Maryann Amirshahi completed her Bachelors in Pharmacy and PharmD degrees at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, followed by medical school at Temple University. She completed her emergency medicine residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, medical toxicology fellowship at the George Washington University/National Capital Poison Center, and clinical pharmacology fellowship at Children’s National Medical Center. She also received an MPH from the George Washington University focusing on environmental and occupational health. She completed her PhD at Erasmus University, with a focus on pharmacology and public health. She is board certified in emergency medicine, medical toxicology, addiction medicine, and clinical pharmacology. She is also a registered pharmacist with over a decade of practice experience and is a Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist. 

She is a Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, DC. Maryann practices clinically at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, where she not only treats poisoned patients on a daily basis, but also plays a major role in bringing addiction care to the emergency department setting. She also is active at the health system level with roles in medication safety, opioid stewardship, and resident education. Nationally, she serves on the Board of Directors for the American College of Medical Toxicology. Maryann is currently the co-medical director at the National Capital Poison Center. Maryann is a proliferative researcher with nearly 200 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters. Her research interests include medication safety, medical toxicology, drug shortages, addiction treatment in the emergency department, and prescription drug abuse.

Dr. Arens is an Emergency Medicine physician who practices at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans, LA. Dr. Arens completed her Emergency Medicine training at the Denver Health Residency in Emergency Medicine, and her medical toxicology training at the University of California – San Francisco. She was amongst the first toxicologists to identify and describe counterfeit fentanyl products, and has continued to identify outbreaks of new drugs of abuse. She has a broad range of research interests including: the identification of new drugs of abuse including novel opioids contributing to the current opioid epidemic, the use of antidotes, and advanced supportive care of the poisoned patient.

Nena Bowman received her Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry at Middle Tennessee State University in 2010 and her Doctorate of Pharmacy at Lipscomb University College of Pharmacy in 2014. Bowman completed a specialty fellowship in Toxicology with the Utah Poison Control Center at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah in 2016. She is board certified as a clinical toxicologist, Diplomate of the American Board of Applied Toxicology (DABAT). Dr. Bowman currently practices at the Tennessee Department of Health as the Director of Vaccine Operations and a Toxicologist Consult for the Emergency Preparedness Program. Bowman works closely with providers across the state to ensure proper utilization of federal vaccine program funds, and equal access to all ACIP recommended vaccines for underserved children and adults. She also teaches at Lipscomb University College of Pharmacy as an adjunct professor in toxicology and emergency preparedness curriculum. She is an Advanced Hazmat Life Support (AHLS) Provider and Instructor, and she is the immediate past president of the Nashville Area Pharmacists Association. She enjoys working in public health to educate providers, consulting on difficult toxicology situations, and problem solving to navigate unprecedented events and challenges.

Neeraj Chhabra, MD, MSCR is an Emergency Physician and Medical Toxicologist based in Chicago, Illinois. He provides medical toxicology consulting services for the Illinois Poison Center and Cook County Health. Dr. Chhabra completed his fellowship in medical toxicology with the Toxikon Consortium in 2017 and his master’s degree in clinical research at Rush University Graduate College in 2020. His clinical focus is on the acute management of poisonings and overdose.

Dr. Hantsch is a graduate of the Honors Program in Medical Education at Northwestern University. She completed an emergency medicine residency, including a year as chief resident, at the Medical College of Wisconsin and then continued her training in a medical toxicology fellowship at Vanderbilt University. After her fellowship, she spent nearly 22 years at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine and Loyola University Medical Center. There, she established an inpatient toxicology clinical service and clinical rotations for graduate medical trainees and students in multiple fields. With an interest in medication management and safety, she joined the hospital Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee, serving as member for 6 years before being appointed chair and leading the committee for another 6 years. Dr. Hantsch earned the academic rank of Professor of Emergency Medicine, was Director of the Division of Toxicology, and Director of Academic Affairs in the Department of Emergency Medicine. As a clinical faculty member, she was appointed to the Stritch Committee on Academic Rank and Tenure, serving for 7 years including 2 as a subcommittee chair leading revision of the clinician educator track guidelines. In 2018, she was the founding Program Director of the Loyola emergency medicine residency. Dr. Hantsch served for more than 8 years as Medical Director of the Illinois Poison Center. In addition, she is a regular organizer and contributor to many local, regional, and national/international continuing education programs. After leaving academics, she worked for the U.S. FDA in pharmacovigilance for a year. As of 2022, she is board certified in addiction medicine in addition to emergency medicine and medical toxicology. Dr. Hantsch was elected to the ACMT Board of Directors in 2021, is a member of the Education Committee, and chair of the Practice Committee.

I am a board-certified Medical Toxicologist, Addictionologist, and Emergency Medicine physician. I completed my residency at Memorial Hospital in York, PA. My fellowship was completed at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA. I currently work at WellSpan York Hospital in York, PA, as an Emergency Physician, Medical Toxicologist, and working with in-patients starting treatment for addiction. I initiated the toxicology service at York Hospital and now I am the Medical Director for Medical Toxicology. I am interested in treating the poisoned patients at bedside, and especially interested in the antidotal therapy with physostigmine (if it returns) and flumazenil. I enjoy professional engagement with ACMT.

Katherine Katzung, MD is an attending physician in the emergency department at Abbott Northwestern, where she serves as chair of the department.  Additionally, she is the medical director of the hospital’s addiction medicine and toxicology program, which began in 2020 after she received grant funding to initiate a hospital-based toxicology/addiction medicine consult service as well as an  emergency department-based addiction medicine "bridge" clinic to provide continuity of care for patients initiated on Suboxone.  This innovative program allows patients evaluated at Abbott Northwestern in the emergency department or inpatient units continuity of care, while focusing on harm-reduction strategies, until they can be given a warm hand-off to community providers.

A graduate of the University of Minnesota School of Medicine, she completed emergency medicine training at Regions Hospital in St. Paul and additional fellowship training in medical toxicology.  She is board certified in emergency medicine, medical toxicology, and addiction medicine.  Her clinical interests surround the intersection of these 3 specialties, with special focus on early ED & hospital-based interventions to evaluate and treat substance use disorder, including initiation of medication assisted therapies.

She volunteers as a consultant for the Minnesota Poison Control System in addition to serving on the board of the Steve Rummler HOPE Network and acts as medical director of its overdose prevention program.

Dr. Kerns trained in Emergency Medicine and Medical Toxicology and served as Professor in both disciplines at Carolinas Medical Center for 33 years. Faculty roles included leadership of the Medical Toxicology Fellowship and clinical division, consultation for the Carolinas Poison Center, and research. Research interests included antidotes, envenomation, and resuscitation of cardiotoxic drugs. He also served the ACMT focusing on advancing research and education.

Dr. McKay was trained in Anatomic and Surgical Pathology, Internal Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Medical Toxicology and was a Medical Director of Occupational Health and Medical Review Officer for a hospital system during more than 30 years of clinical practice, during which he provided toxicology consultation at 3 hospitals, directed a medical toxicology fellowship training program, and provided medical oversight of a regional poison control center. He provides medical legal consultation across the country on toxicology-related issues, and has testified in nearly 100 cases, many related to questions of alcohol- and -drug-induced impairment.

Renee Petzel Gimbar received her PharmD from the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy and completed PGY-1 training at UIC and PGY-2 training at Rutgers University. She started emergency medicine pharmacy services at the University of Tennessee Medical Center Knoxville and Loyola University Medical Center. She was inducted as a fellow of the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology in 2019. She currently is a clinical associate professor in the department of pharmacy practice at UIC College of Pharmacy, an Emergency Medicine and Medical Toxicology Clinical Pharmacist at UI Health, and the Residency Program Director for the PGY-2 Emergency Medicine Pharmacy Residency. She has integrated herself in the emergency medicine and medical toxicology services at both Loyola and UIC, active in the acute care of patients, didactic and beside education of healthcare trainees. Dr. Petzel Gimbar has been involved in multiple research studies and publications related to emergency medicine and toxicology practice, including a current multi-year NIH study addressing emergency department hypertension in underserved patients. She has given invited lectures internationally and nationally on both emergency medicine and medical toxicology topics. At home, she attempts to manage her nine, seven, and five year olds without a toxic ingestion.

Dr. Rasimas has a Jesuit university background in biochemistry, mathematics, and philosophy. He completed the Medical Scientist Training Program, earning a PhD in chemical biology (2002) and MD (2003) from Penn State University. After Psychiatry residency at the Mayo Clinic, he was a clinical fellow at the National Institutes of Health in Washington, DC where he did translational research and trained in medical ethics. He also undertook formal education in psychoanalytic psychotherapy, completed the critical care based medical toxicology fellowship at Penn State, and became certified in Psychosomatic Medicine, Addiction Medicine, and Medical Toxicology. Further work at NIH has included the Undiagnosed Diseases Program and roles in research ethics and oversight. Dr. Rasimas was the Director of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry and Co-Chair of the Biomedical Ethics Committee at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota before moving to Prince Edward Island, Canada in 2022. Based at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown, he served as the lead Psychiatrist for C-L and Addictions for the province. He has recently transitioned to Nova Scotia Health in an effort to build treatment programs for patients with complex psychosomatic illnesses and substance use. For PEI, Dr. Rasimas remains the Medical Director of the Atlantic Mentorship Network for Chronic Pain, Addictions, and Mental Illness. Dr. Rasimas is a university professor with continued involvement in medical education in both the US and Canada pursuing an academic medical career at the interface of psychosomatic medicine, medical toxicology, and psychodynamic psychotherapy with a primary clinical interest in the phenomenology of suicide.

Dr. Sessions practices medical toxicology, emergency medicine and addiction medicine at Ochsner Health in the New Orleans area. Dr. Sessions has expertise in poisoning and drug overdose, envenomation, toxic occupational exposure, medication assisted therapy for opioid and alcohol use disorder and forensic toxicology. Dr. Sessions earned his degree in medicine from Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans in 2008. He is board-certified in emergency medicine and medical toxicology by the American Board of Emergency Medicine in 2012 and 2014. He completed a medical toxicology fellowship at the Rocky Mountain Poison & Drug Center at Denver health in Denver in 2013. He is board-certified in addiction medicine by the American Board of Preventative Medicine in 2022. Dr. Sessions actively participates in the American Academy of Emergency Medicine, the American College of Medical Toxicology, the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology and the American Society of Addiction Medicine.