During college, she met her husband Robert. They were married on Mackinac Island right before Dr. Cowling started her internship at Ingham Regional Medical Center in Lansing, Michigan, where she was able to learn and train with Dr. John Wiegenstein.

After internship, she continued her training in Lansing at Sparrow Hospital, doing her residency in emergency medicine and finishing as chief resident in 1995. Dr. Cowling was offered the position as core faculty in a new residency in Saginaw, Michigan. Taking a risk that teaching others how to practice emergency medicine was going to be her passion, she took the job which she then had for two decades until taking over the role as program director this past year. Dr. Cowling attributes ACEP’s Teaching Fellowships to helping her gain the knowledge and courage to tackle this incredible role.

Dr. Cowling has worked with the Michigan Chapter for over 25 years, serving on the Board of Directors and as Chapter President. The Chapter awarded her their highest awards—the Ron Krome Award and the Legacy Award. Dr. Cowling was elected to the national ACEP Board of Directors in 2005. After her term on the Board was completed, she was appointed commissioner by Governor Rick Snyder to serve on Michigan’s Certificate of Need, which she is still involved with today.

When not teaching or working clinically, Dr. Cowling and her husband are always seeking out adventures either playing with the German shepherds, watching movies, or going on trips to explore new places.

Amazingly, Dr. Cowling has also taken on getting her MBA, which she hopes to complete in spring 2017.

James D. Mills Outstanding Contribution to Emergency Medicine Award

Lewis R. Goldfrank, MD, FACEP

Dr. Goldfrank has worked at Bellevue Hospital Center and New York University Medical Center for the last 37 years. He is currently the Herbert W. Adams Professor of the Ronald O. Perelman Department of Emergency Medicine at New York University. He recently retired as the first chairman of the department. He is also the medical director of the New York City Health Department’s Poison Center. He attended Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, and the University of Brussels, Belgium.

His efforts have led to the development of NYU’s emergency medicine and medical toxicology residencies. He served as chair of the American Board of Emergency Medicine’s sub-board on medical toxicology, the American Board of Medical Toxicology, and the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine. His entire career has been spent working in the public hospitals of New York City emphasizing the role of emergency medicine in improving access to care, public health, public policy, and medical humanism.