Academy Master Educators

Alison Samitt, MD is the Program Director of the MMC Family Medicine Residency. She graduated from Dartmouth Medical School in 1996, completed residency at MMC and has worked at MMC/MMP ever since. Her clinical work includes caring for patients in outpatient and inpatient settings, including providing OB care. She finds great professional satisfaction working with residents and medical students, and her academic interests include active teaching techniques, information mastery, leadership development, and provider wellness. Alison lives in Falmouth with her husband and two sons, and enjoys spending time running, doing yoga, and trying to keep up with her sons on the ski slopes.

Director of Continuing Interprofessional Development, Department of Medical Education at Maine Medical Center
Co-Director of The Academy

Dr. Bing-You is a graduate of George Washington University School of Medicine. He completed his Internal Medicine residency training here at Maine Medical Center, followed by a clinical and research fellowship in Endocrinology. He then went on to obtain a Masters in Adult Education at the University of Southern Maine. He completed his MBA degree through the University of Massachusetts. For eight years, Dr. Bing-You served as Residency Program Director and Clerkship Director for the Department of Internal Medicine. Dr. Bing-You served as MMC Vice President for Medical Education for 29 years. He helped establish MITE in 2015 and has served as Co-Director of the Academy since its initiation. He has been active at the leadership level of several educational committees, such as MMC Graduate Medical Education Committee, CME Advisory Committee, and Maine Track Admissions Subcommittee, to name a few. Dr. Bing-You has a small endocrinology practice at PenBay Medical Center.

Contact Information:

Email: Robert.bing-You@mainehealth.org

Office: 207-662-7060

Dr. Germann is the Director of Orientation, Clinical Electives and Fourth-year Programs for the Tufts Maine Track Program. He also serves as Core Academic Faculty for the Department of Emergency Medicine at Maine Medical Center and Academy Master Educator at the MMC Institute for Teaching Excellence. He is an Associate Professor/Clinician Educator at Tufts University School of Medicine.

Carl is originally from central Illinois. He graduated from the University of Illinois College of Medicine and completed a Master’s in Health Professions Education (MHPE) at the University of Illinois at Chicago.  He lives in Yarmouth with his wife, three children and dog.

David B. Seder, MD is a neurological and pulmonary critical care physician and clinical/translational researcher who currently serves as Chief of Critical Care Services at Maine Medical Center. Dr. Seder is board certified in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Disease, Critical Care Medicine, and Neurocritical Care, and completed his medical training at the University of New Mexico, Maine Medical Center, and Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York.

Dr. Seder leads a research group focused on improving the outcomes of cardiac arrest and stroke by targeting both clinical causes of secondary brain injury and the molecular mechanisms of disease.  He has published and lectured widely on these and other topics and receives research funding from the National Institute of Health (NIH) and Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI).

Dr. Seder serves as Associate Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine, a partner of Chest Medicine Associates, and a fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians, American College of Critical Care Medicine, Neurocritical Care Society, and American Heart Association. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Neurocritical Care Society.

Professor of Anesthesiology and Peri-Operative Medicine, TUSM
Emeritus Professor and Chair of Anesthesiology
University of Rochester, Rochester NY
Founding Co-Director of The Academy

Dr. Ward received his BS(EE) from the University of Maine and his Ph.D. from UCLA in System Science. His medical degree is from the University of Miami where he did an internal medicine internship. He completed his anesthesiology residency at UCLA where he remained on the faculty. While at UCLA, he served as the residency program director. In 1992, he moved to the University of Rochester to become Chair of the Anesthesiology department. He also served as Associate Dean for Faculty Development – Medical Education and directed several medical school basic science courses. In 2011, Dr. Ward “semi-retired” to his family home in Bowdoinham. He serves on the Tufts Medical School Promotions Committee (CLINPAC). Dr. Ward (retired) is a Founding Co-Director and in addition to helping co-create the Academy, he is still a guiding force for the programming.

Contact Information:

Email: Denham.Ward@mainehealth.org

Douglas Sawyer, M.D., Ph.D., joined Maine Medical Center in October 2014 as the Chief of Cardiac Services at Maine Medical Center and Physician Leader in the Cardiovascular Service Line for MaineHealth, and assumed his current role of Chief Academic Officer in 2019. He received his B.S., Ph.D., and M.D. from Cornell University and completed his residency and cardiology fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Prior to moving to Maine, he was on the faculty at Boston Medical Center for nine years followed by eight years at Vanderbilt University where he served as director of the Cardiology Training Program and Division of Cardiology. As Chief Academic Officer, Dr. Sawyer oversees the academic and research missions of Maine Medical Center and MaineHealth, and serves as Academic Dean for the Maine Track program partnership with Tufts University School of Medicine. His clinical and research interests are focused on the pathophysiology and treatment of heart failure.

Jim Whiting, MD is currently the Director of Surgical Education and the Surgical Residency Program Director at Maine Medical Center, in Portland, Maine, a post he has held for the last 6 years. He has been at Maine Medical Center for the last 15 years, where he is also the Surgical Director of Transplantation. Prior to this time, he had a “traditional” academic training, completing his surgical residency at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, his transplant surgery fellowship at Rush Presbyterian in Chicago and was faculty at the University of Cincinnati for five years. He is a member of the American College of Surgeons where he serves on the General Surgery Advisory Committee. He is also a member of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons and the Association of Program Directors in Surgery. In 2012, he was appointed a director of the American Board of Surgery where he serves on the Inservice Training Exam committee, the General Surgery Residency Committee and as chair of the Transplant Advisory Council.

He lives in Falmouth with his wife and the one child left at home out of four. He enjoys many sports, is a poor sculler, a worse tennis player and a really bad golfer.

Dr. Jo Linder is the Director of Student Affairs in Maine Medical Center’s Department of Medical Education. She has been an Attending Physician in the Maine Medical Center Department of Emergency Medicine since 2000 and Director of the Division of Community & Preventive Medicine since 2008. Dr. Linder serves on the Tufts University School of Medicine Maine Medical Center Program Steering Committee, Undergraduate Medical Education Curriculum Sub-Committee and Co-Chairs the Admissions Subcommittee with Dr. Bob Bing-You. She serves on the TUSM Liaison Committee on Medical Education Accreditation Self-Study Committee on Medical Student, as well as the Physician Well-Being Committee the Innovations in Education Grants Committee.

Dr. Linder currently Chairs the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) Committee on Certification, Sub-Certification and Maintenance of Certification (COCERT) as well as the Finance and Audit Committee (FINCO). She served on two Review Committees for the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and as a Specialist Site Surveyor for Emergency Medicine. In addition, Dr. Linder was a site reviewer for the ACGME-International Transitional Year programs in Singapore. Dr. Linder has been active in professional associations in Minnesota, California and Maine. She is a Past-President of the Maine Medical Association and represented state and specialty societies at the American Medical Association meetings for 20 years. Her publications and presentations include topics in emergency medicine, geriatrics, and public health emergency preparedness.

Prior to coming to Maine, Dr. Linder held medical staff positions in Emergency Medicine in California while serving in various leadership roles including: Associate Dean of Administrative Affairs at the Charles Drew University of Medicine & Science in Los Angeles; Associate Director of the Center for Occupational Health at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena; and Assistant Chief of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University Medical Center of Fresno.

Dr. Linder earned BS and MD degrees from the University of Iowa, and completed residency training in Emergency Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco – Fresno campus. She is Board certified in Emergency Medicine. Dr. Linder holds academic appointments at Tufts University School of Medicine as Associate Professor in the Departments of Emergency Medicine and Public Health & Community Medicine. She lives in Falmouth, ME.

Dr. John Tooker is the Emeritus Executive Vice President and CEO of the American College of Physicians (ACP)–the largest medical specialty society in the U.S., representing more than 130,000 internal medicine specialists and subspecialists, and medical students. Dr. Tooker served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of ACP from 2002 through July 2010.

As CEO Emeritus, Dr. Tooker supports ACP’s mission to foster excellence and professionalism in medicine. In this capacity, he represents ACP to select external organizations, conducts special projects for the College and contributes to health care reform through service on national non-profit boards, particularly in the areas of quality improvement and health information technology. He currently serves on the boards of NCQA, which he previously chaired, the National Quality Forum, where he chairs the CEO Search Committee, on the Advisory Committee of Health Level 7 (HL7), and on the board of Alpha Omega Alpha (AΩA).

Dr. Tooker has been a frequent speaker on topics such as health information technology, the patient-centered medical home (PCMH), provider reimbursement, and quality improvement. In 2009, Dr. Tooker was voted one of the “100 Most Powerful People in Health Care” by Modern Healthcare Magazine.

Prior to joining ACP in 1995 as Deputy EVP and Chief Operating Officer, Dr. Tooker was Assistant Chief of the Department of Medicine and Program Director of the Internal Medicine Residency at the Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine, where he practiced internal medicine and pulmonary and critical care medicine.

Dr. Tooker earned his medical degree at University of Colorado School of Medicine, completed an internal medicine residency at the Bellevue Hospital Center and the University of Colorado, and a pulmonary/critical care fellowship at the Maine Medical Center and the University of Washington. He is a graduate of the Fox School of Business at Temple University, and is an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Kalli Varaklis, MD, MSEd is the Designated Institutional Official (DIO) for Maine Medical Center – MaineHealth, overseeing the graduate medical education enterprise of 30 programs and over 300 GME trainees. She is also the Principle Investigator for the American Medical Association “Re-Imagining Residency” grant, a project to provide an interprofessional, team-based care inpatient experience and train future providers in the importance of interprofessionalism across the healthcare system. Other research interests include introduction of Operational Excellence into GME Oversight, Program-Director faculty development and cultivating GME community. Dr. Varaklis is a voracious reader, an avid gardener and NYT crossword puzzle enthusiast.

Kathleen Fairfield, MD, MPH, DrPH

Co-Director, the Academy at MITE
Vice Chair for Research and Quality, Department of Medicine

Dr. Fairfield is an internist, medical educator, and health services researcher. She completed an M.D. at Boston University School of Medicine, followed by internship and residency at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. She then completed the Harvard Medical School fellowship in General Medicine, earning her Masters in Public Health, followed by a Doctorate in Public Health focused on Epidemiology and Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health. After serving on the faculty at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Dr. Fairfield joined MMC in 2002.

Dr. Fairfield serves as Co-Director of the Academy. Her education work includes leading the Certificate in Healthcare Improvement, which trains inter-professional teams and medical students in the Maine Track about improvement science, health care safety, population health, and leadership. She also co-developed a research course for residents and fellows that has been completed by more than 500 trainees at Maine Medical Center. Dr. Fairfield also studies and teaches shared decision-making models of care and health services research methods. Dr. Fairfield serves as Vice Chair of Medicine for Research and Quality Improvement at MMC. She is an Associate Professor of Medicine, Public Health and Community Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine.

Dr. Fairfield sees patients and supervises residents in the International and Travel Clinics at MMC and serves as Medical Director for the Portland Community Free Clinic. Her professional focus is improving the health of the people of her home state of Maine through excellent clinical care, medical education, and research.

Email: fairfk@mmc.org

Kristiina Hyrkäs, PhD, LicNSc, MNSc, RN joined Maine Medical Center in November 2005 and serves as the Director of the Center for Nursing Research and Quality Outcomes (CNRQO). She received her academic degrees from the University of Tampere, Finland. Dr. Hyrkas has a broad background in health sciences and nursing, as a researcher and mentor in clinical and university settings in the USA, Canada, UK and Finland. She has conducted numerous quantitative, qualitative, and mixed method studies across a wide spectrum of clinical, academic, and theoretical domains. In collaboration with nurses and interprofessional teams, her most recent clinical research has focused on fall prevention, the Hospital Elder Life Program, the teaching-learning partnership between nurses and patients, development of the Collaborative Model of Evidence Translation (CoMET©), and the validation of a spiritual care survey for acute hospital patients. In addition to her research activities, she is a member of the MMC/Maine Health Institutional Review Board, an Adjunct Faculty in USM’s School of Nursing, a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Maine Medical Center, and a reviewer for several leading nursing journals and professional nursing conferences.

Linda Chaudron, MD, MS

Vice President and RG Bing-You Chair for Medical Education, Maine Medical Center

Visiting Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Tufts University School of Medicine

Dr. Chaudron attended Boston College receiving a degree in psychology. She always knew she wanted to be a psychiatrist and attended medical school at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. She then traveled to Wisconsin and completed her general psychiatry residency program at the University of Wisconsin – Madison Hospitals and Clinics. She was always interested in women’s mental health and was fortunate to pursue a Women’s Health Fellowship through the William S. Middleton Veteran’s Affairs Hospital and a Master’s Degree in Epidemiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After completing her training she returned to the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Medical Center (URMC) to begin her career in academic medicine.

At the URMC she held many positions including Vice Chair for Clinical Services, Co-Director of the Psychiatry Residency Program, Senior Association Dean and Vice President for Inclusion and Culture to name a few. She also conducted research in perinatal depression and anxiety and developed a specialized perinatal consultation clinic where she trained residents and medical students. In addition to her research and national and international work in perinatal depression, she has worked nationally on topics of diversity, equity and inclusion and is the immediate past chair of the Association of American Medical Colleges Group on Women in Medicine and Science Steering Committee.

Dr. Chaudron joined Maine Medical Center in August of 2021 after more than two decades as a faculty member URMC to lead its Department of Medical Education which includes undergraduate medical education (including Tufts University School of Medicine-Maine Track), graduate medical education, continuing professional development, interprofessional education, simulation laboratory and standardized patient training, Journal of Maine Medical Center and library and knowledge services. She is thrilled to be in Maine and to be applying her many experiences to furthering medical and interprofessional education.

She has two children who are now grown and on their own, and lives with her husband, dog and cat on 10 acres in Gorham, Maine.

Liz Jacobs is Vice President for Research at Maine Medical Center Research Institute and Interim Director of the Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation. Prior to joining MaineHealth, she was the inaugural Chief of Primary Care and Valued Based Health, Professor of Medicine and Population Health Science and Associate Chair for Research in the Department of Medicine at the University of Texas at Austin’s Dell Medical School. She attended medical school at the University of California at San Francisco and trained as a general internist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. She completed a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Fellowship and an Associate Masters in Public Policy at the University of Chicago.

After struggling to care for limited English-speaking patients during medical school and residency, she decided to pursue a research career investigating disparities in health care. Dr. Jacobs’ research interests include access to, and cultural specificity of, medical care delivered to patients, the impact of interpreter service interventions on the cost and quality of healthcare, health literacy and numeracy, and the role that trust in health care plays in racial/ethnic disparities in health care. Her research has been supported by grants from the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute on Aging, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The California Endowment, The Russell Sage Foundation, The Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute and the Office of Minority Health.

She is recognized as an expert on the provision of linguistically accessible and culturally competent care and has served on Office of Minority Health, Joint Commission, National Quality Forum, Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute and AHRQ expert panels. She has published numerous peer-reviewed journal articles, edited two books, and authored numerous book chapters. In addition, she works with other investigators to design culturally specific research and teaches residents and medical students about practicing culturally sensitive medicine. Dr. Jacobs has practiced as a primary care physician in Federally Qualified Health Centers her entire career and looks forward to continuing to practice in Maine.

Mary Ottolini, MD, MPH, MEd is the George W. Hallett MD Chair of Pediatrics at the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital at Maine Medical Center, a Tufts University Professor of Pediatrics, and the founder and advisor of the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital Scholarship Academy. In her role as the Chair of Pediatrics she oversees the academic and clinical work of pediatric faculty at the BBCH and the MaineHealth Children’s Health Service Line.

Prior to joining Maine Medical Center, Dr. Ottolini was most recently the Vice Chair of Education at Children’s National Hospital where she supervised over 1000 trainees annually in developing expertise in pediatrics across the spectrum of learners from medical students to sub-specialty fellows and faculty. While in the Washington DC area, she also led a practice-based research network comprised of primary care pediatricians in the area.

Through her scholarship, Dr. Ottolini is a nationally recognized expert in medical education with particular expertise in eLearning. During her 30 year career as a medical educator she has presented numerous workshops and original research in medical education at national meetings. She has published book chapters, review articles, and original educational research in peer-reviewed journals. She has served as the Education Chair for the Academic Pediatric Association (APA) and as the APA President. Dr. Ottolini was awarded the prestigious Pediatric Academic Society’s (PAS) Ray Helfer award three times for the most outstanding educational research study presented at the annual PAS meeting as well as the APA’s Teaching Program Award four times for educational programs she helped develop and implement. Dr. Ottolini was awarded the Parker Palmer Courage to Lead Award by the ACGME in 2016 for outstanding Graduate Medical Education leadership as the Designated Institutional Official at Children’s National Hospital and Lifetime Achievement Award for Medical Student Education Leadership from the Council on Medical Student Education in Pediatrics in 2017.  In 2019 she was awarded the Pediatric Hospital Medicine LifeTime Achievement Award.  In 2020 she was named an inaugural member of the National Academy of Distinguished Educators in Pediatrics and a MITE Academy Master Educator.

In addition to earning a Medical Degree and Master’s Degree in Public Health, she completed a Master’s Degree in Medical Education from the George Washington University Graduate School of Education.

Scholarship areas of interest: the use of technology to innovate the learning process – including eLearning and simulation with augmented reality

Peter Bates, MD served as the Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs and Chief Academic Officer.  Prior to that, he served as the Chief Medical Officer and Academic Dean for nearly eight years at Maine Medical Center. Dr. Bates served as a member of the President’s Council at MMC and the Dean’s Executive Council of TUSM. He is a Professor of Medicine at TUSM and MMC.

Dr. Bates received both his BS and MD from the University of Washington where he completed his Internal Medicine Internship, Residency, Chief Residency and began his Fellowship in Pulmonary Medicine. He completed his Pulmonary Fellowship at Maine Medical Center. He is a board member of the Medical Mutual Insurance Company of Maine and Community Dental. He is a member of several regional and national specialty and academic organizations.

Dr. Bates served as the Academic Dean overseeing a medical school partnership with the Tufts University School of Medicine (TUSM). This initiative offers a “Maine Track” for applicants who are interested in a unique, innovative curriculum that will offer clinical training experiences in Maine and expose medical students to the advantages of rural practice as well as training in a major tertiary medical center. The program enrolled its first students in August 2009 and seeks to address the physician workforce shortage in Maine as well as provide access to a medical education for qualified Maine applicants.

Dr. Trowbridge received his AB from Colgate University and attended medical school at Georgetown University School of Medicine. After finishing his residency in Internal Medicine at Stanford University Hospital and working in the U.S. Public Health Service for several years, he completed a fellowship in Hospital Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. He is primarily a clinician-educator and works as an Adult Hospitalist at Maine Medical Center. He has served in multiple leadership roles within the Maine Track Program of Tufts University School of Medicine.

His specific interest is in the development of clinical reasoning abilities and the avoidance of diagnostic error. He serves as Co-Course Director for Introduction to Clinical Reasoning course at Tufts and as an editor of the book, Teaching Clinical Reasoning from the American College of Physicians.

Tania Strout, PhD, RN, MS received her baccalaureate degree in Nursing from the University of Southern Maine, an M.S. in Health Policy and Management from the Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine, and her Ph.D. from Boston College. She completed her research fellowship at Boston College and is currently the Director of Research for the Department of Emergency Medicine at Maine Medical Center and also directs the Department’s Division of Research and Quality. She is an Associate Professor at the Tufts University School of Medicine and serves there on the University’s Academic Research Awards Committee.

Dr. Strout’s primary research interests include health-related measurement, psychometrics, and scale development. Her work has included the study of measurement in emergency department triage systems, youth bullying, acute pain in adults and children, and in acute agitation. Access to care, hospital flow, end-of-life care, uncertainty tolerance in medicine, professional burnout and interpersonal violence are other research areas.

She is an active collaborator with investigators from Children’s Hospital Boston, Boston College, Massachusetts General Hospital, the United States Air Force, and the Veteran’s Administration Boston Healthcare System, among many others. Dr. Strout is also an active reviewer for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration, HRSA. She has received funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.