Please join ACEP in congratulating the recipients of the College’s most prestigious awards. Some of these winners will be recognized at the President’s Awards Banquet on Tuesday night, while others will receive their awards at Section, Council, or Research Forum events.

John G. Wiegenstein Leadership Award

Col. Linda L. Lawrence, MD, FACEP

Dr. Lawrence is a Past President and Past Chair of ACEP’s Board of Directors and has served more than 24 years as an emergency physician and physician executive in the Air Force in a variety of roles. She is a recognized executive leader, academician, and clinician, and some highlights of her career include roles as associate professor and commandant at Uniformed Services University School of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland; chief medical officer at David Grant Medical Center in Fairfield, California; chief of the department of emergency medicine at Wilford Hall Medical Center in San Antonio; Air Force Medical Service chief consultant for emergency medicine; deployed deputy hospital commander in Balad, Iraq; hospital commander at Aviano Air Base in Italy; director of healthcare operations for the Air Force Medical Support Agency; and, most recently, special assistant to the Air Force surgeon general for Trusted Care Transformation. She is currently retiring from the Air Force and looks forward to coming back to her roots as an emergency physician and beginning her new role as executive vice president of organizational and cultural integration with US Acute Care Solutions.

Dr. Lawrence and her husband James have two children. Their daughter is a junior at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, and their son is a cadet at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut.

John A. Rupke Legacy Award

Kathleen Cowling, DO, FACEP

Dr. Cowling was born on February 29, 1964, making her a leap year baby. Within 3 months, tragedy struck and took her father in a car accident. Growing up, she and her mother traveled the world, and Dr. Cowling began to develop her love of science and biology early. Skipping grades 8 and 12, she started college at 16 after spending the summer doing research in the physiology lab at Michigan State University (MSU) in East Lansing on cat brains and blood flow changes under increased levels of carbon dioxide. She also became the youngest person in Michigan to become licensed as an EMT.

Completing her BS in physiology at MSU, she had already started graduate level work in biomechanics. She completed her MS while enrolling in the DO program at MSU. She graduated from MSU College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1991, earning their award for the most outstanding woman graduate of the class.