SAEM Executive Committee

Wendy C. Coates, MD

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

Ali S. Raja, MD, DBA, MPH

President-Elect

Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical School

Ali S. Raja, MD, DBA, MPH, FACHE is the Executive Vice Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and a Professor at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Raja received his MPH from Harvard, holds MD and MBA degrees from Duke and, after training in emergency medicine at the University of Cincinnati, completed a research fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is board certified in emergency medicine and clinical informatics, and is appointed to both the Departments of Emergency Medicine and Radiology at HMS.

Dr. Raja is an expert on the management of critically ill patients in the emergency department and prehospital arenas. He has served as a critical care air transport team commander for the US Air Force, a civilian flight physician, a tactical physician for a number of local, state, and federal agencies, and a physician with MA-1 DMAT. The author of over 200 publications, his current research focuses on improving the appropriateness of resource utilization and operations within the emergency department. 

In addition to serving on the SAEM Board, Dr. Raja has served on the Board of the SAEM Foundation, as Chair of the Program Committee and Trauma Interest Group, and as a member of several other committees within SAEM. He is also on the Board of the Massachusetts chapter of the American College of Healthcare Executives, where he serves as President-Elect, and was previously the Editor-in-Chief of the New England Journal of Medicine’s Journal Watch Emergency Medicine. He can be found on Twitter at @AliRaja_MD.

Michelle D. Lall, MD, MHS

Secretary-Treasurer

Emory University

Dr. Michelle D. Lall, a board-certified emergency medicine physician, is an Associate Professor at Emory University.  She has been faculty at Emory since 2013.  She is also an Associate Residency Director and Medical Education Fellowship Director for Emergency Medicine.  Prior to coming to Emory, Dr. Lall was an Assistant Professor at Wayne State University beginning in 2008.  She was an Assistant Residency Director at the Sinai-Grace/Wayne State University Emergency Medicine Residency Program and the medical student clerkship site director at Sinai-Grace/Wayne State University beginning in 2009.  Dr. Lall is a graduate of Wayne State University School of Medicine.  She completed her residency and chief residency at Emory University. 

Dr. Lall is actively involved in the teaching and supervision of medical students and residents.  Her passion is graduate medical education, education research and scholarship.  Dr. Lall’s primary interests are physician well-being and the negative impact of gender bias on equity and inclusion in medicine.  She is interested in gender differences in burnout among physicians.  She has previously presented didactics on physician well-being and gender bias in medicine at multiple signature regional and national annual meetings of medical educators.  Dr. Lall is part of a national emergency medicine work group focused on exploring and addressing gender and racial bias and disparities in academic emergency medicine.  Additionally, she is the lead author on two scoping reviews of assessment tools available to evaluate physician well-being.

Her professional memberships include: American College of Emergency Physicians – where she is a fellow, Society for Academic Emergency Physicians, Academy for Women in Academic Emergency Medicine - where she is the Immediate Past President, American Association of Women Emergency Physicians, and Georgia College of Emergency Physicians.  She is also a member of the Delta Omega Honor Society.  Dr. Lall is a recipient of the Momentum Award from the Academy for Women in Academic Emergency Medicine (AWAEM), which recognizes extraordinary efforts that further the mission and values of AWAEM.  While at Sinai-Grace/Wayne State University, Dr. Lall was a two time "Faculty Teacher of the Year" award winner.  At Emory, she has been the recipient of the “Faculty Advocate of the Year” award.

Angela M. Mills, MD

Immediate Past President

Columbia University Vagelos

Angela M. Mills, MD is the J. E. Beaumont Professor and Chair of Emergency Medicine Services at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and Chief of Emergency Medicine Services at New York-Presbyterian. Dr. Mills graduated Summa Cum Laude from Muhlenberg College and with Alpha Omega Alpha distinction from Temple University Medical School.

Dr. Mills is a graduate and former Chief Resident of the EM residency program at University of Pennsylvania. She became a faculty member immediately thereafter and advanced academically being promoted to Professor of Emergency Medicine in 2017. At Penn, Dr. Mills served in several capacities including Medical Director and as Vice Chair of Clinical Operations. She joined Columbia in January 2018 as inaugural Chair of the newly formed department. 

Dr. Mills has maintained an active research career focusing on emergency diagnostic imaging, clinical operations, and the evaluation of undifferentiated abdominal pain. She has authored over 95 scientific publications and received research funding from both federal agencies and industry. 

Dedicated to combining scholarship with mentoring, Dr. Mills is strongly committed to education and has influenced the careers of numerous junior faculty and trainees. Dr. Mills serves on many national and local committees and is an elected member of the Board of Directors of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM). 

Dr. Mills was recently honored with two prestigious awards: the Arnold P. Gold Foundation Humanism in Medicine Award from SAEM and the Mid-Career Award from the Academy for Women in Academic Emergency Medicine.