Board of Directors | American Academy of Emergency Medicine

President Howard Blumstein MD FAAEM hblumstein@aaem.org
	Born in Harrisburg, PA, raised in the Philadelphia area. Undergraduate education Trinity College, Hartford CT 1986, Medical School Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 1990. Residency in Emergency Medicine, Medical College of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA 1993. Faculty Appointment at Medical College of Pennsylvania (and its various incarnations) from 1993 to 1999, then at Wake Forest University School of Medicine from 1999 to present. Activities with AAEM include service as Chair of the AAEM Education Committee (1997-2000), member of the Board of Directors of AAEM (2000-2006), Secretary Treasurer (2006-2008) and Vice President (2008-2010). Professional highlights include Assistant Residency Director at both MCP and Wake Forest, Medical Director of the Emergency Department, Chair of the Clinical Safety Committee and Vice Chair of Emergency Medicine all at Wake Forest University/NC Baptist Medical Hospital. Divorced with two children, ages 14 and 17.
Vice President William T. Durkin, MD MBA FAAEM wtdjmd@pol.net
	Dr. Durkin is a graduate of Georgetown University with a major in Biology and a minor in Theology. He is also a graduate of the medical school at Georgetown University. After completing a surgical internship at Georgetown University Medical Center, he returned to his native New England and did a residency at New England Deaconess Hospital in Boston, MA. He then went on to serve in the U.S. Navy, first as the shipboard medical officer and department head aboard the USS Sierra. While the ship was home ported in Charleston, SC; it was deployed to the Indian Ocean and Dr. Durkin actually had the opportunity to travel around the world supporting the medical departments of smaller ships in several foreign ports. His next assignment was in the emergency department of the Naval Hospital, San Diego. Here Bill was a member the inaugural medical staff that began the first EM residency in the Navy. Upon leaving the Navy, Bill practiced in community hospitals in San Diego. He served as assistant medical director, Phase III clinical trials investigator, co founded AccuQual-Super Doc Systems, taught classes for the nursing and medical staffs, and was elected Chief of Service. He then moved to the Washington DC area where he was Director/VP of Emergency Services at Southern Maryland Hospital. In 2008, Bill completed his MBA at the University of Tennessee and was elected to the Phi Alpha Phi Honor Society. After meeting Jim Keaney and Scott Plantz at a conference in San Diego, he became a founding member of AAEM. Since 1998 Dr. Durkin has served on the Board of Directors, was Secretary/Treasurer from 2004-2006 and again from 2008-2010. He formed the USAAEM Chapter, was one of the original board members of CalAAEM, treasurer of CalAAEM; co founded AAEM Services, wrote and/or sponsored many of the original policies of AAEM; served on the Education Committee, Practice Management Committee, Finance Committee, MEMC executive committee and is the AAEM executive director of the Pan Pacific Emergency Medicine Conference. He has also served on several of the state and interim committees and has lectured at the Scientific Assembly and in some residency programs. Dr. Durkin has always advocated for the practicing community EP. He has a strong interest in the business of EM and Finance. Bill’s outside interests include sailing, biking, fine wine collecting, travel, and investing.
Secretary-Treasurer Mark Reiter, MD MBA FAAEM mark.reiter@yahoo.com
	Mark Reiter, MD MBA is the Director of Medical Student Education at the St. Luke’s Hospital Emergency Medicine Residency in Bethlehem, PA. Dr. Reiter graduated magna cum laude from Rutgers College where he also served as Class President. He enrolled in an accelerated BA/MD program with UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, where he was elected to the AOA Honor Society and served as President of the New Jersey Medical Student Association. During this time, he also earned an MBA from the Rutgers Business School. Dr. Reiter completed his emergency medicine residency at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Dr. Reiter is the CEO of Emergency Excellence (www.emergencyexcellence.com), a company dedicated to emergency medicine performance improvement. Dr. Reiter has been very active in organized medicine outside of emergency medicine, serving many roles within different organizations, such as on the Council on Legislation for the American Medical Association and the Board of Trustees for the Medical Society of New Jersey. He has been awarded Resident of the Year by AAEM, Medical Student of the Year by NJ-ACEP, and Excellence in Emergency Medicine by SAEM. An AAEM member since 2001, Dr. Reiter has served on the AAEM Board of Directors since 2005. He also serves on the AAEM Services Board of Directors, and is a past President of AAEM/RSA. On the AAEM Board, Dr. Reiter has focused on issues such as the corporate practice of medicine, threats to ABEM/AOBEM board certification, healthcare policy, improving the financial strength of AAEM, and building relationships with other organizations. Dr. Reiter is married to Dr. Christina Reiter, an anesthesiologist. They have two young girls, Jenna and Cara.
Immediate Past President Larry D. Weiss, MD JD FAAEM ldw1532@yahoo.com
	Larry D. Weiss serves as a Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr. Weiss worked for many years at Charity Hospital in New Orleans where he served as the Albert J. Lauro Professor of Medicine at the Louisiana State University School of Medicine. After Hurricane Katrina resulted in the permanent closure of Charity Hospital, he worked in tents in New Orleans until March 2006 when he relocated to Baltimore. In addition to full time clinical and academic responsibilities, Dr. Weiss taught at the L.S.U. School of Law, and worked as in-house counsel for a group of approximately 100 emergency physicians where he actively litigated malpractice cases in defense of emergency physicians. Dr. Weiss previously served as President of the Orleans Parish Medical Society and has a career-long interest in organized medicine and physician advocacy. Dr. Weiss graduated from Northwestern University and the Hahnemann Medical College. He completed a residency in emergency medicine at Charity Hospital. He then returned to his hometown, Pittsburgh, PA, where he worked as faculty in the emergency medicine residency program at the University of Pittsburgh for eight years. In 1990 he returned to New Orleans where he remained until after Hurricane Katrina. Dr. Weiss was a founding fellow of the Academy, a founder and President of AAEMLa, the Louisiana chapter of AAEM; a past member of the Legal Committee of AAEM; wrote the AAEM amicus brief in Coleman v. Deno; wrote multiple policies and white papers for AAEM; and has served on the AAEM Board of Directors since 2003.
Past Presidents Council Representative Robert McNamara, MD FAAEM robert.mcnamara@tuhs.temple.edu
	Robert McNamara, MD, FAAEM, received his medical degree from Jefferson Medical College in 1982 and then completed his EM residency at the Medical College of Pennsylvania under David Wagner, MD one of the founders of the specialty. Dr. McNamara stayed on as faculty at MCP and was the residency program director for many years until he departed for Temple University School of Medicine in 1999. At Temple, Dr. McNamara along with his faculty was successful in the creation of a full academic department of EM in 2001 and he currently serves as Chairman at Temple. His scholarly contributions include over 100 articles and abstracts and numerous textbook chapters. He was involved in the first studies bringing intraosseous infusion and magnesium therapy for asthma to attention of the EM community. Dr. McNamara is on the editorial board of The Journal of Emergency Medicine, AAEM's official journal. In organized medicine he has been active with SAEM, CORD and the Pennsylvania Medical Society but is best known for his work as a founding member of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine. Dr. McNamara served as AAEM’s President from 1996 until 2002 helping to lead it from a fledgling organization to one of over 5,000 members with strong political and educational contributions to the specialty. Dr. McNamara was born and raised in Philadelphia and currently resides in Lafayette Hill, PA, with his wife and four children. His outside interests include dragon boat racing where he serves as Head Coach of Team USA. Teams under his direction have won 50 medals at the World Championships.
Board Members
Michael L. Epter, DO FAAEM mepter@medicine.nevada.edu

Andrew P. Mayer, MD FAAEM andrewmayer@cox.net
	Andy Mayer is a 1986 graduate of the LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans. He completed an internship in internal medicine at Emory University before retuning to his native New Orleans to enter the LSU/Charity Hospital Emergency Medicine Residency. He completed this residency as a chief resident in 1990. He joined the West Jefferson Emergency Physicians Group in the suburban New Orleans area after residency. He has been a partner in this democratic single hospital group since that time. This group has been very active in AAEM particularly at the state level. Dr. Mayer has been in the full time practice of clinical emergency medicine since 1990. Dr. Mayer has been active in the Louisiana Chapter of AAEM since it’s founding. He has served as treasurer, vice-president and president. He is currently the Immediate Past-President. He is pleased to be involved in resident education again as LSU and Tulane now sends many types of residents including emergency medicine residents to West Jefferson Medical Center since the closing of Charity Hospital due to Hurricane Katrina. Interests outside of medicine include travel, fishing, history and most recently home remodeling since Katrina came to New Orleans. He is married and has three children and resides in New Orleans.
Kevin Rodgers, MD FAAEM krodgers@iuhealth.org

Joel M. Schofer, MD RDMS FAAEM jschofer@gmail.com
	Dr. Schofer graduated from Ursinus College (Collegeville, PA) with a BS in Biology and Exercise & Sports Science and completed medical school in 2001 at the MCP Hahnemann School of Medicine (Philadelphia, PA). After medical school, he completed a transitional internship at Naval Medical Center San Diego (NMCSD) and then deployed to Iraq with the United States Marine Corps. In 2006 he completed his emergency medicine residency at NMCSD, where he served as academic chief resident. After practicing for two years at US Naval Hospital Okinawa (Okinawa, Japan), he completed an emergency ultrasound fellowship at Christiana Care Health System (Newark, DE). He is currently the Emergency Ultrasound Director at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth (Portsmouth, VA). Dr. Schofer has an interest in medical publishing and editing, serving as chief editor of two of AAEM's textbooks, AAEM's Rules of the Road for Medical Students and Emergency Medicine: A Focused Review of the Core Curriculum. He has over 70 professional publications. Dr. Schofer's involvement in AAEM is extensive, having served as the President of the AAEM student, resident, and military organizations and chapters. He is an active member of the Education Committee and the primary organizer of preconference courses for the Uniformed Services Chapter of AAEM. He has over 40 years of combined service to AAEM in leadership positions and committees.
Robert E. Suter, DO MHA FAAEM resuter@gmail.com
	Robert E. Suter, DO MHA is Professor and Director of Practice Management, Health Policy, and International Emergency Medicine at the University of Texas-Southwestern. He graduated from Washington University in St. Louis, then received his DO and MHA degrees from Des Moines University in Des Moines, Iowa. Dr. Suter did his residency training in emergency medicine at Brooke Army-Wilford Hall USAF Medical Centers in San Antonio, Texas and is board certified by the American Board of Emergency Medicine and the AOBEM, serving as an Oral Examiner for ABEM. Dr. Suter has a long history of service to emergency medicine on a state, national and international level. During residency he was president of the EMRA, participated in numerous state and national committees, served on the boards of several EMS organizations and was the Co-Chair of the federal project “EMS Agenda for the Future.” He also served as a member of the ACEP Council, ACEP Board of Directors, was ACEP President in 2004-05 and on the Board of the International Federation for Emergency Medicine, serving as IFEM President in 2006. He was elected to the AAEM Board in 2011. Dr Suter also holds appointments as a Professor at the Medical College of Georgia, Des Moines University and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, where he serves as a Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve. He has received top honors from a number of national and international organizations. Dr. Suter is the author of numerous studies, papers and textbook chapters in emergency medicine, and has given hundreds of presentations worldwide. He is particularly recognized as an integrative scholar in a number of areas, and for his advocacy for workplace fairness and emergency medicine board certification.
Andy Walker, MD FAAEM awalkermd@comcast.net
	After nearly eight years as an attending in the Vanderbilt University Medical Center emergency department, where he twice won the Corey Slovis Award for Excellence in Bedside Teaching, Dr. Walker left academic medicine in 1999 and joined Cumberland Emergency Physicians, P.C., a one-hospital democratic group in Nashville where he remains today. There he has served as chairman of his hospital's Peer Review/Quality Assurance Committee and on its Medical Executive Committee. He is a founding fellow of AAEM and was instrumental in forming the Tennessee chapter of AAEM (TNAAEM). After the Tennessee Supreme Court outlawed restrictive covenants in physician employment contracts in 2005, he helped lead the effort the following year that defeated a legislative attempt to restore them. That attempt would have been successful if not for TNAAEM. Dr. Walker and TNAAEM are currently leading a crusade in their state to change the definition of malpractice for medical care provided under the unfunded federal mandate EMTALA, from simple negligence to gross negligence. This change in the law would essentially eliminate unreasonable lawsuits against emergency physicians and the on-call specialists who provide the medical safety net in Tennessee. Dr. Walker received his M.D., cum laude, from the University of Tennessee College of Medicine where he was elected to membership in Alpha Omega Alpha. He completed his residency in emergency medicine at Shands-Jacksonville hospital in 1988.
Joanne Williams, MD FAAEM realerdoc@aol.com
	Dr. Williams is a founding fellow of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine. She has served on several AAEM committees throughout the years including, but not limited to, the Education Committee. She has served as Secretary-Treasurer for the California Chapter of AAEM and continues to serve on its Board of Directors. Dr. Williams also serves on the Editorial Board for the AAEM Section of MedScape. She has served as the Trauma Track Chair for MEMC IV and is currently serving in that capacity for MEMC V. Dr. Williams is the Chair of the Emergency Medicine Committee of International Trauma Care, formerly the International Trauma, Anesthesia and Critical Care Society. She is also an Adjunct Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science as well as a Clinical Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. As the Immediate Past Chair of the Emergency Medicine Section of the National Medical Association (NMA) she has been commissioned to serve on the House of Delegates of the NMA. Dr. Williams completed her medical education in 1982 at the University of California at Irvine. She did her internship and residency in Emergency Medicine at Martin Luther King, Jr./Charles R. Drew Medical Center from 1982-1985. She was an active part of the faculty of the Emergency Medicine Department from 1989-2007. She served as Assistant Residency Director and was the Residency Director at the time of the unfortunate closure of the program in 2007. She has also been in the clinical practice of Emergency Medicine since 1984. She is especially concerned about the lack of due process for emergency physicians which she has seen deteriorate through the years. Dr. Williams is married. Her husband, Robert Lozoya, is a retired Marine and history buff. They reside in Rancho Palos Verdes, California and enjoy family and travel.
Leslie Zun, MD MBA FAAEM leslie.zun@sinai.org
	Leslie S. Zun, MD MBA is the Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in Chicago, Illinois and Chairman & Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine at the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science/Chicago Medical School in North Chicago, Illinois. His background includes a medical degree (MD) from Rush Medical College and a business degree (MBA) from Northwestern University's JL Kellogg School of Management. He is board certified in emergency medicine by the American Board of Emergency Medicine. Dr. Zun was a chief operating officer and acting chief executive officer for a 200 bed hospital in Chicago. Dr Zun’s research interests include health care administration, violence prevention and behavioral emergencies. He has presented his research and lectured on these topics both nationally and internationally.
YPS Director Brian Potts, MD MBA FAAEM brianpottsmd@gmail.com
	Brian is a graduate of Stanford University with a B.S. in Biological Sciences. He attended medical school at University of California - Irvine where he completed a combined MD/MBA degree program. In 2007, he completed his emergency medicine residency at University of California - Irvine. Brian works in two community emergency departments at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center as an attending physician for Berkeley Emergency Medical Group (BEMG). Brian has been on the AAEM Young Physicians Section (YPS) Board of Directors since 2007 and is currently the YPS Immediate Past President. This is his sixth year on the California state chapter (Cal/AAEM) Board of Directors and is finishing his term as President for 2010-2011. Prior to finishing residency, he served on the board of the AAEM Resident and Student Association (AAEM/RSA) holding multiple positions including president and vice-president. Since 2001, Brian has been the Managing Editor for the Cal/AAEM News Service, a free electronic mail subscription service currently serving over 1,400 emergency physicians, residents and students. He has enjoyed his involvement with AAEM and hopes to continue working to improve the practice environment for emergency physicians and defend the importance of board-certification.
AAEM/RSA Representative Teresa M. Ross, MD tmrossmd@gmail.com
	Teresa completed her undergraduate studies at the Johns Hopkins University with a double major in Neuroscience and French. She received her medical degree from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 2009. She is currently an emergency medicine resident at the combined Georgetown/Washington Hospital Center program in Washington, DC. Teresa is thrilled to have the opportunity to serve as president of the AAEM/RSA this year. Her past contributions to the organization include board member-at-large and communications committee chairperson (2010-11), editor of the AAEM/RSA Modern Resident e-newsletter (2010-11, 2009-10) and advocacy committee member (2008-09). She looks forward to ongoing work with RSA, strengthening its role in promoting medical education, professionalism and board-certification.
JEM Editor - Ex-Officio Board Member Stephen Hayden, MD FAAEM srh@ucsd.edu
	Dr. Stephen Hayden graduated from the accelerated six-year biomedical program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Albany Medical College and was elected to the alpha omega alpha honor medical society. He did a General Surgery internship at the San Diego Naval Hospital, which was followed by a tour of duty as senior flight surgeon for the Naval Strike Warfare Center at the NAS Fallon, Nevada. He additionally served as the medical director for Fallon's High Sierra Search and Rescue helicopter unit. Dr. Hayden then completed an Emergency Medicine residency at the University Hospital in Stony Brook, New York, where he served as chief resident in 1993. He joined the faculty at the University of California, San Diego Department of Emergency Medicine in July 1993, and is board certified in both Emergency Medicine, and Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine. He served as Director for the UCSD Emergency Medicine Residency Training Program, is a past president of the Council of Residency Directors for Emergency Medicine (CORD), and is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Emergency Medicine. Dr. Hayden is a primary editor for the textbook, The Five-Minute Emergency Medicine Consult. He is an item writer for the written certification examination of the American Board of Emergency Medicine as well as an oral examiner. He was the 1996 recipient of the EMRA scholarship for the ACEP/Emergency Medicine Foundation Teaching Fellowship, 1999 ACEP National Faculty Teaching Award, 2002 UCSD Golden Apple Teaching Award, 2005 AAEM Residency Program Director of the Year, and selected in 2006/2007 as one of America's Top Physicians. Areas of research and teaching interest are evidence-based emergency medicine, emergency airway management, and imaging in emergency medicine. Dr. Hayden is married with three children ages 12, 10, and 8, and enjoys sailing, tennis and will be testing soon for his second degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do.
Common Sense Editor - Ex-Officio Board Member David D. Vega, MD FAAEM dvega@yorkhospital.edu
	David Vega is the Associate Program Director at York Hospital, a community teaching hospital in York, Pennsylvania. He completed his residency training at the York Hospital/Penn State Emergency Medicine Residency Program. He is a graduate of Penn State University College of Medicine. David served as the founding president of the Young Physicians Section in AAEM after chairing the Young Physicians Section taskforce. After two more years on the YPS Board of Directors, he was elected to serve as YPS Director on the AAEM Board. He also serves as the editor of Common Sense and as series editor for AAEM's Ask the Experts in Emergency Medicine on Medscape. His areas of interest include resident and student education, as well as administrative and legal aspects of emergency medicine.

2011-2012 AAEM Board of Directors