Reaffirming Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Medical Education: Cultivating Community, Sparking Change, and Driving Progress (ADIEM-Sponsored)

Dr. Sree Natesan is an Associate Professor and Associate Program Director in the Duke University Department of Emergency Medicine. She is committed to the advancement of education, clinical teaching/feedback, and diversity, equity & inclusion (DEI).

Regarding advancing medical education and fostering inclusive learning environments: She had had a broad clinical and research training including ACEP Teaching Fellowship, Academic Life in Emergency Medicine Faculty Incubator Program, AAMC Medical Education Research Certificate Program, Duke Educational Skills Longitudinal Mentorship Program, and Duke Academy for Health Professions Education and Academic Development (AHEAD) Certificate Program, among others. She has shown herself a leader in medical education, having been awarded the CORD Junior Faculty Award, ACEP Junior Faculty Teacher Award, CORD Academy Scholar Award for Teaching and Evaluation. She is a leader on various committees including Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Director (CORD) Education Committee, co-Chair of the CORD Best Practices Subcommittee, Chair of CORD Academy for Scholarship. Dr. Sree Natesan serves as Chief Academic Officer for Academic Life in EM (ALiEM) Faculty Incubator Program, an international faculty development program. She is co-founder and director of the Duke GME Medical Education Leadership Track (MELT), a longitudinal resident/fellow-as-teachers program across all GME specialties, which has graduated over 170 trainees and fellows since 2018 and the Duke GME Faculty Academy for Clinical Teaching Program that was started in 2023 due to the success of the MELT program.

Regarding advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion within MedEd: She serves as co-founder and co-chair of Duke EM Justice Equity Diversity & Inclusion (JEDI) as well as on national committees for advancing Medical Education and DEI. She is Chair for the CORD DEI committee and is the President Elect for 2024 for ADIEM. She is actively involved in community outreach, mentorship, and pipeline/pathline programs. She has helped lead institutional and national conferences on holistic review for resident recruitment, implicit bias, and upstander training against microaggression. She has helped to create the CORD DEI track for the CORD Academic Assembly and has served as the track chair since 2021, as well as the founder and chair for the CORD DEI virtual conference to help EM programs grow the diversity of their programs and create inclusive training spaces.

Her primary research interest and expertise is in clinical teaching and feedback by incorporating innovative novel strategies in the Emergency Department (ED) as well as advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Dr. Adam McFarland, MD is a graduate of the University of Michigan where he received a B.S in Anthropology and Microbiology in 2011. He completed his medical degree at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in 2017. In 2021, he completed his emergency medicine residency at Boston Medical Center, then completed a fellowship in medical education at the University of Chicago. He currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Case Western Reserve University, and is an Assistant Program Director at the University Hospitals Cleveland - Case Western Reserve University EM Residency Program. His interests include promoting and advocating for diversity, equity, and inclusion in medical education, professional identity formation, resident remediation, and LGBTQ+ disparity in medicine.

Dr. Kamna Balhara is an associate professor of emergency medicine (EM) at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and holds a dual appointment as associate professor in Medicine, Science, and the Humanities at the Johns Hopkins Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. After obtaining a master’s degree in French Cultural Studies from Columbia University, she completed medical school and residency at Johns Hopkins, serving as chief resident. She served in residency program leadership at the University of Texas San Antonio and subsequently at Johns Hopkins.

Dr. Balhara is an innovator in the health humanities and has experience with implementing humanities curricula for medical students, residents, and faculty from across specialties. She is a founder and co-director of the Health Humanities at Hopkins EM initiative, which offers equity-focused and humanities-based programming to institution, community, and national audiences. She also directs a unique longitudinal interdisciplinary institution-wide health equity and humanities track for residents and fellows across Johns Hopkins, and directs the Health Humanities Fellowship. She has been invited to speak to international audiences on the humanities in medicine and was selected as a Harvard Macy Institute Art Museum-Based Health Professions Education Fellow.

Her scholarly interests revolve around equity and inclusion in clinical and learning environments. She has authored multiple publications on graduate medical education, humanities, social determinants of health, and disparities in health care access, and has developed tools and resources for other educators seeking to apply the humanities towards equity in health care and health professions education. Her work has been funded by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the Josiah Macy Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Emergency Medicine Foundation. She serves on the steering committee for the National Health Humanities Consortium, and is a member of the editorial board of the SAEM journal Academic Emergency Medicine.

Ernesto Romo, MD, currently works at Washington University School of Medicine at Saint Louis in the Department of Emergency Medicine. He completed an emergency medicine residency at Cook County Hospital inChicago. He also completed a simulation fellowship at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. He is the director of diversity, equity and inclusion and the director of simulation for the Department of Emergency Medicine. Dr. Romo also serves as a coach for medical students at Washington University. Dr. Romo was previously an assistant program director. He is father to the most magnificent daughters and these days enjoys discovering the universe alongside them.

Dr. Valerie A. Pierre, MD, FACEP, FAAEM is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Maryland.
Dr. Pierre graduated from Xavier University of Louisiana, where she developed an interest in public health and healthcare disparities in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. She attended Howard University College of Medicine and trained in Emergency Medicine residency at the Brookdale Hospital and Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. Dr. Pierre subsequently completed an ultrasound fellowship at New York University.
In addition to her clinical and teaching roles, Dr. Pierre is the Assistant Medical Director at the Baltimore Veterans Affairs Medical Center. She also serves as a faculty mentor for the departmental Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee. Outside of her work within her local academic community, she lectures and leads hands-on training sessions on point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) internationally.
In addition to local leadership, Dr. Pierre is the Chair for the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion section of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine and Membership Chair of the Academy for Diversity & Inclusion of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine. She also serves on the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging workgroup of the Education Committee for the Society for Clinical Ultrasound Fellowships and the POCUS subcommittee of the Global Emergency Medicine Academy of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine. During her medical training, she previously held several national leadership positions, including her service on the Board of Directors for the Student National Medical Association as a National Co-Chair for the Health Policy and Legislative Affairs Committee and as a National Vice Chair for the Health Policy Committee for the Emergency Medicine Residents Association.
Her clinical and research interests lie in her long-standing passion for health equity and clinical ultrasound. More specifically, she is interested in reducing health disparities in at-risk populations and improving access to care for marginalized populations.

Italo M. Brown, MD MPH (Morehouse College '06, Boston University '08, Meharry Medical College '15) is a Board-certified Emergency Physician, an Assistant Professor in Emergency Medicine, and Health Equity & Social Justice Curriculum Thread Lead at Stanford University School of Medicine. Throughout his career, Italo has been at the frontlines of social medicine and health equity. Italo is the current Chief Impact Officer of T.R.A.P. Medicine, a barbershop-based wellness initiative that leverages the cultural capital of barbershops to address the physical and emotional health of Black men and boys. He is a former board member of the Tennessee Health Care Campaign, an organization that spearheads statewide advocacy efforts in support of the Affordable Care Act and Medicare/Medicaid Reform. Italo trained at Jacobi Medical Center and Montefiore Medical Center, two Bronx Hospitals ranked among the top 20 busiest ERs in the country. In 2017, the National Minority Quality Forum named Italo among the 40 Under 40 Leaders in Minority Health. An avid writer, Italo served with the ABC News Medical Unit, and has contributed health equity & wellness commentary to The New York Times, NPR, USA Today, GQ, Men's Fitness, and Bloomberg. Recently, Italo was selected to be among clinician leaders in access to care for the recurring Health Equity Leaders Roundtable, a new initiative by the White House Office of Public Engagement.

Dr. Cortlyn Brown is an Assistant Professor of emergency medicine at Atrium Health Carolinas in Charlotte, NC.

Dr. Brown graduated with honors from the University of Chicago and matriculated to the Yale School of Medicine where she received the Parker Prize given to the graduating student who has shown the best qualifications for a successful physician and the Grannum Prize given to an African American graduating student who has shown excellent academic achievement. She completed the NIH Howard Hughes Medical Research fellowship and received a certificate in Leadership in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) from Cornell University. She then completed her residency at the University of California San Francisco where she served as Chief Resident and was awarded the Chancellor Award for Dr. Martin Luther King, JR., one of the highest institutional honors that is given to an individual who has demonstrated outstanding commitment to the ideals of DEI. She recently completed a Masters in Clinical Operations from Harvard University School of Medicine.

Dr. Brown joined Carolinas Medical Center Atrium Health faculty in 2020 as the department’s Vice Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. In addition to this role, she serves as clerkship director for the Health Disparities in Emergency Medicine rotation and Co-Leader of the Women in Emergency Medicine group.

In addition to local leadership, Dr. Brown holds several national leadership roles including Chair for the American Academy of Emergency Medicine Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion National Section as well as Section Editor for the WestJEM. Throughout her medical education, she also held several national leadership positions including, but not limited to, Student National Medical Association National Vice President and Strategic Planning Council Member and National Chair of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine Resident and Student Association Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

Her research related to DEI has been published in such journals as JAMA Internal Medicine, Annals of Emergency Medicine, and Academic Emergency Medicine.

Kristyn J. Smith, DO is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP). Additionally, she is the Sub-internship Director for the Emergency Medicine 4th year medical student rotation. Dr. Smith has introduced iniatitives aimed at diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the emergency department through Lift Every Voice – an anonymous platform used to catalyze anti-racism change in hospital settings. She holds several local and national leadership positions in emergency medicine. Previously, she was a National Alumni Board Member for the Summer Health Professions Education Program (SHPEP) and a Leadership Fellow in the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP). Currently, she is Chair-Elect for the American Academy of Emergency Medicine's (AAEM) Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Section (JEDI). Dr. Smith was recently awarded the Marcus Martin Award/Scholarship, which acknowledges signifcant achievement in DEI, through the Council of Residency Directors in Emergency Medicine (CORD).

Dr. Smith completed her residency at Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia, PA. During residency, Dr. Smith founded the health equity in emergency medicine journal club. This earned her the 2021 Dr. William & Margaret E. Menin Humanistic Sensitivity Award and the Emergency Medicine Residency Program Humanitarian Award. Throughout her medical school career, Kristyn was heavily involved in the Student National Medical Association (SNMA) serving as chapter president at the Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine and co-chair of the National Osteopathic Schools Committee. Under her leadership, the chapter won the 2015 Rowan University Excellence in Diversity Award and National SNMA Chapter of the Year.

Dr Emmanuel Ohuabunwa is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine and a Health Equity Scholar at UT Southwestern, Dallas. He serves as the Treasurer and co-chair of the Educational Trust Committee for the Association of Nigerian Physicians in America, working to increase outreach and mentorship opportunities for students of Nigerian descent interested in medicine. He completed residency at Yale EM during which he served on the board of various organizations including the African Research Academies for Women (ARA-W). In 2016, Dr Ohuabunwa and the rest of the executive board of ARA-W received the AmeriCorps Volunteer Service Award from President Barack Obama for their work in increasing female participation in research in Africa. In 2021, Dr Ohuabunwa was named on the 40 under 40 list by the New England Tri-state Urban Professionals Network. He was also awarded a certificate of congressional recognition by Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee for community service and achieved the highest score in the entire residency on the national in-training exam while publishing papers in esteemed journals. Dr Ohuabunwa’s area of interest is health equity and advocacy. His most recent piece in the Annals of Emergency Medicine, titled “Say our Names. We are doctors too” aims to change the culture around names by tackling name-based microaggressions and the resultant differential use of formality in medicine. He plans to continue to work on such issues related to health equity at UT Southwestern.

Dr Ohuabunwa attended Johns Hopkins University on a full scholarship and graduated with a 3.98 GPA in Neuroscience—a feat that made waves around the world and resulted in awards from various organizations including the “Scholar of the year Award” by the African Diaspora Organization; the “Top Nigerian-American Youth of the Year” by the Christian Association of Nigerian-Americans; and a congratulatory message from the president of Nigeria, His Excellency Goodluck Jonathan. Dr Ohuabunwa went on to attend Yale University where he completed a combined MD/MBA, on a full scholarship. In his spare time, Dr Ohuabunwa enjoys mentoring students, reading widely, cooking, and playing basketball. A native Houstonian, he is reluctantly adjusting to rooting for the Dallas sports teams.

Dr. Gipson is an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Emory, practices clinically at Grady Memorial Hospital, and is the founding health policy fellowship director for her department. She is president of ADIEM (2024-25) and served as co-chair of the education subcommittee of the equity & inclusion committee of SAEM. She recently completed a term as the National Medical Association (NMA) Emergency Medicine Section Secretary. Dr. Gipson’s OpEds discussing health equity and advocacy have been published in The Boston Globe, The Hill, The Progressive, and she’s been quoted in The New York Times. She is an avid public speaker having collaborated with the African American Policy Forum as a Critical Race Theory Summer School lecturer, Spencer Stuart’s Black History Month Speaker, Texas Speech-Language Hearing Association (TSHA) keynote speaker, SiriusXM's Urban View podcast guest, and many others. Dr. Gipson is a participant in the AAMC’s 2025 Healthcare Executive Diversity and Inclusion Certificate (HEDIC) Program and is an emerging health equity thought leader.