Optimizing Human Potential Through Mental Health Care: Stop the Stigma EM Month

Al'ai Alvarez, MD (@alvarezzzy) is a national leader and educator on wellness, diversity, equity, and Inclusion. He is a clinical associate professor of Emergency Medicine (EM) and Well-Being Director at Stanford Emergency Medicine. He co-leads the Human Potential Team and serves as the Stanford EM Physician Wellness Fellowship Director. He is the Chair of the Stanford WellMD's Physician Wellness Forum and Director of the Physician Resource Network (PRN) Support Program. His work focuses on humanizing physician roles as individuals and teams by harnessing the individual human potential in the context of high-performance teams. This includes optimizing the interconnectedness between Process Improvement (Quality and Clinical Operations), Recruitment (Diversity and Representation), and Well-being (Inclusion and Belonging). He is one of the 2021-2022 Faculty Fellows at the Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign.

Saadia Akhtar, MD, is a professor of emergency medicine and medical education and senior associate dean for trainee well-being in graduate medical education at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Since 2018, she has served as associate dean for trainee well-being in graduate medical education, overseeing several successful initiatives to enhance the well-being of residents and clinical fellows. These initiatives include establishing a GME well-being survey to assess the needs of residents and fellows, expanding the GME Well-being Champion program, and creating the GME Clinical Work Intensity Matching Grant Program.

In 2024, Dr. Akhtar was promoted to senior associate dean for trainee well-being in GME, continuing to lead efforts to address resident and fellow burnout. She supports collaborative initiatives to create and integrate well-being curricular activities in training programs, raise awareness of existing resources for residents and fellows, and enable GME Well-being Champions to enhance the efficiency and culture of the training environment. She is also a leading faculty member of the Office of Well-Being and Resilience.

Dr. Akhtar previously served as the director of the emergency medicine residency program at Mount Sinai Beth Israel. She is a former president of the Council of Residency Directors in Emergency Medicine (CORD) and an oral board examiner for the American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM). She has received numerous awards, including the ACGME Parker J. Palmer Courage to Teach Award for program director excellence and the CORD Michael P. Wainscott Program Director Award. She is the course co-director for the Collaborative for healing and Renewal in Medicine (CHARM) national GME Well-being Leaders Certificate Course. Dr. Akhtar completed a combined residency in emergency medicine and internal medicine at Mount Sinai Beth Israel and served as chief resident in her final year of training.

Dr. Pamela Dyne is Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, a former president of CORD, program director and DIO, a certified life and health coach, a certified chief wellness officer, and director of coaching for the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. With over 25 years of experience in GME, faculty development, and organized medicine leadership, her current position as Chief Physician Wellness Officer of Olive View-UCLA Medical Center allows her to integrate her leadership experience and knowledge of organizational and individual wellbeing with the human aspect of middle management that is required to create institutional change.

Dr. Reed is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine (IUSM). She also serves as Assistant Program Director for the IUSM Emergency Medicine Residency. Her career interest are centered on resident wellness and mental health.

Victoria Zhou, MD is an assistant professor of emergency medicine at the University of Vermont. She currently serves as Associate Residency Program Director for the University of Vermont Emergency Medicine Residency.

Gregory Guldner, MD, MS, is vice president of academic affairs for HCA Healthcare Graduate Medical Education. He previously served as designated institutional official for HCA Healthcare Riverside in Southern California and was the program director for the HCA Healthcare Riverside Emergency Medicine Residency Program. He is a clinical professor of emergency medicine at the University of California Riverside School of Medicine. Dr. Guldner earned his medical degree from Stanford University after completing a master's degree in clinical psychology at Purdue University and undergraduate degrees in philosophy and psychology from Colorado State University. He practiced emergency medicine for 25 years in both academic and community settings and has 25 years of service in the Army Medical Corps (Reserve), including combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

His research focuses on developing evidence-based systemic, individual, and leadership interventions to improve resident physician well-being. He studies well-being with the HCA/Claremont Graduate University Physician Well-Being Research Lab and works with psychologists at Immersyve Health.