Most people bring value to a community through their work and their ideas. It is the rare person who brings value by giving us a new perspective. This post is from such a person. Dr. Felix Ankel is Vice President, Health Professions Education at HealthPartners Institute and Assistant Dean at University of Minnesota Medical School. He has been a leader within the EM Education community through his national involvement and leadership in FOAMed. More than his accomplishments, he is best known for contributing to the EM education community as the resident philosopher and for his ability to bring a different perspective to any conversation. Hopefully this post will give you a taste of what we have all gained from him over the years.

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“Leaders become great, not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others.”

Dr. Jim Adams is a Professor of Emergency Medicine (EM) and both the Chair of the Department of EM at Northwestern University and Senior Vice President/Chief Medical Officer for Northwestern Memorial Health Care. Although he is internationally recognized for his contributions to areas of ethics and leadership in EM, for myself and many others, he is best known as a mentor and an inspiration. To spend time with him is to walk away ready to take on the world. We appreciate the opportunity to share his book recommendations.

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“Our life revolves around Chernobyl. Where were you when it happened, how far from the reactor did you live? What did you see? Who died? Who left? Where did they go? I remember in the first months the night life started buzzing again – “you only live once,” “if we’re going to die, let’s do it to music.” The soldiers came and the officers came. But now Chernobyl is with us every day. No matter what happens, everyone says: Chernobyl. pg 116

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A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies [1] is the brilliant debut collection of stories by physician turned-author John Murray. Inspired by his background in science and medicine, the novel focuses on the lives of researchers, physicians, nurses, explorers and collectors, who share a love for detail and scientific explanation. Murray’s stories are a wonderful balance of fiction and facts, which take the reader to the most enthralling places around the globe: from the slums of Bombay during a Cholera epidemic to remote areas of the key west; from the peaks of the Himalayas to a United Nations refugee camp in Africa. Entomology, microbiology, and neuroscience are among the areas of expertise described in this book. Despite an obsession by each of Murray’s characters to categorize and create order of the world through their field of study, the core of the stories deals with an emotional hurdle that requires the protagonist to respond to a more chaotic inner and personal world. (more…)