Jeffrey M. Goodloe, MD, FACEP

Current Professional Positions: Attending emergency physician, Hillcrest Medical Center Emergency Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma; professor of emergency medicine, EMS section chief, and director, Oklahoma Center for Prehospital & Disaster Medicine, University of Oklahoma School of Community Medicine, Tulsa; chief medical officer, medical control board, EMS System for Metropolitan Oklahoma City & Tulsa; medical director, Oklahoma Highway Patrol; medical director, Tulsa Community College EMS Education Programs

Internships and Residency: Emergency medicine residency, Methodist Hospital of Indiana/Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis; EMS fellowship, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas

Medical Degree: MD, Medical School at University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (1995)

Response: I will not alone; that is for certain. However, WE, working together can make ACEP an even more welcoming organization to any residency-trained, board-certified emergency physician or emergency physician in training ahead and all current members. The foundation of my beliefs—in ACEP, in ACEP’s potential, and pointedly in US as ACEP members, is how much WE share in common. Let us acknowledge differences and how what we then share helps us navigate these differences when they occur.

With 40,000 members, we will always realize differences in opinion on practically every issue that impacts emergency medicine and our professional lives. The key to finding advocacy that we can support in advancing our specialty and our futures is to recognize that differences do not have to be oppositional junctures. Differences can prove opportunities for learning. Learning can then bring us to a “stronger together” organization. I commit to continuing transparency in my leadership, encouraging any member to communicate directly with me. If I sense that a member feels alienated or is becoming disenfranchised by an official ACEP policy or an advocacy stance, particularly when in development, that is a prime point in which to ask and listen, not assert and talk. I am a believer that the best response to evident difference(s) are these questions: “Can you help me better understand how you see this topic?” and “What am I missing in evaluating this current position?”

Often, we all simply want to be heard. We can all respect democracy and that none of us gets our first choice every time in life. As long as we can effectively communicate—via email, via text, via social media, via phone, and my favorite way, in person—and do so respectfully to each other, then the end result of hearing multiple perspectives and ideals is a product, service, or advocacy stance that is more informed and more inclusive than trying to champion our causes alone. WE really are stronger together.