People

Pooja Agrawal, MD, MPH

Member-at-Large

Yale Department of Emergency Medicine

It is an honor to be considered for re-election to the SAEM Board of Directors. Working with such an inspiring and driven membership, as well as a dedicated and innovative staff for the past three years has shown me how much can be accomplished by individuals who truly care about the future of Emergency Medicine. I have seen the career development of so many academic emergency physicians supported and accelerated by the opportunities for networking, mentorship, and leadership within SAEM. Serving on the Board of Directors is my way of paying it forward and translating my experience and ideas into a brighter future for academic emergency medicine.

I am an Associate Professor at the Yale Department of Emergency Medicine where I serve as the Director of Global Health Education. I completed residency at the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency, an MPH at the Harvard School of Public Health and a Global Health Fellowship at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. I have been involved with many aspects of SAEM since residency and can say without hesitation that SAEM has not only shaped but launched my career. After holding various leadership roles with the Academy for Women in Academic Emergency Medicine (AWAEM), I served as President. Through that role, I created new programs, celebrated many successes, and came to recognize the potential for the greater SAEM organization to accomplish even more. I am particularly proud of the AWAEM Internal Funding Award, a program that in only four years has supported over 20 PIs with funding for their research. I have also been actively engaged with the Academy for Diversity & Inclusion in Emergency Medicine (ADIEM), the Global Emergency Medicine Academy (GEMA), the SAEM Equity and Inclusion Committee, the Wellness Committee, as well as several other interest groups. In 2018, I was awarded the AWAEM Momentum Award and in 2023 the AWAEM Social Advocacy in Medicine Award.

We are at an inflection point in Emergency Medicine. Given world events, an important national social conversation, and threats to our workforce, we are compelled to examine and thoughtfully reflect on the work that SAEM does. We must concurrently consider the composition of our membership and leadership to ensure that we are appropriately supporting our diversity while building a community for the next generation of emergency physicians. Actively creating a more inclusive membership and leadership requires being deliberate, strategic, and creative in the development of SAEM programs and initiatives for academic emergency physicians of all types: researchers, educators, administrators, and clinicians. The challenges we face in academic emergency medicine may be substantial, but they are not insurmountable. I would like to continue leading that charge for the greater SAEM membership.

Caitlin Ryus, MD, MPH

Yale University School of Medicine

Dr. Caitlin Ryus MD, MPH is an Assistant Professor in Emergency Medicine at Yale University and a Drug use, Addiction, and HIV prevention Research Scholar (DAHRS). Dr. Ryus’s current research combines the disciplines of community-engaged research with health services research and political epidemiology to evaluate the evidence bases for health and social policies. In their work, they examine health outcomes and service utilization among patients experiencing homelessness. Dr. Ryus leads the Yale ED Homelessness Task Force– an interdisciplinary team of community organizations, government representatives, street medics, social workers, and people with lived experience of homelessness dedicated to improving ED care among New Haven’s homeless population.  Additionally, Dr. Ryus serves as the Co-Director of the Yale Emergency Scholars Program, a five-year combined residency and research fellowship. Their research also encompasses diversity, equity, and inclusion in the healthcare workforce, addressing the importance of representation and inclusivity in medicine as a means towards achieving health equity.

Bradley Barth, MD

Associate Dean for Faculty Development

University of Kansas Medical Center

Dr. Barth is an emergency physician and the Vice Chair for Leadership and Professional Development and an Associate Professor in the department of Emergency Medicine.  He is the Associate Dean for Faculty Development in the School of Medicine and also serves as the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society chapter councilor.  Brad is a professional and executive coach and is ACC certified by the International Coach Federation.

He received his undergraduate degree from Kansas State University and medical degree from the University of Kansas.  He completed an Internal Medicine internship at the Naval Medical Center of San Diego and served in the Navy as the flight surgeon for the Black Stallions of Helicopter Combat Support Squadron FOUR based in Sigonella, Sicily.  Upon completion of his navy service, he completed his emergency medicine residency at the fabled University Medical Center at UCSF-Fresno.  Prior to coming to the University of Kansas Medical Center in 2012, he worked at Saint Luke’s Health System and was volunteer faculty for the University of Missouri - Kansas City emergency medicine program.

Kelli O'Laughlin, MD, MPH

Dr. O'Laughlin is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine and Global Health at the University of Washington (UW). After Emergency Medicine residency training at UCLA, she was faculty in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. She was also a Research Scientist at the Medical Practice Evaluation Center at Massachusetts General Hospital. She joined the University of Washington in 2019 where she has continued her global health research focused on assessing the health needs of refugee populations and on designing and evaluating refugee-specific interventions to improve care. Recent work includes evaluating an intervention to improve engagement in HIV care for refugees living in Nakivale Refugee Settlement in Uganda (PI, K23MH108440) and investigating an interactive voice response telephone-based COVID-19 symptom and exposure surveillance tool among refugees in Uganda (PI, Elrha/R2HC). She is also studying assisted partner notification for HIV among refugees in West Nile Uganda using an implementation science approach as well as the impact of mobility on HIV care engagement among refugees in Uganda (PI, UW/Fred Hutch Center for AIDS Research).

Jeremy Ackerman, MD, PhD

Emory University School of Medicine

Dr. Ackerman is an Assocaite Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine in the Emory University School of Medicine and is an Associate Professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology. He completed residency in Emergency Medicine at Stonybrook after completing medical school and his PhD in Biomedical Engineering at The University of North Carolina. Dr, Ackerman teaches graduate and undergraduate engineering students about design in healthcare settings. He has been awarded multiple patents and has worked with multiple medical start-ups. Dr. Ackerman is also a certified Peace Officer in the State of Georgia and serves as a member of a SWAT team. He is a certified law enforcement instructor and regularly provides training for police officers and cadets.

Lauren Hudak, MD, MPH

Emory University, Grady Memorial Hospital

Lauren Hudak, MD, MPH is an attending physician of Emergency Medicine at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, and an Associate Professor at Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Hudak's clinical interest includes the care of patients who experience sexual assault, intimate partner violence, firearm injury, and those in the custody of law enforcement. Her public health and research interest includes the impact of violence and injury on mental health and the community, as well as firearm injury prevention in the clinical environment. She is Core Faculty of the Injury Prevention Research Center at Emory (IPRCE) where she is the former Assistant Director and Co-Chair of the Violence Prevention Task Force. She serves as the Rape Crisis Center Medical Director and the Law Enforcement Liaison for Grady Hospital System. She also leads the Emergency Medicine Sexual Violence curriculum, coordinating training for the sexual assault forensic examination as well as comprehensive advocacy focused clinical care. Her current research projects include examining the effectiveness of firearm safety discussions and safe storage practices with patients in Emergency Department and broader community.