WACEP 2023 Distinguished Service Award:
Jeffrey Pothof, MD, FACEP

WACEP congratulates Jeffrey Pothof, MD, FACEP as the recipient of this year's WACEP Distinguished Service Award. The award was presented during the Annual Membership Meeting.

Dr. Pothof's nomination was submitted by Dr. Azita Hamedani, over his career, Dr. Pothof has distinguished himself with an extraordinary impact on emergency medicine and beyond. His impacts have been felt locally, regionally, and nationally. Given his selfless and herculean service to our state chapter, national organization, and medicine as a whole.

WACEP 2023 Resident Advocacy Awards:
Sarah Soderberg, MD, MPH (UW) & Sehr Khan, MD (MCW)

In 2018, WACEP introduced the Howard J. Croft Resident Advocate Award in honor of past president and longtime leader in advocacy, Howie Croft.  The award was developed to recognize one resident from each of the two Emergency Medicine Residency Programs in Wisconsin who have demonstrated exemplary advocacy efforts related to the field of emergency medicine and who have acted to advance emergency care. 

• Dr. Sarah Soderberg (UW) has been longitudinally involved with NACHP (Native American Center for Health Professions) in terms of delivering mentorship and education to members of the native community in Wisconsin. She’s also passionate about advancing financial literacy for resident physicians and is developing a curriculum around this

• Dr. Sehr Khan (MCW) has been a strong advocate for the integration of Social Emergency Medicine into resident education. She assisted with the design of a 2-year Social Emergency Medicine Track for the residents. She additionally has been involved over multiple years in the Population Health medical student elective, sharing her passion for ending gun violence in Milwaukee and improving trauma informed care for our patient population. Dr. Khan has served as chief resident this current academic year. As chief, she has been a leader in community engagement, arranging numerous volunteer and fundraising initiatives for Meta House, a Milwaukee Community organization focused on substance abuse recovery for women and their families.

WACEP Past President's Award:
Brian Sharp, MD, FACEP

Under Dr. Sharp's extraordinary leadership, the organization realized some very successful advocacy wins, continued to provide educational and networking opportunities including the Annual Spring Symposium.  He worked to support WACEP membership in a variety of ways and served as a vital role in advocacy and leadership. WACEP is proud to call Dr. Sharp one of our own, and is grateful for his service as President in 2022. 

about the awards

DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD

The WACEP Distinguished Service Award program began in 2018 to annually recognize a WACEP member who has made extraordinary contributions to the advancement of the emergency medicine specialty, and who has demonstrated the ideals of the organization through their ongoing activities and accomplishments.  The recipient will be recognized during the annual WACEP Spring Symposium.

Past Distinguished Service Award recipients include:

• 2022 - Jeffrey Pothof, MD, FACEP
• 2021 - Michael Pulia, MD, MS, FACEP
• 2020 - Michael Repplinger, MD, PhD, FACEP
• 2019 - Howard J. Croft, MD, FACEP
• 2018 - Azita Hamedani, MD, MBA, MPH, FACEP

THE HOWARD J. CROFT RESIDENT ADVOCATE AWARD 

This award will annually recognize a resident from each of the Wisconsin’s Emergency Medicine Residency programs for exemplary advocacy in the field of emergency medicine.  Nominees must act to bring about change that advances the emergency care of our community.  Examples include, but are not limited to, through participating in political advocacy, delivering patient education, and advancing patient centered care.  Nominations are submitted directly from each Residency Program by March 1st. 

THE WILLIAM C. HASELOW COUNCIL TRAVEL AWARD

This award provides up to $1,000 in funding for one resident to attend the annual ACEP Council meeting as an alternate delegate from Wisconsin. The selected resident is expected to attend all Council activities, an informal Wisconsin delegation meeting to discuss reference committee proceedings, and the annual Wisconsin meet-up reception. Nominations are solicited by the WACEP Councillors and the Board of Directors by July 30.