***SPEAKER/SESSION HIGHLIGHT***
Dr. Thom Mayer is the Medical Director for the NFL Players Association, Executive Vice President of Leadership for LogixHealth, Founder of BestPractices, Inc., Speaker for Studer Group, and Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine at George Washington University and Senior Lecturing Fellow at Duke University. He was named the 2018 winner of the James D. Mills Outstanding Contribution to Emergency Medicine Award, which is the highest honor of the American College of Emergency Physicians. He was recently nominated to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. USA Today named him one of the “100 Most Important People in the NFL.” Tom Peters, the internationally acclaimed leadership guru, referred to his work as “gaspworthy.”
When asked about these awards, Dr. Mayer simply says, “I have only one talent. I know how to hire people who are not only better than me, but much better than me. They won the awards, not me.”
Dr. Mayer has been the founder, CEO, and principal shareholder of physician leadership, staffing, and management and ambulance transport companies with revenues in excess of $100 million, which were then sold with an average IRR in excess of 38%. He continues to hold intellectual property rights to all the content developed by these companies.
He is one of the most widely sought speakers on healthcare patient experience, leadership and management, hardwiring flow, trauma and emergency care, pediatric emergency care, EMS/disaster medicine, and sports medicine. His work in each of these areas has resulted in changing the very fabric of patient care.
In 2022, Dr. Mayer helped lead a mobile team to Ukraine. On September 11, 2001 Dr. Mayer served as the Command Physicians at the Pentagon Rescue Operation and has served on 3 Defense Science Board Task Forces, advising the Secretary of Defense. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles, over 100 book chapters, and has edited or written 20 textbooks, including:
• Leadership for Great Customer Service: Satisfied Employees, Satisfied Patients: 2nd Edition
• Leadership for Smooth Patient Flow
• Hardwiring Flow
• The Patient Flow Advantage
• Strauss and Mayer’s Emergency Department Management.
• Battling Healthcare Burnout
Dr. Mayer was named the ACEP Outstanding Speaker of the Year and has been named ACEP’s “Over-the-Top” award winner 3 times. Battling Healthcare Burnout won the ACHE’s James Hamilton Award for the best healthcare leadership book in 2022 and Leadership for Smooth Patient Flow won the ACHE’s James Hamilton Award for the best healthcare leadership book in 2008. In sports medicine, his work at the forefront of changing concussion diagnosis and management in the NFL has changed the way in which these athletes are diagnosed and treated.
Dr. Mayer was the originator of the entire NFL Concussion Guidelines program, and thus has changed the nature of concussion diagnosis and management world-wide. He gives many examples of his NFL experiences in his talks.
W. Dustin Boatwright, a lifelong resident of southeast Missouri and a 3rd generation employee of The Little River Drainage District. He spent much of his childhood and adolescent years working with his father and grandfather on heavy civil construction projects. Mr. Boatwright’s career with The Little River Drainage District began in 2001 where he worked as a shop mechanic and machine operator in the southern portion of the District. In 2009 he began working full time as the Assistant Engineer at the headquarter office in Cape Girardeau. He was promoted to Chief Engineer in 2014 and Executive Vice President in 2015.
Mr. Boatwright is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Rolla (Missouri University of Science and Technology) with a B.S and M.S. in Civil Engineering. Mr. Boatwright is registered in the State of Missouri as a Professional Engineer and a Licensed Surveyor In-Training. He currently serves as a Regional Engineer for the Mississippi Valley Flood Control Association and serves on the Board of Directors for the National Waterways Conference. He is a member of the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission.
He and his wife Amanda have two young daughters, Emersyn and Westyn, and reside in Kelso, Missouri.
Tracey Glenn, President, Elite Certified True Colors Facilitator
Women of STEEL Session