Leadership

Program Director:
Kristiana Kaufmann, M.D., M.P.H.
kkaufman@dmc.org

Kristiana Kaufmann is director of the Global Health Section and the International Emergency Medicine Fellowship at the Wayne State University (WSU) Department of Emergency Medicine. She is also the co-director of the WSU Global Health Alliance and its Global and Urban Health Equity Scholars Program. Dr. Kaufmann is the American College of Emergency Physicians Ambassador to Lao People's Democratic Republic through her long standing work with Health Frontiers, including development of and director of the new Lao EM residency training program. She created the Hands-On Practical Emergency Skills (HOPES) first aid training for incoming students in the WSU School of Medicine and is faculty adviser for the First Aid First WSU student organization aimed at teaching first aid in the Detroit community. Dr. Kaufmann is the Eastern Michigan Region Medical Director for the National Ski Patrol and actively patrols as a Senior patroller and Outdoor Emergency Care course director at Alpine Valley Ski Patrol in White Lake, Michigan. In her spare time, she likes to play catch with her dogs Mork and Mindy and play ping-pong with her family.

Associate Program Director:
Vijaya "Arun" Kumar, M.D., M.P.H.
vkumar@med.wayne.edu

Dr. Kumar completed his medical school and diploma in public health from India, he then completed his residency, fellowship in clinical research in emergency medicine and a master's in public health in the United States. Dr. Kumar is the Director of Research at the Emergency Department of Harper University Hospital, his research focus is cardiovascular emergency medicine and global health, he has authored numerous publications and is the principal investigator for more than 10 clinical studies. Dr. Kumar is a member of the institutional review board at WSU, on the editorial board of Michigan Journal of Public Health and a manuscript reviewer for annals of emergency medicine. He has conducted numerous clinical research workshops around the world and has been invited numerous times to present at International EM conferences or judge their research presentations. His global health interests include development of clinical research, upliftment of women's health and improvement of emergency medicine in resource limited, low and middle-income countries, he is the newly appointed chair of the education section of the EMERGE network. Dr. Kumar is presently the associate director of the global health section in the department of EM. He has been part of multiple collaborative research efforts, networks and in developing EM residencies globally, he is presently working on developing a Global Health Research Collaborative at Wayne State University. Along with doing global work, Dr. Kumar works with the local community at Hamtramck and is on the Wayne Country Health Center Board, working to help improve the health of immigrant population living here. Having worked with multiple countries in developing their research infrastructure he is presently leading the development of a global health research training workshop at Wayne State University which will begin from July 2020.

Assistant Program Director:
Daniel Ridelman M.D., F.A.C.E.P.

dridelma@dmc.org

Dr. Daniel Ridelman was born and raised in Guatemala. After obtaining his MD degree from San Carlos University, Dr. Ridelman moved to Detroit to complete his postgraduate training in Emergency Medicine at the Sinai-Grace Hospital/WSU residency program. Since then, he has been practicing as an attending physician at the Detroit Medical Center and a clinical assistant professor at Wayne State University. Dr. Ridelman is also the founding assistant program director of the International Emergency Medicine fellowship program and he was recently appointed Vice-Chief of the Emergency Department at Harper University Hospital.

As the first Guatemalan Emergency Medicine-trained physician, Dr. Ridelman has been working in his home country for the last few years to help develop the specialty, in close collaboration with local institutions and with Dr. Anthony J. Dean of the University of Pennsylvania. Among other key milestones, he has been part of the organization of the first Emergency Medicine conference, the creation of the Guatemalan Emergency Medicine association (www.agme.org.gt) along with content creation and maintenance of its website, the creation and execution of the first 2 Emergency Medicine residency programs and, more recently, the partnership with the UCLA/EMRAP:GO Innovations and Access in Medical Education fellowship program. Additionally, Dr. Ridelman has established relationships in multiple countries in Latin America and has been invited to speak at Emergency Medicine conferences in El Salvador, Costa Rica, Chile and, most recently, the International Conference on Emergency Medicine 2020 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. As part of his efforts to support Emergency Medicine education in Latin America, Dr. Ridelman is currently leading the translation of Rosh Review as well as Dr. Richard Levitan's EMRA Airway Guide, valuable resources that will be free of cost to all Spanish-speaking EM learners in the region.

Assistant Program Director:
Jeffrey Van Laere, M.D., M.P.H.

jvanla1@hfhs.org