Carleigh Hebbard, PhD, MD

Dr. Hebbard is an Emergency Medicine (EM) physician and Washington University’s first Medical Toxicology/Research Fellow. Carleigh earned her MS in Microbiology (Glycobiology), PhD in Biochemistry (Thrombosis and Hemostasis), and MD at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign through the Medical Scholars Program.  She became an OSU Buckeye afterward, finishing her EM residency training at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.  Since graduate school, she has collaborated with multiple labs on various basic science and translational research projects: investigating links between heart failure and mRNA; elucidating the pharmacokinetics and pharmacogenetics involved in patients’ responses to certain cardiac medications; and, most recently, studying the mechanisms responsible for cardiometabolic abnormalities in obesity. Her long-term academic interest is to merge EM/Tox and basic research. Her project in the Samuel Klein Lab involves GLP-1 receptor agonists, which recently have shown potential in treatment for substance use disorder.

Eric E. Kaczor, MD

Dr. Kaczor is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo in Buffalo, NY. He is also a volunteer faculty member with Upstate Medical University and works with the Upstate New York Poison Control Center, both of which are located in Syracuse, New York. He is an Emergency Medicine trained physician with a fellowship in Medical Toxicology.

During his residency training he became interested in the application of biosensors in the field of medicine. His first work was on the application of biosensors and machine learning as a means to develop a predictive model for the real time detection of physician stress was accepted for publication and presented at the 2020 Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS). During his Medical Toxicology Fellowship, his research interests became focused on the field of toxicology, and he has since published several works exploring the effects and composition of cannabis products. Hoping to apply his biosensor work within Medical Toxicology, he developed a research proposal on the use of wearable biosensors as a means to detect cannabis intoxication, which won first place at the American College of Medical Toxicology (ACMT) national conference Shark Tank competition in March 2020. Unfortunately, that planned study population became inaccessible due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since joining the University at Buffalo in 2023, his research has once again focused on applying wearable biosensors in the field of medical toxicology. With the support of the 2024 ACMT Medical Toxicology Foundation (MTF) award, he recently completed data collection for a pilot study using biosensors to detect intoxication and impairment in subjects consuming alcoholic beverages. He is also in the process of implementing a second biosensor pilot study on cannabis intoxication which will build off the 2020 Shark Tank proposal. As part of the 2025-2026 cohort of the ACMT ANTIDOTE Institute training program, he will be developing a follow-up study to this pilot biosensor work.

Kayla Kendric, MD

Dr. Kendric is a medical toxicology fellow at the University of California, San Francisco, and the California Poison Control System. She earned her medical degree from Creighton University School of Medicine and completed her emergency medicine residency at Loma Linda University, where she also served as chief resident. Dr. Kendric’s academic interests include advancing medication-assisted treatment for stimulant and opioid use disorders, exploring the impact of novel substances of misuse, and enhancing toxicology education for medical professionals. Her current research focuses on improving the continuity of care for pediatric patients with opioid use disorder who present to the emergency department.

Cyrus E. Kuschner, MD

Dr. Kuschner is an Emergency Physician and Medical Toxicology Fellow at Northwell and PhD candidate at the Elmezzi Graduate School of Molecular Medicine. He completed residency in emergency medicine at Northshore University Hospital and Long Island Jewish Medical Center (NS/LIJ). He has research experience in large data analysis, mitochondrial physiology, lipidomics, and mitochondrial transplantation. His current research focuses on applying mitochondrial transplantation to medical toxicology focusing on neurotoxic exposures.

Hannah Spungen, MD

Dr. Spungen is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine and Medical Toxicology in the UCLA Department of Emergency Medicine. She completed her EM residency at UCLA Ronald Reagan/Olive View in Los Angeles and her Medical Toxicology fellowship at Banner University Medical Center—Phoenix in Phoenix, AZ. Her research interests include bias in medical literature and using R to explore large toxicologic data sets.

Ben Weigel, MD

Dr. Weigel is a current medical toxicology fellow at the Toxikon Consortium in Chicago, IL. He is a graduate of Tufts University and Tufts University School of Medicine. Ben completed his residency in emergency medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, where he served as chief resident, before moving to Chicago for fellowship. His academic interests include unintentional pediatric poisonings, novel psychoactive substances, and the intersection of toxicology and social determinants of health. In his free time, he enjoys hiking, skiing, and traveling with his husband and their bernedoodle, Dory.”

Matthew Dernbach, MD

Matthew R. Dernbach, MD is a board-certified psychiatrist and first-year medical toxicology fellow at Emory University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He is a graduate of Yale University and the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, and completed his residency in psychiatry at the Medical University of South Carolina. His research interests lie at the interface of mental health, addiction and medical toxicology, with an emphasis on the continuity of care for patients who present to the Emergency Department due to an overdose.

Charlotte Goldfine, MD

Charlotte Goldfine, MD is an emergency medicine physician and medical toxicologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). She is the course director for the Harvard-Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency toxicology core rotation and the BWH site fellowship director for the Harvard Toxicology Fellowship. Her research is focused on medication safety, medical education, and advances in digital health technologies, novel therapeutics, and drug-delivery systems in the treatment of substance use disorders.

Jacob Lebin, MD

Jacob Lebin, MD is faculty in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He is a graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Dr. Lebin completed his residency in emergency medicine at the University of Washington and his medical toxicology fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco. His clinical time is split between the University of Colorado Hospital’s emergency department and the medical toxicology consultation service associated with the Rocky Mountain Poison Center. His research interests include best practices for the management of alcohol withdrawal and the use of clinical decision support for ED-based treatment of alcohol and opioid use disorder.

Jennifer Love, MD

Jennifer Love is an assistant professor of emergency medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She received her medical degree from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She trained in emergency medicine at the University of Pennsylvania where she also served as chief resident. Dr. Love completed a medical toxicology fellowship at Oregon Health & Science University.  She also completed the NIH T32 training program in emergency care research and a Master of Clinical Research at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.  Her areas of interest include novel substances of misuse and mentoring women in medicine.  Her current research focuses on clinical outcomes related to xylazine-adulterated opioids.

Simon Ostrowski, MD

Simon Ostrowski is a medical toxicology fellow at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He is a graduate of Boston University and the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Simon completed his residency in emergency medicine at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center where he served as chief resident, and stayed in Pittsburgh for fellowship. His academic interests include wearable biosensor use in alcohol withdrawal, medication for opioid use disorder, emergency medicine systems/operations, and the intersection of toxicology and public health. In his free time he enjoys taking walks to the nearest coffee shop with his wife, daughter, and corgi.

Michael Simpson, MD

Michael Simpson is an emergency physician and medical toxicologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He completed his residency at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and his medical toxicology fellowship at the Harvard Medical Toxicology Fellowship. His research interests include prediction and management of cardiovascular toxicity in acute drug overdose. Future research plans include further study of bupropion cardiotoxicity and developing strategies to appropriately identify and treat drug-induced cardiogenic shock.

C. James Watson, MD

A native of Portland, Maine, Christopher James Watson, MD (James) earned his bachelor of arts degree in political science from Davidson College in 2011 and his medical degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine in 2017. He completed medical training in Boston at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center’s Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency (2020) and Boston Children’s Hospital’s Harvard Medical Toxicology Fellowship (2022).

Dr. Watson is board-certified in both Emergency Medicine and Medical Toxicology. In 2022, he joined Maine Medical Center, where he is core faculty for the emergency medicine residency program, practices as a medical toxicologist for the Northern New England Poison Center, and holds an appointment as Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. Dr. Watson is an active member of multiple national medical societies and serves on the American College of Medical Toxicology’s Clinical Practice & Position Statements Committee. Dr. Watson’s academic interests include the acute treatment of substance use disorders and resource utilization as it pertains to toxicology.

Alexis Cates, DO

Alexis L. Cates, DO is currently living in New Orleans, LA practicing emergency medicine and medical toxicology at Ochsner Medical Center as part of the Emergency Medicine residency faculty.  She completed her residency and fellowship at Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia, PA.  She enjoys working with patients with substance use disorders and resident education, and as a result completed several projects in the realm of opioid use disorder and education of adult learners. She has served in several national leadership positions and on national committees in relation to health policy. Her research and career interests include identifying and preventing barriers to care in the pregnant population with substance use disorders, understanding and identifying issues with xenobiotics and lactation and the resultant education of patients and medical practitioners, and ensuring all healthcare providers carry naloxone.

Henrik Galust, MD

Henrik Galust, MD is an emergency physician and medical toxicology fellow. He earned his medical degree at Northeast Ohio Medical University in 2018. After completing Residency in Emergency Medicine at Denver Health in 2022 he joined Fellowship in Medical Toxicology at the University of California, San Diego. His research areas of interest include drugs of abuse, therapeutics in addiction, drug adulterants, and graduate level medical education.

Jessica Krueger, MD

Jessica J Krueger a first-year toxicology fellow at Banner University Medical Center Phoenix with the University of Arizona College of Medicine Department of Toxicology. She has long had a passion for research, having worked in two molecular neuroscience laboratories prior to attending medical school at the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University. She completed emergency medicine residency at Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia. She looks forward to developing her research skills beyond her established interests in animal models and molecular research techniques.

Vita Mithi, BS

Vita Mithi, BS, is the founder of Center for Life Toxicology Data in Malawi and the communications lead for the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco Genetics and Omics Network, research scholar in the Leaders of Africa Institute 2022 research methods program. He is a Medical Toxicology in Industry and Antidote fellow at the American College of Medical Toxicology, and Africa Oxford Health Innovation and Entrepreneurship Scheme 2022 fellow – the University of Oxford. A registered member of the Medical Council of Malawi, American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Public Health from the University of Livingstonia, in Malawi. His research focuses on integrating personalized technology in toxicology. His current research as an antidote fellow at the American College of Medical Toxicology focuses on heightening mHealth toxicology applications for tracking substance abuse, poisons, medication adherence, and monitoring trends of drug use (health systems toxicology).

Bryan Wilson, MD

Dr. Bryan Wilson is a medical toxicologist passionate about space and snakes. He earned his medical degree at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. He subsequently completed a combined residency in Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine at the University of Arizona where he remained to complete a fellowship in Medical Toxicology with the Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center. After completing his training, he joined the faculty at the University of Iowa and served as the Interim Medical Director for the Iowa Poison Control Center. His career to this point has emphasized care in resource limited settings with a heavy emphasis on the areas of snake envenomation and care in the aeromedical setting. Through the ANTIDOTE Institute, he hopes to develop a research career using snake envenomation and crewed space flight as models for the development of clinical informatics tools to improve care in resource constrained settings.

Caitlin Bonney, MD

Caitlin Bonney, MD is a medical toxicologist and emergency physician. She is board eligible in medical toxicology and board-certified in emergency medicine. Her current duties include service at the Northern New England Poison Center including the development of policies and protocols for the Northern New England region, supervising poison specialists, and teaching medical students, residents, and pharmacy students. She also maintains an adjunct faculty position at the University of Nevada Las Vegas where she is involved in teaching residents, advising pharmacy protocols, and serving on the medical school Curriculum Oversight Committee. In her clinical duties, she works as an attending emergency physician at Maine Medical Center and Exeter Hospital. She serves on national committees related to toxicology including the American College of Emergency Physicians Excited Delirium Task Force. She conducts ongoing research on opioid use disorder.

Marielle Brenner, MD

Marielle Brenner, MD is an emergency medicine physician and medical toxicologist. She trained in emergency medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, WI and trained in medical toxicology at Indiana University in Indianapolis, IN. After fellowship, she joined the faculty at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, IA as an Assistant Professor in Emergency Medicine and Medical Toxicology. Her academic interests include the toxicology of combined opioid and sympathomimetic toxicity including the biochemical pathways of the underlying addiction of combined ingestion. Research goals include developing a better understanding of the neuroplasticity that occurs with opioid and stimulant addiction to allow for better pharmacotherapies for this patient population.

Eric Kaczor, MD

Eric Kaczor, MD, is a board-certified emergency medicine physician and board-eligible medical toxicologist. He earned his medical degree at the University at Buffalo, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in 2016, and completed his Residency in Emergency Medicine and Fellowship in Medical Toxicology at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in 2019 and 2021 respectively. After graduation, he took a position at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and will be starting a volunteer faculty position in the upcoming academic year. His research interests include characterizing the potential adverse effects of cannabis product exposures, exploring the content and labeling strategies of commercially available cannabis products, and the use of biosensors as a means of detecting intoxication/impairment.

David Liss, MD

David Liss, MD is a faculty member at Washington University in St. Louis in the Department of Emergency Medicine, Division of Medical Toxicology. He graduated fellowship in 2017 and has been practicing Medical Toxicology for 5 years. His interest in the ANTIDOTE Institute program comes from his recent academic focus in medical toxicology and addiction medicine research. He has completed two retrospective observational studies of patients treated by the medical toxicology consult service with opioid use disorder and the rates of follow-up with a local care coordination program. In addition, he is in the final stage of data collection and analysis for a Medical Toxicology Foundation grant studying mass spectrometry for universal urine drug screening in pregnancy compared with standard of care screening. He has several thoughts on the next steps, and hopes that participating in this program would give him a sounding board for focusing his research efforts as well as help him to improve the quality of his future projects.

Michael Simpson, MD

Michael Simpson, MD, is a first-year medical toxicology fellow at the Harvard Medical Toxicology Program at Boston Children’s Hospital and the Massachusetts and Rhode Island Poison Control Center. He attended medical school at the University of Central Florida in his hometown of Orlando, Florida, and then completed residency training in emergency medicine at Vanderbilt University. His research interests include practice variations in the care of poisoned patients.

James Whitledge, MD

Jim Whitledge is currently a medical toxicology fellow at Boston Children’s Hospital, and also works as an emergency medicine physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Winchester Hospital in the Boston area. He attended Tufts University School of Medicine and subsequently completed emergency medicine residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where he served as chief resident. His current research interests include ED-based treatment for alcohol use disorder, cannabis and the impact of its legalization, and drug shortage solutions.

Brandtly Yakey, DO

Brandtly Yakey is a first-year medical toxicology fellow at Wayne State University Michigan Poison and Drug Information Center, as well as an emergency physician at Detroit Medical Center in Detroit, Michigan. He completed residency training at Michigan State University/Sparrow in Lansing, Michigan. Toxicology interests include therapeutics and addiction/withdrawal.

Kevin Baumgartner, MD

Kevin Baumgartner, MD, is an emergency medicine physician and medical toxicologist. He trained in Emergency Medicine and Medical Toxicology at Washington University School of Medicine and now joins the Division of Medical Toxicology as an Assistant Professor. He is the co-director of the Introduction to Addiction Medicine medical student elective and a member of the editorial board of Clinical Toxicology. Dr. Baumgartner’s research and clinical interests include addiction medicine, quality improvement, psychopharmacology, and snake envenomation.

Mary Billington, MD

Dr. Mary Billington is a board-certified medical toxicologist and emergency medicine physician. She completed both Emergency Medicine Residency and Medical Toxicology Fellowship at Parkland Hospital. She currently holds the academic position of Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Texas Health and Science Center in Houston, TX. The application of mathematical modeling and analysis to the field of toxicology is her primary research interest.

Joseph Carpenter, MD

Joseph Carpenter, MD is an Assistant Professor in the Medical Toxicology Section, Department of Emergency Medicine at the Emory University School of Medicine. He is a graduate of Brown University and the Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Carpenter completed his residency in emergency medicine at Los Angeles County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and fellowship in medical toxicology at Emory University and the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. His clinical time is split between Grady Memorial Hospital’s emergency department, medically assisted opioid treatment clinic, and medical toxicology consultation service, as well as the Georgia Poison Center. His research interests lie at the growing intersection of emergency medicine, medical toxicology, and addiction medicine.

Aaron S. Frey, DO

Dr. Aaron Frey was born and raised in Forest, Virginia. He moved to North Carolina to attend Campbell University for his undergraduate education where he double majored in Spanish and government with a concentration in international studies and minored in history. While in North Carolina, he became a firefighter and emergency medicine technician. His first responder experiences made him want to pursue a career in medicine. He obtained the prerequisite medical school courses from Campbell University and became a student researcher in the cellular biology department. He attended the Via College of Osteopathic Medicine in Blacksburg, Virginia where he continued to work as a student researcher. There, he studied the protective effects of cerium oxide nanoparticles in traumatic brain injury and Parkinson’s Disease. He completed an emergency medicine residency at the Lehigh Valley Health Network in Allentown, Pennsylvania in 2019. He worked in a small, resource-limited hospital in northeast Pennsylvania during the COVID-19 pandemic and treated many critically ill patients. He then decided to pursue additional training in medical toxicology and is currently a medical toxicology fellow at the University of Virginia.

Marc Rigatti, MD, PhD

Marc Rigatti MD, PhD is currently a senior medical toxicology fellow at UMass Medical School. He began his education at Eastern Connecticut State University and graduated with degrees in biochemistry and biology. He then moved on to University of Connecticut, where he earned a Master’s in biochemistry while studying the chemotherapeutic potential of mdm2 inhibitors in colorectal cancer. Dr. Rigatti completed his MD/PhD at the UConn School of medicine in 2017. He earned his PhD in cell analysis and modeling by studying the biophysical mechanisms that allow A Kinase Anchoring Proteins coordinate PKA signaling microdomains, thereby regulating phosphorylation of specific PKA substrates. Dr. Rigatti completed a residency in emergency medicine at the UConn Emergency Medicine Program in Hartford, CT, where he also served as chief resident. His current research interests focus on the use of wearable biosensors and machine learning to measure pain severity and to detect states of intoxication.

Christopher Watson, MD

Dr. Watson is a second-year medical toxicology fellow with the Harvard Medical Toxicology Program at Boston Children’s Hospital and the Regional Center for Poison Control and Prevention Serving Massachusetts and Rhode Island, as well as an emergency medicine physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston, Massachusetts. A native of Portland, Maine, Dr. Watson completed medical school at The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and residency training at the BIDMC Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency. He has strong clinical and academic interests in resource utilization with regard to toxicologic emergencies.