Meet our Team

Dr. Kevin Biese serves as an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine (EM) and Internal Medicine, Vice-Chair of Academic Affairs, and Co-Director of the Division of Geriatrics Emergency Medicine at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill School of Medicine as well as a consultant with West Health. With the support of the John A. Hartford and West Health Foundations, and alongside Dr. Ula Hwang, he serves as Co-PI of the national Geriatric Emergency Department Collaborative. He is grateful to chair the first Board of Governors for the ACEP Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation Program. His passion is for improved education and systems of care for older adults, and he has published multiple materials in both these areas.

Dr. Chris Carpenter is dual-board certified in Emergency Medicine and Internal Medicine and is Professor in Emergency Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis. His funded research interests include diagnostics, dementia, falls prevention, and implementation science. He is on the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine Board of Directors as well as the American College of Emergency Physicians Clinical Policy Committee. He is also Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Academic Emergency Medicine, Associate Editor of both Annals of Internal Medicine’s ACP Journal Club and the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. He co-led the collaboration to develop the American College of Emergency Physician/American Geriatrics Society Geriatric Emergency Department Guidelines As well as the International Standards for Reporting of Implementation Research (StaRI) reporting guidelines. He is also faculty for Emergency Medical Abstracts and Best Evidence in Emergency Medicine courses, as well as a contributor to Skeptics Guide to Emergency Medicine and Sketchy EBM.

Dr. Teresita Hogan is a Professor of Medicine and Director of Geriatric Emergency Medicine at the University of Chicago Medicine. Her clinical research interest are Geriatric EM, Quality Improvement, Emergency Pain Management, Emergency Management of Falls in Older Adults, and Models of Care. Dr. Hogan is the ACEP representative to the AGS and serves on the executive committee Section for Enhancing Geriatric Understanding and Expertise among Surgical and Medical Specialists. She is an expert in graduate medical education and led the expert consensus process to establish The Geriatric Competencies for Emergency Medicine Residents.

She has also worked on identifying the number and characteristics of geriatric emergency departments across the United States and is a member of the GEDA Board of Governors.

Dr. Ula Hwang is the Medical Director for Geriatric Emergency Medicine at New York University and a core investigator at the GRECC (Geriatrics Research, Education and Clinical Center) at the James J. Peters Bronx VAMC. Her research focuses on improving the quality of care older adults receive in the ED setting that ranges from observational studies of analgesic safety and effectiveness in older patients to multi-center implementation science studies of geriatric emergency care interventions. Hwang currently co-PIs the Geriatric Emergency Department Collaborative and is the PI on the Geriatric Emergency care Applied Research (GEAR) network.

Dr. Michael Malone is the Medical Director of Aurora Health Care – Senior Services and the Aurora at Home. He is a Clinical Adjunct Professor of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. He also serves as the Director of the Geriatrics Fellowship Program at Aurora Health Care. Dr. Malone received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas; he completed his internal medicine residency and geriatric fellowship training at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in Milwaukee. His Aurora Health Care practice is to home-bound older persons in inner-city Milwaukee.

As the Program Director of the Geriatric Emergency Department Collaborative (GEDC), Aaron Malsch leads and supports the implementation of the Geriatric Emergency Department (GED) model of care internationally. The GEDC is dedicated to improving the quality of care for older people in the emergency department through education, implementation, and evaluation at the individual, unit, site, system, and regional levels. He is board-certified as a Gerontological Clinical Nurse Specialist (GCNS-BC).

Previously, Aaron focused on nursing and inter-professional practice as it relates to the elder population throughout the Advocate Health system of clinics, hospitals, emergency departments, home care services, and long term setting partners. He has developed expertise in rapid, system level implementation, sustainable improvement in practice, research, and demonstrated outcomes. He has also created a nationally recognized Geriatric Emergency Department program with 22 Advocate Health sites achieving ACEP Geri ED accreditation. Aaron contributes nationally to the improvement of care for older adults, as the Chair of the geriatric committee at the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA), GEDC Core Faculty, and reviewer for Geriatric ED Accreditation (GEDA) program at American College of Emergency Physicians.

Dr. Don Melady is an emergency physician at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, Canada and a founding member of the Geriatric Emergency Department Collaborative. He is the author of the website www.geri-EM.com – a CME accredited program for geriatric emergency medicine education – and the chair of the Geriatric EM committee of the International Federation of Emergency Medicine.

Alex Ostberg is a Program Manager for the GEDC. He received his MPH from the UNC Gillings School of Public Health in 2022, while concurrently working in the UNC Emergency Department as the chief medical scribe. Prior to this, Alex received his BS in Human Biology from Stanford University. Alex was a certified EMT in Connecticut for 4 years where he was an active volunteer for Darien EMS – Post 53. He is excited to combine his clinical skillset and academic knowledge with the GEDC platform to improve care in older adults.

Dr. Christina Shenvi is a tenured associate professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of North Carolina. She is fellowship-trained in Geriatric Emergency Medicine and is the founder of GEMCast, a podcast about Geriatric EM. She has previously served on the Geriatric ED Accreditation board of governors and as a GEDA application reviewer. She has extensive expertise in geriatric EM care and education is a frequent keynote speaker. She has received multiple speaking and teaching awards, including the ACEP Outstanding Speaker of the Year. She serves as medical director of the GEDC’s consulting services.

Heather Wojtarowicz is the Communications Manager of the Geriatric Emergency Department Collaborative. She received her BA in Strategic Communications and BS in Sociology from Arkansas State University. Before joining the Geriatric Emergency Department Collaborative, Heather has worked with multiple nonprofits such as Girl Scouts and Habitat for Humanity as a communications professional.

Dr. Danya Khoujah is an emergency physician with a keen interest in geriatric emergencies and medical education. She completed her emergency medicine residency and faculty development fellowship at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, where she continues to serve as voluntary faculty. She practices clinically in Tampa, Florida, and is part of the writing group of the Geriatric ED Guidelines, namely the delirium and medication safety sections. She has developed educational content for healthcare practitioners locally, nationally, and internationally, with numerous lectures, podcasts, and manuscripts, mostly focused on emergency neurology and geriatrics.