Rebecca B. Bloch, MD
Assistant Medical Director
Emergency Medicine
Maine Medical Center
Portland, ME

Dr. Rebecca Bloch is the Medical Director at Brighton FirstCare and an Assistant Medical Director at Maine Medical Center’s Emergency Department. She serves as the Medical Director for the SANE program at MMC, and directs their Women's Health curriculum. She is Board certified in Emergency Medicine and is an assistant Professor at Tufts University School of Medicine. Dr. Bloch received her medical degree from University of California San Diego Medical School.

Robert Dachs, MD
Vice Chairman, Department of Emergency Medicine Research
Director, Ellis Hospital Family Medicine Residency Program
Ellis Hospital
Schenectady, NY

Dr. Robert Dachs is the Vice-Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Ellis Hospital in Schenectady, NY. He is also Clinical Associate Professor of Family Medicine at the Ellis Hospital Family Medicine Residency Program, and is the previous Research Director for this residency program. Dr. Dachs graduated New York Medical College in 1985. He spent 2 years in General Surgery Residency at Baystate Medical Center, Springfield, MA before moving on to and completing a Family Medicine Residency in Middletown, CT in 1991. Since then, Dr. Dachs has practiced Emergency Medicine full-time in the Albany-Schenectady region of New York State. During his career, Dr. Dachs has published extensively on a variety of acute and primary care topics. He has lectured nationally for many years on broad range of topics and is a faculty member for the AAFP Board Review courses. He also developed the first Continuing Education program on Emergency and Urgent Care for Family Physicians for AAFP in 2001. He has received “Teacher of the year” awards on a number of occasions from his residents and continues to have a passion for teaching.

Joseph Garry, MD, FACSM, FAAFP
Associate Professor
Sports Medicine Division
Department of Family Medicine & Community Health
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN

Dr. Joseph Garry is an Associate Professor in the Sports Medicine Division of the Department of Family Medicine & Community Health at the University of Minnesota. Prior to the University of Minnesota, he was at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University where he initiated their Sports Medicine Fellowship program and served as the director of that fellowship for 10 years. He has authored over 35 manuscripts and chapters and has spoken both nationally and internationally on topics in Sports Medicine.

George L. Higgins III, MD, FACEP
Emeritus Professor of Emergency Medicine
Maine Medical Center
Tufts University of Medicine
Portland, ME

Dr. George L. Higgins III graduated from Tufts University School of Medicine, is board certified in both Emergency Medicine and Internal Medicine, is a Fellow in the American College of Emergency Physicians, and holds the rank of Professor at Tufts University School of Medicine. For many years, he chaired MMC’s Department of Emergency Medicine, where he was privileged to advance the academic mission of the department and to be involved with the establishment of a successful training program in Emergency Medicine. His career path eventually provided him with attractive administrative opportunities, initially as the Associate Vice President of Performance Improvement and then as the Chief Medical Officer and Vice President for Medical Affairs for the institution. Most recently he has returned to his true passion of caring for patients and teaching residents, midlevel providers and medical students about the exciting field of Emergency Medicine.

Brian Lin, MD
Attending Physician, Kaiser Permanente San Francisco
Assistant Clinical Professor
University of California, San Francisco
San Francisco, CA

Dr. Brian Lin is an ABEM-certified Emergency Physician. He graduated AOA from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 2005. He completed Emergency Medicine residency at the Stanford/Kaiser program in 2008, after which he served for one year as the Academic & Administrative Fellow (formerly Chief Resident). He is currently in active clinical practice at Kaiser Permanente, San Francisco. He is a volunteer Assistant Professor at UCSF and regularly lectures to emergency medicine residents at the UCSF/SFGH and Stanford/Kaiser programs. Dr. Lin’s significant achievements in the field of Emergency Medicine include: Winner of the award for Best Faculty Discussant in the Clinical Pathological Case Competition, ACEP Scientific Assembly Finals 2009. Received the Outstanding Foundations of Patient Care Preceptor Award (2013), awarded by the medical students of UCSF. Served as an invited faculty at AAEM Scientific Assembly (2011), Cal-ACEP Yosemite (2013), UCSF High Risk Emergency Medicine (2012-2014), and ACEP Scientific Assembly (2011-2013). More recently, he has spoken at the Society for Emergency Medicine Physician Assistant (SEMPA) 2017 conference and was an invited guest faculty at the Universidad Católica EM residency in Santiago, Chile.

Belinda Vail, MD
David M. Hueben Professor and Chair
Department of Family Medicine
University of Kansas, School of Medicine
Kansas City, KS

Dr. Belinda Vail is Professor and Chair of the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Kansas School of Medicine. Dr. Vail graduated and received her residency training from the University of Kansas School of Medicine. She later completed a fellowship in Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA and a fellowship at the AAFP National Institute for Program Director Development, Leawood, KS.

Her clinical practice includes procedures and maternity and inpatient care, and she teaches students in all four years of medical school, nurse practitioner students, and residents during all of these clinical activities. She is also an active didactic teacher in the schools of medicine and nursing and in the residency program. Dr. Vail is Medical Director for Community Living Opportunities, a residential facility for developmentally disabled adults, and participates in oversight for the Kansas Department of Corrections and for the Kansas Department of Aging and Disability.

She is a core lecturer for several CME programs for the American Academy of Family Physicians, was the director of the National Board Review Course for 15 years, and continues to present in the AAFP Board Review Express course. A member of AOA, the Gold Humanism Society, and the Delp Society, her awards include the Rainbow Award for Heroes in Medicine, the Kansas Academy of Family Medicine Exemplary Teacher Award, The Nason Family Award for Excellence in Teaching in Family Medicine, and the University of Kansas Bohan Award for Teaching.