WACEP 2022 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 2022 Resident Advocacy Awards:
Paul Benz, MD & Rudi Zurbuchen, MD

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. Paul Benz (MCW) is honored for being a role model role model for his colleagues. He served as a chief resident and received accolades for his medical student teaching. He is involved in research and helping his classmates and faculty to become better teachers at the bedside, recently presenting his work at a national meeting. He is additionally a skilled clinician and is appreciated by patients for his kind and compassionate nature.

• Dr. Rudi Zurbuchen (UW) is honored for her work as an EMRA Program Representative, Resident Wellness Committee Chair and for her volunteer time with the Wisconsin Senior Center spending time on health fairs, healthy cooking demos and playing violin for seniors during their socials.

WACEP Past President's Award:
Bradley Burmeister, MD, FACEP

While the COVID-19 continued to change how Dr. Burmeister imagined his year as President would look he nonetheless put forth an incredible effort to steer WACEP through some very trying times.

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

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:

• 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.