The Department of Emergency Medicine sponsors a global health fellowship designed to help lead fellows a rewarding career in international emergency medicine.
Recognizing that we live in a global community, we seek to provide learners with a deeper understanding of culture, language, society, health and health disparities among diverse communities.
We believe that global health experiences and education increase this awareness and have the power to reshape how we approach our discipline, communities and our impact on others.
Through our program, recent residency graduates develop skills to help advance the field of emergency medicine in low resource areas and become prepared to serve as an expert in the field of global health.
“It’s hard to describe the intangible moments of personal growth on this rotation.”
Fellows typically spend two or more months abroad gaining experience in the logistics of working in resource-poor settings and a greater understanding of the determinants of health. Each fellow works closely with the fellowship director to develop and implement a project in line with their individual interests.
The global health fellow works a limited number of clinical shifts and spends the remainder of their time involved in ongoing education and practical global health experiences.
Program Highlights
- One-year program including formal training in global health with a graduate capstone course at UW–Madison, one of the world’s top-ranked research and academic institutions.
- Flexibility and focus on fellow’s interests and may include work in clinical care, capacity building, teaching and/or research.
- Robust institutional resources and activities through the UW Global Health Institute and collaborative, interdisciplinary work. UW–Madison is highly engaged with the international community on wide-ranging topics, including health systems and the intersection of health, climate and equity.
- Teaching and curriculum development opportunities through ongoing global health resident education in the Department of Emergency Medicine and longitudinal resident didactics, pre-departure orientation for interdisciplinary global health electives, and other resident-led projects.
- SAEM-approved. Fellows that complete an SAEM-approved fellowship are considered by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine to have earned the standard qualifications and skills of an emergency medicine fellow in the specialized area of training and will receive a certificate of approval upon completion.
Compensation & Benefits
Our program offers comprehensive health and supplemental benefits, a competitive salary, travel funds, and education support among other benefits.
Program Details
Available Positions: 1-2
Program Length: 1 year
Start Date: July 1, 2025
NRMP Match: Yes
Accreditation:
SAEM-approved
Advanced Degree: Graduate Capstone Certificate
Appointment: Clinical Instructor
Moonlighting: Available
Wisconsin is the best state for physicians, according to Medscape and Becker’s Healthcare (2024).
Fellowship Structure
This is an accordion element with a series of buttons that open and close related content panels.
Clinical Care
Faculty, fellows and residents have been involved in several projects at our carefully vetted partner sites and organizations:
- UW Global Health Institute
- Training clinicians in point of care ultrasound and conducting research at Mbale Regional Referral Hospital in Mbale, Uganda, in partnership with the Mbale Clinical Research Institute and Atlas International
- Clinical work and teaching at the San Lucas Mission, San Lucas Tolimán, Guatemala
- World Health Organization (WHO) Basic Emergency Cares course
- International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
- United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Crisis Bureau Recovery Solutions and Human Mobility teams
- Indian Health Services
- Point-of-care Ultrasound in Resource-limited Environments (PURE Initiative) at University Central Hospital of Kigali, Rwanda
- Establishing clinical ultrasound in Lima, Peru
- Developing a mobile app for Emergency Medicine Guidance in South Africa
Education
We provide support to enroll the Graduate Capstone Certificate program at the UW Global Health Institute and relevant coursework at UW or other higher education institutions, such as the:
- Health Emergencies in Large Populations (HELP) course at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
- Building a Career in Global Emergency Care conference at University of California-San Francisco, the country’s only World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Emergency and Trauma Care
Research
Fellows will often initiate or continue to work on scholarly projects begun during residency. Our fellows have a strong track record of both presenting and publishing their research nationally and receive support to do so.
Prior projects have included:
- Work on a COVID-19 Response Grant aimed at establishing accurate communications about COVID-19 in underserved minority communities
- Authorship of book chapters
- Publication in medical journals, such as Pediatric Emergency Medicine Reports and the African Journal of Emergency Medicine
- Presenting abstracts at national/international conferences, such as the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM), the African Conference on Emergency Medicine (AfCEM) & International Conference for Emergency Medicine Physicians in Peru
- Mentor and support medical students on summer research projects
The BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency conducts innovative clinical and translational research in emergency care and is deeply committed to fostering the successful development of junior investigators. Learn more about our research enterprise.
Teaching
Fellows develop clinical and teaching skills as Clinical Instructors in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.
- Present at least one lecture at our departmental weekly didactic conference
- Serve as an instructor for the hands-on ultrasound workshop as part of the UW Fundamentals of Global Health Course, an annual one-week multidisciplinary course offering UW residents a comprehensive overview of key local and international issues in global health
- Opportunity to work with medical students on a Global Service Learning elective in rural Guatemala
- Opportunity to serve as an instructor for other UW SMPH electives, such as wilderness medicine
Ongoing global health projects in the department
We collaborate with partners worldwide to provide clinical care and education, build capacity, conduct research. While our ongoing projects are focused on clinical work and teaching in East Africa and Central America, fellows with connections in other regions may propose individual field projects. Learn more »
Global Health Faculty
Jessica Schmidt, MD, MPH
Fellowship Director
Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine
Director of Global Emergency Medicine
Dr. Schmidt is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine; while in Baltimore, she completed a Masters in Public Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she focused on epidemiology and biostatistics. Dr. Schmidt completed her emergency medicine residency training at Yale New Haven Hospital in Connecticut. She then chose to focus on ultrasound and global health by completing an ultrasound fellowship at Denver Health Medical Center.
Dr. Schmidt’s academic interests include emergency ultrasound, international medicine and resident education. She also leads a Global Health Pre-departure Course for all graduate medical education trainees at UW Health. She has studied, taught or worked in Belgium, Ethiopia, France, Guatemala, Mali, Nepal, Peru, Rwanda, Senegal, Thailand, and Uganda.
A two-time U.S. Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Schmidt is engaged in point of care ultrasound projects in East Africa. She is currently partnering with physicians at Mbale Regional Referral Hospital and the Mbale Clinical Research Institute, along with Atlas International, an NGO dedicated to improving health for children in Eastern Africa. The project is focused on creating a training and research program in point-of-care ultrasound in Mbale. She is also working to improve diagnostic accuracy using point of care ultrasound for children with suspected pneumonia at the University of Rwanda.
Dr. Schmidt has helped to develop and implement a web-based toolkit to provide education and resources to learners utilizing point-of-care ultrasound in low-resource settings (Global Point of Care Ultrasound: A Technical Guide).
Colleen Andrews, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine
Dr. Andrews attended the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and completed her emergency medicine residency and chief residency at Stroger Hospital of Cook County. She then pursued fellowship training in global and local health equity at Boston Medical Center, with a focus on immigrant/refugee health and women’s health.
While at the UW SMPH, Dr. Andrews completed the Training in Urban Medicine and Public Health (TRIUMPH) program, which integrates community, clinical, and public health skill development for medical students dedicated to working in underserved communities.
Janis P. Tupesis, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor
Board of Directors, UW–Madison Global Health Institute
Janis P. Tupesis, MD, FACEP, FAAEM, FIFEM, is involved in projects to establish graduate medical education programs in resource-limited settings, including Liberia, Ethiopia and South Africa. He works with the World Bank and the Association of African Universities on the Africa Centers of Excellence for Development Department and has been a volunteer technical consultant for the World Health Organization’s Emergency, Trauma and Acute Care Programme. He serves on several international global health education committees and was inducted into the Order for the International Federation of Emergency Medicine in 2020.
Dr. Tupesis also previously served as the Faculty Co-Advisor for UW–Madison’s engagement with the UN Development Programme, Engineers Without Borders, and other partners focusing on facilitating capacity building and systems strengthening work around COVID-19 response in low and middle-income countries. Learn more about Dr. Tupesis.
Prior Fellows
This is an accordion element with a series of buttons that open and close related content panels.
Ashwath Gunasekar, MD (2021-22)
Dr. Gunasekar obtained his medical degree from the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine and completed his residency in emergency medicine at the University of Wisconsin. His academic/clinical interests include international medicine, humanitarian response, and health systems development.
- Completed the Health Emergencies in Large Populations (HELP) course offered through the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in collaboration with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
- Traveled to Uganda to provide point of care ultrasound training to local clinicians and complete a needs assessment for children with sickle cell disease, and up his return, Dr. Gunasekar presented his work at the DEM weekly educational conference.
Travis Wieland, MD, MA, MSc (2021-22)
Dr. Wieland had a diverse educational background before going to medical school in his home state of Illinois. He completed post-undergraduate language training at the University of Pennsylvania, then did graduate work in Classics at the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom. Following his time in the U.K., he returned to the United States to study at the Committee on International Relations at the University of Chicago, after which he went back overseas to live and work. While abroad, he decided to pursue medicine with the end of combining his interest in global affairs with his desire to have a career that focused on helping others.
Dr. Wieland obtained his medical degree from Southern Illinois University School of Medicine and completed his emergency medicine residency at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, serving as a Global Health Scholar with the UNC Office of Global Health Education and as chief resident in his final year.
Dr. Wieland engaged in multiple academic projects beyond global health including authorship of two chapters for Dr. Judith Tintinalli’s “Pocket Tintinalli: Allergy and Anaphylaxis” and “Pock Tintinalli: Traumatic Shock,” which are currently under review for publication. Dr. Wieland also authored an article titled “Pediatric Facial Lacerations in the Emergency Department” with Dr. Daniel Migliaccio in Pediatric Emergency Medicine Reports in October 2021.
Dr. Wieland also served as a trainer for the WHO Basic Emergency Cares course in Kenya and Rwanda at the Society for Emergency Medicine’s Annual Meeting in May 2022.
Ilan Kolkowitz, MD (2020-21)
Dr. Kolkowitz obtained his medical degree from the University of California San Diego School of Medicine and is a graduate of the emergency medicine residency program at the University of Wisconsin.
- Served as medical experts for a COVID-19 Response Grant awarded by the Wisconsin Partnership Program aimed at establishing accurate communications about COVID-19 in underserved minority communities in the Dane County area. (“Leveraging social networks and trusted community influencers to disseminate an accurate and up-to-date understanding of COVID-19 in Black, Latinx and American Indian Communities” with Principal Investigator: Carey Gleason, PhD, UW Department of Medicine.”)
- Continued work on scholarship related to the project he completed in Uganda as a resident resulting in an abstract presented at a national ultrasound conference(“Feasibility of Mixed Clinician Training in Point of Care Ultrasound for Acute Cardiopulmonary Pediatric Conditions in Eastern Uganda”)
- Completed the UW Global Health Institute capstone certificate program
- Served on the UW Department of Emergency Medicine Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee
- Served as a lecturer for the UW SMPH Wilderness Medicine elective for medical students
- Served as a hands-on instructor for the ultrasound simulation workshop of the UW Health Graduate Medical Education Fundamentals of Global Health Course
- Presented a lecture on “Fever in the Returning Traveler” at the Department of Emergency Medicine’s weekly didactic conference
Daniel Summers, MD, MPH (2020-21)
A Returned Peace Corps Volunteer from Guatemala (RPCV), Dr. Summers completed his MPH degree studying the epidemiology of microbial diseases with a focus in global health at the Yale School of Public Health. His primary graduate research included vector-borne diseases, statistical modeling, and ArcGIS applications. He graduated medical school from the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine and completed residency training in emergency medicine at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center. During residency, he rotated through an emergency department in Reykjavik, Iceland and traveled abroad for hurricane relief in the Bahamas. Dr. Summers’ academic interests include international medicine, humanitarian response, neglected tropical disease research, and geospatial applications for disease mapping.
- Served as academic consultant for a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) multidisciplinary working group addressing global supply chain challenges for PPE during the pandemic and was awarded honoraria for his work. Specifically, Dr. Summers assisted with developing the group’s Engagement Framework Process Model, which outlined technical frameworks in PPE design/modification, ventilator repair, response strategy, and supply chain support for UNDP Crisis Bureau Recovery Solutions and Human Mobility teams in five countries.
- Served as a hands-on instructor for the ultrasound simulation workshop of the UW Health Graduate Medical Education Fundamentals of Global Health Course
- Served as medical experts for a COVID-19 Response Grant awarded by the Wisconsin Partnership Program aimed at establishing accurate communications about COVID-19 in underserved minority communities in the Dane County area. (“Leveraging social networks and trusted community influencers to disseminate an accurate and up-to-date understanding of COVID-19 in Black, Latinx and American Indian Communities” with Principal Investigator: Carey Gleason, PhD, UW Department of Medicine.”)
- Presented a lecture on malnutrition at the Department of Emergency Medicine’s weekly didactic conference
Arthur Chiu, MD (2019-20)
Dr. Chiu is a graduate of the University of California-Berkeley, obtained his medical degree from Weill Cornell Medical College, and is a graduate of the emergency medicine residency program at the University of Wisconsin.
- Successfully completed the Global Health Institute Postgraduate Capstone Degree Program
- Participated in five weeks of field work at Mbale Regional Referral Hospital in Uganda and at Dhulikhel Hospital in Nepal
- Attended the World Health Organization (WHO) Basic Emergency Cares training course
- Participated in the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) Global Fellows Boot Camp and Building a Career in Global Emergency Care conference at University of California- San Francisco (UCSF), the country’s only World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Emergency and Trauma Care
- Engaged in local teaching at UW Global Health Predeparture course and DEM residence conference
How to Apply
Interested applicants must submit their applications through the SAEM Global Fellowship application portal (link opens in a new tab). Note: this program participates in the NRMP Match process.
Candidates must have graduated in good standing from an ACGME-accredited emergency medicine residency program and must be board-certified or board-eligible in emergency medicine.