Disaster Medical Sciences Award

Joseph A. Barbera, MD

Dr. Barbera is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He completed residencies in family medicine at the University of Connecticut in Mansfield and in emergency medicine at Bronx Municipal/Jacobi Medical Center in Bronx, New York. He is currently associate professor of engineering management and systems engineering at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Barbera was the lead medical subject matter expert for the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the development of the National Urban Search & Rescue (US&R) Response System and for the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance in developing the International Search and Rescue program. 

Dr. Barbera led the development of an effective emergency management program at The George Washington University Hospital in the 1990s and shepherded the implementation of the prototype emergency health care coalition for Washington, D.C. 

Honorary Membership Award

Sally Winkelman

Ms. Winkelman received her bachelor’s of business administration in management and marketing from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and spent most of her career working with nonprofit professional membership organizations. Prior to retiring in June, she served for eight years as an account executive with Badger Bay, a Wisconsin-based association management company where she was the executive director for several statewide medical specialty associations, including the Wisconsin chapter of ACEP.

Ms. Winkelman is honored and humbled to have been selected to receive award. She is especially grateful to the outstanding leadership of Wisconsin ACEP for the nomination. She also wishes to give a shoutout to her “chapter exec” colleagues, each of whom deserves to be recognized for their tremendous support of one another and for serving their state chapters with unwavering dedication and professionalism. 

Outstanding Contribution in Research Award

Ahamed H. Idris, MD, FACEP

Dr. Idris began his medical career in the U.S. Army, trained as a clinical specialist, and served as a medic with the 1st Air Cavalry in Vietnam from 1969 to 1970. He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for meritorious achievement. He discovered his love for biology and medicine while in the Medical Corps. After his military service, he attended Northwestern University and Rush Medical College in Chicago. He did his residency at Cook County Hospital there and was co-author of a study on transfers to a public hospital published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1986. This study led to EMTALA. In 1986, he joined the emergency medicine faculty at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Since 2003, he has been professor of emergency medicine at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and director of the Dallas-Fort Worth Center for Resuscitation Research, which was part of the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium.

Dr. Idris served as the National Chair of Basic Life Support for the American Heart Association and a consultant to the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Army, and NASA. He was the director of the NASA Human Space Flight Rescue Team for the Space Shuttle from 1994 to 2003 and was inducted into the NASA Space Technology Hall of Fame in 2008.