Ian Wedmore MD, FAWM

Ian Wedmore, M.D., every day of his 21 years in the U.S. Army has been an adventure. He attended medical school through the Army’s Health Professions Scholarship Program, originally planning to stay in the service only for the 4 years he owed after residency. But the “fun and challenging jobs” the Army offered held his interest, and today he serves as emergency medicine consultant to the U.S. Army Surgeon General and Program Director for the U.S. Army Austere and Wilderness Medicine Fellowship.

ACEP Council Speaker Dr. Marco Coppola’s military career took a different route. After completing his residency in the Army, including becoming Chief Resident and Residency Director, he went into the Texas Army National Guard. He led a prison emergency department in Iraq, also serving as deputy commander. He then went on to head the Texas Medical Command for 4 years. Today, he’s still a “weekend warrior,” volunteering as Deputy Brigade Surgeon for the Texas Medical Brigade, Texas State Guard, while also holding a full-time job as a practising emergency physician and academic vice chair for the department of emergency medicine at the John Peter Smith Health Network in Fort Worth, Tex.