People

Gregg Helland, MD

Treasurer

Emory University

I am the Director of Emergency Ultrasound and an Assistant Professor of both Emergency Medicine and Radiology and Imaging Services at Emory University. I interested in running for the position of Treasurer of AEUS. I completed my Emergency Medicine residency and US fellowship training at the University of Massachusetts under David Blehar and Romolo Gaspari way back in 2012 and hold an ABEM Focused Practice Designation in Advanced Emergency Ultrasound.

My previous academic US leadership experience includes Director of Ultrasound CME programming for UMass and the Ultrasound Section Director at the University of Chicago, before joining Emory University. As the Section Director for Emory, I am actively involved in all aspects of our sections mission. From medical student rotations and electives, residency education, fellowship training, research, and of course the administrative oversight of our four emergency departments. I am also involved in the systemization of POCUS among multiple different departments throughout the Emory Healthcare System.

I am currently the Councilor for the ACEP Ultrasound Section which has re-energized my interest in organized medicine. As a long-time AEUS member who has mostly observed in the past, I have seen all the amazing growth of this section over the years. From the development of the Narrated Lecture Series and Asynchronous Ultrasound Curriculum to the constant growth and innovation of the ever-popular SonoGames. Now it’s my turn to step up and get more involved, and I think the 2-year commitment of the AEUS Treasurer is an excellent way to start. I want to further the research and education missions of AEUS as well as continue the expansion of our amazing educational offerings on the website, especially as we grow our international footprint. I am committed to supporting the growth of AEUS as we build on the foundation of our outstanding previous leaders.

Andrew Goldsmith, MD, MBA

Treasurer

Brigham and Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical School

Dr. Andrew Goldsmith is an Instructor at Harvard University, Chief of Emergency Ultrasound at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the Medical Director of UltraSight. After attending both medical school and business school at the University of Connecticut, he completed his residency at Harvard-Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency (HAEMR) followed by an ultrasound fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital. He has been a member of SAEM for over 7 years and has presented several abstracts and didactics including one on POCUS and Machine Learning in 2022. Dr. Goldsmith has been an active member of the AEUS academy meetings, volunteering for SonoGames and has won a prestigious SAEMMIE award.

Hamid Shokoohi, MD, MPH

President-Elect

Massachusetts General Hospital

I am deeply honored and committed to the Academy, its mission, and our ultrasound friends and members. With solid academy leadership and successful collaboration with other entities, our profession is well known for the highest professional fulfillment and solid instructional programs for ultrasound fellows and residents.

As the Academy president, I plan to dedicate my time to developing highly academic directions for the future of our profession. I will work alongside the talented Academy staff to raise academic excellence in our profession with the highest level of personal and professional satisfaction.

The current expansion of Ultrasound fellowship programs in part due to the recent accreditation plans that attract more fellows with the potential to expand multi-institutional projects including research and innovation nationwide. Our profession continues to confront instructional and legislative challenges to include clinical sonographers from other subspecialties, including PEM, IM, and Critical Care programs in the accreditation and FDP programs that need proper planning ahead.

There are no easy solutions for many challenges faced by our academic subspecialty, but to the role of president, I bring a background of leadership and extensive experience in Academic Clinical Ultrasound. I have served the Academy throughout my career as a member of several committees, being involved in Sonogames in different roles, and currently chair of the Professional Development task force. In the past 15 years, I have served as the ultrasound fellowship director at GW, MGH, and Mass General Brigham. I have published more than 140 peer-reviewed articles and presented numerous abstracts and didactics at SAEM and ACEP. I have received several awards, including the Academy Faculty of the Year for Research in 2013 and 2019, the Distinguished Service Award in 2019, the Most Prolific Researcher in 2020, and the Faculty of the Year for Ultrasound Education in 2022.

Samantha Chao, MD

Chief Resident and PGY-4

University of Michigan and Trinity Health Ann Arbor Hospital

Dr. Chao is a Chief Resident and PGY-4 at the University of Michigan and Trinity Health Ann Arbor Hospital. She attended medical school at the University of Michigan Medical School and received her undergraduate degree from Carleton College. Her career interests include clinical ethics and palliative care.

Franz Mendoza Garcia, MD

Emergency Ultrasound Fellow

New York Presbyterian - Brooklyn Methodist Hospital

Dr. Mendoza-Garcia is an ultrasound fellow at NewYork Presbyterian - Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. He attended medical school at the San Juan Bautista School of Medicine in Puerto Rico, and completed residency at the Jacobi/Montefiore Medical Center.

Meera Muruganandan, MD

President-Elect

Boston Medical Center

Dr. Meera Muruganandan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Boston Medical Center, Boston University and also the Director of Ultrasound. She completed residency and a dual fellowship in Emergency Ultrasound and Global Health at Brown University and has been serving as faculty at Boston Medical Center for over 10 years. In her roles within the ultrasound section she has overseen residency education, served as medical student ultrasound clerkship director, AEMUS fellowship director and is currently the director of ultrasound. Dr. Muruganandan is passionate about sharing knowledge and expanding the use of POCUS to as many providers as possible. Her interest in the use of POCUS in resource limited settings has allowed her to work with a number of NGO’s internationally, developing ultrasound curricula and training programs for physicians, residents and midwives in Sierra Leone, Uganda, Haiti and Rwanda.

Kristin Dwyer, MD, MPH

President-Elect

Brown University

My name is Kristin Dwyer, and I currently work as the Brown Emergency Medicine Ultrasound fellowship and division director. I am writing to accept my nomination for AEUS president-elect. After residency, I completed a two-year ultrasound fellowship at Brigham & Women’s hospital while earning an MPH in quantitative methods. I then transitioned to core faculty at Brown University, where as the ultrasound fellowship director I have worked to reinvigorate the fellowship through developing a curriculum which is tailored to a range of specialties and learners with different career goals. I have trained numerous fellows in this time, ranging from EM to IM to PEM to non-clinical fellows, and I obtained a three-year EUFAC accreditation for Brown. After taking over the fellowship, I was subsequently promoted to division director where I have managed to grow the division to ten faculty-expanding our PEM group and adding both POCUS education and research directors. In addition, I started a new POCUS course and curriculum at the medical school, mentored multiple residents on POCUS quality improvement projects, redesigned the clinical POCUS workflow, updated coding and billing processes, revised our credentialing policies, and overhauled the division POCUS policies. I believe these institutional/administrative changes demonstrate my collaborative nature and track record to make process changes. In addition, I have led and published research studies with the goal to advance our field, and I have been recognized for this work through multiple SAEMMY nominations and awards. I am currently the PI for multiple research projects which continue to advance and innovate the field of POCUS including POCUS sex and gender and social EM projects.

I have had the opportunity to serve our community through national leadership serving as AEUS secretary (lead: AEUS stock photo image project), ACEP subcommittee chair, and SCUF treasurer. I find serving our national community to be extremely enjoyable and rewarding. I hope that my experience and contribution to POCUS education, research, administration, and national leadership make me a qualified candidate and deserving of your vote for AEUS president.

Dustin Williams, MD

SAEM Nominating Committee Member

UT-Southwestern

I earned my undergraduate degree in Biomedical Science from Texas A&M University, followed by my medical degree at the University of Texas Health Science Center-San Antonio, and completed my Emergency Medicine residency at Indiana University. Since joining the faculty at UT-Southwestern Medical Center in 2011, I have served in various leadership roles, including Assistant Program Director and now Program Director for our Emergency Medicine training program at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, Texas. My current rank is Associate Professor.

My decade-long involvement with SAEM demonstrates my unwavering dedication to service and leadership within the organization. Over the years, I have actively contributed to various committees, including the Education Committee (2013–2014), Faculty Development Committee (2014–present), and Membership Committee (2021–present). As a longstanding and engaged member of ADIEM, I was deeply honored to receive the ADIEM Outstanding Academician Award in 2024. Currently, I serve as Chair of the Membership Committee and previously held the role of Chair for the ADIEM LGBTQIA+ Subcommittee (2021–2023).

Serving on the SAEM Nominating Committee is an opportunity to give back to an organization that has helped profoundly shape my professional journey. I am dedicated to thoughtfully identifying and recruiting candidates who truly embody SAEM's values and vision, ensuring they are equipped to lead and inspire the future of academic EM.

I understand the importance of recruiting candidates who are not only qualified but also represent the diverse viewpoints of our members and that demonstrate a passion for advancing emergency medicine and serving SAEM’s mission. With my experience in leadership, mentorship, and organizational involvement, I am well-prepared to contribute meaningfully to the Nominating Committee and would appreciate your support for this position.

I am eager to continue serving SAEM by helping to shape its future leadership and celebrating the accomplishments of our members, working together to ensure the continued success of our amazing organization.

Melanie F. Molina, MD, MAS

Development Officer

University of California, San Francisco

Melanie F. Molina, MD, MAS is an Assistant Professor and Associate Director of Social Emergency Medicine & Health Equity at UCSF. Dr. Molina received her Master’s in Advanced Studies with a focus on clinical research from UCSF, holds an MD from Harvard and, after training in emergency medicine at Mass General Brigham, completed a research and advocacy fellowship (National Clinician Scholars Program) at UCSF. She is board certified in emergency medicine.

As a queer, Latina, woman in medicine with personal experience overcoming adversity, Dr. Molina is deeply invested in advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). She has served on multiple committees at the institutional, state, and national level, lending a voice to the needs and concerns of URM and LGBTQIA+ individuals. These have included Harvard Medical School’s LGBTQ Dean’s Advisory Committee, the Brigham and Women’s ED Health Equity Committee, the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Equity Council, the Massachusetts Medical Society’s Minority Affairs Section, and the ADIEM Executive Committee (Member-At-Large, 2021-2023). Much of Dr. Molina’s research and educational activities have focused on improving care for vulnerable populations, reducing racial bias, and mitigating microaggressions in the workplace. She has led and published research on health care disparities, improving medication access for vulnerable populations, incorporating social needs into emergency care, and microaggressions. Dr. Molina has given multiple grand rounds presentations nationally and internationally on racism, implicit bias, and microaggressions. She’s also designed and implemented health equity residency curricula aimed at reducing race- and gender-based inequities in both physician and patient experiences.

As ADIEM’s Development Officer, Dr. Molina hopes to 1) strengthen the national network of residents, fellows, and faculty working on DEI initiatives, 2) build and foster community and collaboration among ADIEM members, and 3) establish an ADIEM mentorship program.

Jason M. Rotoli, MD

Member-at-Large

University of Rochester

I believe in the inclusive mission of ADIEM and want to serve as more than a committee chair and general member. In the treasurer/secretary position, I am immersed in the conversations, strategic planning, and decision-making that guides the future development of this amazing organization. I truly enjoy the collaborative creation that occurs during our monthly meetings. Additionally, I was the Treasurer/Secretary for the 2022-23 year and fulfilled my duties to th best of my abilities with honor and integrity. I would like to leverage this experience to further contribute to the group by serving in this position again.

Tiffany Mitchell, MD

Member-at-Large

Mount Sinai School of Medicine

As a member of ADIEM for several years I've long appreciated the space this Academy provides for physicians committed to supporting the most marginalized members of our communities. In my role as Chair of Social Media and Publications, its been my goal to increase the visibility of emergency physicians from diverse backgrounds while fostering academic collaboration. I hope to continue to work towards these aims in my role as Member-at-Large. I'm continually inspired by the work of my colleagues within ADIEM and I look forward to expanding my role within the Executive Board this year.

Moises Gallegos, MD, MPH

Member-at-Large

Stanford University

The last several years have been a wonderful learning opportunity for me as we developed our standalone required/core emergency medicine rotation at Stanford. The opportunity to tackle the integration of a new clerkship and the iterative curriculum planning it required have allowed me to grow as an educator and develop administrative skills that I hope to expand. As I settle into an academic career in undergraduate medical education, I am desiring of more participation in organized communities of practice where I can learn from others. I see the opportunity of becoming a member-at-large as a way to jump into the mix and become more active with ongoing projects, conversations, and professional development. Having most recently completed a Master of Education in the Health Professions, I am also hoping that a defined role in Clerkship Directors in Emergency Medicine (CDEM) will allow me to engage in the long-term work being done to ensure a strong educational offering to students on their journey into emergency medicine.

Eliot Blum, MD

Member-at-Large

Emory University

It is with great honor and respect that I apply for this position. I have been a member of ADIEM for years and have served as the co-chair of the LGBTQ+ committee over the past three years. As my tenure in this roll comes to an end, it is almost impossible to visualize my future without playing an active roll in this integral part of SAEM. ADIEM aligns with everything that I believe in to my core, and I have been able to help create meaningful change being a part of the executive committee. I want that to continue, as I am just getting started. The LGTBTQ+ mentorship program is starting to gain traction and I believe its ability to change lives is going to be great. This is just one simple conversation, an idea, that came from the executive committee and SAEM board and has blossomed into a vehicle to make this world a better place. I need to continue to surround myself with the leaders in this field so I can continue to follow their example. Dr. Gipson is the president-elect for ADIEM, and I cannot wait for the future of this organization, especially, by looking and the successes over the past few years.

Venkatesh R. Bellamkonda, MD

Secretary-Treasurer

Mayo Clinic

I am an emergency physician with passions for ultrasound, quality, and education - currently serving as chair of education for Mayo Clinic emergency medicine. Although my career never started with this in mind, over the years, I have developed a passion for healthcare justice after witnessing biases and injustices for our patients and our staff alike. As a result, in the past several years, I have been mentor author for projects investigating biases in our care of women, patients of differing body size, language and more. In addition, I have been part of providing education that pays special attention to accessibility by people of differing abilities and needs. I have advocated for more inclusive interview and selection processes at different levels, as well as work on community outreach to mentor and uplift people with fewer advantages in the process.

I believe the next step for me to be helpful is to stand alongside others outside of my institution and direct community who share this view. Together I believe I can help make changes that benefit a larger portion of the nation and the specialty.

Sreeja M. Natesan, MD

President-Elect

Duke University

Hello! I am an Associate Professor and Associate Program Director at Duke University. I am also co-chair of the Duke Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) committee. My primary area of interest and expertise is in diversity & inclusion, clinical teaching, and feedback by incorporating innovative novel strategies in the ED to create an inclusive environment. I am enthusiastic, with a passion for collaboration and helping to contribute through my project management, organizational, and communication skills. I have served on several national committees for education & diversity including the planning committee for the SAEM Educational Summit, cofounder and co-chair for the CORD DEI Mini-track for the past 3 years, cofounder and co-chair of the CORD DEI Virtual Holistic Recruitment conference for the past 2 years, Vice Chair of CORD DEI committee, Co-chair of the CORD Academy for Scholarship, among other leadership roles. I am also grateful to be the current secretary for ADIEM and am an active member in the SAEM Equity & Inclusion Committee.

I possess a broad clinical and research training experience centering on project management, collaboration, and educational skills training. Briefly, this includes ACEP Teaching Fellowship, ALiEM Faculty Incubator Program (where I now serve as Chief Academic Officer), AAMC Medical Education Research Certificate program & LEAD fellowship, and am a recent graduate of Duke Teaching for Equity Fellowship.

I am running for the role of President-Elect for ADIEM. I would be honored and privileged to work with others to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion for our ADIEM community through education and research. I believe together we have the power to have a greater impact and am excited to be involved further to give back to our community that has given me so much. My desire is to help create inclusive environments that fosters belonging for our learners (and each other) so we can better serve our patients. I seek to help disseminate knowledge by curating and providing resources to our community surrounding diversity in medical education, best practices/promising practices surrounding faculty/resident recruitment with the use of holistic review, and mitigating bias in the education and feedback we provide.

I would love to provide regular offerings to our community in the form of skills training and regular workshops to practice tools that can then be shared at the participant’s local institutions. I have been able to do work surrounding this here at Duke by teaching holistic recruitment to our program directors at our institutional GME meetings and through my role as Duke GME Professional Development co-chair. By having regular workshops and interactions, we can have a larger impact in transforming the culture and environments we work in. A favorite quote of mine is "diversity is inviting everyone to the table, equity is allowing everyone to talk, but inclusion is ensuring everyone is heard." This encompasses my own mission within MedEd–and in knowing DEI is relational work– I look forward to the opportunity to be involved, create networks and relationships, in order to serve our ADIEM community and beyond.

Joseph L. Williams, MPH

Medical Student Representative

Kansas City University

I am a current MS2 at Kansas City University and graduate of the Yale School of Public Health, where I honed my skills and knowledge in public health and Chronic Disease Epidemiology. Obtaining my MPH before medical school has added a valuable dimension to my medical education that has dovetailed elegantly with both my prior training in emergency medicine as an EMT and research addressing the opioid crisis.

I have been involved in SAEM since 2019 attending the NERDS conference in Worcester, MA and subsequently submitted an abstract which was accepted for the 2020 NERDS conference that was unfortunately canceled in leu of COVID-19. Getting involved early, even before attending medical school, empowered me to attend SAEM’23 as a medical student ambassador and join AGEM as a medical student representative on the awards committee. SAEM has been foundational in honing my passion for Emergency Medicine and providing a framework to establish myself within the profession in the future.

If elected, I hope to advocate for the continued engagement of emergency medicine with public health competencies, especially for medical students who are early in their training. As a student at an osteopathic medical school, I recognize the need for mentorship, especially at institutions that lack emergency medicine faculty, and hope to leverage mentorship opportunities to such students. Finally, I hope to increase medical student engagement within committees and interest groups from institutions across the country to foster greater curiosity, interest, and applicants for Emergency medicine in future MATCH years.

Sara Schulwolf, MD, MPH

Resident Member

Harvard-Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency at Mass General Brigham

Hi! My name is Sara Schulwolf; I am a recent graduate of UConn SOM and currently a PGY-1 at the Harvard-Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency program in Boston. I am thrilled to be running for AEUS resident member as I feel passionately about expanding POCUS education and excitement within our specialty. Having served on the RAMS board for the past two years, I also believe that I have honed the leadership skills and organizational know-how to be an effective contributor to our organization.

I have loved ultrasound since before beginning medical school when I first became involved in ultrasound research while working as an ED scribe. During medical school, I served as leadership for UConn’s Ultrasound Interest Group, organizing fun and educational events for the student body as well as volunteering as a peer ultrasound instructor. For this work, as well as for my involvement in POCUS research, I was honored to be awarded one of the AEUS Medical Student Ultrasound Enthusiast awards in 2024, and last year, in perhaps my proudest ultrasound moment to date, I was the winner of AEUS’s 2025 Sono Soapbox competition.

I am so thankful for the many opportunities that AEUS has afforded me, and hope that as a resident member, I can repay a fraction of that support in-kind. As POCUS continues to cement itself as a standard of care within our specialty – reflected in entities like the changing EM oral board exam – ultrasound proficiency will become not only a goal for trainees, but an expectation. Accordingly, it will be critical to integrate early, effective POCUS education into GME, and ideally UME. I would love nothing more than to be a part of the organization leading this charge, and to help expand AEUS already tremendous educational, clinical, and research offerings.

Jude C. Luke, MD

Member-at-Large

NYU/Bellevue Hospital

I am a PGY-1 resident in the NYU/Bellevue Hospital Emergency Medicine Residency and a recent graduate of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine where I was deeply involved in emergency medicine research, education, and mentorship. I previously served two terms on the SAEM ED Administration and Operations Committee and currently serve on the SAEM Education Committee. I was awarded an SAEMF/RAMS Research Grant to study the implementation of a novel ED-based A1C screening and linkage-to-care program in the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. In recognition of these contributions to emergency medicine, I was honored to receive the 2025 ACEP/EMRA National Outstanding Medical Student Award.

I am running to be a RAMS Member-At-Large because I believe in empowering residents and medical students to see themselves as future academic leaders -- not at later in their careers, but right now. I have been fortunate to receive mentorship and coaching from titans in our field, and I am passionate about expanding that same access to others.

Too often, trainees have the drive, interest, and ideas, but not the network or structure to turn them into reality. If elected, I aim to expand national mentorship pipelines, creating structured connections between students, residents, and faculty based on shared academic interests. I also hope to strengthen research development infrastructure, offering concise, high-yield resources and channels to help trainees turn ideas into presentations, publications, and grants.

Joshua Julian

Medical Student Representative

Saint Louis University SOM

From scribing in the ED during undergrad to transporting patients as an EMT, I have had the opportunity to explore Emergency Medicine in several capacities throughout my education, and each has bolstered my passion for the field. Since starting medical school, I have continued to seek out opportunities to learn more and share my enthusiasm for EM with others. Working as a co-lead for my school's EM interest group, I hosted suture nights, case presentations, and match panels from our EM faculty and future residents for my classmates. I also serve on the MOCEP student council working to put on EM education events for medical students throughout Missouri. I am now pursuing a position with RAMS to reach students on a national level. RAMS already has numerous amazing opportunities for medical students to take advantage of with the various committees, interest groups, and the annual conference. My goal is to spread the word about these experiences so medical students have ample exposure to all the things that make Emergency Medicine such an enjoyable field.

Dhriti Sooryakumar, MD

Member-at-Large

University of Michigan

Hello! My name is Dhriti Sooryakumar and I am a current resident physician at the University of Michigan. I went to medical school at Ohio State University and completed my Undergraduate and Master of Science Degrees in Biotechnology/Drug Development from Johns Hopkins University.

Prior to medical school, I was recipient of the National Institutes of Health/Johns Hopkins University Molecular Target and Drug Discovery Fellowship and worked at the National Cancer Institute developing novel anticancer drugs. I also served as Medical Program Advisor for the International Medical Organization, Global Brigades, in Honduras. I have been dedicated to SAEM over the past years and its incredible mission and vision to serve emergency medicine physicians and learners both nationally and internationally. I sincerely hope I may have the honor to continue serving you, my peers, as RAMS Board of Directors Member at Large.

I had the privilege to serve as Medical Student Representative on the RAMS Board of Directors from 2020-2021 and am thrilled with the great progress and novel initiatives I was able to create and implement for our Medical Student and Resident Members.

During my time on the RAMs Board, I was able to:

• Conceptualize the National Virtual Residency Fair held in July 2020.
• Create Underrepresented Minority Medical Education Scholarships which I successfully matched by our National Academies for the costs of national licensing exam costs and preparatory materials.
• Create multiple novel webinar series in tandem with SAEM leadership and faculty advising medical students, including one guiding medical students through the first Covid19 Residency Application Season, and another highlighting Women in Academic Emergency Medicine.

I have remained dedicated to the organization over the past two years, working on the development of novel medical education initiatives.

If re-elected, I would like to continue to represent the interests of my resident and medical student colleagues, and serve as the voice and bridge for resident and medical student needs with the national organization. I believe my past years of dedicated service to my medical student and resident peers on the RAMS Board of Directors, as well as my previous career experiences in leadership have prepared me well for this role.

If re-elected to the RAMS Board of Directors, I would like to:

• Continue developing and expanding national medical education and scholarship opportunities for our medical student and resident members.
• Create further national mentorship opportunities, especially for women, underrepresented minorities, students, and residents.
• Continue to work with the Board of Directors to create novel national clinical skills workshops, webinars, and educational series to enhance Medical Education and ease the residency application process/transition into residency and faculty positions.
• Work to expand exposure to/opportunities for Emergency Medicine fellowships and niche areas on a national level (for example Ultrasound, Critical Care, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and Social Emergency Medicine to name a few) with networking opportunities for residents and medical students.
• Work to create career-bolstering and professional development opportunities (e.g. negotiation skills workshops, CV building, networking events, and mentorship) for residents as they begin applying for faculty positions and fellowship.
• Create career-enhancing mentorship and professional development opportunities for medical students, including those geared towards under-represented minorities and students at orphan programs lacking traditionally-strong EM programs.
• Create initiatives to increase the emphasis on wellness within residency. This would include working to create national and regional wellness events for medical students and residents to attend.

I am very open to hearing from our resident and medical student members, and really hope to continue representing and serving your needs as a Resident Representative on the RAMS Board of Directors! Thank you for your consideration.