with hopes of diversifying medical education, and has multiple publications on the matter including two in the New England Journal of Medicine. He also has been active in ADIEM, serving as the President of the LGBTQ+ subcommittee.

Lastly, his institution, UAMS, is transitioning from an elective to a mandatory clerkship model in 2028, providing ample time to prepare for the transition, and also time to study the potential outcomes. He aims to describe the impact of a mandatory clerkship on student metrics such as STEP 2 CK, surgery NBME, OSCEs, and interest in Emergency Medicine. He aims to use his position as a CDEM member to implement standardized teaching practices at his own institution and be a part of a future national standardized EM clerkship model.

Alejandro Palma, MD

Member-at-Large

University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine

Dear SAEM/CDEM members,

I am honored to present my candidacy for a member-at-large position after having served two terms as Treasurer on the CDEM Executive Committee. As treasurer, I was able to lead budgetary efficiencies, which allowed us to increase our SAEMF/CDEM Innovations in Undergraduate EM Education Grant from $5,000 to $8,000 as well as increase our academy reserves for future CDEM initiatives.

In my role as an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Chicago, I serve as the EM Clerkship Director and Committee Chair for Pritzker School of Medicine Admissions. I have received multiple teaching awards and secured grant funding for curriculum development from the Academy of Distinguished Medical Educators.

My commitment to medical education extends beyond my institution. I served as a SAEM education subcommittee co-lead for two years, leading to the creation of a curriculum for new educators published on the SAEM website. Further, as part of CDEM, I was the editor for the Acute Pain module in the M3 curriculum on the SAEM website.

I seek re-election to the CDEM Executive Committee as a member-at-large with a vision to continue our substantial impact on the CDEM community, particularly in the crucial area of student advising. My concurrent leadership position in the CORD ASC-EM committee, places me in a unique position to find synergies between our two organizations.

As part of the Executive Committee, I envision a continued dynamic and responsive CDEM that adapts to the needs of its members each year. Together, we can empower our members with the necessary tools to shape a positive narrative about EM and prepare our students for the upcoming ACGME changes.

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

Thaddeus Schmitt, MD

Member-at-Large

Medical College of Wisconsin

In my early career through Medical College of Wisconsin, I have been honored to work with both our required and elective Emergency Medicine rotation and am the co-director of our M4/’Phase 3’ clerkship and the course director of an upcoming elective course entitled ‘Art and Science of Resuscitation.’ These roles have been exhilarating and a wonderful opportunity to develop new administrative skills, develop our approaches to student evaluation, and work with our co-faculty to provide consistent and productive student advising on a large scale. Inspired by my collaborative experiences with others in medical education through my Master’s in Health Professions Education through UIC, where I am working to finish a thesis, I am seeking a position on the CDEM Executive Committee to help engage with national priorities such as the upcoming curriculum transition, hoping to collaborate with my fellow committee members to assist those running clerkships in a variety of academic settings.