Search the Medical Toxicology site

Page Menu

Meet the Medical Toxicology Team

Core Faculty
Steven Bird, MD, FACEP, FACMT	Dr. Bird is the Division Director of Medical Toxicology and Professor of Emergency Medicine at the UMass Chan Medical School, Department of Emergency Medicine. Dr. Dr. Bird served as the residency program director for nearly 9 years, and is a Past President of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM). He has twice won the residency’s Teacher of the Year Award and was the recipient of the department’s Leadership Award in 2019. Currently Dr. Bird is the Chief Experience Officer (CXO) of the UMassMemorial Healthcare System, responsible for physician wellness and engagement activities across the System. Dr. Bird served as a US Naval Flight Surgeon in Okinawa before completing his emergency medicine and medical toxicology training at the University of Massachusetts. Dr. Bird is the past recipient of several 4 NIH awards totaling more than $6M in the area of organophosphorus (OP) pesticides. Dr. Bird is an editorial board member of Academic Emergency Medicine and has authored and edited several textbooks, including Irwin and Rippe’s Intensive Care Medicine.
Jeffrey Lai, MD, FACEP, FACMT	Dr. Lai is an emergency physician and medical toxicologist at the UMass Chan Medical School. He serves as the program director of the medical toxicology fellowship and the clerkship director for the Introduction to Medical Toxicology medical student elective. Dr. Lai completed his undergraduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley; medical school at the University of Pittsburgh; and emergency medicine residency and medical toxicology fellowship at the University of Massachusetts. His academic interests include medical education, the application of novel technologies to the treatment of substance use disorders, and the surveillance of impairing substances in patients with traumatic injuries.
Kavita Babu, MD, FACEP, FACMT	Dr. Babu is the Chief Opioid Officer of the Division of Medical Toxicology and a Professor of Emergency Medicine. She is also the Medical Director of Community Benefits as well as the Co-Director of Road to Care Mobile Van. Her research interests include educational and research strategies for opioid safety and overdose prevention, compassionate care for patients with addiction, and advanced surveillance of emerging drugs of abuse. After completing her medical training, Dr. Babu served as Assistant Program Director of the Emergency Medicine Residency at UMass, worked in the community at University Community Hospital in Tampa, FL, and then served as a Medical Toxicologist at Rhode Island Hospital, where she started a toxicology conference series. In 2012, she returned to UMass as Fellowship Director in Medical Toxicology. To date, she has mentored four years of medical toxicology fellows who have become NIH funded clinician-scientists, leading medical toxicologists across the country, and astute clinicians. In 2018, Dr. Babu was named the Chief Opioid Officer for UMass Memorial Health Care. In this role, she oversees efforts to decrease opioid-related morbidity and mortality in our patients.
Richard Church, MD, FACEP, FACMT	Dr. Church is a board certified emergency medicine and medical toxicology physician. He currently serves as the UMass Chan EM Residency Program Director as well as the EM Medical Education Fellowship Associate Program Director. He mentors EM residents as well as UMass Chan medical students and serves a variety of local committees and programs including the UMass Chan Graduate Medical Education Committee, the SNMA Mentorship Program and the Committee on Equal Opportunity and Diversity as well as national committees such as the ACMT Diversity Workgroup and the CORD-EM Advising Students Committee.
Jennifer Carey, MD	Dr. Carey is an Associate Professor at UMass Chan. She is an Emergency Medicine physician and Medical Toxicologist. Dr. Carey is the Director of Undergraduate Medical Education in the Emergency Department, and the Program Director for the Education Fellowship. She directs Clinical Applications within the first two years of the Vista curriculum and oversees the EM Clerkship, Sub-Internship, FPE among other medical school initiatives in the department. She serves on multiple committees within the institution and nationally.
Stephanie Carreiro, MD, PhD, FACEP, FACMT	Dr. Carreiro is an emergency medicine physician, medical toxicologist and digital health researcher. She is a 2009 graduate of New York Medical College, and completed her emergency medicine residency in 2013 at Brown University. She completed a medical toxicology fellowship in 2015, and received a PhD in Biomedical Sciences in 2022, both at the University of Massachusetts. She is currently an Associate Professor, Director of the Tox(In)novation Lab, and Research Director in the Department of Emergency Medicine at University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School. Her current research program focuses on developing digital therapeutics for substance use disorder, understanding how patients use and engage with technology, and leveraging digital technology to promote health equity. She is the principal investigator multiple industry and federally funded research grants, including several awards from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering.
Evan Bradley, MD, PhD	Dr. Bradley is an emergency medicine physician and faculty member in Medical Toxicology. His PhD research focused on basic mechanisms of gene regulation in bacterial pathogens. As a resident he investigated how different medication exposures can influence recurrence rates of Clostridium difficile infection and the use of caffeine as a treatment for organophosphate poisoning in an animal model of acute poisoning. His current research focuses on antibiotic resistance patterns in the urinary microbiome.
Al Conicella, MD	Dr. Conicella is an emergency physician and medical toxicologist. He currently reviews sedations for the Department of Emergency Medicine, serves on the hospital sedation committee, and is the course director of the preclinical Introduction to Toxicology course. His areas of interest include the treatment of opioid abuse and addiction, cannabis hyperemesis syndrome, expanding the telehealth presence of our division, and improving ED flow.

Current Fellows
Cameron Burke, MD	Dr. Burke is and EM physician and Medical Toxicology Fellow. He is a graduate of University of Vermont Larner College of Medicince and completed residency at UMass Chan Medical School.
Linda Johnson, MD	Dr. Johnson is an EM physician and Medical Toxicology Fellow. She is a graduate of Washington University Medical School and completed residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
Forrest Mahoney, MD	Dr. Mahoney is an EM physician and Medical Toxicology Fellow. Before he came to UMass he was a triple Husky. He went to UConn for undergrad, medical school, and Emergency Medicine residency. He is now in is final year of Medical Toxicology Fellowship at UMass.
Edward Shin, MD	Dr. Shin is an EM physician and Medical Toxicology Fellow with a broad interest in both clinical medicine and the applications of artificial intelligence in healthcare. He has extensive training in managing undifferentiated, critically ill patients in the emergency setting, as well as specialized expertise in toxicology and the care of poisoned patients. In addition to clinical work, Dr. Shin has an active research career focused on the integration of AI into medical toxicology and emergency medicine, exploring its potential to enhance decision-making, improve patient outcomes, and optimize healthcare delivery.