Nationally Recognized Emergency Medicine Physician-Leader Michael E. Winters Named Chair of Emergency Medicine at UM School of Medicine

Dr. Winters Will Also Serve as Chief of Emergency Medicine Clinical Services at the University of Maryland Medical Center

University of Maryland School of Medicine Dean Mark T. Gladwin, MD, along with University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) President Bert W. O’Malley, MD, today announced the appointment of Michael E. Winters, MD, MBA, as the Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) and Chief of Emergency Medicine Clinical Services at UMMC. Dr. Winters, a nationally recognized leader in emergency medicine and critical care, has served as Interim Chair since September 2025 and will continue in the permanent role effective immediately.

Over more than two decades at UMSOM, Dr. Winters has built an extraordinary record of achievement spanning clinical operations, education, research, and institutional leadership. From 2006 to 2018, he served as Program Director for the Combined Emergency Medicine/Internal Medicine Residency Program and founded and co-directed the Combined Emergency Medicine/Internal Medicine/Critical Care Program at UMMC. He served as Medical Director for the Adult Emergency Department from 2008 to 2018, before becoming Vice Chair for Clinical and Administrative Affairs — a role in which he oversaw emergency department operations across UMMC Downtown Campus, UMMC Midtown Campus, the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and Mercy Medical Center.

“Dr. Winters exemplifies everything we seek in a department chair — an erudite elite clinician, an inspiring educator, and a visionary operational leader,” said Dean Gladwin who is also Vice President, Medical Affairs, UM Baltimore, and the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and Dean. “His deep roots at the University of Maryland, his proven ability to implement clinical care transformations that have dramatically reduced  emergency room wait times, and his national reputation in emergency medicine and critical care medicine make him uniquely positioned to advance our department’s mission. We are proud to have him leading this outstanding team into the future.”

Board certified in both emergency medicine and internal medicine, Dr. Winters has a clinical specialty in the resuscitation and care of critically ill emergency department patients. He is Editor-in-Chief of three major textbooks, including the Emergency Department Resuscitation of the Critically Ill, published by the American College of Emergency Physicians. He has authored more than 100 scholarly publications and textbook chapters and delivered nearly 800 invited lectures nationally and internationally.

“Dr. Winters has been an exceptional asset to UMMC and to the broader field of academic medicine,” said Dr. O’Malley, who is also the Executive Vice President for the Academic Health Division of the University of Maryland Medical System. “He is a thoughtful, collaborative and mission-driven leader whose clinical expertise, ability to build consensus and commitment to education have earned him the respect of colleagues across disciplines. Through his leadership at UMMC and his internationally recognized Critical Care Perspectives in Emergency Medicine podcast, he has helped advance the care of critically ill emergency department patients while strengthening our institution immeasurably.”

During his time as Vice Chair and his nine-month tenure as interim chair, Dr. Winters worked to implement a transformative clinical care plan that significantly improved emergency department patient care and experience. After he and his teams at UMMC Downtown Campus, UMMC Midtown Campus, and the Baltimore Veterans Affairs Medical Center implemented patient flow optimization techniques and made operational improvements, they markedly reduced the average wait time to see a provider, the rate of patients who leave without being seen, and the average length of stay for discharged patients. 

His many national honors include the National Emergency Medicine Faculty Teaching Award from the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), the Young Educator of the Year Award from the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM), the Joe Lex Educator of the Year Award from AAEM, and the 2014–2015 Honorable Mention Outstanding Speaker of the Year from ACEP. In 2026, he was named Chairperson of the Year by the Maryland Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians.

In addition to his departmental leadership, Dr. Winters serves on the Medical Executive Committees of both UMMC and UMSOM, chairs the Board of Directors of the Maryland Emergency Medicine Network, and holds board, finance, and executive committee positions with the University of Maryland Faculty Physicians, Inc. He is also President of the University of Maryland Emergency Medicine Associates, P.A.

“I am deeply honored to serve as the permanent Chair of this remarkable department,” said Dr. Winters. “Our faculty, residents, advanced practice providers, nurses, and staff deliver extraordinary care every day under the most demanding circumstances. As a department, we seek to be the premier academic department of emergency medicine renowned globally for education, exemplary patient care, pioneering research, and for developing the next generation of innovative leaders in medicine.  The University of Maryland Medical Center and our affiliated sites are some of the busiest and most complex emergency settings in the country. It is a privilege to lead this team.”

The Department of Emergency Medicine at UMSOM is one of the leading academic emergency medicine programs in the United States, with a commitment to excellence in clinical care, graduate medical education, and research. The department’s Combined Emergency Medicine/Internal Medicine and Emergency Medicine/Internal Medicine/Critical Care residency programs are among the most highly regarded training programs in the specialty.

Dr. Winters has been a member of the UMSOM faculty since 2004, when he joined following completion of the Combined Emergency Medicine/Internal Medicine (EM/IM) Residency Program at the University of Maryland Medical Center, where he served as Chief Resident in his final year. He holds dual bachelor’s degrees in Biomedical and Electrical Engineering from The Johns Hopkins University, an MD from the Medical College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth University, and an MBA from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland—a combination of clinical and business acumen that has defined his approach to leadership.

About the University of Maryland School of Medicine

Founded in 1807, the University of Maryland School of Medicine was the first public and the fifth overall medical school in the United States. The School of Medicine is home to 42 academic departments and centers and institutes and has 3,500 faculty physicians and scientists. Each year, more than 50,000 students, residents, and fellows are trained at the School of Medicine. The School’s research enterprise generates more than $650 million in extramural funding annually. For more information, visit medschool.umaryland.edu.

About the University of Maryland Medical Center

The University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) is comprised of two hospital campuses in Baltimore: the 800-bed flagship institution of the 11-hospital University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) and the 200-bed UMMC Midtown Campus. Both campuses are academic medical centers for training physicians and health professionals and for pursuing research and innovation to improve health. UMMC's downtown campus is a national and regional referral center for trauma, cancer care, neurosciences, advanced cardiovascular care, and women's and children's health, and has one of the largest solid organ transplant programs in the country. All physicians on staff at the downtown campus are clinical faculty physicians of the University of Maryland School of Medicine. The UMMC Midtown Campus medical staff is predominately faculty physicians specializing in a wide spectrum of medical and surgical subspecialties, primary care for adults and children and behavioral health. UMMC Midtown has been a teaching hospital for 140 years and is located one mile away from the downtown campus. For more information, visit www.umm.edu.