GEM Bios

Susan Owens, MD, MPH, FACEP

I attended medical school at University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas where I spent time learning about provision of care in resource-limited settings in India and Uganda. I completed my emergency medicine residency at the University of Cincinnati, where I worked on global health projects in Tanzania, India, and Guyana. I then completed my global emergency medicine fellowship and earned a master's degree in Public Health at George Washington University in 2022, with a special focus on global health program design, monitoring, and evaluation. As a fellow, I was part of the core faculty for the Masters in Emergency Medicine (MEM) program, a multi-institutional partnership that provides emergency medicine training to physicians in India, and continue working with this group while I work clinically at UK. In addition to the MEM program, I am also core faculty for the Faculty Development Program, a longitudinal one-year course hosted by the Ronald Reagan Institute for Emergency Medicine at George Washington University for EM physicians in Saudi Arabia. My personal global health interest is system development through capacity building and workforce development. At UK, I work with Dr. Hamm to support our residents interested in global emergency medicine and serve as faculty advisor for the UK Global Brigades chapter, an undergraduate student organization.

Joel Hamm, MD, MPH, FACEP

I am a Kentucky native and graduate of the University of Kentucky College of Medicine (COM) then completed an emergency medicine residency and an international emergency medicine fellowship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and earnd an MPH at Western Kentucky University. As part of the fellowship, I completed the Gorgas Diploma Course in Clinical Tropical Medicine in Lima, Peru, earning the Diploma of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. I’ve provided medical care in low resource settings at Tenwek and Kijabe Hospitals in Kenya with World Medical Mission, as well as in Jordan, El Salvador, Peru, Ecuador, and Gambia.

At UK, I am always looking for collaborations across specialties in the college and across campus to work in global health, as well focus on global health education for students, residents, and fellows, and service opportunities abroad.