Michael Cassara, DO, MSEd

Dr. Cassara is Vice President for Northwell Health’s Interprofessional Education, Research and Practice and Medical Director for the Center for Learning and Innovation’s Patient Safety Institute and Emergency Medical Institute. He is also Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and Science Education at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and Associate Professor (Graduate Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies) at the Hofstra Northwell School of Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies. His clinical appointment is in the Department of Emergency Medicine at North Shore University Hospital and serves as Emergency Medicine Residency Program as Core Faculty. From July 2003 through July 2014, he served as Assistant/Associate Program Director. In 2017, he was named Founding Director of the Northwell Health Emergency Medicine Service Line’s (EMSL) Healthcare Simulation Fellowship and in 2021 became the fellowship’s Director of Simulation Research and Scholarship. He also serves the EMSL as Co-Director for the EMSL’s Oral Certification Examination Review Course and faculty for the simulation-based EMSL Attending Physician Resuscitation Course.

Dr. Cassara completed his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry (Minor in English) at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and graduated from the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1997. Following his Residency in Emergency Medicine at North Shore University Hospital in 2000, Dr. Cassara completed the EMF/ACEP Teaching Fellowship and finished the Mount Sinai School of Medicine Mini-Fellowship: Geriatrics for Non-Geriatricians sponsored by the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation. In 2014, Dr. Cassara finished the AAMC’s Medical Education Research Certificate program, earned the Society for Simulation in Healthcare’s Certified Healthcare Simulation Educator credential, and completed his Masters in Medical Education at the University of Pennsylvania/Perelman School of Medicine. In 2022, he completed the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Basic Certificate in Safety and Quality. In 2023, he completed Cornell University’s certificate in Executive Insight; in 2024 completed ASPE’s Foundations of Standardized Patient Methodology and Advanced SP Methodology certificate programs.

Dr. Cassara is active member in the major academic organizations in Emergency Medicine (CORD, SAEM, and ACEP), Simulation (SSH, SAEM Simulation Academy), and Health Professions Education. From 2018-2021, he served as President-elect, President, and Immediate Past President of the SAEM Simulation Academy. He serves as a reviewer for the Academic Medicine, MedEd PORTAL, MedEdPublish, Simulation in Healthcare, Academic Emergency Medicine Education and Training, Western Journal of Emergency Medicine, BMJ Medical Education, Journal of Physician Assistant Education, Journal of Nursing Education, Journal of Emergency Medicine Training and Education, and other journals in health professions education.

Dr. Cassara has received multiple awards for the quality of his editorial work and teaching across the health professions. His career interests include educational research and scholarship focuses on psychomotor skill development and assessment, evaluation of interprofessional teams, simulation-centered curriculum development and evaluation, and educational theory.