Martin Honored as 2008 Career Achievement Award Recipient

Dr. Martin is Professor and immediate past chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Virginia.  He held the chair position from July 1996 to December 2006.  His responsibilities included the adult and pediatric emergency departments, numerous EMS agencies, the Blue Ridge Poison Center, the residency and fellowship programs.  In July 2006 he was appointed interim Assistant Vice President for Diversity and Equity at the University of Virginia. 

Dr. Martin’s career has been interesting since the very beginning – originally a chemical engineer he was a member of the charter class of Eastern Virginia Medical School and was the first African American graduate earning his MD degree in 1976. 

After serving his commission in the US Public Health Service, he completed his Emergency Medicine residency training at the University of Cincinnati in 1981.  Since that time, he has had too numerous to count committee appointments; his CV has page after page of presentation, publications and awards…all revealing a prolific career achievement.

Closer to home, Dr. Martin has continued to work and influence students, residents, other physicians and others.  One of our immediate past presidents, Dr. Pam Ross said this of Dr. Martin – “since my days as a medical student I have been reading Dr. Martin’s articles, I was fortunate to work with him on the ACEP Academic Affairs Committee while I was a resident and I consider it my great fortune and privilege to have been hired by him in 1996.  He was instrumental in helping to chart the course for my professional and personal development.”

Most recently and over the past summer, Dr. Martin worked tirelessly on the Governors Task Force Investigating the Virginia Tech Tragedy.  It was an honor for VaCEP to have such a distinguished colleague and qualified representative of emergency medical services on this high profile and critically sensitive initiative with national implications.