People

Shruti Chandra, MD, MEHP

Dr. Shruti Chandra is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University. She obtained her MD at Jefferson Medical College and completed her Emergency Medicine residency at Jefferson. She completed a Medical Education fellowship and received a Master’s in Education for Health Professions at Johns Hopkins University. Dr Chandra is the Clerkship Director for EM and involved in curriculum development for the medical school and residency.

Dr Chandra became involved in Telehealth as a Telehealth practitioner and developer of the Telehealth Facilitator Certificate Program for which she is currently the program director. She is the program director for Digital Health educational programs. She is invested in education at undergraduate, graduate and professional levels as well as research in Telehealth.

Shannon Toohey, MD, MAEd

University of California, Irvine

Shannon Toohey is the Residency Program Director for the University of California, Irvine Department of Emergency Medicine. In 2016, she completed the Multimedia Design and Educational Technology (MDEdTech) Fellowship at the University of California Irvine. She completed medical school at UC Irvine School of Medicine, after which she completed her residency at the UC Irvine Medical Center. She received a Masters in Education, Multimedia and Instructional Design at Cal Poly Pomona. During her time at UC Irvine she has developed and expanded many educational programs for the residents including a flipped medical student and intern podcast curriculum, oral board review course and helped to revamp the curriculum. Her interests include asynchronous learning, flipped curricula, resident and patient education.

Scott Shipman, MD, MPH

Scott Shipman, MD, MPH, is Director of Clinical Innovations and Director of Primary Care Initiatives at the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). Dr. Shipman works with a wide range of health system leaders to promote effective innovations in ambulatory care delivery and training. He guides AAMC activities promoting emerging high-value ambulatory care models, and supports efforts to critically assess and scale effective telehealth innovations within teaching health systems. Dr. Shipman established Project CORE (Coordinating Optimal Referral Experiences), an AAMC-led clinical model that establishes higher quality and greater efficiency at the interface of primary care and specialty care.

A general pediatrician and health services researcher by training, Dr. Shipman has studied the healthcare workforce and workforce policy extensively. Dr. Shipman completed medical school at the University of Nebraska College of Medicine, residency at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, and a fellowship in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at Johns Hopkins, where he also received his MPH. Dr. Shipman maintains a faculty position at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.

Rahul Sharma, MD, MBA

Dr. Rahul Sharma is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and serves as the Emergency Physician-in-Chief for New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center. As the inaugural Chairman for the Department of Emergency Medicine, he leads all academic and operational activities for the NYP-Weill Cornell Medical Center and NYP-Lower Manhattan Hospital Emergency Departments. Dr. Sharma is also a Professor of Clinical Healthcare Policy and Research and serves as the academic Chairman for the NYP-Weill Cornell Medicine affiliated Emergency Departments at New York Presbyterian-Queens and New York Presbyterian-Brooklyn Methodist. In total, these NYP-Weill Cornell Medicine affiliated Emergency Departments treat over 375,000 patients annually serving a diverse population in New York City. Dr. Sharma holds several other executive leadership roles, including Chief and Medical Director of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) for the NYP enterprise, member of the New York State Board for Medicine, and the Vice President of the New York Presbyterian Hospital Medical Board.

Dr. Sharma received a combined MD/MBA degree in Health Management from Tufts University School of Medicine and then completed his specialty training in Emergency Medicine at NYU Medical Center/Bellevue Hospital, where he was selected as Chief Resident. During his residency, he received several awards, including the American Medical Association (AMA) Foundation Leadership Award and the Emergency Medicine Residents' Association (EMRA) National Leadership Award. Dr. Sharma previously served as the Executive Vice-Chief of Emergency Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine. Prior to that, he served as the Medical Director and Associate Chief of Service for the Emergency Department at NYU Langone Medical Center.

He is a national leader in the fields of emergency medicine, healthcare operations, telemedicine and virtual healthcare. Dr. Sharma has an accomplished record of numerous publications in peer reviewed journals and has been an invited guest speaker at several national and international programs, including the National Academy of Medicine. His accomplishments in innovation have been featured in several national media platforms and academic journals, including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, NEJM Catalyst, and JAMA. In 2017, he was the recipient of the Emergency Care Innovation of the Year Award and, in 2019, he was named a Top 25 Innovator in the healthcare industry by Modern Healthcare as well as one of EMRA’s 45 under 45 Influencers in Emergency Medicine.

As the recipient of two national teaching awards and the founder of several innovative programs, Dr. Sharma has an established record as a medical educator. He has been awarded the Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association (EMRA) National Excellence in Teaching Award and the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) National Faculty Teaching Award. Dr. Sharma has founded and spearheaded numerous educational programs, including the first endowed Healthcare Leadership and Management (HLM) Scholars Program for medical students at Weill Cornell Medicine, the first Physician Assistant Residency Program at NYP-Weill Cornell Medicine, a Healthcare Leadership and Management Fellowship with an Executive MBA/MS for junior faculty, and the NYP-Weill Cornell Medicine Telemedicine and Digital Healthcare elective for medical students and residents. He also serves as a strategic advisor for the Executive MBA/MS in Healthcare Leadership program offered by Weill Cornell Medicine and the Johnson School of Management.

He serves on the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) National Emergency Medicine Practice Committee and National Quality and Patient Safety Committee. In addition, he is an Oral Boards Examiner for the American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM) and has been certified as a Certified Physician Executive (CPE) by the Certifying Commission in Medical Management. He is also a graduate of the inaugural class of the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School/Deloitte Consulting Physician Leadership Academy.

Rykiel Levine, MD

Sanjey Gupta, MD

Northwell Health

Sanjey Gupta, MD, is the Chairperson of Emergency Medicine at South Shore University Hospital/Northwell Health and professor of emergency medicine at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. He was named the 2016 ED Director of the Year by the Emergency Medicine Foundation/American College of Emergency Physicians. Dr. Gupta helped to establish new residencies at New York Presbyterian Queens and South Shore University Hospital, and assisted with the merger of the Long Island Jewish Medical Center/North Shore University Hospital residencies. He previously served as core faculty at New York Presbyterian Queens, Long Island Jewish Medical Center and South Shore University Hospital; assistant residency director at New York Presbyterian Queens (as well as clerkship director, research director, simulations, scheduler/payroll, and associate chairperson); and director of wilderness medicine at New York Presbyterian Queens, Long Island Jewish Medical Center, and South Shore University Hospital.

Sam Shen, MD, MBA

Vice Chair, Clinical Operations

Stanford University Department of Emergency Medicine

Sam Shen is a Clinical Professor and Vice Chair of Clinical Operations and Quality in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Stanford University. At Stanford Health Care, he serves in the role of Patient Safety Officer/Associate Chief Quality Officer. He also directs the Administration Fellowship in the Department of Emergency Medicine. Previously, he held positions as Chief of EM at community hospitals in Massachusetts. Dr. Shen received his B.S. from Stanford University and his MD and MBA at University of California-Los Angeles. He completed his EM residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, MA. Dr. Shen's academic interests include digital health and innovation, process improvement, and patient safety.

Phillip Mudd, MD, PhD

Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine

Philip Mudd is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Washington University in Saint Louis Medical School. He maintains a laboratory studying human immune responses to viral respiratory diseases, including influenza and SARS-CoV-2. He studies human biospecimens collected from subjects with viral respiratory diseases that are recruited to his ongoing studies in the Barnes Jewish Hospital emergency department, where he also practices clinically. Dr. Mudd was recently awarded a grant to lead a campus-wide biospecimen collection and repository study for patients presenting to Barnes Jewish Hospital, St. Louis Children’s Hospital, or other affiliated sites with symptoms of COVID-19.

Peter Greenwald, MD, MS

Doctor Peter Greenwald is the Director of telemedicine for the Department of Emergency Medicine at New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medicine. He did his graduate medical training at Albert Einstein in the Bronx, and is board certified in emergency medicine. He attended medical school at State University of New York Health Science Center Brooklyn, and graduated magna cum laude from Williams College. As a clinician and administrator involved in the creation of telemedicine practice at a large enterprise, Dr. Greenwald has an in depth understanding of the creation of new medical systems and the educational needs of medical providers. He has been deeply involved in flexing telemedicine capabilities at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork Presbyterian to meet the demands of the COVID-19 crisis. Recent work in this area of telemedicine education is reflected by abstracts presented at the annual meetings for the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine, The American College of Emergency Medicine, and The American Telemedicine Association, as well as publications in peer reviewed literature.

Paul Auwaerter, MD, MBA, FIDSA

Paul G Auwaerter is the Sherrilyn and Ken Fisher Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine serving as the Clinical Director for the Division of Infectious Diseases and Director of the Sherrilyn and Ken Fisher Center for Environmental Infectious Diseases.

He serves as the Executive Director of the Johns Hopkins Point of Care-Information Technology (POC-IT) Center producing the Johns Hopkins ABX (Antibiotic), JH HIV, JH Osler, JH Psychiatry and JH Diabetes Guides. Dr. Auwaerter serves as Editor-in-Chief of the ABX Guide that over the last 20 years has grown to be a standard reference for ID-related clinical decision support and rationale antimicrobial management. Dr. Auwaerter’s research and clinical interests include improving the diagnosis and care for patients with Lyme disease and other tick-borne infections as well as work in surgical infections, Epstein-Barr virus, respiratory diseases and antibiotic resistance. He is a Past President of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), the largest professional society worldwide related to infectious diseases.

Patrick Maher, MD

I obtained my undergraduate degree at the University of Georgia and my medical degree from Georgetown University, in Washington, D.C. For residency, I was selected as part of the inaugural class in Emergency Medicine at the University of Washington, in Seattle, where I also completed my fellowship in Critical Care Medicine in 2017. After fellowship, I relocated to New York, where I have been part of the Research and Critical Care divisions of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. In this time, I have also completed a Master of Science degree in Biostatistics from Columbia University. I was funded by the NIH as a T32-researcher investigating hemorrhage and coagulopathy in the ED and ICU settings. In addition to clinical work as an attending at the Mount Sinai Hospital Emergency Department, I also am the first faculty member hired with an EM background to work in our Medical ICU at Mount Sinai Hospital.

Nicholas M. Mohr, MD, MS

Member-at-Large

University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine

Nicholas Mohr, MD, MS is a Professor of Emergency Medicine, Anesthesia Critical Care, and Epidemiology at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. He is also the Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Emergency Medicine, the Director of the Emergency Medicine-Anesthesia Critical Care Fellowship Program, the Director of the Emergency Medicine Physician Scientist Training Pathway (PSTP) in the Emergency Medicine Residency Program, and the Director of the Rural Telehealth Research Center. Dr. Mohr completed residency in emergency medicine and was a Chief Resident at Indiana University, then he completed fellowship in critical care medicine at Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Mohr has been active in SAEM, most recently serving as the Chair of the SAEM Grants Committee (2019-2022), the Chair of the Scientific Subcommittee (Abstracts) of the SAEM Program Committee (2019-2022), and the SAEM Representative to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Physician Scientist Training Pathway Committee (2021-present). He also served as the Chair of the Planning Committee for the SAEM Great Plains Regional Meeting in 2016, the Co-Lead of the Writing Committee for the SAEM Generational Issues in Emergency Medicine Task Force (2009-10), and a member of the SAEM Research Committee. Dr. Mohr’s interest in a position on the Board of Directors stems from his deep appreciation for the role SAEM has played in his own mentorship and personal career development. He is particularly interested in issues of professional mentorship within the Society and how the Society can establish procedures for more robust succession planning within committees, task forces, and academies. More globally, he is interested in how emergency medicine as a specialty can grow the cadre of successfully funded independent researchers, and his recent work has focused on improving residency and junior faculty training opportunities for graduates of Medical Scientist Training Programs (MSTP, MD/PhD training). Dr. Mohr feels that the Society is critical to the future of academic emergency medicine education, research, and practice, and he would be honored to serve the Society on the Board of Directors.

Nicholas Cozzi, MD

Dr. Nicholas Cozzi is an MBA trained, Chief Emergency Medicine Resident at Spectrum Health / Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and Chair-Elect of the Spectrum Health House Staff Council (Grand Rapids). Nicholas is grateful to EMRA for providing such meaningful opportunities for personal and professional growth which include being the Chair-Elect of the EMRA Administration and Operations Committee and EMRA Representative to the ACEP EM Practice Committee and ACEP Practice Management and Health Policy Section. Additionally, Nicholas serves as the EMRA Scholar on the EDPMA Federal Health Policy Committee as well as the Education and Fellowship Sub-Committee.

Nehal Naik, MD

SAEM RAMS President

Nehal Naik is a 3rd year resident at the George Washington University in Washington DC. An immigrant to the United States and a Californian at heart. He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of California, Berkeley, and received his MD from Virginia Commonwealth University/Medical College of Virginia.

Dr. Naik began his service to SAEM on the inaugural Resident and Medical Students (RAMS) board from 2017-2018, creating a home for trainees in SAEM and as chair of the RAMS research committee. He continued as the RAMS president from 2019-2020, and currently serves as the Immediate Past-President of RAMS. He has led RAMS to become a preeminent organization to advance the future of Emergency Medicine through the development of resident and medical students into academic leaders. He also served as the Global Emergency Medicine Academy (GEMA) Resident representative from 2019-2020.

His academic interests include global emergency medicine development in pre-hospital systems and medical education, along with innovative practice in emergency medicine.

Neel Naik, MD

NYP-Weill Cornell Medicine

"I am currently sssistant professor of emergency medicine, director of EM simulation education. Current Member-At-Large SAEM Simulation Board, Education Small Group Leader SAEM 2020 Telemedicine Consensus Conference. Since I started on the SAEM Simulation Board in the spring of 2020, I have had the responsibility of developing the social media presence of the Simulation Academy. In my time, we have successfully overcome limitations to the account and have actively been tweeting academy updates. Moreover, in order to better serve our members, we have been highlighting publications by our members to increase visibility and continuously promote our members. Through our activity on social media, I have almost doubled the number of followers we have and grown our membership. I have also sought to actively communicate with our membership through regular SAEM Pulse updates to reach those who are not active on social media. As the Vice President of Social Media and Communications, I hope to continue to expand our ability to communicate with our membership, to foster community, announce academy events and promote content created by members of our academy. I hope to continue to grow our social media presence, double our follower base and be a megaphone for our community."

Dr. Neel Naik is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medicine. He completed his residency and simulation fellowship at New York University/Bellevue Hospital Center, where he developed skills in curriculum design and remediation. Dr. Naik is the Director of Simulation Education at Weill Cornell Medicine’s Department of Emergency Medicine, where he is developing and implementing an enterprise-wide telemedicine education platform as part of the Weill Cornell Medicine’s Center for Virtual Care. He is involved in telemedicine education nationally and directs telemedicine education for all medical students at Weill Cornell Medicine leading to him being awarded the 2019 SAEM Simulation Innovation Award. In addition to simulation education, Dr. Naik is interested in innovation in instructional design and all areas of medical education. He has authored multiple peer-reviewed publications in education, directs a national group studying telemedicine education for the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine, and is a nationally known expert in this evolving topic.

Neal Sikka, MD

Neal Sikka, MD is a board certified emergency physician and an associate professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at George Washington University. He has experience providing and developing telehealth services for remote environments as well as his large multispecialty practice. Dr Sikka is the director for GW Telemedicine and Digital Health Fellowship program and has lead a number of grant funded projects related to technology enabled care.

Namita Jayaprakash, MD

Dr. Jayaprakash is am EM-Intensivist at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, MI and clinical assistant professor of emergency medicine at Wayne State University. She splits her clinical time between the emergency department (ED) and medical ICU and is a member of the early intervention team at Henry Ford Hospital, seeing critical care consults in the ED.

Michael Ward, MD, PhD, MBA

Michael Ward, MD, PhD, MBA is a board certified emergency physician, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and a staff emergency physician at the VA Tennessee Valley Healthcare System, Nashville. He earned his PhD in operations management at the University of Cincinnati after completing a research fellowship in operations research. His research is funded by the NIH and the Department of Veterans Affairs focusing on care transitions, feedback systems and implementation of telehealth in emergency care settings.

Michael Gonzalez, MD

Dr. Michael G. Gonzalez serves as Associate Medical Director for the City of Houston Fire Department/EMS Division, Director of the ETHAN (Emergency Tele-Health and Navigation) Project and is academic faculty with Baylor College of Medicine, Emergency Medicine Residency Program - Director of Advanced Airway Management and Simulation Education. Dr. Gonzalez is a native Texan and graduate of Rice University, and the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. A veteran of the U.S. Air Force, with multiple tours of duty in support of Operations Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom and New Dawn, Gonzalez has served as Chief of Emergency Services, Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany, as well as Deputy Director & Lead Physician for Critical Care Air Transport Team (CCATT) operations, U.S. Armed Forces Europe and Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan. He lectures nationally and internationally with research interests in pre-hospital airway management, telemedicine, critical care transport and trauma.

Michael Brown, MD, MSc

Michigan State University College of Human Medicine

Dr. Brown is the founding chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. After graduating from medical school in 1986, he completed his EM residency training at Butterworth Hospital where he subsequently joined the faculty. It was during this period when he developed a passion for summarizing evidence in a form that is useful to clinicians. This interest led to a MSc degree in Epidemiology with a focus on evidence synthesis (i.e., meta-analysis). Dr. Brown serves as Senior Editor for two Cochrane Networks: Acute and Emergency Care and Circulation and Breathing. He also serves as immediate past president of the Association of Academic Chairs of Emergency Medicine.