Katie Wells, MD, MPH
Member-at-Large The University of Vermont
Biography
My name is Katie Wells. I am running for the GEMA Member-At-Large position to get more directly involved in GEMA’s mission. I have been involved with GEMA since matriculating into Emergency Medicine residency, and I currently serve on the Decolonizing Committee and the Global Engagement Committee. My original journey in medicine had been geared toward a career as an international trauma surgeon. I matched into an academic seven-year general surgery program and was asked to join a WHO Global Surgery committee as an intern. That soon developed into being the first fellow for the University of Utah’s Center for Global Surgery, the first global surgery fellowship in the country. I spent two years working in Mongolia, focusing on surgical and trauma system development and research with the Mongolian Ministry of Health and the national hospital system. During my fellowship, I obtained an MPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, focusing on disaster medicine and refugee health. During that time, I switched my focus to emergency medicine. While I loved operating, I realized that I loved learning about and developing elements of health systems more and felt that emergency medicine was a better fit. After applying to a GEMA showcase in Dallas, Texas, I found my people in Global EM. I met many people who advocated and networked for me at that event while applying for residency. GEMA was my launching pad as I went back into the match for Emergency Medicine. I have always felt indebted to this organization and to SAEM for giving me my first systems of support to build a career in Global EM. Therefore, I want to be more directly involved in its development and leadership. Since first joining GEMA, I have finished my global health fellowship, completed my residency in EM, and was recruited to the University of Vermont to start the first program in International Emergency Medicine, where I am currently the Director of International Emergency Medicine, as well as the University of Vermont Health Network Emergency Department Director of Health Equity. I was also recently selected as the inaugural Director of Social Medicine for the University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine. I am responsible for building curriculum and research in health equity and social justice while overseeing student involvement in social medicine programs. Since joining Vermont, we have built partnerships working alongside our Ugandan colleagues, and supported the development of the first Ugandan curriculum for emergency care nursing for the country, built a Rural Emergency Care Systems (RECS) rotation built for practitioners working in the international context which we piloted this year with Ugandan partners with the plan to expand this for our other international partners, built a partnership with AFEM and South African partners to explore equitable GH partnerships, built our first institutional multidisciplinary Global Health Equity fellowship starting this year, amongst many other initiatives.
Additionally, during COVID, I worked supporting local infrastructure building here in Vermont with the development of the first collaborative immigrant health program called the Immigrant Health Initiative (IHI), bringing in members of over 20 different University of Vermont Health Network departments, over 50 community partners and created the first salary funded hospital network immigrant community liaison position held explicitly by a member from our refugee community. We have also been working collaboratively with community and medical center partners to change statewide policy focused on immigrant health. We are growing our faculty exponentially, as well as our research capacity and our international collaborations with three other countries. I have had the privilege of learning from so many mentors and leaders in the Global Emergency medicine space, and I feel that my skill set in advocacy, network building, and strategy could serve GEMA well as it continues its growth into a group to meet the moment of change and sustainability in this decolonizing period. I would love to work directly as part of GEMA leadership to facilitate collaboration with other international EM organizations to create consensus and systems of accountability toward building equity in global EM partnerships.
If elected I would love to work with GEMA to push forward more research and scholarship focused on building equitable global health partnerships. I would like to lead GEMA in these efforts and liaise with other international EM organizations to facilitate building systems of accountability and change in current global EM practices.
Additionally, during COVID, I worked supporting local infrastructure building here in Vermont with the development of the first collaborative immigrant health program called the Immigrant Health Initiative (IHI), bringing in members of over 20 different University of Vermont Health Network departments, over 50 community partners and created the first salary funded hospital network immigrant community liaison position held explicitly by a member from our refugee community. We have also been working collaboratively with community and medical center partners to change statewide policy focused on immigrant health. We are growing our faculty exponentially, as well as our research capacity and our international collaborations with three other countries. I have had the privilege of learning from so many mentors and leaders in the Global Emergency medicine space, and I feel that my skill set in advocacy, network building, and strategy could serve GEMA well as it continues its growth into a group to meet the moment of change and sustainability in this decolonizing period. I would love to work directly as part of GEMA leadership to facilitate collaboration with other international EM organizations to create consensus and systems of accountability toward building equity in global EM partnerships.
If elected I would love to work with GEMA to push forward more research and scholarship focused on building equitable global health partnerships. I would like to lead GEMA in these efforts and liaise with other international EM organizations to facilitate building systems of accountability and change in current global EM practices.
