Carol Foss McCammon, MD, MPH, FACEP

In the 25+ years of my career in a mixed clinical and academic practice experience, I have had the chance to take advantage of many opportunities in care delivery in multiple settings locally and abroad, teaching, writing, and leadership in different organizations and capacities. The independent private practice partnership I work with is responsible for the academic department of emergency medicine at EVMS, and I served as academic faculty early in my career, as clinical faculty throughout, and back into academics in leading our Global Emergency Medicine fellowship program. Because of our unique environment, I have had the opportunity to deliver care in a Level 1 urban trauma and tertiary referral center, community and rural hospitals, and freestanding emergency departments in Virginia, all of which have unique resources, and constraints. Though the GEM Fellowship, I have had the opportunity to partner with emergency medicine consultants in the Caribbean, Africa, and India further which expands my perspective and stokes my curiosity to learn and collaborate across borders and barriers.

Serving in group practice leadership, I have served in department leadership as Assistant Director with my primary responsibility in care quality and patient safety. With this experience, I developed a passion for quality improvement, and was appointed the Director of Quality Assurance/quality improvement for our entire practice, supervising and integrating quality care delivery at seven emergency departments. There certainly have been many lessons learned, and in order for these to be useful, the lessons must be shared. Thus, communication has been integral in my experience, and to me, it remains foundational in any leadership position. A collaborative approach to leadership and communication has proven successful in my experience. My demeanor is calm and I am an active listener. With these qualities and a breadth of varied experience, if elected as GEMA Secretary I will continue to approach with an attentive ear and a thorough detail to serve the Academy.