Courses Directors

Dr. Knapp has been involved in both graduate and undergraduate medical education for the past 25 years. He currently serves as the Chidester Endowed Chair of Emergency Medicine and Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS). In addition, he serves as the Assistant Dean of Ultrasound Education at EVMS. Dr. Knapp recently transitioned (7/2022) after 13 years of service as the Residency Program Director for the EVMS Department of Emergency Medicine. He is the founder and former director of the EVMS Emergency Medicine Ultrasound Fellowship.

Dr. Knapp graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Sciences degree from the University of Southern California (USC). From there he attended medical school at the State University of New York (SUNY) Health Sciences at Syracuse. He completed his residency training in Emergency Medicine at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.

After completion of training, Dr. Knapp began working with the EVMS Department of Emergency Medicine and Emergency Physicians of Tidewater (EPT) in 1997. From 1998-2004, he served as an Assistant Professor of the Emergency Medicine residency program at EVMS. He concurrently served as Assistant Residency Director from 1998 to 2010. He has extensive firsthand experience working, teaching and training medical students and residents. He became an Associate Professor in Emergency Medicine in 2004. From 2008-2011 he served as the Ultrasound Fellowship Director. In 2010, he became the Program Director for the EVMS Department of Emergency Medicine. In July of 2022 he became the the Chidester Endowed Chair of Emergency Medicine.

Dr. Knapp has extensive experience in emergency response and disaster preparedness. He has served as the Operational Medical Director for Norfolk Fire Rescue for over fifteen years. He is the former Chief Medical Officer for the federal disaster response team- VA-1 DMAT. He has deployed to numerous national and international disasters, including the Hattian earthquake and Hurricane Katrina.

Dr. Knapp has received numerous national, state and local awards. He received the Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors Faculty Teaching Award (2002) and the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) National Faculty Teaching Award (2001). He won the Frank M. Yeiser Award for Outstanding EMS Physician two years in a row (2005, 2006); as well as the Governor’s Award for Outstanding EMS Physician (2006); John P. McDade Award – Virginia ACEP; and the Faculty Teaching Award for the EVMS Department of Emergency Medicine (twice). In 2012, he was inducted in the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society (AOA). He has also been an invited speaker to numerous conferences across the country, especially in his area of expertise- ultrasound. He has been a primary investigator in numerous research studies in clinical medicine as well as medical education. Dr. Knapp is also active as an Oral Board Examiner and Item Writer for the American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM). He currently sits on the ABEM Boards of Directors.

Planning Committee

Kaitlynn Butler, MD

Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine
Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences at
Old Dominion University
Norfolk, VA

Speakers

Dr. Blaivas received his medical degree from the University of Michigan Medical School and went on to complete an emergency medicine residency at the University of Michigan Medical Center, followed by an emergency ultrasound fellowship at Christ Hospital and Medical Center in Chicago (University of Illinois).  He has held faculty positions in multiple universities and is currently a professor of medicine (affiliate) at the University of South Carolina, School of Medicine. Dr. Blaivas is a pioneer of point-of-care ultrasound having published over 250 peer reviewed articles on point-of-care imaging, diagnostic and interventional applications, multiple book chapters and is the editor of 6 medical textbooks. He has been active in multiple medical societies and is a founding member of the World Interactive Network For Critical Ultrasound (WINFOCUS) and Society of Ultrasound in Medical Education (SUSME), having served as president of both. Dr. Blaivas was the founder and first editor of The Ultrasound Journal for WINFOCUS and is active in building educational and policy-making relationships between societies in a variety of medical specialties throughout the world, working with specialty societies such as the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine and Society of Critical Care Medicine to help craft ultrasound performance standards and guidelines. He has also served on the board of the World Federation of Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology (WFUMB) and continues to work on point of care ultrasound education and research around the world, engaging in medical device and software development, working with multiple companies over more than twenty-five years. For four and a half years, Dr. Blaivas served as Chief Medical Officer of EchoNous Inc, an AI and Hand Carried Ultrasound company based in Redmond Washington, and has also served as the Chief Medical Officer for Ava Ag, a wearable sensor, AI and mobile app company based in Switzerland. Currently Dr. Blaivas serves as the Chief Medical Officer of AutonomUS Medical Technologies, an ultrasound, robotics and AI company while continuing to pursue multiple academic ventures including research and education. He also serves as Chief Medical Officer of ThinkSono, an ultrasound AI application medical technology company focusing on point of care applications. 

Jennifer Carnell, MD, FAEMUS, FAIUM, is currently the director of emergency ultrasound and education and the advanced emergency ultrasound fellowship director at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX. Dr. Carnell earned her doctor of medicine degree from David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and she completed both her emergency medicine residency and advanced emergency ultrasound fellowship at Alameda County Medical Center, Highland Hospital, in Oakland, CA.

Dr. Carnell has served as treasurer for the SAEM Academy of Emergency Ultrasound and chair of the AIUM Point of Care Community of Practice. She has delivered invited talks at ACEP, SAEM, AIUM, AAEM, SCUF, MEMC, Emergencies in Medicine, and the Vietnam Society of Emergency Medicine conferences. Dr. Carnell was a prior recipient of the ACEP National Emergency Medicine Faculty Teaching Award and the ACEP Emergency Ultrasound (EUS) National Leader in Education Award.

Dr. Cook led 3rd Rock Ultrasound, an education company focused on ultrasound education and integration of POCUS throughout healthcare, for 25 years.

In addition, for over two decades, Dr. Cook was the program director for the emergency medicine program at Prisma Health Richland.

A professor and chair of emergency medicine and associate dean of inpatient medicine, Dr. Fox’s clinical research interests lie in emergency ultrasound.  He is dedicated to promulgating the use of ultrasound at the point-of-care through research, teaching, leadership and clinical expertise, mirroring UCI’s mantra, Discover, Teach, Heal. Dr. Fox earned his MD from Tufts University School of Medicine.  He did his residency in emergency medicine at UCI.  He also completed a fellowship at the University of Illinois at Chicago in emergency ultrasound. Dr. Fox joined UCI School of Medicine in 2001.  Through two consecutive grants from the UniHealth Foundation totaling $1.38M, Dr. Fox developed and published a unique four-year integrated point-of-care ultrasound curriculum for UCI medical students that we use to this day. In addition, Dr. Fox has published 120 peer-reviewed papers and contributed to three textbooks, two of them as sole editor.  He has been invited to lecture more than 450 times in 49 states and 18 countries, including a TEDx UCI talk titled, “The Point of Care Revolution; Ultrasound,” watched 37,000 times.

Dr. Lauren Gallion is an emergency medicine physician with Emergency Physicians of Tidewater in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia and the Assistant Director of the Emergency Ultrasound Fellowship at  Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences at Old Dominion University (Eastern Virginia Medical School). She completed her medical school training at the University of Virginia and residency training in emergency medicine and fellowship training in emergency ultrasound at Eastern Virginia Medical School. Dr. Gallion holds specialized certifications in critical care echocardiography, diagnostic cardiac and medical sonography (CCEeXAM, RDCS, RDMS). Her academic interests include ultrasound education, medical simulation, and point of care ultrasound.

Dr. Wollenberg is a graduate of The University of Arizona College of Medicine. He completed his residency in Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine (APOM) and Fellowship in Critical Care Medicine at Oregon Health & Sciences University (OHSU) where he now serves as an Associate Professor. He practices in OHSU’s ORs, CVICU and as faculty on OHSU’s ECMO team. Dr. Wollenberg is the Director of Perioperative Ultrasound Education for OHSU APOM. In addition, Dr. Wollenberg servers as faculty on OHSU’s multidisciplinary POCUS graduate medical education team and as the Associate Director for OHSU’s “POCUS Champions” faculty development course. He is an internationally invited lecturer, focusing on ICU quality improvement and POCUS education.

He lives in Portland with his wife and 2 boys, who have taught him to become an expert Minecraft player, and to enjoy all of the amazing opportunities the Willamette Valley has to offer.

Jeffrey G. Yates, MPA, PA-C, DFAAPA is a 2003 graduate of the Master of Physician Assistant Program at Eastern Virginia Medical School and has risen through the ranks to his current position of Associate Professor and Director of MPA Ultrasound Education.  He has proudly been inducted into the Pi Alpha and Alpha Eta Honor Societies.  Mr. Yates’ clinical experience is in Emergency General Surgery and Surgical Critical Care at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, the region’s Level I Trauma and Burn Center.  Mr. Yates has extensive experience in pre-hospital medicine and served as the Tactical EMS Team Leader for the Portsmouth, Virginia Tactical Response Unit where he was awarded the Medal of Honor, three (3) Medals of Valor, and seven (7) Life Saving Awards along with the Commonwealth of Virginia Governor’s Meritorious Service Medal during his career.  Mr. Yates has published several peer-reviewed papers and journal articles on POCUS and has been the invited speaker at international, national, and regional conferences.

Abstract Review Committee

Melissa Myers is an Associate Professor of Military and Emergency Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, where she serves as the Director of the Pre-Clerkship Ultrasound Curriculum. She earned her MD from the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine in 2012 and completed an Emergency Medicine residency at the Madigan Army Medical Center. She then completed an Advanced Emergency Medicine Ultrasound Fellowship at the San Antonio Military Medical Center, where she served as the fellowship Program Director from 2019 to 2024. She completed a Master of Science in Bioethics from Creighton University in 2025. She lives in Maryland with her husband and four children, and enjoys hiking and CrossFit.

Hands-On Proctors

Dr. Kerber is currently an emergency medicine ultrasound fellow at Riverside Regional Medical Center. He graduated medical school from Lincoln Memorial and completed his emergency medicine residency at Riverside Regional Medical Center. His clinical interests include critical care point-of-care ultrasound, with a special emphasis on resuscitative medicine, and ultrasound-guided regional nerve blocks. He is committed to advancing the use of these applications to improve diagnostic accuracy, procedural safety, pain management, and outcomes in emergency medicine. He enjoys cooking and traveling to National Parks with his family.

Dr. Lerner’s clinical interests include ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia and the use of point-of-care ultrasound in resuscitation. Outside of clinical practice, Dr. Lerner designs simulation models that replicate procedural techniques and ultrasound anatomy, with the goal of advancing procedural education through simulation.