People

Rebekah J. Richards, MD, MPH

The Ohio State University

Rebekah J. Richards MD MPH is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at The Ohio State University. Her academic focus is translational science with an emphasis on system-based interventions to support clinical decision making and improve health care quality.

Jessica Pelletier, DO

Washington University in St. Louis

Jessica Pelletier, DO, is an Emergency Medicine Education Fellow and Adjunct Residency APD at Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine. Dr. Pelletier attended medical school at the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine and residency at Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. She serves as the African Medical Advisor with Techies Without Borders, a global nonprofit that delivers continuing medical education to resource-constrained regions. Her research interests involve procedural and simulation education, and the human factors of the high-acuity applications of this teaching. Dr. Pelletier's interests include simulation-based undergraduate and graduate medical education, cognitive load theory, the use of osteopathic manipulative therapy (OMT) in the emergency department, and expanding emergency medicine to regions where it is not fully developed as a specialty.

Aalap Shah, MD

Medical University of South Carolina

Aalap Shah, MD is currently an Assistant Professor at Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in Charleston, SC. He curently serves as the Director of the Emergency Ultrasound Fellowship and as Core Faculty for the Emergency Medicine Residency. He also serves on the SAEM-AEUS digital/social media committee, as well as SAEM Education and Virtual Presence committees. He is editor-in-chief of the ultrasound education website HolyCitySono.com and has been a regular contributor to FOAMed previously via ACEP, and various other independent websites. He previously completed his Emergency Ultrasound fellowship at MUSC, his Emergency Medicine residency at the University of Cincinnati, and completed Medical School at SUNY-Downstate.

James H. Paxton, MD, MBA

Associate Professor and Director of Clinical Research

Detroit Receiving Hospital / Wayne State University Department of Emergency Medicine

James H. Paxton, MD, MBA, is an associate professor and the Director of Clinical Research for Detroit Receiving Hospital / Wayne State University (WSU) Department of Emergency Medicine, and previously served as Chairman of the WSU MP2 Institutional Review Board (2015-2020). He is a senior member of multiple national emergency medicine research committees, and recently served as Chairman of the SAEM research committee (2021-2024). Dr. Paxton received both his MD and MBA from the University of Cincinnati and completed EM residency training at Henry Ford Hospital. He has been core academic faculty for the EM residencies at both Sinai-Grace Hospital and Detroit Receiving Hospital since 2011, and has mentored hundreds of medical students and residents at WSU during that time. He is an active clinical researcher and has served as PI for dozens of industry- and publicly-funded trials.

Ali Raja, MD, MBA, MPH, FACHE

Massachusetts General Hospital

Ali S. Raja, MD, DBA, MPH, FACHE is the Deputy Chair and the Mooney-Reed Endowed Chair in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, as well as a Professor of Emergency Medicine and Radiology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Raja received his MPH from Harvard, MD and MBA degrees from Duke, and DBA from Case Western. After training in emergency medicine at the University of Cincinnati, he completed a research fellowship at Brigham and Women's Hospital. He is board-certified in both emergency medicine and clinical informatics.

A practicing emergency physician and author of over 250 publications, his research focuses on improving the appropriateness of resource utilization in emergency medicine. He serves as President-Elect of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, President of the Massachusetts Chapter of the American College of Healthcare Executives, and also sits on the boards of both Boston MedFlight and the Spaulding Rehabilitation Network.

Dr. Raja is also 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.

Dan Mayer, MD, FACEP, FAAEM

Albany Medical College

Dan Mayer, MD has been an Emergency Medicine physician for the past 46 years. He has been teaching for the past 32 years and practicing Emergency Medicine for the past 37 years in a variety of hospital settings including academic urban emergency departments and rural community hospital emergency departments. He was an attending Emergency Medicine physician at Albany Medical Center Hospital from 1987 until his retirement in 2014. He also taught evidence-based medicine, medical decision-making and Emergency Medicine at Albany Medical College. He has taught medical students, other health science students, residents and attending physicians. He has been board certified in Emergency Medicine since 1984. He is currently retired from active clinical practice and is active in publishing medical research in Emergency Medicine and teaching EBM to dental residents. He is an Associate Editor for the Western Journal of Emergency Medicine and JACEP Open. He has been an outstanding peer-reviewer for Academic Medicine, JACEP Open, Western Journal of Emergency Medicine, Academic Emergency Medicine, and Annals of Emergency Medicine.

Jennifer Koehl, PharmD, BCEMP

Massachusetts General Hospital

Dr. Jenny Koehl, PharmD, BCEMP serves as the Residency Director for the PGY-2 Emergency Medicine and PGY-2 Emergency Medicine/Critical Care combined Programs at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Koehl earned her PharmD degree at the University of California San Francisco, and completed her PGY-1 and PGY-2 Emergency Medicine pharmacy residencies at the University of Wisconsin Health. Dr. Koehl is currently an Attending Clinical Emergency Medicine Pharmacist at Massachusetts General Hospital with practice interests including substance use disorders, neurology, and geriatrics.

Rachel M. Skains, MD, MSPH

Assistant Professor

University of Alabama at Birmingham

Dr. Skains is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine (EM) at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) with a joint faculty position at the Birmingham VA Medical Center (BVAMC). After graduating from Wake Forest School of Medicine (2016), she completed her EM residency at UAB (2019) followed by a Clinical Research Fellowship focused on Geriatric EM while pursuing a Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH) in Clinical and Translational Science from the UAB School of Public Health (2021). Dr. Skains was awarded the AHRQ NRSA T32 Postdoctoral Scholar Fellowship in the UAB Health Services Research Training Program (2020-2022), in addition to funding through the UAB Integrative Center for Aging Research (ICAR), Geriatric Emergency care Applied Research (GEAR) 1.0, NIA Grants for Early Medical/Surgical Specialists' Transition to Aging Research (GEMSSTAR) R03 (2023-2025), Exploratory/ Developmental Grant R21 (2023-2025), and GEMSSTAR for EM Supplemental Funding Program through SAEMF/EMF to examine the risk of adverse health outcomes, such as delirium, with potentially inappropriate medication use among older adults in the ED. In addition, Dr. Skains was an ED physician champion for the UAB – Highlands and BVAMC Geriatric ED Committees, which received Level 1 (2021) and Level 3 (2023) accreditations respectively, completed the UAB Geriatric Scholar Interprofessional Program (2019-2021), updated the Geriatric ED Guidelines 2.0 in Medication Safety, published the first expert consensus-based list of high-risk prescriptions for older ED patients (GEMS-Rx),  and serves as Member-at-Large for the SAEM Academy of Geriatric Emergency Medicine (AGEM) (2024-2026).

William A. Kantrales, DO

HCA Florida Orange Park Hospital

Susan Stroud, MD

The University of Utah

Dr. Stroud is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and is the Residency Director at the University of Utah. She completed her residency training at Alameda County Medical Center (Highland) in 2001. After residency, Dr. Stroud was a faculty member at San Francisco General Hospital and an instructor at UCSF School of Medicine. She joined the faculty at the University of Utah in 2003 where she initially served as Medical Student Clerkship Director and helped to create the residency program. She has served as the Residency Director since 2008.

Christine Miyake, MD

Valley Health System

Dr Miyake is a board certified emergency physician currently practicing in Las Vegas NV. She attended medical school at the University of Nevada School of Medicine and completed her emergency medicine residency in 2007 at the University of Rochester. She has 15 + years of experience and has worked at multiple academic centers across the country. She has been actively involved in sepsis quality initiatives throughout her career. Dr. Miyake is program director for the Valley Health System emergency medicine residency program in Las Vegas. In addition Dr. Miyake is currently medical director for short stay reviews for Livanta LLC. She enjoys crafting, reading and spending time with family.

Simi Jandu, MD

University of Massachusetts

Simi Jandu is a senior Medical Education Fellow and serves as an Attending Physician at UMass Chan. Dr. Jandu went to Beaumont Health - Royal Oak for residency and then moved to Massachusetts where she is completing her second year education fellowship. She is also currently completing a Master of Education in the Health Professions as an adjunct to the fellowship.

Christine M. Raps, MD

University of Utah

Christine Raps is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Utah and serves as Assistant Program Director and Assistant Director of the Emergency Medicine Clerkship at the University of Utah School of Medicine. She joined program leadership at the University of Utah after working as core faculty and Co-Director of Ultrasound at St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Stockton, California. She is currently working on her master's degree in Education for Health Professions at the University of Utah. Her interests include curriculum development, assessment, resident well-being, and mentorship.

Jason An, MD, FACEP

Riverside Community Hospital

My name is Jason An and I currently serve as the Designated Institutional Official and Emergency Medicine Program Director at Riverside Community Hospital in California. I am proud to be a part of a department that won the ACEP EM Wellness Center of Excellence award in 2022. My areas of interest in EM include medical education, ED procedures, mentoring, and physician well-being.

Jennifer Chapman, MD, MBA

Orange Park Medical Center

My name is Jennifer Chapman MD, MBA and my current professional roles include Program Director of HCA Florida- Orange Park Emergency Medicine Residency Program, Vice-Chairman Department of Emergency Medicine and Assistant Facilty Medical Director of Emergency Department. I attended University of Rochester School of Medicine before completing EM residency at Kings County/SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn. Upon finishing residency, I enjoyed working at Lahey Hospital in Burlington MA, working with Boston Medical College EM residents before moving down to sunny Florida. My family and I enjoy the benefits of living in the Jacksonville area. We are avid football fans and I was thrilled to take on the role of Airway Management Physician for the Jacksonville Jaguars, a position that I share with two of my EM colleagues.

Vinay N. Kampalath, MD, DTM&H

Assistant Professor, Pediatrics

University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine

Vinay N. Kampalath, MD, DTM&H is an Assistant Professor in Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Kampalath has worked in several development and humanitarian contexts as a clinician and educator, and is a researcher studying humanitarian emergencies, universal health coverage, and emergency care development. Dr. Kampalath earned his medical degree at Brown University and finished his residency in pediatrics and fellowship in pediatric emergency medicine and global health at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He earned his diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Shama Patel, MD MPH

University of Florida College of Medicine Jacksonville

Shama Patel has worked in the field of global health for over 15 years, starting as a Global Health fellow at CDC and moving onto medicine, completing an International Emergency Medicine Fellowship and now working as clinical faculty of University of Florida - Jacksonville. She works in health systems development and resilency, global EM research, disaster response and educational programming.

Katie Wells, MD, MPH

University of Vermont Medical Center

Dr. Katie Wells is the University of Vermont (UVM) Emergency Department Network Director of International Emergency Medicine and Health Equity. She is also the inaugural UVM Larner College of Medicine Director of Social Medicine. Over the last five years, Dr. Wells has built the UVM International Emergency Medicine program from the ground up, having been awarded multiple grants focused on building critical access to healthcare for Vermont’s immigrant and refugee communities. She completed her Global Health Fellowship with the University of Utah Center for Global Surgery, where she researched trauma, emergency, and surgical system development. Dr. Wells received her Master’s in Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She spent two years working in Mongolia, focusing on surgical, emergency, and trauma system development while conducting research with the Mongolian Ministry of Health and the national hospital system. During her fellowship, she completed her MPH with a focus on disaster medicine and refugee health. Dr. Wells also focuses on building curriculum and researching health equity and social justice while overseeing trainee involvement in social medicine programs.

Since joining Vermont, Dr. Wells and her team have built partnerships, working alongside multiple international partners and organizations focused on expanding international emergency care system development. UVM Department of Emergency Medicine has supported the development of the first Ugandan curriculum for emergency care nursing for the country, developed an International Rural Emergency Care Systems (IRECS) rotation built for practitioners working in the international context, which was piloted this year with Ugandan partners including SEED Global Health, and two Ugandan residency training programs at Makerere and Mbarara University of Science and Technology with the plan to expand this for all international partners. Additionally, Wells partnered with AFEM and South African partners, Stellenbosch University and the University of Cape Town, to explore equitable GH partnerships and built UVM’s first institutional multidisciplinary Global Health Equity fellowship starting July 2024, amongst many other initiatives. Wells has also developed the first UVM institutional collaborative immigrant health program called the Immigrant Health Initiative (IHI), bringing in members of over 20 different University of Vermont Health Network departments and over 50 community partners and created the first salary-funded hospital network immigrant community liaison position held explicitly by a member of Vermont’s refugee community. Dr. Wells is working collaboratively with community and medical center partners to change statewide policy focused on immigrant health.

Michael Hrdy, MD

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Michael Hrdy, MD is an Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics in the Division of Emergency Medicine at the Perlman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and works in the pediatric emergency department at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He is one of the core simulation faculty and is the Director of Emergency Simulation for the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's King of Prussia campus. He completed Pediatrics residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital and Pediatric Emergency Medicine fellowship at Children's National Hospital in Washington, DC. 

Alexander Croft, MD

Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine

Dr. Croft is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine. After receiving his medical degree from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, he pursued training in Emergency Medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine where he also completed a Chief Residency. It was during this time he found his love for simulation-based education, leading him to a fellowship in Medical Simulation through Indiana University School of Medicine.

Professionally, Dr. Croft has interests in advanced debriefing techniques, human factors engineering, in-situ simulation, and intradisciplinary simulation. At Washington University in St. Louis, he serves as the Director for Simulation, and the Director of the In-Situ Simulation Acute Care Program.