People

Tiffany Mitchell, MD

Instructor

Jacobi Medical Center/Montefiore Medical Center

Dr. Mitchell is an Emergency Medicine physician in New York City. She obtained her Bachelor’s of Science from Columbia University before attending Keck School of Medicine of USC. Dr. Mitchell completed residency training at the Jacobi-Montefiore Emergency Medicine Program before joining the faculty at The Mount Sinai Hospital.

Lewis S. Nelson, MD, MBA

Dean and Chief of Health Affairs

Florida Atlantic University Schmidt College of Medicine

Lewis S. Nelson, MD, MBA, joins Florida Atlantic University as Dean and Chief of Health Affairs at the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine. A nationally recognized leader in academic emergency medicine (EM), medical toxicology, and addiction medicine, Dr. Nelson brings over three decades of experience in medical education, clinical care, and academic leadership to FAU.

Prior to joining FAU in 2025, Dr. Nelson served as Professor and founding Chair of EM at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, where he also held the position of Chief of Service for the Emergency Department at University Hospital of Newark. His leadership drove remarkable growth: expanding the residency program, doubling the faculty size, establishing five fellowship programs, and increasing clinical revenue by 40% while maintaining a strong focus on educational excellence and research productivity. He also served as Chief of the Division of Medical Toxicology and Addiction Medicine, developing innovative approaches to addressing substance use disorders and other public health challenges.

Throughout his career, Dr. Nelson has shaped medical education, health policy, and clinical practice through key national leadership roles. He has served as President of the Association of Academic Chairs in Emergency Medicine (AACEM), held positions on the Board of Directors for both the American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM) and the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, and led the American College of Medical Toxicology as President. His work with the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and various professional organizations and governmental agencies has shaped medical education, health policy, and clinical practice nationally.

Aaron Kuzel, D.O., MBA

Emergency Medicine Resident, PGY-II University of Louisville School of Medicine

Aaron R. Kuzel, D.O., MBA is an Emergency Medicine Resident at the University of Louisville School of Medicine and is currently serving as a Member-at-Large on the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine’s (SAEM) Resident and Medical Student’s (RAMS) Board. Dr. Kuzel is a former Forensic Scientist for the United States Department of Justice and currently works on projects related to medical education, rural emergency medicine, health policy, ems, tactical emergency medicine, and forensics. Dr. Kuzel is a graduate of the DO/MBA program at Lincoln Memorial University College of Osteopathic Medicine where he received induction into Sigma Sigma Phi (SSP), the Gold Humanism Honor Society (GHHS), and Omega Beta Iota (OBI) the Osteopathic Health Policy Honor Society. Dr. Kuzel is also a recipient of the commission of Kentucky Colonel and a member of the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels.

Trey Morris, MD, MPH

Program Director, Emergency Medicine Residency, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center - Lubbock

I am the founding program director of the EM residency at TTUHSC in Lubbock, which received accreditation in April 2019. Prior to that I was the clerkship director and then APD at Scott & White in Temple, Texas. I am currently a member of the CORD ASC-EM committee and have previously served on the CORD SLOE and Remediation Task Forces.

Jamie Shandro, MD, MPH

Associate Professor, Director of EM Student Development and Advising

University of Washington School of Medicine

Dr. Shandro is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine, and the Director of EM Student Development and Advising. She has been dedicated to emergency medicine education for over a decade, developing innovative ways to deliver engaging curricula. Dr. Shandro also serves on the Advising Students Committee in EM (ASC-EM) for CORD, collaborating with other like-minded educators across the country. She is an advocate for increased transparency and humanity in the residency application process for all parties.

Alexandra Leigh Mannix, MD

University of Florida College of Medicine- Jacksonville

"I currently serve as an assistant professor, assistant residency director, and assistant clerkship director for the department of emergency medicine, as well as the medical director for the Center for Simulation Education & Safety Research at the University of Florida-Jacksonville. Additionally, I am the Editor-In-Chief and COO of sheMD.org, an online virtual community of practice for women in medical training.  

I have been involved with AWAEM for 5+ years. Over that time, through my involvement with AWAEM, I have had the opportunity to learn and grow both personally and professionally. As the current AWAEM VP of Membership and previous regional meeting chair, I hope to step into a new role within the organization. I hope to bring my technical and organizational skills to the team in a different capacity. I would like to use the role as secretary to improve both internal and external communication regarding AWAEM activities."


Dr. Alexandra “Lexie” Mannix received a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and a Certificate in Public Health from the University of Florida. Following her time at the University of Florida, Dr. Mannix attended medical school at Florida State University College of Medicine, graduating in 2014.
Dr. Mannix completed her Emergency Medicine residency at the University of Florida College of Medicine- Jacksonville in 2017. Following residency, Dr. Mannix completed a Simulation fellowship at Rush University Medical Center and Cook County Hospital in Chicago.
Dr. Mannix currently serves as an Assistant Professor, Assistant Residency Director, and Assistant Clerkship Director for the Department of Emergency Medicine, as well as the Medical Director for the Center for Simulation Education & Safety Research at the University of Florida-Jacksonville. Additionally, she serves as Editor-In-Chief of sheMD.org, an online virtual community of practice for women in medical training. Her professional interests include medical education, simulation, women in medicine, and social media in medical education.
Dr. Mannix is board certified by the American Board of Emergency Medicine. She provides
bedside education and patient care at UF Health and UF Health North in Jacksonville, FL.

Manuel Montano, MD

Director of Medical Student and Intern Education Department of Emergency Medicine Denver Health Medical Center Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine University of Colorado School of Medicine

Dr. Montano is Clerkship and Medical Student Director for Denver Health Residency in Emergency Medicine and Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Originally from New York and born in the Bronx, NYC, Dr. Montano's education and career experiences have taken him across the country and across many different practice and training environments. After obtaining his medical degree from Columbia University in NYC, Dr. Montano then completed his EM residency training at LAC+USC Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA where his focus for professional development was on procedural and bedside medical education and curricular development. After spending a few years post-residency at a high-volume, high-acuity, urban community hospital in Aurora, Colorado, Dr. Montano joined the EM Faculty at Denver Health to focus on undergraduate and graduate medical education as Clerkship and Medical Student Director. His work at Denver Health focuses on undergraduate EM medical education, integration and promotion of diversity and inclusion efforts into medical student and resident education/recruitment, medical student advising, procedural education, and curricular development.

Jordana Haber, MD, MACM

Director of Clinical Education, Director of Simulation Department of Emergency Medicine, UMC Assistant Professor, UNLV School of Medicine Las Vegas, NV

Jordana J. Haber is director of clinical education and simulation, and assistant professor for the department of emergency medicine at University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) School of Medicine. She has completed a fellowship in medical education, and Masters in academic medicine.

Ashlea Winfield, MD, MSPH

Assistant Program Director Cook County Health

Dr. Ashlea Winfield is an emergency medicine physician and the Assistant Director of the Cook County Health Simulation Center in Chicago, IL. Dr. Winfield earned her Master of Science in Public Health from the Tulane University School of Public Health and medical doctorate from the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine in New Orleans. She then went on to complete her residency and emergency simulation fellowship at Cook County Health. 

Dr. Winfield is committed to increasing diversity in medicine, specifically the recruitment of underrepresented groups in medicine. As the founder and chair of the Cook County Emergency Medicine Diversity and Inclusion Committee she coordinates multiple activities aimed at fostering a culture of safety for all individuals within her program and institution.

As the Assistant Director for the Cook County Simulation Center, Dr. Winfield focuses on procedural competency and task trainer development, using simulation to teach topics in DEI, and the use of medical simulation to inspire interest in STEM careers.

Joell Moll, MD

Vice Chair of Education, Associate Professor

Virginia Commonwealth University

Joel Moll is Professor and Vice Chair of Education at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine. He previously served as Residency Program Director, Medical Education Fellowship Director, and Chair of the GME Executive Committee at VCU. Dr Moll was also Associate Residency Program Director at the University of Michigan, and Assistant Residency Director and Administration Fellowship Director at Emory University. Although always interested in education, Dr. Moll started his career in operations, and was medical director at Cleveland Clinic Florida and the University of Florida Gainesville prior to joining residency leadership. He has published multiple peer reviewed articles and textbook chapters, presents internationally and nationally, and has served on many national committees. He participated in the 2022 EM Model of Clinical Practice and the All EM Organization DEI Working Group. He is past recipient of the VCU Health Leadership in Medical Education Residency Director of the year, and the VCU School of Medicine Leonard Tow Humanism Awards. Interests include graduate medical education, curriculum development, diversity and inclusion, LGBTQIA+ health and education, and evidence-based medicine.

Viraj Lakdawala, MD

Viraj Lakdawala is Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and Chief of Emergency Medicine Telehealth in the Ronald O. Perelman Department of Emergency Medicine. He completed his residency at Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center in 2011 and has been faculty at UCSF and NYU since. He developed NYU Langone's Virtual Urgent Care in 2017 and has been the Medical Director since it started. In the telehealth space, he has also consulted for or worked clinically for American Well, HealthTap, and Capsule Pharmacy

Vijaya Kumar, MD, MPH

Wayne State University/Detroit Medical Center

After completing his graduation in medicine and post-graduation in public health from India, Dr. Kumar went on to complete his residency and fellowship in Clinical Research in Emergency Medicine(EM) at Wayne State University (WSU), followed by an MPH from University of Michigan. He has been research faculty in the department of EM at WSU since 2012 and his EM Research focus is cardiovascular diseases and quality and safety in the ED while his Global Health (GH) research focus is women's health in the rural health setting and research capacity development.

As PI or co-Investigator on several university and federally funded grants, Dr. Kumar has successfully administered the projects (e.g., staffing, research protections, budget), collaborated with other researchers, and produced several peer-reviewed publications. He has continued his passion for cardiovascular medicine through his research career, he has secured a grant to study the outpatient follow up of low risk chest pain patients form the ED, his focus now is the association between COVID 19 and Thromboembolic disease and long COVID Syndrome. During the COVID 19 Pandemic he has been working on several global collaborative efforts to create a cohesive global effort, this includes a survey to assess the global response to the pandemic, comparison of ED triage and resilience of the health force during the pandemic.

Dr. Kumar was part of a working group which wrote an international perspective to emergency department overcrowding, travelled to Jamaica and multiple cities in India conducting research workshops for emergency medicine faculty, residents and fellows. He is the founder and co-director of the GH research collaborative (GHRC) at WSU which coducts an online GH research training and mentoring workshop aling with assisting with reseach capacity devepopment in LMIC's.

He is presently the Associate Director of the Global Health Section and International Emergency Medicine Fellowship in the department of EM at WSU; his goal is to improve clinical research and standardization of emergency medicine care globally. He is a manuscript reviewer for Annals of Emergency Medicine and Journal of ACEP while being on the research committees at ACEP and SAEM and the global emergency medicine committee at SAEM.
 
Dr. Kumar is a full time EM physician for Michigan Center Emergency Services (DMC/WSU), he is the associate director of Global and Urban EM fellowship at WSU, EM Research Director at Harper University Hospital and the vice chair of the MP2 IRB Board at WSU.

Timothy A. Layng, DO

UVA Health

I completed my EM Residency at VCU Health in Richmond, VA where I served as chief resident. I then completed a Clinical Informatics Fellowship at UVA Health where I stayed on as Faculty and am currently an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine and the Director of Informatics for the Department of Emergency Medicine.

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.