Meet the Team

  • Dr. Whitfield is the Director of the Colorado Social Emergency Medicine Collaborative. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Colorado, core faculty for the Denver Health Residency in Emergency Medicine, and attending physician in the emergency department at Denver Health.

    Dr. Whitfield completed undergraduate and medical school at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. She did an emergency medicine residency at The George Washington University in Washington, DC and completed a fellowship in International Emergency Medicine there as well. This included a Masters in Public Health concentrated in Global Health Policy as well as consulting with the Institute of Medicine Global Violence Prevention Initiative. She has done clinical volunteer work in Guatemala as well as education and capacity-building projects in India, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, El Salvador, and Peru. Her global health work focused on educating physicians and other health care providers on providing emergency care in low - income settings. 

    Dr. Whitfield has led the University of Colorado School of Medicine Global Health Track, mentoring and teaching medical students to cultivate responsible, impactful careers in global health. She then created a fellowship in global health for the University of Colorado Department of Emergency Medicine, curated for emergency doctors planning to devote their careers to health care for those in low - resourced countries.

    Her current focus is on expanding access to care for vulnerable populations, particularly persons experiencing homelessness and newly arrived migrants, through improved collaboration with community and hospital - wide partnerships as well as improvements in clinical operations. 

  • Jason Haukoos, MD, MSc [pronounced hō • kŭs] is a tenured Professor of Emergency Medicine, Epidemiology, and Clinical Sciences at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Colorado School of Public Health, and University of Colorado Denver, and serves as Director of Research the Department of Emergency Medicine at Denver Health Medical Center in Denver, Colorado. He completed medical school at the UCLA School of Medicine in Los Angeles, California, residency in emergency medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, California, and a clinical research fellowship at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and the UCLA School of Public Health. Dr. Haukoos is a past recipient of an Individual National Research Service Award and an Independent Scientist Award from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and has had continuous federal investigator-initiated funding as principal investigator since 2006, primarily focusing on the intersection of public health and emergency care where he is a leading expert on identification of HIV and HCV in EDs. As such, Dr. Haukoos has served as principal investigator for some of the largest comparative clinical trials ever conducted in this area, including the HIV Opt-Out study, the HIV TESTED trial, and the DETECT Hep C trials. Dr. Haukoos has published >200 peer-reviewed articles and his methodological expertise centers on clinical trial design, including pragmatic trials and quasi-experiments, and multivariable statistical methods. He serves as a Research Methodology Editor for Annals of Emergency Medicine and JAMA Surgery, and serves as a peer reviewer for numerous other journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and Annals of Internal Medicine.

  • Kristen Nordenholz, MD, MSc, FACEP is a Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. She is Core Educational Faculty responsible for educating residents and medical students and has over 30 years of experience in Emergency Medicine, including 5 years working with the Indian Health Service at rural Tuba City Arizona. Her career has centered around improving patient care, primarily in the realm of venous thromboembolism, anticoagulation, point of care ultrasound and pathway development to standardize and improve care but she is now branching more in a Social EM direction. Kristen is the Colorado State Lead of the Committee to Protect Healthcare (CTP), a non-profit national advocacy organization centering medical professionals’ voices for “an America where everyone has the health care they need to thrive” and active in Healthier Colorado, a nonprofit bipartisan group which supports health (defined broadly) initiatives and has been involved in Colorado’s State legislative process. As the new Medical Director of the Levitt Center, she is excited to expand the work of the Andrew Levitt Center nationally and broaden the reach of Social EM in Colorado, as a member of the COSEMC.

    Her undergraduate degree is from Cornell University in Biochemistry, she graduated medical school from the University of Rochester and completed residency training at Johns Hopkins. Her interests include travel, hiking and music, particularly choral singing.

  • My formal education includes advanced degrees in Education from Ferris State University and Negotiation and Conflict Resolution from Creighton University’s School of Law.

    I spent most of my career in higher education in the area of online instructional design, curriculum development and program management. I left John Wiley & Sons in 2021 looking to change what I was doing and participate more in the Denver community.

    Since January of 2021 I have been able to more directly use my education in negotiation and conflict resolution by working in the Restorative Denver program at the Conflict Center and facilitating organizational teams that want to learn to be more productive in managing their conflict. In addition, I currently work as a Program Manager for the Andrew Levitt Center for Social Emergency Medicine. This is a 501 3c non-profit that focuses on helping communities, community emergency departments and hospitals address the social determinants of health that are experienced in the vulnerable populations.

  • Benjamin Li, MD, MSc, is an emergency physician and Medical Director for Denver Health’s hospital-based violence intervention program, At-risk Intervention and Mentoring (AIM, est. 2010). He completed his residency and Clinical Research Fellowship focused on violently injury prevention at Denver Health, and currently serves as Core Faculty for the Denver Health Residency in Emergency Medicine. AIM is a Model Site for the Health Alliance for Violence Intervention, and uses an innovative, evidence-based, multi-disciplinary approach to bridge the gap between the healthcare system and the community. AIM’s Outreach Workers combine lived experience and certified trainings toward utilizing trauma-informed and culturally-responsive care, performing bedside interventions on violently injured youth and young adults in the hospital, followed by mentorship and intensive case management to address all the social determinants of health and stop the cycle of violence.

  • Emily Hopkins Caruso, MSPH, CPH is an Epidemiology and Evaluation Manager for the Department of Emergency Medicine at Denver Health in Denver, Colorado. She received a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts and a Master’s of Science in Public Health at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center (now Colorado School of Public Health). Ms. Caruso has been with the Denver Health Department of Emergency Medicine since 2006 and is responsible for coordination and management of numerous research and sponsored programs at the intersection of public health and emergency medicine.

  • Carol Lynn Lyle, PA-C, MPH, CCRC is a Research Programs Coordinator for the emergency medicine research team. With a career spanning over two decades, she brings prior experiences as a medical assistant, firefighter, paramedic, and ski patroller to complement her current role. Carol Lynn earned her PA-C degree from the University of Washington MEDEX Physician Assistant program in 2000, gaining valuable experience caring for patients in urban and rural emergency departments.

    Driven by her passion for serving underserved communities, Carol Lynn also worked in primary care at a community care clinic, providing primary care, women's health, and HIV care to underserved and uninsured individuals. In 2018, she transitioned to the research field, initially joining the emergency medicine team as a research assistant, advancing to her current position as Research Programs Coordinator in 2024.

    Carol Lynn's background and experiences fuel her research interests in HIV and Hepatitis C prevention, health equity, and addressing social determinants of health. Her dedication to improving healthcare outcomes for all populations reflects her ongoing commitment to emergency medicine and public health.

  • Katie (Kathleen) Joseph, MD, is an Instructor and Clinical Research Fellow n the Department of Emergency Medicine at Denver Health. She completed medical school at Boston University in Boston, Massachusetts and residency in emergency medicine at Denver Health in Denver, Colorado. Dr. Joseph has a particular research and clinical interest in the care of patients experiencing homelessness and trauma informed care. She has worked to coordinate with local organizations to improve ED based linkage to care for patients experiencing homelessness. She is currently in the process of a Master in Public Degree as part of the Clinical Research Fellowship.

  • Stacy Trent, MD, MPH is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and serves as Associate Director of Research the Department of Emergency Medicine at Denver Health Medical Center in Denver, Colorado. She completed medical school at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Master of Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health, residency in emergency medicine at Denver Health Medical Center, and a clinical research fellowship also at Denver Health. Dr. Trent is a past recipient of an Individual National Research Service Award and an Independent Scientist Award from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. She has been funded as a principal investigator by AHRQ, the Emergency Medicine Foundation, and the Ludeman Center for Women’s Health Research. She serves on the executive committee for the Pragmatic Critical Care Research Group, a multi-institutional and multi-disciplinary group of emergency and critical care physician researchers, which has spearheaded numerous multicenter airway and critical care clinical trials with funding from the Department of Defense and the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute. She also serves as a methodologist for the American College of Emergency Physicians Clinical Policies Committee. Dr. Trent’s research focuses broadly on airway management and variation in quality of care, particularly around sex differences in cardiovascular care in the emergency department. Dr. Trent has published over 50 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals in these topic areas.

  • Evangelia Murray, MD, MPH is a Clinical Research Fellow in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Denver Health Medical Center in Denver, Colorado and a Clinical Instructor with the University of Colorado School of Medicine. As a part of her fellowship, she is also completing her Master in Public Health with the Colorado School of Public Health. She completed medical school at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School in Worcester, Massachusetts and residency in emergency medicine at Denver Health Medical Center in Denver, Colorado. Dr. Murray is the current recipient of a Research Training Grant from the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Foundation, focusing on evaluating the implementation of an ED-based digital self-administered social needs screening tool workflow, that optimizes opportunity for screening, reduces bias, and ultimately allows staff to focus on interventions for those in need. Her interests also include sex, gender and race-based disparities in emergency care, harm reduction, and trauma-informed care.

  • Foster Goss, DO, MMSc is an Associate Professor and Emergency Physician at the University of Colorado School of Medicine - Anschutz Medical Campus. He completed his fellowship in Biomedical Informatics and Clinical Decision Making at Harvard Medical School and Tufts and is board certified in Clinical Informatics. His interest and focus are in the development and implementation of novel digital health technologies to address critical problems in healthcare delivery as they relate to patient safety, quality, and clinical decision making. Most recently, his research involves using Generative AI and large language models to improve healthcare services and equity. As an Epic Physician Builder, he is involved in creating clinical decision support systems to advance clinical workflows and improve patient outcomes. In addition to being a federally funded researcher, Dr. Goss is also an entrepreneur. He founded and operated a care coordination company, CareLoop, that was recently acquired by Dispatch Health.

  • Dr. Jason Hoppe is a clinician-researcher, medical toxicologist and Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. His clinical work, research, and public health efforts are aimed at improving the delivery of evidence-based practices regarding prescribing opioid analgesics and effectively initiating treatment for people with an opioid use disorder. He is a national expert in prescription opioid safety, prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMP), and ED buprenorphine use. His mission is to ensure access to safe, high-quality care for people with acutely painful conditions and opioid use disorder. Dr. Hoppe is a founding member of the Colorado Consortium for Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention and has assisted with multiple public health efforts, education programs and successful legislative changes in Colorado regarding PDMP access, opioid prescribing and medications for opioid use disorder.

  • Molly E. W. Thiessen, MD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, and an attending physician in the Emergency Department at Denver Health Medical Center. She completed her Emergency Medicine residency and emergency ultrasound fellowship training at Denver Health Medical Center. As a former written Spanish language translator and medical interpreter, she has a strong interest in improving the experiences of patients who prefer languages other than English in the Emergency Department, as well as the staff that provide that care. She is currently conducting a pilot study evaluating the experiences of patients who prefer languages other than English in the ED at Denver Health, as well as the staff that deliver that care, under the Denver Health Department of Research Pilot Grant program. She is also enrolled in the Masters in Clinical Science Program at the University of Colorado with a goal of furthering her skills as a researcher, specifically within the realm of qualitative and mixed methods research as they apply to populations who prefer languages other than English.

  • Jennie Buchanan, MD is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine board certified in Medical Toxicology. She received her Bachelors of Science Degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara in Environmental Science and her Medical Doctorate from the University of California at San Diego. She completed Emergency Medicine Residency at the Denver Health Residency in Emergency Medicine and a Medical Toxicology Fellowship at Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center now Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Safety. She is currently an Associate Program Director for both the Denver Health Residency in Emergency Medicine and Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Safety Fellowship in Medical Toxicology. Currently, she is the Physician Advisor for the Denver Health Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Program. Her research is focused on medical toxicology, sexual assault forensic care, and medical education broadly. As PI or co-Investigator on several university- and NIH-funded grants, she has assisted in numerous studies involving levamisole contamination in cocaine, forensic care, multiple educational innovations, along with adverse events involving the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, she has successfully administered projects (e.g. staffing, research protections, budget), collaborated with other researchers, and produced several peer-reviewed publications from each project which publications in journals like JAMA. She been involved in multiple peer reviewed publications over her tenure.

  • Taylor McCormick, MD, MSc is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Denver Health and the University of Colorado School of Medicine. She graduated from medical school at Georgetown University and completed residency in emergency medicine at Los Angeles County/University of Southern California. She completed a fellowship in Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Harbor UCLA. She is currently director of the Denver Health Pediatric Emergency Department and Urgent Care. She has a research interest in pediatric trauma and diversity and inclusion in resident education.

  • Kristine (Kristi) Rodrigues, MD MPH is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics. She received her her Medical Doctorate from the University of Colorado and completed residency in pediatrics at Children’s Hospital of Colorado. She has published extensively on care of patients with preferred language other than English or Spanish. She is the medical director of Refugee, Immigrant and Newcomer Health Services at Denver Health.

  • Stephen Wolf, MD is a Professor of Emergency Medicine at Denver Health and the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He graduated from medical school at University of Virginia and completed residency in emergency medicine at Denver Health. He is Director of Service of Denver Health Emergency Medicine and Vice Chair of Emergency Medicine at University of Colorado.