Dr. Tupesis’ election as president-elect of the International Federation for Emergency Medicine marks the latest chapter in a career focused on building emergency medicine education and systems of care across borders.
Janis P. Tupesis, MD, FACEP, a longtime faculty member at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and internationally recognized leader in global emergency medicine, will serve a two-year term as president-elect before becoming IFEM president at the 2028 International Congress on Emergency Medicine in Brazil. In these roles, he will help guide the federation’s work to strengthen emergency care worldwide through education, standards, advocacy and international collaboration.
IFEM is the world’s largest federation of emergency care organizations, with member organizations spanning 70 countries.
Tupesis previously served as vice president of IFEM’s Board of Directors. His international work has focused on emergency medicine education and training in resource-limited settings, including partnerships in Liberia, Ethiopia and South Africa.
At UW–Madison, Tupesis has been a faculty member for nearly 20 years and previously served as residency program director for the Department of Emergency Medicine, helping oversee the program’s initial accreditation and expansion. He is a former associate director and current advisory committee member of the UW–Madison Global Health Institute.
Since 2018, Tupesis has worked with the World Bank and the Association of African Universities on the Africa Centers of Excellence for Development Impact Project, which supports health-focused postgraduate education centers across West Africa through regional specialization and collaboration.
He also has served as a volunteer technical consultant for the World Health Organization’s Emergency, Trauma and Acute Care Programme and as a founding faculty member of the Academic Consortium for Emergency Systems, a group of academic global health programs supporting WHO’s emergency care systems work.
His service has included leadership and committee roles with IFEM, the African Federation for Emergency Medicine, the American College of Emergency Physicians and the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine’s Global Emergency Medicine Academy. He received GEMA’s Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018 and the Order of IFEM in 2020 for his longstanding contributions to global emergency medicine.