Marsha Ford, MD, FACEP
Director, Carolinas Poison Center
Carolinas Medical Center
Charlotte, NC
Dr. Marsha Ford has been an incredible teacher, researcher and political voice for emergency medicine. In addition, her leadership in toxicology has led to a state-of-the-art poison center in North Carolina. At Carolinas Medical Center, Dr. Ford has taught hundreds of emergency medicine residents who, in turn, have gone on to contribute to emergency medicine.
Dr. Ford developed the seminal ACEP research meeting, chaired ACEP’s Educational Meetings Committee, and served the NC College of Emergency Physicians (NCCEP) as president and councillor. She instigated the creation of state legislative and regulatory activities at ACEP by networking with other councillors to introduce and adopt council resolutions, and by co-creating, with New York ACEP, a state legislative video supported by a chapter grant. On behalf of NCCEP, Dr. Ford was instrumental in getting the “Prudent Layperson” legislation passed in North Carolina. She epitomizes the word “dedication” to her chosen field.
Seth Hawkins, MD, FACEP
Assistant Medical Director, Grace Hospital Emergency Department, Morganton, NC
Assistant Medical Director, Burke EMS Special Operations Team
Assistant Professor, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC
Dr. Seth Hawkins is a true pioneer in wilderness EMS (WEMS). He was co-founder of one of the first wilderness medicine student interest groups and he is also founder and current executive director of The Appalachian Center for Wilderness Medicine — a unique, non-profit institution that brings together regional emergency and wilderness medicine professionals through an innovative, collaborative model.
Dr. Hawkins is helping to develop one of the country’s first WEMS baccalaureate degree programs at Western Carolina University, and is associate editor of Wilderness Medicine magazine and medical advisor for NC Outward Bound. He provides medical direction for a WEMS team in the Linville Gorge area, and was named a Fellow of the Academy of Wilderness Medicine the first year this fellowship was awarded. He pursues these activities while working a full clinical schedule in a busy community emergency department, where he serves as assistant medical director.
John A. Marx, MD, FACEP
Chair, Department of Emergency Medicine, Carolinas Medical Center, Charlotte, NC
Adjunct Professor of Emergency Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Dr. John A. Marx is a leader in academic emergency medicine whose research emphasis is trauma and alcohol-related emergencies. He is a former president of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM). Dr. Marx is editor-in-chief of Rosen’s Emergency Medicine: Concepts and Clinical Practice (5th-7th editions) and was a member of the founding editorial boards of Academic Emergency Medicine, Journal of Emergency Medicine, UpToDate-Emergency Medicine and Emergindex (Microindex).
Dr. Marx has been writing for Journal Watch Emergency Medicine since the publication’s launch in 1997 and has been deputy editor since 2002. He has received the “Hal Jayne Academic Excellence Award” (SAEM, 1991), the “ACEP Contribution to Education Award” (2000), “The David K. Wagner Award” (AAEM, 2004) and the “SAEM Leadership Award” (2006).
Abhi Mehrotra, MD, FACEP
Assistant Medical Director, Associate Residency Director and Assistant Professor
Department of Emergency Medicine
University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, NC
Dr. Abhi Mehrotra’s contributions to emergency medicine have been at the local, regional and national levels. He is involved in the operation of his tertiary-care hospital’s emergency department and the training of its residents. His state and regional involvement includes chairing North Carolina ACEP’s annual program in 2007, as well as serving as an alternate ACEP councillor.
On a national level, Dr. Mehrotra has served on the Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association’s board of directors as the liaison to the ACEP board of directors. He has also participated in multiple College committees and currently serves as chair of ACEP’s Young Physician’s Section. As part of his duties at the University of North Carolina Hospitals (UNCH), Dr. Mehrotra shares responsibility for emergency department operations, including co-chairing the multidisciplinary Clinical Operations Group and chairing its Throughput Committee. He also serves as chair of UNCH’s Adult Sedation Committee.
Daniel G. Sayers, MD, FACEP
Emergency Physician, Forsyth Memorial Hospital
Clinical Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Forsyth County Medical Examiner
Winston-Salem, NC
Dr. Daniel G. Sayers worked as a teacher for 10 years at Bowman Gray School of Medicine with a major emphasis on EMS’ transportation of patients with sudden or catastrophic medical problems and trauma care before moving to Forsyth Memorial Hospital. The premier accomplishment of his career has been to be included on the leadership of various groups that have sprung from ACEP, and to have been taught by such illustrious physicians as Dr. George Podgorny and Dr. Frederick Glass, both of whom have been remarkably able and inspiring mentors.
Dr. Sayers previously served as president of the North Carolina ACEP Chapter and as an ACEP councillor. He also sat on the ACEP Council Steering and Clinical Policy Committees. He has also been an ABEM senior oral board examiner and a Forsyth-Stokes-Davie County Medical Society Delegate to the NCMS House of Delegates. He has received multiple awards and honors for his career achievements.
Robert W. Schafermeyer, MD, FACEP
Associate Chairman and Chief, Department of Emergency Medicine, Carolinas Medical Center, Charlotte, NC
Professor of Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC
Dr. Schafermeyer has been a leader in emergency medicine and pediatric emergency medicine for more than three decades. He received the “John G. Wiegenstein Leadership Award” from ACEP and the “George Podgorny Service Award” from North Carolina ACEP. He has served as a member of ACEP’s board of directors and as president of both ACEP and North Carolina ACEP. He served on the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine’s board of directors and chaired the Pediatric Emergency Medicine Sub-board, representing the American Board of Emergency Medicine.
Dr. Schafermeyer helped build a vigorous residency program and department of emergency medicine at Carolinas Medical Center and has been a leading emergency physician in North Carolina. He has served on and chaired numerous local, state and national committees throughout his career. His passions are pediatric emergency medicine, trauma care, resuscitation and injury control.
Vivek Tayal, MD
Director, Emergency Ultrasound
Carolinas Medical Center
Charlotte, NC
Dr. Vivek Tayal served and taught emergency medicine in the U.S. Air Force after residency. Following his return to Carolinas Medical Center, he represented emergency medicine nationally in his efforts to establish emergency ultrasound into practice during the last decade. He served as an ACEP councillor, as a member of North Carolina ACEP’s board of directors and as its president from 2006 to 2007, during which he fought efforts to dilute current emergency medicine board certification at the state level. He also served as chair for the ACEP section of emergency ultrasound in 2001 and again in 2008, and serves as ACEP’s liaison to the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine.
Dr. Tayal has received numerous awards and recognitions from his residents and peers for his ability to teach clinical skills and the application of bedside ultrasound, and for his contributions to the research foundation of emergency ultrasound.
Victoria L. Thornton, MD, MBA, FACEP
Director, Pain Management and Palliative Care in Emergency Medicine
Assistant Professor, Department of Surgery
Duke University Medical Center
Durham, NC
Dr. Victoria Thornton is celebrating 25 years of emergency medicine practice. She attended high school in Rome, Italy, and began her career as an interpreter/translator after attending the University of Grenoble, France. She graduated from the Georgetown University School of Medicine, was a resident in the Georgetown/George Washington/MIEMMS emergency medicine program and later obtained a Master’s in Business Administration from the Johns Hopkins University.
She has worked in a variety of practice settings, including pre-hospital, community and academic, and has served as emergency department and regional director with a large emergency medicine practice management group and at the Duke University Medical Center Emergency Department. She currently leads research and education on pain management and palliative care in emergency medicine at Duke. An active ACEP member, Dr. Thornton has served as councillor and chair for several committees and sections, and was recently appointed as the ACEP representative to the ACGME.
Judith E. Tintinalli, MD, MPH, FACEP
Professor and Chair Emeritus
Founding Chairman, Department of Emergency Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NCDr. Judith Tintinalli is one of the world’s leading emergency medicine educators. She is best known as editor of Tintinalli’s Emergency Medicine: A Comprehensive Study Guide, with its first edition published by the American College of Emergency Physicians in 1978, and now in its 6th McGraw-Hill edition. The textbook has editions in Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Polish and Turkish, among other languages. She is editor-in-chief of McGraw-Hill’s AccessEmergencyMedicine.com, the world’s first digital collection of electronic resources specifically devoted to emergency medicine.
Dr. Tintinalli was president of the American Board of Emergency Medicine from 1989 to 1990, was the founding president of the Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors and was chairman of the Liaison Residency Committee (forerunner of the ACGME-sponsored Residency Review Committee). Dr. Tintinalli was deputy editor of the Annals of Emergency Medicine from 1994 to 2005, and she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine, in 1997.
