CCMS-AAEM Section Council Election

My name is Frederick Gmora.  I am an attending at Jefferson Health New Jersey, working as a full time intensivist, where I also serve as the Associate Program Director of the critical care medicine fellowship. I previously held a hybrid EM and critical care position.  I completed critical care medicine fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania, after a combined emergency medicine/internal medicine residency. I have had the pleasure to serve as a two-term councilor and the secretary/finance chair for the past cycle.

Over the several years, I have had the opportunity to plan and organize the scientific assembly Breviloquent competitions, help continue the CCMS mentorship program and publish in Common Sense with other leaders in the CCMS, while helping to advance the future of EM critical care.  I have been a member of the CCMS through residency, fellowship, and early career attending life. Attending regular section meetings has afforded the opportunity to meet motivated and passionate leaders in the field of EM critical care, participate in multiple webinars, and speak on a national level.

Within critical care my interests are advanced airway and ventilator management, procedural competency, and multi-disciplinary collaboration particularly related to palliative and end of life care. Outside of critical care, I have a particular interest in medical education, mentorship, and physician mental health.

As CCMS chair elect I hope to aid the chair and section leadership to advance critical care interest and knowledge among medical students, residents, and the emergency medicine community at large through the collaboration with the RSA and other intensivists across specialties.

Emergency medicine critical care is a vibrant and rapidly growing community. I believe my diverse training background and passion for education make me an ideal candidate to continue to serve the AAEM Critical Care Medicine Section.

Thank you for your consideration,

Frederick Gmora, DO FAAEM

Currently I am a councilor for the AAEM Critical Care Medicine Section (CCMS-AAEM) and would be honored to serve as secretary next year on the CCMS-AAEM. I have been fortunate to have excellent and substantial experiences with critical care and emergency medicine between by residency and two fellowships at Shock Trauma and Penn. I also served over ten years, and counting, with the Army National Guard as a physician. My past experiences have offered a unique and exceptional exposure to multiple areas of resuscitative, surgical, and trauma critical care. I would be excited to continue my commitment to academic medicine, advocating for new trainees, and shaping our subspecialty forward into a growing field.  As a councilor on the CCMS-AAEM, I worked hard engaging more trainees to ensure better mentorship and resources to successfully emerge into the critical care field. I also have spearheaded efforts to develop critical care resources for emergency medicine physicians with the work still ongoing. Societal outreach and advocacy for our field is crucial, and I would strive to engage more members and partnerships as secretary. More than ever, we need a unified and engaged emergency medicine-critical care specialty for better career opportunities, stronger relationships, and pathways to ongoing growth. As secretary, I would work hard to promote meaningful involvement from members, spearhead outreach for growing engagement, and continue to build on the work our section has done from years prior. I am excited for the future of our section and look forward to continuing my efforts as secretary next year.

Hello, my name is Troy Rivera and I am an ED/intensivist.  I graduated from Temple University EM residency in 2022 and just finished my critical care fellowship at Cooper University Hospital in June of last year.   I currently work in an interdisciplinary intensive care unit in southern Indiana as well as work per diem in the Emergency Department.  I am running to be a councilor in the CCMS-AAEM section.  As a new graduate of both specialties, I am extremely passionate about medical education, QI projects, sepsis, and resuscitation science.  I believe as emergency medicine physicians, we have a responsibility to be extremely facile in the complexities of caring for a critically ill patient. ED boarding and overcrowding is at an all-time high and so it falls on our specialty to not only resuscitate but also stabilize and de-resuscitate these patients if needed.  As a member of this section, I would love to be involved with helping improve how we care for critically ill patients as well as encouraging and enabling future EM physicians to feel empowered to go on to do critical care training if they so desire. 

I am a broadly trained clinician-scientist and educator with expertise in emergency medicine, critical care medicine, and cardiovascular biophysics. I have twenty years of research and clinical experience practicing emergency and critical care medicine in community, academic, and battlefield settings. I am currently running for a Councilor position on AAEM’s Critical Care Medicine Section.

After completing residency at the MetroHealth/Cleveland Clinic Emergency Medicine Residency Program, I spent seven years in community and military practice which included multiple combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Upon completing my military obligations, I joined the faculty in the Emergency Department at Wake Forest School of Medicine where my basic science and clinical research focused on critical illness. I then completed my critical care medicine fellowship training at the University of Michigan before returning to Wake Forest School of Medicine in Charlotte, NC where I practice at Carolinas Medical Center. My current practice environment spans the spectrum of adult critical care as I attend in medical, neurosurgical, and cardiac ICUs.

My primary focus as a Councilor will be expand job opportunities for emergency medicine-trained intensivists interested in working predominantly in the ICU. Much like emergency medicine over the past decade, intensivist jobs are under threat from multiple directions and emergency physicians are particularly vulnerable. This includes mid-level encroachment and hiring biases that favor our internal medicine and anesthesia colleagues.

I will advocate for policies that preserve physician leadership in the ICU and fight against movements to replace physician expertise with expanded mid-level labor. I will advocate for research and education opportunities that align with critical care training both in the ED and ICU. Finally, I will work to expand AAEM’s role as a resource for employment networking and leadership development within the intensivist cadre.

I appreciate your support and consideration.

I am excited to self-nominate for the position of AAEM/RSA Representative for the Critical Care Medicine Section. As an enthusiastic member of AAEM/RSA and a resident with a keen interest in critical care, I am eager to contribute to the development of our section by fostering stronger engagement, mentorship, and educational opportunities for residents and students.

Throughout my residency, I have developed a passion for critical care medicine, both in clinical practice and education. I’ve had the privilege of working with outstanding mentors and colleagues who have shaped my approach to patient care and academic collaboration. This experience has inspired me to give back to the next generation of residents and students by helping to create an inclusive environment where we can share knowledge, resources, and opportunities for growth.

Working in the department has strengthened my organizational, communication, and teamwork skills—skills I am excited to apply to this position. I hope to enhance our section by increasing access to specialized educational content, fostering mentorship opportunities, and hosting networking events that not only enhance critical care education but also connect residents and students with experienced professionals in the field.

If elected, I aim to prioritize initiatives that promote both professional development and a sense of community within the section. I also look forward to representing the voices of residents and students at the national level, ensuring that our needs and ideas are communicated effectively to the AAEM/RSA Board of Directors.

Thank you for considering my candidacy. I am excited for the opportunity to work collaboratively with you all to advance the Critical Care Medicine Section and strengthen our collective future in the field.

I was extremely fortunate that I was able to complete a rotation in the medical ICU as a medical student. It was because of this positive experience that I hope to pursue critical care following residency. In this role as an AAEM representative, I hope to share with others what drew me to this specialty by organizing more opportunities for learners to engage with various aspects of critical care.
I also believe that a large responsibility associated with this role is being able to advocate for other AAEM and section members. I want to be able to use social media and other platforms to connect directly with members so I can better understand everyone’s needs and share upcoming networking events or mentorship opportunities. Despite my positive experience as a learner in both emergency medicine and critical care, I felt the large gap between students, residents, and attendings in both specialties making it difficult to explore different interests. In this role, I hope to create a sense of community and belonging between all members.

I am committed to upholding the mission of AAEM/RSA and ensuring that students and residents have access to meaningful educational and professional development opportunities. It would be an honor to serve in this capacity and help strengthen our community. Thank you for your consideration.

I am Kris Grybow. I am a PGY-3 Family medicine Resident who has applied for and been accepted to an Emergency Medicine Fellowship in Jackson, TN. I am currently in the military and excited about expanding my knowledge and skills in the civilian and military market. I want to get involved in emergency medicine advocacy and critical care education and to help push for more critical care educational and developmental opportunities. I believe that continuing to push forward and expanding access to critical care medicine education and emergency medicine education is how we continue to keep the role of the physician at the highest achievable level. I want to use this experience to learn how to best advocate for and expand access to training and certification.

During my Internal Medicine Core I rotated through the hospitals critical care unit, I was involved in managing a patient with multi-organ failure due to septic shock. I worked closely with the intensivist and nursing staff, monitoring vital signs, adjusting medications, and interpreting lab results. I witnessed the complexities of care in a high-stakes environment, learning the importance of timely interventions and clear communication. One defining moment was assisting in the coordination of a family meeting, where we discussed the patient’s prognosis. This experience deepened my understanding of critical care, highlighting the balance between medical expertise, compassion, and teamwork in patient management.

I am eager to become a Critical Care Student Association Representative because I have a strong passion for patient care and an unwavering commitment to advocating for those in need of critical medical attention. Working in a critical care setting requires not only expertise but also compassion, empathy, and the ability to make impactful decisions in high-stress situations. I believe that my dedication to learning these skills now as a medical student to use in my future career, positions me well to contribute to this position.

During my one-year term, I aim to focus on enhancing my ability to communicate between healthcare teams, patients, and their families to ensure that critical care is accessible and effective. I want to learn and be involved with collaborations with multidisciplinary teams to identify areas of improvement in patient care protocols and contribute to the development of evidence-based practices that can positively impact patient outcomes once I am a physician.

Ultimately, I want to continue to work in fostering a supportive, informed, and compassionate critical care environment that prioritizes both patient and healthcare professional well-being so I can bring these skills and experiences into my future as an Emergency Medicine physician.

Kevin Milone is a exemplary emergency medicine resident and highlighted to critical care. He is academically spectacular, having done significant emergency medicine and critical care research and his first two years of residency and has even piloted his own project. He is highly organized in very insightful into the areas of growth for emergency medicine and critical care. I fully expect that he will continue to grow and would make an excellent or as a representative as he takes his talents to national collaborations.

My name is Kevin Milone, and I am a PGY-2 Emergency Medicine resident at Albany Medical Center. I am running for the AAEM Resident Student Association Representative. There are several reasons as to why I believe I am suitable for the position. First, I plan on applying for a Medical ICU fellowship this summer. Beginning in residency, I attended monthly hospital-wide resuscitation meetings. In collaboration between various hospital’s various specialties, such as ICU/EM physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, pharmacists and techs, we reviewed code blues and discussed how to improve patient care. This motivated me to take a more proactive approach.  I began volunteering as a mentor and simulation coordinator for medical students teaching as well beginning research under a Pulmonary/ICU attending for correlating pleural fluid analysis in relation to echocardiograms. Currently, I am leading a quality improvement project for our emergency department that involves the management of post-return of spontaneous circulation (post-ROSC) patients. Alongside three other critical care emergency department attendings, we have organized a stepwise approach for post-ROSC patients in our emergency department using evidence-based medicine. We plan to perform periodic retrospective reviews of such patients to see if there is any correlation between protocol adherence and incidence of re-arrest.  

My experiences during residency make me a great fit for the position. As a Resident and Student Representative, I will promote early interest in the field of critical care. I plan to organize monthly virtual meetings involving resuscitation scenarios in a simulation fashion. I will create a 1-year agenda for different topics in critical care each month and I will provide educational opportunities in a fun and interesting manner, such as solving mystery diagnoses from real case presentations and forming group jeopardy. My overall goal is to provide a continuous educational environment for those interested in critical care medicine.

I am writing to express my sincere interest in the Resident and Student Representative position within AAEM/RSA. As a physician trainee with significant experience in medical research, I am deeply committed to advancing emergency medicine education and fostering mentorship for students and residents. My background as an Assistant professor in Medicinal Chemistry where I routinely interacted and mentored students, provides me with a unique perspective on patient-centered care, particularly in oncologic emergency medicine.

Throughout my academic and professional career, I have demonstrated strong leadership, analytical, and communication skills. I have successfully engaged in research projects, collaborated with interdisciplinary teams, and mentored students in both scientific and medical fields. My ability to coordinate initiatives and work collaboratively with peers aligns well with the responsibilities of this role.

I am particularly drawn to this position as it allows me to contribute directly to student and resident engagement in emergency medicine. I am eager to leverage my experience to assist with organizing webinars, networking events, and mentorship opportunities to support professional growth within the section.

If given the opportunity to serve in this role, my primary objectives would include:

• Attending quarterly section council and membership meetings.
• Ensuring active participation and meaningful contributions to discussions and initiatives.
• Assisting with engagement opportunities.
• Helping to organize webinars, networking, and mentorship programs to enhance recruitment and retention of students and residents.
• Providing regular updates to the AAEM/RSA Board of Directors
• Ensuring transparent communication and alignment with the board’s vision and goals.

I am eager to bring my passion, skills, and dedication to AAEM/RSA and am confident in my ability to make meaningful contributions during my term. Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to the opportunity to discuss how my background and goals align with the vision of AAEM/RSA.

Bernard Wiredu, PhD