SAEM Board of Directors

Wendy C. Coates, MD

Immediate Past President

UCLA Department of Emergency Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

Wendy C. Coates, MD is Emeritus Professor of Emergency Medicine at UCLA Department of Emergency Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and Senior Faculty/Education Specialist at Harbor-UCLA Department of Emergency Medicine. She served as Dean of the UCLA Acute Care College and Director of Education at Harbor-UCLA where she founded the Fellowship in Medical Education Scholarship in 1999. She enjoys continued active mentorship of her fellowship graduates. Coates graduated with honors from Allegheny College, earned her MD from Case Western Reserve University, and completed the EM residency at Allegheny General/Medical College of PA. 

Dr. Coates’ research focus is medical education with an emphasis on faculty and learner development, mentorship, curricular innovation and evaluation, creativity in medicine, and qualitative methods. She is a founding member of the Editorial Board for AEM Education & Training, member of the AEM Editorial Board, and was an ABEM Item Writer for 9 years. 

Dr. Coates began her service to SAEM as the Resident Representative to the Education Committee which she subsequently chaired for several years. She was the inaugural chair of the Undergraduate Education Committee where she led the creation and implementation of the SAEM Virtual Advisor Program and, most recently, led the initial Fellowship Approval Committee that developed metrics for non-ACGME approved fellowships in EM. She has also served on the Nominating Committee, Research Committee, and was the SAEM representative to the national committee on medical student education reform. She currently serves as a member-at-large on the SAEM Board of Directors. Follow on her Twitter at: @CoatesMedEd