People

Manish Shah, MD, MPH

Azita G. Hamedani Distinguished Chair of Emergency Medicine

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Manish Shah, MD, MPH, is Professor and Chair of the BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Wisconsin, where he holds the Azita G. Hamedani Distinguished Chair of Emergency Medicine. Dr. Shah is a national leader in prehospital and geriatric emergency medicine research. His efforts, with funding from NIH, AHRQ, CDC, and HRSA, have helped establish the field of geriatric emergency medicine and advanced the role of paramedics to support community health efforts. He is passionate about developing the next generation of emergency care researchers and research leaders. He led the NIH-funded KL2 Career Development Award program until 2022 and is a mentor on numerous NIH and AHRQ career development awards. Dr. Shah is the Immediate Past President of the SAEM Foundation (SAEMF).

Walter A. Schrading, MD

University of Alabama

Dr. Schrading is a Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He is the Director of the Office of Wilderness Medicine and directs the Wilderness Medicine Track in the UAB EM residency training program. He has extensive experience teaching WLS:MP and other wilderness medicine educational programs. His publications have focused on wilderness medicine core-content for residency education and the accuracy of devices for use by an austere medical provider. He is the faculty advisor to the Wilderness Medicine Interest Group at the Heersink University of Alabama Medical School and is the course director for student Wilderness Medicine Special Topics courses.

Katja Goldflam, MD

Yale University School of Medicine

I am excited to apply for the position of VP of membership after working as co-chair of the Membership Committee for the last two years. I have really enjoyed my work with AWAEM and feel this is a group with not only a great track record, but also further potential to make a significant difference in the professional and personal lives of women in academic EM. As such, I believe recruiting new members at the faculty, as well as resident level, is critical to further this mission: I initially heard about AWAEM through word of mouth from a colleague and while this is an important way to spread the word, I believe further promotion of our group through avenues including a greater presence on social media will help encourage new members to learn about all the resources and community we have to offer. Thank you for your consideration and I am looking forward to hopefully greater in-person opportunities for membership recruitment in the coming year.

Edouard Coupet, Jr., MD, MS

Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine

Yale University

Dr. Coupet is Assistant Professor in Emergency Medicine and Core Faculty in the Program for Addiction Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine. He is a physician-scientist, board-certified physician in both emergency and addiction medicine. His primary research interests include ED patient identification and management of substance misuse and substance use disorders, health equity within addiction treatment access, and epidemiology and prevention of assault injury. He has received funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and Emergency Medicine Foundation to study health equity within access to evidence-based addiction medicine treatment. He joined faculty in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Yale in 2018 as a Drug Use, Addiction, and HIV Research (DAHRS) K-12 Scholar. He is also a NIDA HEAL Initiative Diversity Supplement awardee.

Anika Backster, MD, MSCR

Gita Pensa, MD

Adjunct Associate Professor, Emergency Medicine

Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University

Gita Pensa, MD, is an emergency physician, educator, and nationally recognized advocate for physician well-being in the aftermath of litigation and adverse events. Drawing from her personal experience as a physician defendant in a high-profile, multi-year malpractice case, Dr. Pensa has become a leading voice in helping clinicians navigate the emotional, cognitive, and professional impact of litigation. She serves as Adjunct Associate Professor of emergency medicine at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and is known for her work as host and editor of AEM Early Access and as a contributor to Emergency Medicine Reviews and Perspectives (EM:RAP). Through coaching, education, and her groundbreaking podcast "Doctors and Litigation: The L Word," Dr. Pensa empowers physicians to recover, build resilience, and reclaim fulfillment after one of the most isolating experiences in medicine.

Anju Wagh, MBBS

New York–Presbyterian Columbia University Medical Center

Dr. Anju Wagh is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics (in Emergency Medicine) at the Columbia University Medical Center who has 20+ years of experience as attending faculty at the Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of New York - New York Presbyterian She is actively involved in Pediatric Emergency Medicine fellows and both Emergency Medicine and Pediatric resident education throughout her years as faculty. In addition to didactics she runs multiple workshops to teach procedural skills to both residents and fellows. For the last 4 years she is actively engaged in medical students education during their Foundations of Clinical Medicine Course teaching them not only clinical skills required for patient care, but also workshops on Anti-racism at the Bedside and Trauma-informed Care. She has also led faculty workshops on the topic of Destigmatized language: how words matter in documentation. She was awarded the ACE (Academy of Clinical Excellence) award representing the Department of Emergency Medicine in 2018 and has been an active member.