Brian J. Zink, MD

Brian J. Zink, MD, is Adjunct Professor and Senior Advisor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School. Dr. Zink's primary areas of focus are faculty and leadership development, mentoring and coaching, medical humanities, and the history of emergency medicine. Earlier in his career he was a researcher in alcohol effects in traumatic brain injury and shock. Dr. Zink wrote the first comprehensive history of US emergency medicine. After serving as the Associate Dean for Student Programs at Michigan, he was selected as the inaugural Chair of Emergency Medicine at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University and Chief of Emergency Medicine at Rhode Island Hospital and served in this role for 12 years. He was on the Board of Directors of the Lifespan Health System. Dr. Zink has served as the President of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM, 2000), the Association of Academic Chairs of Emergency Medicine (AACEM, 2012), and the SAEM Foundation (2021). He founded and is Co-Director of the SAEM/AACEM Chair Development Program. Dr. Zink has received the Hal Jayne Academic Excellence Award and John Marx Leadership Award from SAEM, the Outstanding Contribution in Education Award from the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), and the Distinguished Service Award from AACEM. He practiced EM in academic hospital emergency departments for 36 years. In 2024 he formed Brian J. Zink Coaching and Consulting, LLC, and is now focused on growing and developing the next generation of leaders in academic medicine.