People

D. Mark Courtney, MD MSci

Executive Vice Chair, Academic Affairs

University of Texas Southwestern Medical School

Dr. D. Mark Courtney is a Professor and Executive Vice Chair of Academic Affairs in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, Texas. Dr. Courtney works clinically at Clements University Hospital, a large quaternary care center serving complex care patients in North Texas, and Parkland Memorial Hospital, the busiest emergency department by volume in the US. His main areas of interest are diagnostic test assessment, pretest probability for cardiopulmonary and vascular disease, and the detection and treatment of PE starting in the emergency department. He is a former Board Member and President of SAEM. Dr. Courtney's more recent academic interests beyond the scope of thrombosis and hemostasis include professional coaching as a tool to enhance wellbeing and happiness.

Blake C. Briggs, MD

University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine

Blake Briggs is an assistant professor of emergency medicine. He has always been passionate about finding effective ways to teach. He completed his emergency medicine residency at Wake Forest Baptist Atrium Health. He is the founder, podcast co-host, and Editor-in-Chief of EM Board Bombs, a multiplatform education tool designed to not only provide board prep but focus on “what you need to know” for the practice of emergency medicine. He continues to leverage skills in the digital realm of education, using multimedia resources and technical expertise to optimize people’s time when it comes to learning and providing the best care to patients. He also has an interest in ED protocols and pathways, serving as the Assistant Medical Director at the University of Tennessee Medical Center.

Ali S. Raja, MD, DBA, MPH

President

Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical School

Ali S. Raja, MD, DBA, MPH, FACHE is the Executive Vice Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and a Professor at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Raja received his MPH from Harvard, holds MD and MBA degrees from Duke and, after training in emergency medicine at the University of Cincinnati, completed a research fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is board certified in emergency medicine and clinical informatics, and is appointed to both the Departments of Emergency Medicine and Radiology at HMS.

Dr. Raja is an expert on the management of critically ill patients in the emergency department and prehospital arenas. He has served as a critical care air transport team commander for the US Air Force, a civilian flight physician, a tactical physician for a number of local, state, and federal agencies, and a physician with MA-1 DMAT. The author of over 200 publications, his current research focuses on improving the appropriateness of resource utilization and operations within the emergency department. 

In addition to serving on the SAEM Board, Dr. Raja has served on the Board of the SAEM Foundation, as Chair of the Program Committee and Trauma Interest Group, and as a member of several other committees within SAEM. He is also on the Board of the Massachusetts chapter of the American College of Healthcare Executives, where he serves as President-Elect, and was previously the Editor-in-Chief of the New England Journal of Medicine’s Journal Watch Emergency Medicine. He can be found on Twitter at @AliRaja_MD.

Ryan LaFollette, MD

Member-at-Large

University of Cincinnati

Ryan LaFollette, MD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Cincinnati. Dr. LaFollette graduated from UC’s Emergency Medicine Residency where he served as a Chief Resident in 2016 and upon graduation became an Assistant Program Director, a title he currently holds. He also serves as a flight physician and a physician member of the Cincinnati SWAT team.

Dr. LaFollette functions as the current SAEM Program Committee Chair, leading the society’s most attended meeting ever in Austin, TX at SAEM23 and is excited about continuing a record setting year at SAEM24 in Phoenix, AZ. He has served a number of roles in the Program Committee, including Chairing the Medical Student Ambassadors where he helped to double our medical student presence at the Annual Meeting. He has also led Didactics from 2018-2022, revamping the grading and selection process while significantly increasing the number of didactic offerings. Additionally, he served as Virtual Presence Committee Chair from 2018-2021, during which the SAEM livestreams contributed hundreds of hours of free SAEM content and oversaw the expansion of the SAEM podcasts and new website creation. He has also been a member of the Awards and Education Committee, creating the FOAMed Excellence in Education Award which was first given out in 2019.

Dr. LaFollette’s academic interests include resident education and knowledge translation, being a leader of the Education Leadership Academy at UC. He serves on the UC GME Executive Committee at the University of Cincinnati, on the Executive Board of the UC Emergency Medicine Program Of Women in LeadERship (EMPOWER) and as an Editor-in-Chief of TamingtheSRU.com. He has won both the Faculty of the Year (2019) and Mentor of the Year (2023) awards. If elected to the board, he would look to forward the technological advances that connect our diverse society and create next-generation resources to curate the vast SAEM resources and knowledge base into career-furthering deliverables.

Amy H. Kaji, MD, PhD

SAEM Immediate Past President / SAEMF Member-at-Large

Los Angeles County-Harbor-UCLA Medical Center

Amy H. Kaji, MD PhD is vice-chair of academic affairs in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. After graduating from Harvard University, Dr. Kaji attended Thomas Jefferson Medical School. Prior to "seeing the light," Dr. Kaji performed two years of a categorical general surgery residency at the University of Chicago. She then performed her emergency medicine internship, residency, and research/disaster medicine fellowship at Harbor-UCLA. Under the mentorship of Dr. Roger Lewis, Dr. Kaji completed a doctorate in epidemiology at the UCLA School of Public Health during her fellowship.

Since her fellowship, Dr. Kaji has been active in SAEM. She has previously served as Membership Committee chair, a Research sub-committee chair, as well as on the Nominating committee, and the steering committee of the Science of Surge and Simulation consensus conferences, prior to joining the SAEM Board of Directors. Dr. Kaji enjoys combining her interest in statistical methodology, emergency medicine, and writing through editorial activities – she is a methodological/statistical editor for Annals of Emergency Medicine and JAMA Surgery, as well as an editor for the 9th edition of the Rosen's Emergency Medicine textbook.

Benjamin White, MD

Mass General Brigham Emergency Medicine

Benjamin A. White, M.D. is an attending physician at the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Emergency Medicine, and an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He also serves as the Director of Patient Experience for Mass General Brigham Emergency Medicine, and the Director of the Center for Emergency Medicine Innovation at Mass General Brigham. Ben’s academic and administrative career has focused on improving patient care and experience across the spectrum of the ED visit. His work had included multiple ED operations and systems improvement projects, with an emphasis on clinical innovations that reduce unnecessary waits and waste, increase communication quality and frequency, optimize patient comfort, and improve the overall process of care. He has led multiple grant-funded projects in this capacity, with resultant peer-reviewed publications, and has lectured nationally on these topics at SAEM, AAEM, ACEP, and through multiple invited presentations. Ben cares deeply about making innovative and sustainable improvements in ED patient care, and the humanism and compassion that is integral to a positive patient experience during the ED visit.

Jonathan D. Sonis, MD, MHCM

Chair of Quality and Safety, MGH Emergency Medicine/ Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, Harvard Medical School

Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School

Jonathan D. Sonis, MD, MHCM is Associate Chief Medical Officer and Vice President of Medical Affairs at Newton Wellesley Hospital/Mass General Brigham and an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is a member of the emergency medicine faculty at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Sonis also serves as Associate Medical Director for Emergency Medicine at CRICO, Harvard's patient safety and medical malpractice company.

Dr. Sonis has extensive leadership experience related to quality improvement, patient safety, provider and staff communication, and patient experience, and lectures and publishes frequently on these topics. He received his MD with Alpha Omega Alpha honors from the Tufts University School of Medicine and trained at the Harvard-Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency where he served as a Chief Resident. He has completed educational programs in leadership, quality service, and value-based health care, and earned his Master in Health Care Management at the Harvard School of Public Health.