Awards

How to Apply

Email 500-1000 word application for the nominee to Jessica Vaughn ([email protected]) by the nomination deadline. Additional materials including CV or other supporting documents are welcome but not required. Self-nominations are welcome and encouraged.

Photo: MTACEP 2025 Award Winners

Call for nominations: Distinguished Service Award

The MT ACEP Distinguished Service Award program began in 2024 to annually recognize a MT ACEP member who has made extraordinary contributions to the advancement of the emergency medicine specialty, and who has demonstrated the ideals of the organization through their ongoing activities and accomplishments. The recipient will be recognized during the annual MT ACEP Ski Symposium.

Criteria:

Nominee must be a MT ACEP member in good standing.
Nominations should detail the unique or extraordinary impact the nominee has made within emergency medicine.
Nominee’s contributions may be at the local, state, or national level.

2025 Distinguished Service Recipient

Harry Sibold MD, FACEP (Helena)
Dr. Harry Sibold was born to serve, I think he might be addicted to medical service. His contributions to our speciality are impressive in both breadth and depth. He is fellowship trained in EMS and Hyperbarics, he serves at the local level training EMS professionals, at the state level on the MT ACEP BOD and the state medical board, and at the national level as a longstanding ACEP councillor and tellers committee member. As a former national park ranger, his willingness to get dirty hasn’t waned one bit. Where was Dr. Sibold in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina? On site, of course. When the Bear Creek fire on the Montana-Idaho border in the Northern Rockies threatened a vibrant community of cowboys, native americans, and outdoor enthusiasts–Dr. Sibold drove down to serve with the Incident Command team to contain the fire and keep the first responders healthy. When COVID and wildfires hit the western US simultaneously, Dr. Sibold flew down to the heart of the evacuation zone in Marin County, providing steady medical direction and infection control best practices for the wildland firefighters in an environment of chaos and uncertainty.

It all makes sense of course. After two years of working beside him on the MT ACEP BOD, I have learned that that is where Dr. Sibold thrives: making order out of chaos. That is why he is a respected voice on the ACEP council floor. That is why he is selected for the Tellers committee year after year. That is why I am enthusiastically nominating Dr. Sibold for the MT ACEP Distinguished Service Award–when we bring him chaos, he works his magic and transforms it into orderly, evidence-based, solutions to improve both healthcare and the emergency physician experience in Montana. Flood waters recede, fires burn out…Dr. Sibold serves on.

Call for nominations: Award for Clinical Excellence in Emergency Medicine

The MT ACEP Clinical Excellence Award was established in 2024 to recognize and celebrate outstanding clinical prowess in emergency medicine manifested in expert clinical skills, extensive medical knowledge and exemplary doctor-patient relationships. It is intended to acknowledge the value of clinical medicine and honors clinical role models among Montana emergency physicians. The qualities possessed by potential award recipients are intrinsic to their persona, making selection of candidates somewhat intuitive. Individuals who qualify for this award possess an admirable approach to patient care and a commitment to care for all patients at all times. While perhaps intangible, an individual possessing clinical excellence is easy to recognize; it is the individual you would choose to care for your family and the individual you seek for an opinion on the most complex patients. The award is NOT meant to recognize teaching, mentoring or scholarship (although awardees may possess some or all of these attributes). Rather, the award is to recognize clinical skills and attitudes that define excellence.

Nominee must be a MT ACEP member in good standing. In addition to the considerations above, nominees should possess several of the following characteristics:

Diagnostic acumen
Skill in clinical therapeutics
Empathy
Sensitivity and respect for diversity
Commitment to honesty and transparency
Trustworthiness in all interactions
In addition, the MT ACEP nominating committee will give consideration to performance that allows comparison of individuals to their peers such as compliance with emergency medicine guidelines and/or performance measures

2025 Distinguished Service Recipient

Sid Williamson MD (Bozeman)
Dr. Sidney Williamson Jr. exemplifies the qualities outlined for the award for clinical excellence in EM including (but not limited to!) empathy, sensitivity and respect for diversity, commitment to honesty and transparency, and trustworthiness in all interactions. Perhaps it is his 25+ years in emergency medicine, or perhaps it is his impressive training/cultural/clinical journey from Tennessee to New York City to Bozeman, but Dr. Williamson just gets “it”. What is “it”, you might ask? He gets the complex family or social dynamics the second he walks in the room. He gets when to listen, he gets when to speak. He gets when it is time to tell it like it is to the patient or a colleague or the charge nurse or the C-suite. He gets his consultants lined up to do the right thing and gets his patients comforted when they’re having the worst day of their month/year/life. He gets the empathy right when a colleague makes a mistake or has a bad outcome. He gets the seriousness right when care was sloppy or standards slipped. He is a scientist and a scholar, true to his ethics and true to his trade.

One could also add that he’s been a founding member and president of a democratic EM group, a medical director, clinical faculty and a committee chair. One could underscore his 20+ year commitment to Bozeman Health and his herculean efforts to transition our ED from a 10-bed frozen outpost to a bustling urban stroke, STEMI and trauma center. One could rattle off his incredible patient satisfaction scores, tight charting, and limitless dedication to true quality improvement. But diving too deep on any of that risks missing the forest for the trees. If you are walking into your shift and the ED is falling apart, you are hoping to see Sid’s name on the board…he gets “it”.

National ACEP Headquarters
Phone: 800-798-1822
Email: [email protected]

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