These qualities of servant leadership have served me well and will be ideal to aid in running a successful Council. To be able to devote myself to serving the needs of the individual councillor allows me to focus on meeting the needs of the Council itself. This leadership skill helps develop individual members to bring out the best in themselves and encourages self-expression, facilitates personal growth, and builds a sense of community and joint ownership. Servant leaders are felt to be effective because the needs of followers are so looked after that they reach their full potential and, hence, perform at their best. I really look at this leadership trait as working for the Council rather than leading it, per se. The strength of this way of looking at leadership is that it forces one away from self-serving, domineering leadership and makes one who is leading think harder about how to respect, value, and motivate people working with them. I look forward to the potential opportunity to serve the Council in this capacity.

Council Vice Speaker

The following members are candidates for ACEP Council Vice Speaker.

Sabina Braithwaite, MD, MPH, FACEP, FAEMS (Missouri)

Current Professional Positions: associate professor of emergency medicine and EMS fellowship director, Washington University in St. Louis; clinical educator, Teleflex

Internships and Residency: medical internship, Medical College of Virginia, Richmond; emergency medicine residency, Medical College of Hampton Roads, Norfolk

Medical Degree: MD, Medical College of Virginia (1991)

Response

Both Council officers and Board members must maintain awareness of issues facing not only the organization itself but emergency medicine in general so they are best able to facilitate ACEP’s mission to support quality emergency care and promote the interests of emergency physicians. Both groups must be able to:

• entertain views on various sides of the issues
• step back and look through the lens of the organization or the profession, not solely their personal opinion
• recognize their fiduciary responsibility to the organization and its members

At the most basic level, Council officers are primarily being asked to use their meeting management skills to constructively lead a fast-paced, intense, and often passionate and emotionally charged meeting to a productive conclusion reflective of the will of the Council. Their job is to bring hundreds of voices into one with a sense of community with the Council as well as a sense of humor. Their responsibility carries forward between Council meetings in their work with the Steering Committee, looking for ways for the Council to be most effective in being the voice of the membership, and working with the Board to accomplish the organization’s priorities as identified in the annual meeting. In contrast, the Board is a contemplative team that thoughtfully and thoroughly reviews, considers, and responds to issues facing the organization, the members, and our field of practice, with a considerably different timeline than the Council.