Since 1970, advocates for the Emergency Medicine specialty.
Board & COUNCIL NOMINEE PROFILES
Find profiles for our 2026-2028 candidates for both the VACEP Board of Directors as well as ACEP Councillors representing Virginia. After giving each one a read, head to our ballot and cast your vote. Selections will be announced at our Annual Conference in February.
Board of Directors Candidates
JAMES HUMBLE, MD
Since 2019, I have worked with VACEP to better the care of Virginians and improve the lives of emergency physicians. During that time, we have worked on big things and small things from scope of practice, ensuring a physician is on duty in each ER in the state, removing questions about mental health from state licensing applications, and even trying to get how frequently we must change our passwords on VVESTs lengthened.
I continue to believe that the best way to effect change is to work within the system to try and find the right words to say and the right actions to take to advance your cause. We are currently at a time where the challenges that face us are larger than ever, and I want to be there to continue to fight to help ensure that our working lives are as stress free and rewarding as possible.
If re-elected, my goals for this next term include advocating at a state and national level to help establish that practicing medicine in the waiting room is good for neither patients nor practitioners. We need to develop tools to help advocate and negotiate with our administrators to provide adequate resources and relationships to minimize this practice.
The emergency department is the gateway to the hospital and should be treated as such. We deserve to have the resources to handle the broad scope of patients we treat and the support of the rest of the healthcare system to ensure that we can do our jobs appropriately. We should not be hindered by unnecessary tasks but should be able to get patients to the care they need when they need it.
Wellness for physicians comes not from tchotchkes or parties, but from better working conditions and being given the ability to practice in a supportive environment. I feel that, especially since the COVID pandemic, many working in emergency medicine — facing the ever-growing responsibility placed upon them to be the safety net for the entire American healthcare system — have become fatalistic and no longer believe that there is an opportunity to make things better. I continue to think that this is not the case. I trust that we can make things better if we work together and stop accepting the status quo.
If you feel the same way, then I would ask for your vote to be your board representative to allow me to continue to advocate for these issues wherever and however the need arises. Thank you for your consideration.
STEVEN BAUER, MD
I have spent nearly all of my career in some form of leadership position, whether it be from an EMS system director for the largest military facility in the USA, Medical Director of several Emergency Departments, and Chief Quality Officer for a small democratic group.
I have practiced nearly all of my civilian life in rural and community hospitals ranging from 75,000 visit Level 2 trauma centers to 10,000 visit Critical Access Hospitals. I believe this experience will bring a unique voice for the smaller group to VACEP and the unique challenges faced at these facilities and smaller groups.
Matthew DYE, Do
After residency, I served as a medical education director, organizing rotations, mentoring medical students, and actively participating in resident training for the Johnston Memorial Hospital Internal Medicine and Hughes Melton Family Medicine residency programs. I am fortunate to serve as Medical Director for a passionate group of emergency physicians and gained valuable experience leading our team through the COVID pandemic and the subsequent nurse-staffing crisis. During that time, I also served on the credentials committee and MEC, recently completing my term as Chief of Staff. I currently serve at the system level on the Medical Staff Services Subcommittee.
Early in my career, I had the opportunity to accompany a mentor to VACEP, audit a board meeting, meet VACEP leaders, and attend multiple VACEP conferences and educational events. It was inspiring to meet leaders in our specialty who were advocating for our patients and profession and to be exposed to the depth of VACEP’s work. That experience left me with a deep respect for VACEP and its physician leaders—and with a calling to serve.
Today, my career experience positions me to contribute meaningfully as a member of the board of directors while continuing to represent Southwestern Virginia Emergency Medicine. I believe in a pragmatic but determined approach to advocacy, and that conversations between emergency physicians and hospital and government leaders can lead to meaningful change for our communities and for frontline emergency medicine physicians. This is a specialty I am proud to serve, and I would be honored to carry on the tradition of leadership and work toward future legislative and policy victories as a member of the VACEP Board of Directors.
ACEP Council Candidates
THOMAS NG, MD
As a junior EM attending, my experience over the past few years has opened my eyes to the reality that all emergency medicine physicians encounter every day: when the system is strained, when access falters, when communities need help most, patients turn to their emergency departments. And without hesitation, emergency medicine physicians step forward to meet the challenge. Even as we continue to deliver care to those most in need, the challenges facing our specialty have become greater: unrelenting boarding, legislative threats to our scope of practice, and systemic pressures that erode the sustainability of EM as a career.
Working at one of the busiest level 1 trauma centers in Northern Virginia and at smaller sites in the DMV area, I have seen and experienced these issues firsthand and know that they will not resolve themselves. They require advocacy that is informed, persistent, and grounded in the lived experiences of practicing physicians across Virginia. As a VACEP Councillor, I hope to advocate for the physicians who make emergency care possible and help in shaping the policies that will determine the future of emergency medicine.
WINSTON WU, MD
Over the past year I completed the VACEP Leadership and Advocacy fellowship and served Virginia on ACEP Council in 2024, beginning as an alternate and then stepping in as a councilor. That experience showed me how resolutions are built, debated, and translated into policy that affects care at the bedside.
My primary interests are resident education, procedural competency, and high quality clinical care. I want to continue contributing to Council with a grounded, collaborative approach that elevates solutions on crowding, safety, equitable reimbursement, and physician led teams as the leadership of the council directly affects much of what we do on a day to day basis.
I am committed to advancing emergency medicine in Virginia through service, education, and policy. As the editor for the Virginia ACEP Evidence Based Medicine series, I recruit authors, manage peer review, and publish practical reviews that help busy clinicians translate research into bedside care.
This project has connected faculty and trainees across programs and has given many early career physicians their first peer reviewed publication and a platform at our annual meeting. In residency leadership I have focused on curriculum design, feedback culture, and procedural training. I helped create a procedural competency framework that clarifies expectations, identifies gaps early, and supports residents as they grow toward safe independence. I also mentor residents and fellows on scholarship and professional development and I value the chance to pay forward the support I received.
I care about growing the next group of Virginia leaders. On Council I will extend that pipeline by inviting residents and early career physicians to help review resolutions, join debriefs, and see how policy connects to practice. I will keep the door open for feedback from members across the state and make it easy for them to engage between meetings. That approach builds engagement and keeps our chapter strong over time.
THEODORE “TJ” TZAVARAS, MD
Having been a Councilor for one term, I am prepared to continue advocating for Virginia’s emergency physicians.
My role in managing the finances of an independent, physician-owned and operated group provides me with a valuable perspective on issues facing emergency physicians.
I look forward to supporting safe emergency departments, fair reimbursement, equitable employment practices, so we can continue providing the highest quality care to every patient who arrives in our EDs.
My continued participation with VACEP and ACEP over the last five years has shown me the value Council brings to our specialty. Council’s voice guides ACEP’s leadership and helps ACEP focus on those issues that matter to emergency physicians. I look forward to advocating for ACEP’s focus to remain on the emergency physician, first and foremost.
Outside this election and position, I plan to continue advocating for emergency physicians at the federal, state, and local levels. Either as a VACEP Councilor or as a VACEP member, I look forward to continued participation. VACEP’s Lobby Day, where issues can be brought to state legislators, has led to real and productive change. ACEP’s Leadership and Advocacy Conference has similarly led to real support from our national representatives. Beyond specific defined activities, I hope to continue encouraging my fellow emergency physicians to join in the advocacy efforts.
Being a leader in my physician group and helping manage our finances, I have a clearer perspective on the headwinds we face. Certainly, emergency physicians bring immense value to any healthcare community. This contrast and the economic and operational challenges we face were accurately captured in the recent RAND study, “Strategies for Sustaining Emergency Care in the United States.”
In the end, we must be our own advocates. No one else can speak to the challenges we face inside and outside the emergency department. I am ready to continue being a VACEP Councilor. I encourage you to get involved too!