Dr. Benjamin Aaker is an Emergency Medicine physician, real estate blogger, investor, author, and entrepreneur. As DoctorEquity, he educates high performers on real estate investing and owns 118 apartment units worth nearly $10 million. He always had his "50 year plan", to be financially free to leave the profession by age 50. He did it at 40. With an active locum tenens practice, he is not ready to leave medicine yet. But, he can leave whenever he wants to, which is the best feeling in the world.

Muhammad Arsalan Arshad was born in Hamilton, Canada. He is currently a hospitalist at Avera Mckennan University Hospital. He did his internal medicine residency from University of South Dakota SSOM and was also a Chief Resident there. He has been very active with ACP and was the resident representative for ACP also during the year 2021. Dr. Arshad got most of his education from Pakistan and attended Army Medical College for MBBS. He has been actively involved in research regarding Liver and Gastrointestinal system.

JP Dinnell is a former U.S. Navy SEAL and combat veteran. Sent to the violent terrorist stronghold of Ar Ramadi, Iraq in 2006 with SEAL Team Three’s Task Unit Bruiser, JP served as point man, machine gunner, and lead sniper for Delta Platoon. For his leadership and courage under fire, JP was awarded a Silver Star, 2 Bronze Stars with Valor and the Army Commendation Medal with Valor helping Task Unit Bruiser to become the most highly decorated special operations unit of the Iraq War. JP now serves as a senior Leadership Instructor and the Chief Training Officer at Echelon Front overseeing Experiential Training Programs.

Shari M. Erickson currently serves as Chief Advocacy Officer and Senior Vice President of Governmental Affairs and Public Policy with the American College of Physicians (ACP). In this role, Ms. Erickson oversees the operations of the Washington, DC office and manages ACP’s overall advocacy and policy initiatives relating to Congress and federal regulatory agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), CMS’ Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI), and other federal bodies. Ms. Erickson also oversees ACP’s Department of Medical Practice, which is responsible for the ongoing development and maintenance of programs, products, tools, and services to assist medical practices with regulatory compliance and practice transformation. In addition, Ms. Erickson currently serves as Co-Chair of the Primary Care Collaborative’s (PCC) Public Policy and Advocacy Workgroup. Before coming to ACP, Ms. Erickson was a Senior Program Director with the National Quality Forum (NQF) in Washington, D.C. where she was responsible for managing an array of projects that support NQF’s national strategy for health care quality measurement and reporting. Ms. Erickson received her Master of Public Health degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and her Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of ArtsInternational Studies degrees from Miami University in Ohio.

Dr. Gassman currently resides in Sioux Falls, SD and has worked as an outpatient internist at Sanford Internal Medicine Clinic at Imaginetics, since October of 2023.

She grew up in Howard, SD, and graduated, Magna Cum Laude, from Augustana University in 2014 with a major in Biology. She attended medical school at A.T. Still University-Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine (ATSU-KCOM) in Kirksville, MO, which afforded her the opportunity to complete clinical rotations in the Provo, Utah region. At ATSU-KCOM, she served as the Student Government President. She was awarded the AT Still Memorial Medallion upon graduating.

She attended internal medicine residency at the University of North Dakota in Fargo North Dakota, and graduated in June of 2023.

She serves on the Sanford Clinician Wellbeing Council and has a passion for advocating for wellbeing in the healthcare field. She additionally enjoys peer mentoring and was a part of the Augustana Peer Mentoring program in 2023.

She is married and enjoys spending time outdoors with her husband. She is also an avid runner and enjoys interior design.

Alisha Hemraj, MD MSc is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine and a geriatric hospitalist at Sanford USD Medical Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. She completed her internal medicine residency at State University of New York Upstate Medical and her geriatric medicine fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Dr. Hemraj is board certified in both internal and geriatric medicine. She oversees the in-patient rotation for the USD geriatric fellows and teaches the geriatric didactic sessions for the internal medicine residency program. Additionally, she served as Sanford’s hospice medical director in Sioux Falls and was the lead author on a chapter about persistent pain in older adults in the Handbook of Pain and Palliative Care. In her free time, she engages in real-estate ventures and visits Canada to spend time with her nephews.

Dr. Kusmak practices medicine as a General Dermatologist at Sanford Clinic in Sioux Falls, SD. In addition to his clinic practice he has served in a number of leadership roles and service on numerous clinic, hospital, and health plan committees. He is an Associate Professor at the Sanford School of Medicine, focusing on the clinical dermatology education of rotating medical students and residents. Dr. Kusmak earned his MD degree from the Sanford School of Medicine at USD. He completed his Transitional Year Residency at SSOM in Sioux Falls, and his Dermatology Residency at Marshfield Clinic in Marshfield, WI. Prior to pursuing medicine, Dr. Kusmak practiced as a Pharmacist, earning his PharmD degree from Creighton University in Omaha, NE. Dr. Kusmak lives in Sioux Falls with his wife Amy, and their three children.

Dr. Randall Lamfers is a graduate of the University of Missouri – Columbia School of Medicine. He completed his Internal Medicine Residency training and served as a Chief resident at the University of Wisconsin. He currently is practicing as a Hospitalist at Sanford USD Medical Center. In addition to his clinical practice, Dr. Lamfers serves as the Associate Program Director Internal Medicine Residency and as the GME Quality Officer at USD SSOM.

Dr. Larson practices General Internal Medicine at Sanford Medical Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He is a Professor of Medicine at the University of South Dakota, and Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at the Sanford School of Medicine. Dr. Larson maintains an active Primary Care Practice, and has been involved in moving genetic testing into routine care. Over the past decade, he helped create the Imagenetics initiative, which now delivers pharmacogenetic testing in Primary Care across a 5-state footprint. His research interests include the identification of genetic factors that contribute to residual cardiovascular risk in patients using statins, and he currently serves the American College of Physicians as Governor of their South Dakota Chapter. Dr. Larson is married to Jennifer, and they enjoy spending time with their three college age children.

Marion McCrary is a primary care internal medicine physician at Duke Signature Care and serves as the Associate Director of the Duke GME Professional Development Coaching program where she develops curriculum, educates, and coaches residents and fellows in a 1:1 and group setting. She is a national board-certified health and wellness coach.

She is the Governor for the NC chapter of the American College of Physicians (ACP), Lead Faculty for the American Medical Women’s Association’s (AMWA) ELEVATE and EVOLVE Certificate in Leadership programs for female physicians and residents, and a member of the AMWA Board of Directors.

Her passion for physician well-being has led her to serve as an ACP Well-Being Champion and as a Board member for the North Carolina Clinician and Physician Retention and Well-being Consortium.

Her mission is to create opportunities for physicians to focus on themselves, to empower them to determine and advocate for what they need, and then to arm them with the tools to create a flourishing career.

Dr Jawad Nazir is an experienced and well respected ABIM board-certified infectious disease consultant at Avera McKennan Hospital and University Health Center which is a 545 bed teaching hospital in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Dr Nazir graduated from King Edward Medical University, Lahore Pakistan in 1993 and completed internal medicine residency training at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center McKeesport, Pennsylvania in 2001 followed by Infectious disease fellowship training at New York Presbyterian Hospital Queens from 2001- 2003. Apart from busy clinical practice he is actively engaged in teaching medical students and residents and is a clinical Professor of medicine at Sanford school of medicine, University of South Dakota. Dr. Nazir is also the medical director of infection prevention, control and antimicrobial stewardship for Avera McKennan Hospital and Avera health and has successfully completed several quality improvement projects. His medical interests include infections in immunocompromised host including solid organ transplant recipients, antimicrobial resistance and telehealth and has published several peer-reviewed articles. Dr. Nazir is a fellow of American College of physicians and member of several professional societies including infectious disease Society of America, society of hospital epidemiology and infection control and American telemedicine association.

Dr. Steven Powell is an Associate Scientist in Medical Oncology at Sanford Cancer Center and Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at the Sanford School of Medicine at the University of South Dakota in Sioux Falls, SD, USA. Dr. Powell is the Head of Enterprise Oncology Research at Sanford and leads the advanced cancer therapeutics and precision oncology research programs. His expertise is in phase I/II clinical trials, with a focus on cancer immunotherapy and genomic-matched treatments. Clinically he focuses on the management of head and neck malignancies, melanoma, and lung cancer. Through these efforts, he has led over 30 clinical trials leading to more than 50 co-authored publications and published abstracts in highly respected journals including The New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Nationally he has served on the National Cancer Institute Head and Neck Cancer Steering Committee, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) TAPUR Molecular Tumor Board, and Alliance Immuno-Oncology Committee.

Jitendra Thakkar, MD, FACP, FSM is an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at the Sanford School of Medicine-USD. He is actively involved in medical student and residency education at Sioux Falls Campus. His current responsibilities include physician advisor role for Clinical Documentation Integrity and Case Management departments at Sanford USD medical center. He has also served as Chair of Hospitalist division at Sanford USD Medical School. Dr. Thakkar has travelled extensively nationally and internationally educating physicians about hospital medicine expansion. His personal interests include real estate, financial planning and medical start ups.

After training and practicing in the Chicago area and teaching at Midwestern University CCOM, Dr. Vercel began practicing with Avera Medical Group Rheumatology in 2019. He enjoys spending his time learning, creating, and encouraging others toward personal growth. His favorite thing is to spend time with his wife and dog, finding new ways to grow and together.

Dr. Chencheng Xie, MD, FACP, serves as a hepatology physician at Avera McKennan Hospital & University Health Center. His academic journey began with a medical degree from Tongji Medical College, after which he engaged in pioneering research as a Postdoctoral Associate at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Xie further honed his clinical expertise with internal medicine residency training at the University of South Dakota and an advanced hepatology fellowship at Thomas Jefferson University. Currently an assistant professor at the University of South Dakota, he actively contributes to the medical community as an editor and reviewer for prominent medical journals. Dr. Xie’s research has gained national recognition and published about 30 articles in reputable journals, including Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Molecular Cancer, et al. His career, characterized by a dedication to medical education, research excellence, and the advancement of patient care in hepatology, reflects his commitment to improving health outcomes.

Reservations under South Dakota American College of Physicians; Telephone: 605-444-4700; Rooms: $ 174 /night; Block of rooms will be released August 11, 2024.