Alan Sazama Appointed Chair of Newly Established Emergency Medicine Department
Dr. Alan Sazama '14 has been named inaugural chair of the University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine’s new Department of Emergency Medicine.
Sazama has most recently served as assistant dean of medical education at the SSOM, overseeing the medical students on all clinical campuses as they experience Pillar 2, their core clerkship year.
He is an awarded and successful educator in emergency medicine with Avera Medical Group and has practiced bedside emergency medicine at Avera Health since 2017. A 2014 graduate of the Sanford School of Medicine, Sazama completed his emergency medicine residency at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota, and was named vice chair of the Avera Health Division of Emergency Medicine in 2024.
“Dr. Sazama is a highly accomplished emergency medicine physician and educator who will bring energy, passion, enthusiasm and skill to the department,” said Dr. Tim Ridgway, dean of the Sanford School of Medicine. “Our faculty, residents, students and the people of South Dakota will all benefit from his leadership. The Department of Emergency Medicine will be in very good hands.”
Professionally, Sazama is associated with the American Academy of Emergency Physicians, American College of Emergency Physicians, American Medical Association, South Dakota State Medical Association and Gold Humanism Honor Society.
“I look forward to working with medical students, residents, faculty and our clinical partners on a united goal to ensure South Dakotans everywhere have access to the highest level of emergency medicine care,” stated Sazama.
The new SSOM Department of Emergency Medicine is the first new department the SSOM has added since 1991 and will enable more specialized training, focused resources and enriched educational experiences to better prepare students to meet the demands of this critical field. In addition, the Sanford Health three-year emergency medicine residency program will train six residents per year starting in July 2026. By July 2028, 18 residents will be training at the Sanford USD Medical Center in Sioux Falls and Sanford Aberdeen Medical Center.