Physician Leaders Dedicated to Independent Emergency Medicine
AAEM-PG is led by practicing emergency physicians who understand the challenges and opportunities facing independent emergency medicine groups because they experience them firsthand.
Collectively, our Board brings decades of experience in physician group governance, emergency department leadership, hospital administration, academic medicine, advocacy, and organizational development.
This experience guides AAEM-PG’s mission to strengthen independent physician-led emergency medicine groups, promote workplace fairness, and support physician leadership through advocacy, education, and collaboration.
Whether serving as emergency department medical directors, physician group leaders, educators, researchers, or hospital executives, our Board members remain committed to ensuring emergency physicians continue to lead the future of emergency medicine.
Meet the AAEM-PG Board
Each member of the AAEM-PG Board brings a unique perspective shaped by years of clinical practice and physician leadership. Together, they help guide the organization’s strategic direction while advancing AAEM-PG’s mission to support independent physician-led emergency medicine.
Current Role
Dr. Algis Baliunas is a partner with South Bend Emergency Physicians, an AAEM physician group serving three emergency departments in the greater South Bend, Indiana, area. He is a practicing emergency physician with more than 15 years of clinical experience and has served in both community and academic emergency medicine.
Leadership Experience
Dr. Baliunas has held several physician leadership roles throughout his career, including Emergency Department Director and Medical Staff President at Beacon Bremen Hospital in Bremen, Indiana. He also served as Medical Director for Michigan and Medical Coordinator for Texas with Curative Medical Associates, helping lead the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic.
In addition to his clinical leadership, Dr. Baliunas has contributed to emergency medicine education as part-time faculty at the University of Florida and Indiana University. He has also participated in clinical research in collaboration with the University of Notre Dame, including work on microRNA point-of-care testing supported by a 2015 Advanced Diagnostics and Therapeutics grant.
Education & Training
Medical School: Rush University
Residency: University of Florida Jacksonville, Emergency Medicine
Areas of Expertise
• Emergency Department Leadership
• Independent Physician Group Practice
• Medical Staff Leadership
• Emergency Medicine Operations
• Academic Emergency Medicine
• Residency Education
• Clinical Research
• COVID-19 Response & Public Health Initiatives
Current Role
Dr. Smolensky is a practicing emergency physician and serves as Vice Chair of the AAEM Physician Group Board of Directors. He is also a partner, Chief Financial Officer, and Chief Operating Officer of Middle Tennessee Emergency Physicians (MTEP), an independent, democratic emergency medicine group staffing approximately ten emergency departments across Middle Tennessee.
Leadership Experience
As CFO and COO of MTEP, Dr. Smolensky leads the group’s payer contracting, revenue cycle oversight, and financial operations. He has negotiated commercial rate agreements directly with national and regional carriers, managed out-of-network strategy and contract terminations, and built the group’s independent dispute resolution program under the No Surprises Act. He has developed internal analytics for physician productivity, documentation quality, and site-level financial performance, and works closely with the group’s billing partner on coding, denial management, and payer audits.
Dr. Smolensky is Assistant Professor and Director of Informatics and Documentation for the University of Tennessee–Nashville/Murfreesboro Emergency Medicine Residency, where he teaches documentation, coding, and the business of emergency medicine and contributes to residency curriculum development. He authored the leadership and governance module for AAEM’s Business of Emergency Medicine curriculum.
He also serves as Secretary-Treasurer of the Tennessee Chapter Division of AAEM and previously served on the board of directors of the Arizona chapter of ACEP. Before moving to Nashville, he was Human Resources Director and a member of the Executive Board of a private emergency medicine practice in the Phoenix area. He is President of Premier Scribes, a medical scribe service, and a co-founder of an advanced urgent care venture in Middle Tennessee.
Education & Training
Medical School: Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science
Residency: University of Arizona, Emergency Medicine (Chief Resident)
Areas of Expertise
• Physician Group Governance & Finance
• Payer Contracting & Reimbursement
• Coding, Billing & Documentation
• No Surprises Act & IDR Arbitration
• Emergency Department Operations & Analytics
• Independent Practice Management
• Residency Education & the Business of Emergency Medicine
Luke Weber, MD, is an Administrative Fellow at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. He is also pursuing his MBA at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Dr. Weber completed his residency at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, where he served as chief resident. He is the RSA representative for the AAEM Operations Management Section and a member of the AAEM Workforce Committee.
Dr. Saba Rizvi is a board-certified emergency medicine physician with 15 years of practice experience. She graduated from the University of South Alabama College of Medicine in 2005 and completed her residency training in emergency medicine at the University of Alabama Birmingham in 2009.
Dr. Rizvi has served as a Medical Director and currently practices locum emergency medicine in the state of Texas. Her interests include the intersection of medicine and the law, with a special interest in healthcare policy. She is staunch advocate of the autonomous practice rights of all physicians, but especially emergency medicine physicians.
Dr. Rizvi has been a member of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM) since 2011.
Current Role
Dr. Robert McNamara serves as Vice Chair and Chief Medical Officer of AAEM Physician Group (AAEM-PG), where he supports efforts to preserve and strengthen independent, physician-owned emergency medicine practices. He is also Professor and Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University and serves as Interim Chief Executive Officer of Temple University’s faculty practice plan.
Leadership Experience
Dr. McNamara has held numerous leadership roles in emergency medicine, academic medicine, and physician governance. He served as President of AAEM from 1996 to 2002 and continues to be a leading voice within the organization on the corporate practice of emergency medicine. He also represents AAEM as a delegate to the American Medical Association.
At Temple University, Dr. McNamara has twice served as Chief Medical Officer of Temple University Hospital, the busiest Level I trauma center in the Delaware Valley. He also served for 13 years as Chief Medical Officer of Temple University Physicians and for 18 years as Chair of the Medical Executive Committee at Temple University Hospital.
Dr. McNamara has published peer-reviewed articles addressing emergency medicine practice issues, physician due process, and patient flow. His experience spans medical staff governance, physician employment and ownership models, institutional leadership, and the protection of physicians’ professional rights.
Education & Training
Medical School: Jefferson Medical College, now Sidney Kimmel Medical College
Residency: Emergency Medicine, Medical College of Pennsylvania, now Drexel University College of Medicine
Areas of Expertise
• Corporate Practice of Medicine
• Hospital medical staff issues
• Due process issues
• Physician Group Governance
Current Role
Dr. Mark Reiter serves as Chief Executive Officer of AAEM Physician Group (AAEM-PG), where he leads initiatives that support independent, physician-led emergency medicine groups through leadership development, governance, and strategic guidance. He is also a partner with Middle Tennessee Emergency Physicians, a 70-physician independent democratic practice, and Professor and Residency Director for the University of Tennessee–Nashville/Murfreesboro Emergency Medicine Residency Program.
Leadership Experience
Dr. Reiter has spent his career advancing independent emergency medicine through physician leadership, education, and organized medicine. He served on the AAEM Board of Directors for 15 years, including as AAEM President from 2014 to 2016. He also served for 16 years as CEO of Emergency Excellence, where he helped emergency medicine groups improve operational performance through benchmarking, patient experience initiatives, and consulting services.
In addition to his leadership within AAEM and AAEM-PG, Dr. Reiter has served on the American Medical Association Council on Legislation and the Board of Trustees of the Medical Society of New Jersey. His experience spans physician group governance, emergency department operations, finance, residency education, and practice sustainability.
Education & Training
Medical School: Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Residency: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Graduate Education: Master of Business Administration (MBA), Rutgers Business School
Areas of Expertise
• Independent Physician Group Governance
• Emergency Department Operations
• Practice Finance
• Coding, Billing & Reimbursement
• Patient Experience
• Patient Flow & Throughput
• Contract Strategy & Practice Sustainability
• Residency Education
• Medicolegal Issues
Bob Frolichstein, MD FAAEM is the President of Greater San Antonio Emergency Physicians (GSEP) an independent, democratic group with 6 EDs and 47 emergency physician partners. Bob graduated from Southern Illinois University – Edwardsville before entering medical school at the University of Missouri. He attended medical school on a military scholarship. After graduation he completed a transitional internship at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, HI. Bob and his wife Dena then spent three years in the Republic of Panama where Bob worked in the ED of Gorgas Army Hospital and as Officer in Charge of a health clinic for active duty soldiers and their dependents. He then completed his Emergency Medicine Residency training at the military training program in San Antonio, TX. He stayed on as teaching faculty for three years post-graduation completing his military obligation.
Bob joined GSEP and after completing his partnership track, became a partner. He quickly assumed leadership roles including, Assistant Department Director, Department Director, Board of Directors and, for the last six years served as the President of GSEP. He has served on, and chaired numerous hospital committees. GSEP has successfully struggled to remain independent while providing exceptional care to over 200,000 patients annually in San Antonio. He considers the preservation of the opportunity for each emergency physician to practice in an independent, democratic group where each physician is treated fairly with transparency vital to the continued success of our specialty. He became involved in AAEM to help preserve and promote the values of AAEM and support the independent practice and lend a community emergency physicians perspective.
Bob and Dena are the proud parents of four children — Aaron, Abby, Olivia and Anna Claire.