John G. Wiegenstein Leadership Award

Jay A. Kaplan, MD, FACEP

Dr. Kaplan is medical director of care transformation and director of the Be Well Center for LCMC Health in New Orleans. He is clinical associate professor of medicine at LSU Health Sciences Center and an attending physician and academic faculty for the LSU emergency medicine residency at University Medical Center New Orleans.

Dr. Kaplan is a past President of ACEP and current national faculty for ACEP, as well as a member of the National Academy of Medicine Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience. A graduate of Harvard Medical School, he was named ACEP’s Outstanding Speaker of the Year in 2003. Other honors include the Studer Group Physician Fire Starter Award, Grace Humanitarian Award of the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital Department of Emergency Medicine, and a Letter of Commendation from ACEP in September 2018.

Dr. Kaplan served as chair of the department of emergency medicine and medical staff officer including chief of staff at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, New Jersey. 

James D. Mills Outstanding Contribution to Emergency Medicine Award

James J. Augustine, MD, FACEP

Dr. Augustine is an emergency physician and clinical professor in the department of emergency medicine at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. He is chair emeritus of the National Clinical Governance Board of US Acute Care Solutions.

He served two terms on the ACEP Board of Directors and is on the ACEP Epidemic Expert Panel. He is chair of the task force planning for the future of ACEP’s Clinical Emergency Data Registry. He was chair for The Joint Commission Hospital Professional and Technical Advisory Committee and on the Board of Commissioners. He is Vice President of the Emergency Department Benchmarking Alliance.

He began his career in EMS when in medical school in Dayton. After serving as president of the regional Fire EMS Council, he became the first chair of the Ohio EMS Board. He moved to Atlanta in 2001 and served as medical director for Atlanta Fire Rescue. He later served as assistant fire chief and medical director for the District of Columbia Fire EMS Department. Dr. Augustine is currently medical director for several fire rescue agencies.

John A. Rupke Legacy Award

Jeffrey D. Bettinger, MD, FACEP

A graduate of Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia, Dr. Bettinger completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of Miami. He is board-certified in both internal medicine and emergency medicine.

Upon completing his residency, Dr. Bettinger served as a staff physician and, later, as emergency department medical director for the Emergency Medical Group of Miami (EMG). In the mid-1980s, he built a billing and accounts receivable management system for EMG. In 1997, Dr. Bettinger assumed the role of executive vice president of billing and reimbursement for TeamHealth. 

In 2000, Dr. Bettinger and Dr. John Stimler founded the consulting company Bettinger, Stimler & Associates, LLC (BSA Healthcare).

A 30-year member and former chair of the ACEP Reimbursement Committee, Dr. Bettinger also served as chair of the Florida College of Emergency Physicians’ Medical Economics Committee. He co-chaired ACEP’s Alternative Payment Model Task Force and is the former chair of the ACEP/EDPMA Joint Task Force’s Out-of-Network/Balance Billing Workgroup.

Colin C. Rorrie, Jr, PhD Award for Excellence in Health Policy

Susan M. Nedza, MD, MBA, FACEP

Dr. Nedza is a graduate of Loyola Stritch School of Medicine and completed her emergency medicine residency at Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Illinois. She is a past president of the Illinois College of Emergency Physicians and is the EMS medical consultant to the Illinois Department of Public Health. She has served ACEP as a committee, section, and task force chair and as a member of the Board of Directors.

After completing her master’s of business administration from Northwestern University, she was named a regional chief medical officer for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. She later served as the vice president of quality and patient safety at the American Medical Association.

Pamela P. Bensen Trailblazer Award

Rita A. Manfredi-Shutler, MD, FACEP

Dr. Manfredi is professor of clinical emergency medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, D.C. She received her MD from Brown University in Providence. After a Navy tour, she completed an emergency medicine residency at the University of Massachusetts in Worcester.

She completed a fellowship in health and spirituality at the George Washington Institute for Spirituality and Health and recently became board-certified in hospice and palliative medicine after fellowship training.

Dr. Manfredi served as the past national chair for the ACEP Well-Being Committee and a member and subcommittee chair. She has been a member of the Legislative and Regulatory Committee and served as one of the early board members of the American Association of Women Emergency Physicians before it was designated a section. She is a member of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) Wellness Committee.  In 2020, Dr. Manfredi received the ACEP Wellness Section’s Outstanding Director of Wellness Award.

Judith E. Tintinalli Award for Outstanding Contribution in Education

Michael S. Beeson, MD, FACEP

Dr. Beeson is a graduate of The Ohio State University College of Medicine, having completed his emergency medicine residency training at Akron City Hospital. He also earned an MBA from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. He became a residency director in 1994, a position he continues to hold. He developed online questions and testing for Council of Residency Directors in Emergency Medicine (CORD) and SAEM that were in use for more than 15 years by the majority of residencies and clerkships.

Dr. Beeson is the current Editor in Chief for ACEP’s Critical Decisions in Emergency Medicine. He has been honored to serve as CORD President and has served on the Residency Review Committee for Emergency Medicine, both Milestones working groups, three Model of the Clinical Practice of EM task forces, and most recently on the American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM) Board of Directors.

Judith E. Tintinalli Award for Outstanding Contribution in Education

Michael A. Granovsky, MD, FACEP

Dr. Granovsky is president of LogixHealth, a national ED coding and billing company processing more than 13 million annual encounters. Following completion of his emergency medicine residency, Dr. Granovsky went on to found Greater Washington Emergency Physicians, serving as the chief financial officer. 

For the last 15 years, Dr. Granovsky has served as the director of the ACEP reimbursement course. He is the past chair of national ACEP’s Reimbursement Committee and Coding and Nomenclature Advisory Committee as well as the reimbursement subject matter expert to multiple task forces.

Dr. Granovsky is editor for both ED Coding Alert and the American Academy of Professional Coders CEDC Certification Exam. He has been honored with numerous awards including ACEP Speaker of the Year and the Judith Tintinalli Lifetime Education Achievement Award.

Diane K. Bollman Chapter Advocate Award

Stephanie Butler

Ms. Butler has been the sole staff for the Arizona College of Emergency Physicians (AzCEP) as the executive director since 1999. Over the years, she has assisted in implementing programs such as the annual ED Doc Day @ The Capitol, an EM Research Seed Grant program since 2011, and an EM Opioid Summit since 2018, and she is currently organizing a reception for the chapter’s 50th anniversary. Ms. Butler has worked to keep close ties with all six residencies in the state as well as the six medical schools in Arizona. In addition to her duties with AzCEP, she also is the executive director for the state International Trauma Life Support (ITLS) chapter, organizing and managing the annual ITLS on the River course in Laughlin, Nevada. Over the years, she has served on various national ACEP committees, including National Chapter Relations, State Legislative, and PR, and she currently serves on the Wellness Committee. In addition, she was recently selected as the chair for the Chapter Executives Committee.

Council Meritorious Service Award

Sanford H. Herman, MD, FACEP

Dr. Herman received his MD from the American University of the Caribbean and trained in general surgery in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He began his practice of emergency medicine in 1986 and has been a member of ACEP since that time, participating actively in the Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee chapters.

At the national level, Dr. Herman has been a councillor since 1989 and was a member of the Council Steering Committee from 2000 to 2002. He was chair of two sections; a member of the Emergency Medicine Practice, Bylaws, and Finance committees; and a member of the first two Work Force Studies and the second ACEP Report Card working group.

Disaster Medical Sciences Award

Joseph A. Barbera, MD

Dr. Barbera is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He completed residencies in family medicine at the University of Connecticut in Mansfield and in emergency medicine at Bronx Municipal/Jacobi Medical Center in Bronx, New York. He is currently associate professor of engineering management and systems engineering at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Barbera was the lead medical subject matter expert for the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the development of the National Urban Search & Rescue (US&R) Response System and for the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance in developing the International Search and Rescue program. 

Dr. Barbera led the development of an effective emergency management program at The George Washington University Hospital in the 1990s and shepherded the implementation of the prototype emergency health care coalition for Washington, D.C. 

Honorary Membership Award

Sally Winkelman

Ms. Winkelman received her bachelor’s of business administration in management and marketing from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and spent most of her career working with nonprofit professional membership organizations. Prior to retiring in June, she served for eight years as an account executive with Badger Bay, a Wisconsin-based association management company where she was the executive director for several statewide medical specialty associations, including the Wisconsin chapter of ACEP.

Ms. Winkelman is honored and humbled to have been selected to receive award. She is especially grateful to the outstanding leadership of Wisconsin ACEP for the nomination. She also wishes to give a shoutout to her “chapter exec” colleagues, each of whom deserves to be recognized for their tremendous support of one another and for serving their state chapters with unwavering dedication and professionalism. 

Outstanding Contribution in Research Award

Ahamed H. Idris, MD, FACEP

Dr. Idris began his medical career in the U.S. Army, trained as a clinical specialist, and served as a medic with the 1st Air Cavalry in Vietnam from 1969 to 1970. He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for meritorious achievement. He discovered his love for biology and medicine while in the Medical Corps. After his military service, he attended Northwestern University and Rush Medical College in Chicago. He did his residency at Cook County Hospital there and was co-author of a study on transfers to a public hospital published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1986. This study led to EMTALA. In 1986, he joined the emergency medicine faculty at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Since 2003, he has been professor of emergency medicine at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and director of the Dallas-Fort Worth Center for Resuscitation Research, which was part of the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium.

Dr. Idris served as the National Chair of Basic Life Support for the American Heart Association and a consultant to the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Army, and NASA. He was the director of the NASA Human Space Flight Rescue Team for the Space Shuttle from 1994 to 2003 and was inducted into the NASA Space Technology Hall of Fame in 2008.

Innovative Change in Practice Management Award

Matthew Rill, MD, FACEP

Dr. Rill is an emergency physician, currently privileged to serve as the CEO of Emergency Resources Group (ERG) and Telescope Health.

Prior to elevation into the role of CEO, he served as medical director of several emergency departments. He also recently co-founded ERG’s newest clinical platform, Telescope Health, whose mission is to improve accessibility and health care connectedness through the use of telemedicine and other health services. Dr. Rill was recently recognized by Trust Across America as a Top Thought Leader in Trust for leadership during the pandemic.

Dr. Rill earned his MD from the University of Florida in Gainesville. In addition to his administrative duties, Dr. Rill still enjoys working as an attending emergency physician, seeing patients with his peers in the emergency departments and via telemedicine.

Outstanding Contribution in EMS Award

Craig A. Manifold, DO, FACEP (posthumous)

Dr. Manifold earned his DO at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and completed his emergency medicine residency at San Antonio’s Wilford Hall Medical Center. Dr. Manifold enlisted in the U.S. Air Force at age 18, and during his military career he served as associate residency director at Wilford Hall Medical Center, EMS initial education director, chief of professional services, and joint surgeon for the Texas National Guard.

He received many awards during his career, including the Legion of Merit, Meritorious Service Medal, Joint Service Commendation, Michael Copass EMS Leadership Award, and the Humanitarian Service Medal. He passed away on Sept. 20, 2020.

Policy Pioneer Award

Jordan GR Celeste, MD, FACEP

Dr. Celeste is an emergency physician with Emergency Physicians of Central Florida. She earned her MD at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore and completed her emergency medicine residency at Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

She is a member of the Florida College of Emergency Physicians’ Board of Directors. She previously served as ACEP representative and president of the Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association and chair of the Emergency Medicine Foundation Board of Trustees.

Community Emergency Medicine Excellence Award

Michael A. McGee, MD, MPH, FACEP

Dr. McGee is a full partner with Vituity Emergency Medicine in Gary and Merrillville, Indiana, as well as president and CEO of Premier Urgent Care and Occupational Health Center in Chicago’s Hyde Park. Dr. McGee has a master’s in public health in epidemiology and biostatistics from the University of Illinois in Chicago and an MD from Rush Medical College in Chicago. He completed his internship and residency in the department of emergency medicine at New York University/Bellevue Hospital Medical Center.

Dr. McGee worked as an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Emory/Grady Medical Center in Atlanta. In March 2008, he became the president and CEO of Northwest Emergency Associates (NEA), LLC. In 2019, NEA merged with Vituity Healthcare, where Dr. McGee is a full partner. He is the chair of the Firearm Violence and Injury Prevention Committee of the ACEP Diversity, Inclusion, and Health Equity Section. He is the founder of a violence prevention nonprofit organization called Project Outreach and Prevention, Inc.  Plus-circle