Elizabeth Helfrich, a third-year medical student at the Wayne State University School of Medicine, has been selected to serve as a Medical Student Ambassador for the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine’s 2025 Annual Meeting.

Student ambassadors work directly with SAEM leadership to plan the annual meeting. They attend research and didactic sessions, provide social media posts from the sessions and facilitate transitions between lectures. In return, they attend all sessions and engage in a one-on-one meeting with an academic mentor from the society’s leadership.

“I’m absolutely honored to represent Wayne State at SAEM and thankful for all of the faculty -- deans Anne Messman and Margit Chadwell, and Jeffrey Kline, M.D., (professor of Emergency Medicine) -- who made it possible,” Helfrich said. “I love Emergency Medicine and the culture of community within it, and as someone who has no physicians in the family, my mentors have been there through every step of my medical school journey. I am endlessly grateful to them and Wayne State for making this possible.”

Helfrich served in a similar role during the 2023 ACEP research meeting, where she interacted with leaders in her chosen field, and met medical students, residents and program directors from outside of Michigan.

Originally from southeast Michigan, Helfrich lived in Dallas, Texas; Kambia, Sierra Leone; and Amman, Jordan, before joining the WSU School of Medicine. She plans to practice Emergency Medicine after graduation and residency.

She worked as a 911 paramedic in rural Texas and internationally, which sparked her desire to enter medical school and become a leader in Emergency Medicine. She works part time as a paramedic for the Rochester Fire Department.