Due to a genuine interest in helping others, I have spent my entire career building relationships. I’m an active listener, trying to learn what’s most important to others to effectively address their needs and desires. This has been especially helpful to achieve win-wins in negotiations, which also promotes collaboration. This is probably one of my greatest strengths. I tend to focus, when possible, on achieving positive results for all involved. This approach allowed me to effectively negotiate with other specialties in the House of Medicine to create the subspecialty of EMS medicine. I have put this approach to work for ACEP, networking with other organizations such as the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma, and helping ACEP enter into a new era of cross-organizational cooperation. I am deeply committed to doing all I can to represent you, the members, and continue to further ACEP’s mission.

Gillian Schmitz, MD, FACEP (Government Services)

Current Professional Positions: associate professor and associate program director, Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio; emergency physician, First Choice Emergency Room, San Antonio
Internships and Residency: emergency medicine, University of North Carolina
Medical Degree: Loyola Stritch School of Medicine, Chicago (2004)

Candidate Question Response: My unique background, leadership experience, and skills set will make me an effective leader and Board member. As a member of the Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association (EMRA) Board of Directors, I was hooked early in my career on organized medicine and the impact I could make on my patients and my specialty.

National ACEP has always been my true “home” as my family has moved across the country for the military. I have been honored to be a member of several different state chapters, a committee member for the Texas chapter, and president of the Government Services Chapter. Nationally, I have served the College as chair of the Young Physicians Section (YPS), chair of the Academic Affairs Committee, and subcommittee chair for the Medical-Legal Committee and have participated in numerous ACEP task forces.

The Board should reflect the clinical background and diversity of its members. I have had the opportunity to work in emergency departments in the Midwest, the East Coast, and the West Coast and am now in San Antonio. Over the past 10 years, I have primarily worked in academics, but I have also had the experience of working in a military emergency department, a community emergency department in an urban environment, a rural emergency department, a freestanding emergency department, and a small democratic group. I can represent ACEP members from all different backgrounds and work environments because I have worked in just about every type of emergency department that exists. I can guide the transition from volume-based care to high-value patient-centered care. I can use my work and life experiences to help improve coordination of care and explore different options for health care delivery.