People

Holly Caretta-Weyer, MD, MHPE

Associate Residency Program Director/Director of Evaluation and Assessment

Stanford University School of Medicine

Dr. Holly Caretta-Weyer is currently Associate Residency Program Director and Director of Evaluation and Assessment for the Stanford University Emergency Medicine Residency Program as well as EPA/CBME Implementation Lead at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Caretta-Weyer attended medical school at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health where she graduated Alpha Omega Alpha with Honors in Research. She loved being a Badger so much that she stayed for her Emergency Medicine Residency at the University of Wisconsin where she was also Chief Resident. Dr. Caretta-Weyer then moved to the West Coast where she completed her Medical Education Scholarship Fellowship at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) and completed her Masters in Health Professions Education (MHPE) at the University of Illinois-Chicago. She is a PhD candidate at Maastricht University studying residency selection in a competency-based system in March of 2021.

While at OHSU, Dr. Caretta-Weyer worked as a member of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Core Entrustable Professional Activities for Entering Residency pilot team and was a founding member of the OHSU undergraduate medical education entrustment committee. She continues to be involved with the national AAMC Core EPA Pilot through her continued collaboration with the OHSU team. Through this process she has gained valuable experience in working to define programmatic assessment, formulate summative entrustment decisions, and more seamlessly bridge the transition from undergraduate to graduate medical education, all of which are key initiatives within medical education.

Dr. Caretta-Weyer is also the PI on a $1.3M AMA Reimagining Residency Grant focused on implementing competency-based education and redesigning assessment across the continuum of emergency medicine training and introducing predictive learning analytics to the process. She is a Visiting Scholar with the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) examining summative entrustment decision-making by competency committees and its implications for initial certification. She is additionally a member of the International Competency-Based Medical Education (ICBME) Collaborators, a group that seeks to further research on CBME around the world. Finally, Dr. Caretta-Weyer was recently elected as the inaugural Chair of the CBME Task Force for Emergency Medicine. Her work led the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada to recognize her as the International Medical Educator of the Year in 2022.

Dr. Caretta-Weyer’s education research interests focus on the implementation of competency-based education and assessment across the continuum of medical education, summative entrustment and promotion decision-making processes, residency selection in a competency-based system, and the development of learner handovers to span key transitions in the educational continuum. When not focusing on her administrative and education research interests, Dr. Caretta-Weyer can be found kayaking, hiking, cycling, playing volleyball, or cheering on her favorite sports teams including the Marquette Golden Eagles and Milwaukee Brewers.

Stephen D. Haight, MD, FPD, AEMUS

UCSF Fresno

Dr. Haight is an assistant professor of emergency medicine and the Director of Emergency Ultrasound ay UCSF Fresno. He completed his emergency medicine residency at UCSF Fresno in 2020, where he served as chief resident and was awarded resident teacher of the year. He graduated from a clinical ultrasound fellowship at the University of Arizona in 2021 and currently holds the focused practice designation in advanced emergency medicine ultrasonography through the American Board of Emergency Medicine. He has lectured on point-of-care ultrasound topics at both regional and national venues, including SAEM, SEMPA , and the High Sierra Wilderness and Travel Medicine Conference previously. He recently published a chapter on musculoskeletal ultrasound and the ultrasound-guided serratus anterior block for EM:RAP CorePendium. His main areas of interest include speckle tracking/strain echocardiography, vascular ultrasound, musculoskeletal ultrasound, and regional anesthesia. In his free time, he enjoys exploring the nearby Sierra Nevada Mountains and playing squash.

Jason S. Haukoos, MD, MSc

Chris Davalantes, MD, FACEP

Emergency Medicine Physician

Senior Director, Global Medical Affairs, 

Abbott Point of Care

Denisse Rojas Marquez, MD, MPP

Boston Medical Center

Denisse Rojas Marquez, envisions a health care system where no individual is excluded. Growing up as an undocumented immigrant, she and her family had limited health care options and as a result, they would delay treatment for illnesses and use free or subsidized health care. Through these difficult experiences, Denisse was inspired to become a doctor in underserved communities that advocates for all patients and is a leader in shaping health care policies. Denisse co-founded a national organization called Pre-Health Dreamers (PHD) to provide advising, resources and advocacy for other undocumented youth like herself. In just a few years, PHD has reached over 1,000 members in 48 states.

Through Denisse’s leadership, the organization co-sponsored legislation to allow California licensing boards to award professional licenses to individuals regardless of immigration status, given all other requirements are met, and engage in institutional advocacy in partnership with other academic groups. She co-authored an article in Academic Medicine that provides guidance on considering DACA recipients for residency positions. As a result of PHD’s advocacy, more health professional programs will consider undocumented students for admission. Denisse completed her MD at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and her Masters in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She is currently an emergency medicine resident at Boston Medical Center. Denisse has devoted herself to a life of service through direct care, research, and policy to ensure that quality health care is accessible to all underserved communities and higher education is attainable for underrepresented minority students.

Katherine Selman, MD

Annette M. Dekker, MD

Natalie Elder, MD

Robert Inglis, MD

Breanne M. Jacobs, MA, MD, FACEP

George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences

Dr. Jacobs currently works as an attending emergency physician at numerous academic hospitals throughout the Washington DC area, including the George Washington University Hospital and the DC Veterans Medical Center. As a faculty member at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, she teaches a didactic course to medical students called the “practice of medicine” and serves a coach for medical students. She is also actively involved in teaching in the emergency medicine residency program.

Katherine M. Hiller, MD, MPH

Michael Cassara, DO, MSEd

Northwell Health | Zucker School of Medicine

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.

Laura R. Hopson, MD, MEd

Associate Chair for Education, Department of Emergency Medicine

University of Michigan

Laura Hopson, MD, MEd, is professor and associate chair of education in the department of emergency medicine (EM) at the University of Michigan Medical School. She graduated from Yale University with a BS in molecular biophysics and biochemistry and obtained her MD from Duke University. She completed residency training at the University of Michigan, and a master's in education through Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Hopson has been extensively involved in medical education at the undergraduate and graduate level throughout her career, including nine years as residency program director. She co-directs the University of Michigan's GME innovations program, which is an institutional initiative to promote innovations in education and demonstrates their effectiveness through high-level learner and patient-centered outcomes. Dr. Hopson has a long-standing interest in the transition between UME and GME and her scholarly work focuses on the residency selection process and optimizing learning outcomes.

Nicole M. Duggan, MD

Michael J. Waxman, MD

Matthew Strehlow, MD

Stanford University

Dr. Matthew Strehlow is a Professor of Emergency Medicine at Stanford University and currently serves as the Executive Vice Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine. He is a Fellow at the Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health and serves as Director of Stanford’s WHO Collaborating Center on Learning During Health Emergencies. He also advises Stanford’s Digital Medic initiative and contributes to Stanford Health Care’s Sustainability Steering Committee, where he collaborates across campus to advance the university’s mission of improving health, sustainability, and education worldwide. Dr. Strehlow has played a key role in in-service training of healthcare workers, partnering with OpenWHO to research effective strategies for information dissemination during health emergencies. A recognized educator nationally and internationally, his work focuses on emergency care in low-resource settings, knowledge transfer to remote and rural locations, and the intersection of human and planetary health.

Daniel J. Egan, MD

Mass General Brigham

Daniel Egan is Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is currently the program director of the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency at Mass General Brigham and Vice Chair of Education for MGB Emergency Medicine.

Lexie L. Mannix, MD

Anna K. Weiss, MD, MSEd

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia/Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

Anna Weiss is an attending physician in Pediatric Emergency Medicine at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and is an Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine (PSOM) at the University of Pennsylvania. She received her MD from PSOM and completed her residency in Pediatrics at CHOP, serving an additional year as Chief Resident. Dr. Weiss completed fellowship training in Pediatric Emergency Medicine at CHOP, earning her MSEd in Medical Education at Penn’s Graduate School of Education (GSE). She is the Director of Research in Education in the Division of Emergency Medicine at CHOP, and her research interests include procedural training and competency, assessment and feedback, and fostering psychological safety in the clinical learning environment.

Ryan Pedigo, MD, MHPE

Los Angeles County-Harbor-UCLA Medical Center

Ryan Pedigo, MD, MHPE graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from the University of California, Riverside, and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. He then went on to receive his MD from the University of California, Los Angeles, receiving the award for Excellence in Emergency Medicine from the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine and was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha honor society. After graduation, he began his postgraduate residency at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, specializing in Emergency Medicine, where he received a national award from the Emergency Medicine Resident's Association for clinical excellence in his field and was one of the program's chief residents. He was leader of the team that won the national resuscitation competition SimWars at ACEP in 2014. For the first five years as faculty, he was the Clerkship Director but has now transitioned to an Associate Program Director role as of 2020. He also serves as the course chair for a UCLA longitudinal 4th year medical student teaching fellowship and course faculty for the UCLA Faculty Development Medical Education Fellowship. He participated in the month-long Stanford Faculty Development Center for Medical Teachers Clinical Teacher Facilitator Training Program, completed a 2-year Medical Education Fellowship at UCLA, and completed the UCLA Simulation Instructor Training course. He is co-chair of a working group aimed at improving educational faculty development at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. Dr. Pedigo is an avid educator and has authored or co-authored 9 books, 40 book chapters and articles, as well as being the editor of over 300 chapters.

He has been the recipient of multiple awards including the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center Best Diagnostician Award (2019), Rising Star of the Year Finalist Award (2019), Outstanding Peer Reviewer for Academic Emergency Medicine: Education and Training Award (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021), Faculty Teaching Excellence award from EMRA (2018), the National Emergency Medicine Junior Faculty Teaching Award from ACEP (2018), the Faculty Teaching Award from CORD (2018), the Faculty Teaching Award from his own department (2017), Young Educator of the Year Award from SAEM/CDEM (2017), and the Distinguished Faculty Clinical Teaching Award from the Department of Internal Medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (2016). He is also the recipient of the $100,000 Education Research Grant from the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine and completed a Master of Health Professions Education degree.