2020 Alumni Award Recipients

Each year, through our Alumni Awards, we recognize the exceptional accomplishments of the alumni of our residency program in emergency medicine. Awards recognize excellence in the following categories:  Research, Education, Service, Health Administration, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, and a Rising Star award for an alumnus who is less than or equal to 6 years post training. We are delighted to announce the following alumni as winners of the 2020 awards.

Research

The Excellence in Research Award honors an alumnus/alumna with high achievement in research and discovery. Awardees will demonstrate a record of research innovation and productivity, a scientific publication of particularly high quality, or development of important, funded research programs, centers, or institutes

 

Dr. Carter is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine (School of Medicine) and Health Behavior & Health Education (School of Public Health) at the University of Michigan. He is also the Director of the CDC-funded University of Michigan Injury Prevention Center and part of the leadership team for the NICHD-funded Firearm Safety among Children and Teens (FACTS) Consortium. Dr. Carter’s research is within the field of firearm injury prevention, specifically the development, testing, and implementation of emergency department (ED)‐based interventions to decrease firearm violence, youth violence, and associated risk behaviors such as substance use among high‐risk urban youth populations. He also has a line of research focused on using intensive longitudinal data, collected via innovative m-health applications, to characterize epidemiological and contextual factors underlying adolescent risky firearm behaviors. He is the current Chair of the ACEP Trauma and Injury Prevention Section, serves as an Assistant Editor for the Annals of Emergency Medicine, and has served as a member of the Technical Advisory Group focused on developing a firearm research agenda for the American College of Emergency Physicians. Dr. Carter has research funding as a PI or Co-I on grants from NIDA, NIAAA, CDCP, and NICHD, all focused within the field of violence and injury prevention.

Education

The Excellence in Education Award honors an alumnus/alumna dedicated to medical education who has a record of outstanding teaching effectiveness, possesses the ability to inspire, promote, and sustain the intellectual development of learners, and/or develops innovative educational courses and programs.

Dr. Krywko is a Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). Dr. Krywko actively engages by lecturing to residents, nurses, nurse practitioners and physician assistants. She is recognized as an inspiring teacher and has excellent teaching evaluations. Dr. Krywko has been nominated for the Golden Apple Award, the ACEP Faculty Teaching Award and MUSC Educational Excellence Award. The EM Residents have awarded her the Platinum Podium Award for didactic education contributions and the Ultimate Fighter Award for 4 years for clinical resident advocacy. Dr. Krywko passionately mentors students, residents and faculty within the MUSC College of Medicine, the EM Division and residency program. Many mentees have become chief residents, fellows and published authors.

Dr. Krywko re-established the Women’s Mentoring Group for EM and pediatric residents as well as assuming the role of EM Division Mentoring Champion as well as Division Chair of Faculty Development and Mentoring. She founded EM*Ppowered, a personal and professional development and wellness curriculum and program, as well as a residency committee of the same. Outside of EM, Dr. Krywko co-developed the Mini-Mentoring Sessions within the ARROWS (formerly WSI) program, providing mentoring meetings for women faculty.

Outside of medicine, she mentors young women by previously leading a girl scout troop and has volunteered for many years in various coaching roles and community service activities.

Service

The Excellence in Service Award honors an alumnus/alumna for exceptional and dedicated service. Awardees will have made significant contributions to the service of vulnerable populations, or of faculty, staff and/or students. This individual will have demonstrated a commitment to facilitating the well-being and success of others

Dr. Hiral Tipirneni came to America from India with her family at the age of 3 and was raised in a suburb of Cleveland. She completed her medical school at Northeast Ohio Medical University and graduated from residency at the University of Michigan, where she served as Chief Resident. She subsequently moved to Phoenix to serve the community there for more than 20 years as an emergency physician, cancer research advocate, and most recently, as a member of the board of directors of the Valleywise Health Foundation. She serves on a number of nonprofit boards of directors, and is actively involved in political advocacy, including running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in the highly competitive AZ-6 race in 2020.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

The Excellence in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award honors an alumnus/alumna who has demonstrated a commitment to enhancing diversity, equity and inclusion on an institutional and/or national level within the clinical or academic workplace, with regard to education and/or patient care.

Dr. Marquita Norman Hicks is an Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine and she serves as the Assistant Dean for Student Inclusion and Diversity at Wake Forest School of Medicine.  She was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas and completed her undergraduate education at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas. She attended medical school at the University of Kansas School of Medicine. She completed her internship at Howard University and residency training at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  Dr. Norman Hicks worked at University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) from 2008-2018 where she previously served as the Director of Community Engagement in the Office for Diversity and Inclusion-Student Affairs. In this role, her responsibilities included implementation and management of K-16 diversity pipeline programs.   Additionally, she completed her MBA from the Collat School of Business at UAB.  In 2019 she transitioned to her current roles at Wake Forest School of Medicine.  She also serves as the Immediate Past-President of the SAEM Academy for Diversity and Inclusion in Emergency Medicine (ADIEM) and the chair of the SAEM Equity and Inclusion Committee.  Dr. Norman Hicks’ professional and community interests include communication skills, DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) education, pre-health education, K-16 healthcare pathways, and healthcare disparities.   Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her young son.  

Health Administration

The Excellence in Health Administration honors an alumnus/alumna who exemplifies how leaders, managers and caregivers proactively collaborate to create programs or system changes that improve patient care.

Dr. Robert McCurdy grew up in Ann Arbor and graduated from Wayne State University School of Medicine in 1993. He completed his residency at University of Michigan in 1996. Upon graduation from residency, he Joined EPMG. From 1997 through 2019, he served in the following roles at St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor: Assistant Medical Director, Medical Director, Department Chair, and Chief of Staff. In 2020, Dr. McCurdy began his current role of Senior Vice President, Envision Healthcare, Emergency Medicine for the Midwest region.

Outside of medicine, Dr. McCurdy enjoys spending time with his family. He has 5 daughters, with the 2 oldest working in healthcare.

Rising Star

The Rising Star Award honors an alumnus/alumna who has demonstrated exceptional leadership in Emergency Medicine through education, research, administration, DEI, or service. The alumnus must be less than or equal to 6 years post training.

Dr. Nathan Haas joined the faculty of the University of Michigan Department of Emergency Medicine and Division of Critical Care in 2018. He completed medical school at the Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, and completed his residency training at the University of Michigan, where he served as Chief Resident.

He works clinically in both the Adult Emergency Department and the Emergency Critical Care Center (EC3). His clinical and scholarly interests include emergency department-based critical care delivery, diabetic ketoacidosis management, and out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, including extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation.