People

Saadia Akhtar, MD

Senior Associate Dean for Trainee Well-Being in Graduate Medical Education

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Saadia Akhtar, MD, is a professor of emergency medicine and medical education and senior associate dean for trainee well-being in graduate medical education at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Since 2018, she has served as associate dean for trainee well-being in graduate medical education, overseeing several successful initiatives to enhance the well-being of residents and clinical fellows. These initiatives include establishing a GME well-being survey to assess the needs of residents and fellows, expanding the GME Well-being Champion program, and creating the GME Clinical Work Intensity Matching Grant Program.

In 2024, Dr. Akhtar was promoted to senior associate dean for trainee well-being in GME, continuing to lead efforts to address resident and fellow burnout. She supports collaborative initiatives to create and integrate well-being curricular activities in training programs, raise awareness of existing resources for residents and fellows, and enable GME Well-being Champions to enhance the efficiency and culture of the training environment. She is also a leading faculty member of the Office of Well-Being and Resilience.

Dr. Akhtar previously served as the director of the emergency medicine residency program at Mount Sinai Beth Israel. She is a former president of the Council of Residency Directors in Emergency Medicine (CORD) and an oral board examiner for the American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM). She has received numerous awards, including the ACGME Parker J. Palmer Courage to Teach Award for program director excellence and the CORD Michael P. Wainscott Program Director Award. She is the course co-director for the Collaborative for healing and Renewal in Medicine (CHARM) national GME Well-being Leaders Certificate Course. Dr. Akhtar completed a combined residency in emergency medicine and internal medicine at Mount Sinai Beth Israel and served as chief resident in her final year of training.

Guy Carmelli, MD

University of Massachusetts

Dr. Carmelli is a graduate of the Emergency Medicine residency program at Kings County and SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn, where he also completed his two-year Medical Education Fellowship. He furthered his medical education knowledge by completing a two-year Masters in Medical Education at the University of Pennsylvania. He completed his medical degree at USC’s Keck School of Medicine in California, where he grew up. His interests are in medical education, where he has spent most of his time. He is an enthusiastic teacher both in the clinical setting and in the lecture hall. He was awarded “best resident”, the first-place award for the CPC National Competition at ACEP in 2016 and again as “best attending” in Sri Lanka at the World Academic Congress of Emergency Medicine (WACEM) conference in 2017. He has since lectured for numerous national conferences, all over the United States. Currently, he has a full-time academic faculty position at the University of Massachusetts, where he is pursuing his various interests in education. 

Sarah H. Michael, DO, MS

University of Colorado, Denver

Dr. Michael is a fellowship-trained education scientist with expertise in curriculum development and the novel utilization of technology in medical education. Her research interests include nontechnical skills training and assessments. She directs a fellowship in medical education science at the Univeristy of Colorado.

Thomas Kirsch, MD, MPH

Kabir Yadav, MDCM, MS, MSHS

Vice Chair, Academic Affairs

Harbor-UCLA Medical Center

Dr. Yadav is the vice chair for academic affairs and an associate professor of emergency medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. He completed emergency medicine residency at Kings County Hospital Center/SUNY Downstate Medical Center, followed by a clinical research fellowship at Jacobi Medical Center, with a Masters in Clinical Research Methods. After completing a NIH KL2 Career Development Award and a Masters in Translational Science at George Washington University, he became one of the first board-certified clinical informaticists in the country.

Laura G. Burke, MD

Dowin H. Boatright, MD

Christina L. Shenvi, MD, PhD, MBA, FACEP

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine

Dr. Shenvi is an associate professor of Emergency Physician, keynote speaker, and academic leader. She currently directs the 18-month pre-clinical case-based learning medical student curriculum at UNC and as director of the year-long FLAGship faculty development program. She also has served in many roles, including as ACEP/CORD Teaching Fellowship director, residency associate program director, and director of the UNC Office of Academic Excellence. She also teaches and coaches on time management and career success, and writes at timeforyourlife.org.She is a passionate educator and always looking for new ways to make learning and teaching more engaging and effective.

Payal Modi, MD, MSc

Co-Chair-Social EM and Population Health Interest Group

Christine R. Stehman, MD

Director of Wellness Education

University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria

Christine Stehman, MD is a visiting Clinical Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at University of Illinois College of Medicine, Peoria where she serves as the Director of Wellness Education and Director of Faculty Development. She arrived in Peoria after following a circuitous route including two stops in Chicago separated by service in the US Navy including two combat deployments with the USMC, and fellowship training in Boston. Within the world of Emergency Medicine, outside of her clinical duties, she serves as a guest mentor for the ALiEM Faculty Incubator, a mentor for the CORD Mini-Fellowship in Wellness Leadership, as a member on a number of CORD and SAEM committees, and as a reviewer for a number of journals. In her non-emergency medicine life, she serves as a role model for what she teaches: taking time to travel, spend time with her friends, family and dogs, working out, and reading.

Maegan Reynolds, MD, LSSBB

The Ohio State University and Nationwide Children's Hospital

Dr. Maegan Reynolds is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics. She completed a Emergency Medicine Residency at Denver Health in Denver, CO and Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellowship at Nationwide Children’s Hospital prior to joining the faculty at The Ohio State University in 2016. Dr. Reynolds continues to split her clinical time between OSU and NCH. Dr. Reynolds was the Director for the NCH Emergency Department Resident rotation for several years, prior to transitioning to the Director of Quality Improvement Education for the OSU Emergency Medicine Residency. Dr. Reynolds serves as the OSU Emergency Department Lead for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety and as the Lead for the Oncology Pod. Dr. Reynolds completed her Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Training through The Ohio State University Fisher School of Business and ongoing research interests include QIPS initiatives in the Emergency Department with a current focus on sepsis care, Oncology care pathways, quality improvement graduate medical education, pediatric emergency medicine education, and emergency department management of febrile infants.

Laura Oh, MD

Emory University

Dr. Oh is an Associate Professor at Emory University. Her academic interests include emergency ultrasound education and research, and faculty development. She is the former ACEP Academic Affairs Committee Chair, Course Director of ACEP Virtual Grand Rounds, and Associate Course Director of SAEM/AACEM's eLEAD faculty development program. She is a member of the SAEM Program Committee and SAEM Education Committee, and has been a faculty mentor for the ACEP Teaching Fellowship and SAEM AEUS Grantwriting Program. She is the PI of a DoD funded clinical trial related to contrast enhanced ultrasound in blunt abdominal trauma.

Daniel L. Theodoro, MD

Jason T. Nomura, MD

Bonnie Kaplan, MD

Michael A. Cole, MD

Sree Natesan, MD, FACEP

Duke University School of Medicine

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.

Kamna S. Balhara, MD, MA, FACEP

Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine

Johns Hopkins University

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.

 

Christopher R. Carpenter, MD, MSc, FACEP, AGSF

Stefanie S. Sebok-Syer, PhD