People

Clinical Assistant Professor/Associate Director

Stanford University

Maryam Makowski, PhD, is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Stanford University Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Associate Director of Scholarship and Health Promotion of the Stanford Medicine WellMD & WellPhD.  

Dr. Makowski is a nutrition scientist, a physician well-being expert, and a National Board-Certified Health and Wellness Coach. The focus of her nutrition research is examining the effects of micro- and macro-nutrients, meal composition, and timing on cognitive function, mood, mental sharpness, and eating behaviors of professionals with high cognitive and physical demands. As a physician coach, Maryam uses evidence-based strategies to empower her physician clients in optimizing their well-being, self-compassion, energy, focus, and mental sharpness for peak performance. 

Maryam completed her master's and doctoral studies in clinical nutrition, nutritional epidemiology, and medical science at the University of Toronto in Canada. Prior to joining Stanford, she served as a scientific associate at Toronto General Hospital-University Health Network in Toronto, and as an advisor to Air Canada rouge pilots and cabin crew on optimal nutrition for fatigue mitigation. Over the course of her career, she has authored highly cited scientific papers on nutrition and well-being.

Member-at-Large

University of Michigan

Dr. Schmitzberger is a clinical instructor at the University of Michigan. He has a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Computation as well as a Master of Science in Bioinformatics from Stanford University. He completed his medical studies at the Charité University in Berlin where he also received his scientific doctorate. He is an emergency medicine physician at the University of Michigan and a fellow for resuscitation science and is principle investigator in multiple studies. He holds a fellowship of the academy of wilderness medicine. He served in the Austrian Military as a medic and is the associate medical director for the Genesee county Sheriff’s department paramedic division, serving Flint, Michigan. He has extensive experience in international medicine, having been active as team leader, medic and physician in numerous conflict regions (Burmese civil war, Syrian conflict, Afghanistan war, Venezuelan crisis, Ukraine war) as well as in medical civic actions in other regions.

Assistant Professor & IT Chair

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

Faculty

Rutgers New Jersey Medical School

Christine Ramdin, PhD, is a faculty member at the Instructor level at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School Department of Emergency Medicine. She has a PhD in Biomedical Informatics, and has research interests in Addiction Medicine, Medical Toxicology, Pain Medicine, and Stroke. She has published several studies using big data sources such as NHAMCS, HCUP, and NSSATs, and has worked with the NSDUH and TEDs dataset, along with several other local and national datasets. She has experience in conducting big data analyses and utilizing several different types of statistical methods.

Assistant Professor

Medical College of Wisconsin Affiliated Hospitals

Dr. McGurk is an assistant professor in the emergency medicine department at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Prior to pursuing medicine, he worked as an elementary school teacher in the D.C. public school system. He received his medical degree from the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and completed his residency at Cook County Health, where he also served as chief resident. Dr. McGurk's professional interests include medical education, retrospective research, and medical humanities. He is the M3 EM clerkship director and the 2023 recipient of the Joseph C. Carin Excellence in Teaching Award.

Medical Student

George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences

Michael Makutonin is a fourth-year medical student at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. He has been involved in dataset and data science research throughout his medical school career, starting multi-institution collaborations by drawing on skills he learned as a software engineer and data science bootcamp instructor. Mr. Makutonin's nascent research career has earned him recognition in the field, including research awards and plenaries at national conferences. Mr. Makutonin is passionate about the potential of data science research to inform and solve impactful problems, and continues to mentor others in the field as an officer in the EMRA research committee and a principal investigator at the George Washington University Healing Clinic, among other roles.

Director of Medical Student Education/Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Director of Emergency Care Research

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine

UT Southwestern Medical Center

Medical Director

Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital

DaMarcus Baymon is from Houston, TX, and went to the University of Texas-Austin for his undergraduate education. He graduated with a B.S. in Neurobiology. For medical school, he attended the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, TX. In 2021, he completed his four-year EM residency at the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Program Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. DaMarcus graduated from Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine and is the current medical director for the BWH ED. His research focus is on improving ED operations and equity within the ED care space. Within the Office of IDEaS, he serves as the co-chair of the social justice division. He has also served as ED Trauma Lead, Associate Director of Quality Assurance, and ED liaison for the infectious disease department. 

Member-at-Large

University of Louisville

My educational background includes a BS in Biology from Cumberland College, MD from the University of South Alabama. Internship in Internal Medicine at the University of South Alabama. Residency in Emergency Medicine at University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Fellowship in Cardiovascular Emergencies at the University of Virginia. And my Physicians Executive Master’s Degree in Business Administration (PEMBA) from Auburn University.

My career qualifications include 13 years on Core Faculty at UAB Dept. of Emergency Medicine with multiple leadership roles during my time there, including Associate Residency Director, Director of Observation Medicine, System Emergency Department Medical Director, Executive Vice chair of Emergency Medicine and Associate CMO over Sepsis and Emergency Services for the health system. In January of 2020, I joined the University of Louisville Department of Emergency Medicine as Endowed Chair and Chief of Service for Emergency Medicine. In this role, I also serve of the Board of Directors for the University Hospital and the Board of Directors for UofL Physician practice, in addition to multiple other committees across the school of medicine and the health system.

I have been an active member of SAEM for much of my career. My most recent activity is in the AACEM committees (community 2020-22, and DEI – 2022-Present).

I am interested in joining the Executive Committee for AACEM because in my 4 years as chair, I have seen the impact that AACEM can have on the training and the practice of Emergency Medicine nationally and internationally. The focus on the training programs in EM and the quality of our residency programs, the wellbeing of our physicians and residents, and the sustainability of the practice of emergency medicine are at the heart of this group and are the parts of my career that I am most passionate about.

If elected, one of my focuses would be to increase collaboration and connectivity between the academic chairs of EM. The chair position can be a lonely job, but I would like to look at setting up small regional groups of academic chairs that would be interested in meeting (virtual or in person) quarterly or more frequently, to discuss issues in more detail that just the list serve emails, to share resources and build stronger relationships. I also hope to learn from the tremendous leaders in EM that are already serving on the Executive Committee, so that I can hopefully adequately fill their shoes in the future.

Member-at-Large

New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medicine

I serve as the Barbara and Stephen Friedman Endowed Professor and Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medicine. I oversee the operational and administrative activities of four NYP-Weill Cornell EDs (Brooklyn, Queens, Weill Cornell, Lower Manhattan), which see approximately 400,000 patient visits per year and which host three separate ACGME EM Residency programs.  I also serve as the Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Virtual Care at Weill Cornell Medicine, Chief of EMS for the NYP Enterprise,  Chair of the Finance Committee for the Weill Cornell Medicine Physician Organization and serve on the Board of Fellows for Weill Cornell Medicine. Additionally, I was the past president of the New York Presbyterian Hospital Medical Board. Prior to becoming Chair, I was Chief of the Division of Emergency Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and led its promotion to full departmental status in 2018. I have been a longstanding member of SAEM and have actively participated in AACEM since becoming Chief in 2016.  Most recently, I served as a member of the AACEM Leader Development Workgroup where I contributed to the development of the Emerging Leader Development program (eLEAD) offered by AACEM.  I am also currently serving as a member of newly formed AACEM Innovations Workgroup and will be helping to lead a webinar in 2025 on different virtual care models in Emergency Medicine.  I have received two national teaching awards from ACEP and EMRA, the Modern Healthcare Top 25 Innovator in the Healthcare Industry Award, and the ACEP National Innovative Change in Practice Management Award. I am also an elected life member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

My academic and research interests focus on the development and use of technological innovation to improve the quality of emergency care and its delivery.  Accordingly, I have launched several ED based digital health platforms that transformed healthcare delivery, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. I have received funding for the work I have done in telemedicine from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC).  I believe we can advance our specialty by becoming leaders in providing emergency care outside of the hospital environment by utilizing technology, including telemedicine, remote patient monitoring and artificial intelligence. Emergency Medicine providers are uniquely positioned to do this and to also advance the research and education opportunities within this care delivery model. I also founded the Center for Virtual Care at Weill Cornell Medicine in 2019.  The mission of the Center is to transform healthcare delivery through telemedicine, with a focus on patient quality and outcomes. It provides robust training and simulation to all clinicians active in the virtual care space, including all GME trainees across the New York Presbyterian Hospital enterprise and other hospital systems. I also developed our annual Virtual Healthcare Conference and Research Forum, one of the first telemedicine research forums established in the nation. 

I believe wellness is a priority, particularly in light of the challenges faced by our specialty. Our physician led wellness program has been recognized nationally, including at the National Academy of Medicine and, most recently, our department received the 2024 National Emergency Medicine Wellness Center of Excellence Award from the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP). I also co-chair the Weill Cornell Medicine Physician Organization Physician Wellness Workgroup which is tasked with providing  impactful recommendations to senior leadership at our institution.  Our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts have had similar success with investment in opportunities for faculty, residents and students and the establishment of our diversifiED committee. Furthermore, we have devoted a significant part of our research in both global health and telemedicine to the study of health disparities that plague women and underrepresented groups.  I would hope to build on the significant progress AACEM has achieved in the areas of wellness and DEI.

My work with AACEM and my interactions with my Chair colleagues have been instrumental in my growth as a chair. It is an invaluable resource and network which provides countless opportunities to collaborate with my chair colleagues, participate in national dialogues, and offer and engage in mentorship. It has also helped me to further realize my goals in education and research.

It would be an honor to serve on the AACEM Executive Committee and I believe, if given the opportunity, I would make immediate and meaningful contributions to this esteemed group. I would enthusiastically bring my experience and expertise in academic Emergency Medicine to AACEM and, if elected, I will support and work with other members of the Executive Committee and the organization to launch initiatives focused on the recruitment, development, and retention of faculty, residents and medical students. I will also work to strengthen our national network and to develop a pipeline of future emergency care researchers and academic and clinical faculty.

Member-at-Large

UT Health San Antonio

Assistant Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine

University of Florida College of Medicine

Assistant Professor, Computer and Information Science and Engineering

University of Florida

Vice Chair of Emergency Medicine Research and Professor of Emergency Medicine

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School

Amanda Irish is an Emergency Medicine faculty physician at the University of Iowa. She completed her International Emergency Medicine Global Health Fellowship at Prisma Health. She has demonstrated a lifelong interest in international medicine and infectious diseases and has also earned a Master's in Public Health Epidemiology as well as a certificate in Emerging Infectious Disease Epidemiology (CEIDE) and Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (DTMH). She has been involved in a variety of research and education projects and enjoys working with and teaching others about Humanitarian Medicine and the intersection of global climate change, disaster medicine, and infectious diseases.

Full Professor

University of Connecticut-Storrs

Dr. Korn came to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) as Director of the Office of Training, Career Development, and Workforce Diversity (now the Office of Training and Workforce Development) in January 2006. He received his PhD in Pharmacology from the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, and received postdoctoral training at NIH (as a PRAT Fellow of NIGMS) and at the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology (with financial support from NRSA postdoctoral fellowships). He then spent 15 years on the faculty of the University of Connecticut at Storrs, where he was a Full Professor. His area of scientific specialty is the molecular basis of ion channel gating and permeation, but he has also conducted electrophysiological and imaging research on calcium and pH transport/buffering, and synaptic transmission in the hippocampal slice. At NINDS, Dr. Korn oversees all training and research education programs that do not specifically target the goal of diversifying the workforce, including all mechanisms that support both individuals and institutional programs, as well as the LRP program and Landis Award program. Recently, Dr. Korn and his office have launched a major effort through the training programs intended to improve the rigor of scientific research done by both trainees and established investigators. 

Assistant Adjunct Professor, Epidemiology

University of California-Berkeley School of Public Health

Dr. Rohini Haar is an emergency medicine physician and faculty in the Epidemiology division at the University of California-Berkeley School of Public Health. She also serves as a board member at the Human Rights Center at UC Berkeley and medical advisor at Physicians for Human Rights. Dr. Haar's research interests include studying the health impacts of torture, violations of free speech and assembly, and conflict. She leads studies on the impact of violence against health in humanitarian settings, the health impacts of crowd control weapons, and the social, economic, and health consequences of climate-related crises in California.

Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, Fellowship Director Global Health Fellowship

Loma Linda University

Jon Roper is the current Fellowship Director of the Global Emergency Medicine Fellowship at Loma Linda University. He completed his Global Emergency Medicine residency at Loma Linda University.