Recognition of Commitment to the Profession – 4 Under 40 Award

Dr. Brady is an Emergency Physician who demonstrated extraordinary leadership during the COVID pandemic and created an impactful documentary about end-of-life care. As a Navy reservist, Dr. Brady was activated to Elmhurst Hospital in Queens for nearly 2 months from April-May 2020 on a 24-hour notice; there he served as an attending Emergency Physician at one of the hardest hit COVID hospitals in America. Upon returning Dr. Brady was named Chief Operating Officer of the 401 bed Alternate Care Site COVID hospital in Memphis, TN, until decommissioning in April 2021. Dr. Brady also served at the Providence Civic Center COVID hospital as an attending physician. Also, during 2020 Dr. Brady’s documentary “Dying in Your Mother’s Arms” was picked up and distributed by the NYTimes Opdocs, where it was the most viewed documentary of the year, won multiple awards, was nominated for an Emmy and a Peabody award, and had over 10 million views on social media alone.

Dr. Brady exemplified leadership in crisis through his work with COVID and professional leadership through his documentary work telling neglected stories.

Dr. Levine is a Professor of Emergency Medicine and Health Services, Policy & Practice, and Director of the Division of Global Emergency Medicine at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

Dr. Levine currently serves as the Director for the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs and serves as the Primary Investigator for the Global Emergency Response and Recovery Partner Engagement Cooperative Agreement between International Medical Corps and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is focused on improving international and local capacity for responding to future epidemics and pandemics. In recent years, Dr. Levine has responded to humanitarian emergencies in Haiti, Libya (where he coordinated the effort to build an adequate Ebola facility with the International Medical Corp), South Sudan, and Liberia and has led research and training initiatives in South Asia, East Africa, and West Africa. His own NIH and foundation-funded research focuses on improving the delivery of emergency care in resource-limited settings and during humanitarian emergencies.

He collaborates with faculty at the Navy War College and has spoken throughout Rhode Island about his work. He has attracted faculty and fellows to Rhode Island from around the globe.

Dr. Merritt is the Assistant Dean for Student Affairs at the Warren Alpert Medical School where he helps to create and maintain an open, caring, and inclusive learning environment at the Medical School and its clinical affiliates and partners. After medical school he completed residency and chief residency at the George Washington University Department of Emergency Medicine. Dr. Merritt also holds a Master of Education in the Health Professions from Johns Hopkins. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Merritt helped launch COVID Connectors – that collected used iPhones, iPads and tablets for patients to video chat with their loved ones while they were in the hospital.   The program was a huge success including a partnership with URI to help to prepare the devices for use, and Amazon donating over 500 tablets.

Dr. Merritt was just elected to the RIMS Physician Health Program Governance Committee.

Dr. Phillip joined Butler Hospital in January 2019 as a child and adolescent psychiatrist most recently as the Chief of Adolescent and Young Adult Services.  It would be an understatement to say that the need for psychiatric care for adolescents and young adults has exploded in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Dr. Phillip has worked tirelessly to not only provide high-quality, evidence-based treatment to this population herself, but to also oversee all clinical services for adolescents and young adults across all levels of care – inpatient, partial hospital, and intensive outpatient programs.  As an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior (DPHB) at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Dr. Phillip serves as a supervising physician for many of the psychiatry residents.  Her exceptional mentorship and teaching was recognized at this year’s DPHB Graduation Ceremony, as she was the recipient of the Outstanding Teaching Award in General Psychiatry.  Further, she worked with Dr. Tracey Guthrie (Assistant Dean for Diversity in the Division of Biology and Medicine at Brown University) to support the Diversity Visiting Student Scholarship Program within Psychiatry in an effort to advance diversity and inclusion within the DPHB.

Dr. Szkwarko, who is double boarded in Family Medicine and Preventive Medicine, has been fortunate as an educator, clinician, and researcher, to find passion and partners for implementing and evaluating innovative educational strategies that specifically democratize knowledge for primary care physicians and impact vulnerable patient populations. She is committed to the continued growth of multi-disciplinary and transformational collaborations. As Global Health Fellowship Director of Brown Family Medicine, she is expanding training opportunities for North American fellows and their Kenyan counterparts, growing bilateral exchange programs, and expanding virtual learning efforts. Her life-long goal is utilizing implementation science to improve the clinical care, health and welfare globally particularly for marginalized populations.

Dr. Varamo is an Emergency Medicine attending physician at Kent Hospital.  He is the Kent EMS liaison and spends countless hours on Quality Improvement and education within our EMS system. He also served as the Chief Medical Officer at the Cranston COVID-19 field hospital, where he was instrumental in not only setting up the field hospital, but also worked a grueling schedule. He is also a leader and role model in the Kent residency program, where he serves as a core faculty member, and always goes above and beyond for the residents. From the many nominations for Dr. Varamo, we learned that he is dependable, committed to his patients and humble. To quote one nomination “He doesn’t get a lot of recognition for the many hats he wears and the personal sacrifices he makes to make Kent better – and I can’t think of someone who deserves this more than he does.”