Crystal Bae, MD

Home town: Baltimore, MD
Undergrad: Duke University
Major: Neuroscience
Med School: University of Maryland School of Medicine
Hobbies/Interests: Traveling, swimming, beach, hiking, and Latin dance
Favorite movies or TV shows: The Sandlot, Arrested Development, Scrubs, The Wire, VEEP, Westworld
Favorite Music: Anything but country
Favorite Foods/Restaurant: Breakfast for dinner

Five year plan: Make it through residency
If you weren’t doing EM, what would you be doing? Anthony Bourdain’s travel buddy
Random fact: I used to be a high school teacher in the Dominican Republic

Carly Blick, MD

Home town: Princeton, NJ
Undergrad: University of Pennsylvania
Major: Biology
Med School: University of Pennsylvania
Hobbies/Interests: Traveling, swimming, hiking, yoga, beach-ing, eating, Netflix
Favorite movies or TV shows: Parks and Rec, Game of Thrones, Friends, Friday Night Lights, The Office
Favorite Music: Anything
Favorite Foods/Restaurant: anything Italian, mac and cheese, breakfast food (Honey’s Sit ‘N Eat)

Five year plan: Find a way to get my dad to stop asking me this
If you weren’t doing EM, what would you be doing? watching Netflix

What superhero or cartoon character would you be? Snorlax before my coffee, Wonder Woman after my coffee
Random fact: I have an identical twin sister

Ben Bloom, MD

Home town: Rockville, MD
Undergrad: University of Virginia
Major: Cognitive Sciences, Biology
Med School: University of Maryland
Hobbies/Interests: Running, Scuba, Yoga, Tennis, Travel, Pub Trivia, Podcasts, Finding a hidden gem restaurant, Orioles baseball, UVa basketball
Favorite movies or TV shows: Arrested Development, 30 Rock, Game of Thrones, The Wire > Breaking Bad, The Godfather, Shawshank, Casablanca
Favorite Music: Little bit of everything. Current Spotify “Daily Mix” includes – RHCP, Grateful Dead, Childish Gambino, and the Hamilton Soundtrack
Favorite Foods/Restaurant: Innumerable. Crabcakes, a delicious creative sandwich, Caroline style BBQ, Bubbe’s brisket, Abuela’s ceviche. Have lots of restaurant exploration to do in Philly.

Five year plan: finish residency +/- fellowship, start a family, celebrate the 5 year anniversary of you asking me this question
If you weren’t doing EM, what would you be doing? Dream: Scuba instructor in Thailand; Reality: Public Health
What superhero or cartoon character would you be? Neo from the Matrix. Or at least have the ability to just upload knowledge and skill to my brain.

Random fact: In my high school glory days, I won a scholarship for winning a DC/MD/VA Trivia tournament

Shane Coughlin, MD

Home town: Medford Lakes, NJ
Undergrad: Grove City College
Major: Biology
Med School: University of Tennessee College of Medicine
Hobbies/Interests: Going outside, dressing poorly
Favorite movies or TV shows: Caddyshack, The Big Lebowski, and pretty much any Larry Bird video on YouTube
Favorite Music: Bob Dylan, Phish, Talking Heads, Grateful Dead, Beck, Van Morrison, Tom Petty, Vampire Weekend, Bruce Springsteen, The Disco Biscuits
Favorite Foods/Restaurant: Cereal and milk

Five year plan: Not having any more kids
If you weren’t doing EM, what would you be doing? Trophy husband

What superhero or cartoon character would you be? Walter Sobchak
Random fact: Multiple homeless people have told me I look like Danny Tanner.

Brendan Hart, MD

Home town: Pennington, NJ
Undergrad: University of Michigan
Major: Sociocultural Anthropology
Med School: University of Pennsylvania
Hobbies/Interests: Basketball, running, hiking, playing guitar — but really, whatever my kids want to do (typically, being tackled or playing the role of “monster”).
Favorite movies or TV shows: The Wire, LOST, Deadwood, Mad Men, Boyhood, No Country for Old Men, all the Wes Anderson films.
Favorite Music: Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue is still my favorite album
Favorite Foods/Restaurant: Moroccan, Ethiopian, Japanese.  Morimoto is probably the best Philly restaurant I’ve tried so far.

Five year plan: Get really good at helping people in the emergency department while maintaining as much balance and perspective as possible.
If you weren’t doing EM, what would you be doing? Nursery school teacher

What superhero or cartoon character would you be? I forget.  Is Bill Murray a superhero or a cartoon character?
Random fact: I speak Moroccan Arabic

Caroline Kaigh, MD

Home town: Voorhees, NJ
Undergrad: Haverford College
Major: Public Health
Med School: Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
Hobbies/Interests: Baking, cooking, eating, reading (especially about food, food science, and agriculture), running, outdoor adventures, plants, board games
Favorite movies or TV shows: Broad City, Doctor Who, Firefly, The Office, Parks and Recreation, Arrested Development, Food Network
Favorite Music: I like almost everything except metal, but a few favorites are the Avett Brothers, Jamestown Revival, the Wild Feathers, the Lone Bellow
Favorite Foods/Restaurant: If I’m being totally honest my favorite food is butter

Five year plan: Make it halfway to the ten year plan
If you weren’t doing EM, what would you be doing? Operating a small farm with a farm stand and bakery and/or working for the National Park Service

What superhero or cartoon character would you be? Ginger from As Told By Ginger
Random fact: I have strong feelings about giraffes, pickles, and the Oxford Comma.

Norah Karys, MD

Home town: Marblehead, MA
Undergrad: McGill University
Major: Psychology
Med School: Temple University School of Medicine
Hobbies/Interests: Running, Yoga, Snowboarding, Cooking (and having friends over to eat it), Traveling (especially if there is a beach)
Favorite movies or TV shows: Bachelor (hard to admit), Game of Thrones, Shameless
Favorite Music: Citizen Cope, whatever else Spotify recommends
Favorite Foods/Restaurant: Nachos!, brussel sprouts, and vegan pizza from blackbird

Five year plan: Be an amazing EM doctor, duh.
If you weren’t doing EM, what would you be doing? [Insert any Disney princess]

What superhero or cartoon character would you be? Busy being a princess (see above)
Random fact: I grew up with vegan parents and only started discovering real food in the last few years. Still working my way up to a juicy steak…

Saloni Malik, MD

Home town: Norfolk, MA
Undergrad: Harvard
Major: Sociology
Med School: Penn
Hobbies/Interests: Hiking, camping, cooking, making funny little weird watercolors, walking and/or driving across countries, talking to strangers, recently attempting gardening (very bad track record on this front but cautiously optimistic).
Favorite movies or TV shows: All the shows I love are over  Arrested Development, Parks & Rec, 30 Rock, the Office, Friday Night Lights.
Favorite Music: I mostly listen to music while driving…Sirius channels: Sirius XMU, Alt Nation, Soul Town, Classic Vinyl, guilty pleasure Hits 1.
Favorite Foods/Restaurant: Where to begin? I have no self control around delicious food. Dock St Brewery, Lee’s Deli and Ethiopian food in West Philly, all of the delicious vietnamese on Washington,  sichuan food + soup dumplings in Chinatown, Italian market seafood (Anastasio’s!!!), also chicken wings anywhere

Five year plan: Finish residency, keep my dog (aka best pal) and some plants alive & healthy, get another puppy, get through P90X.
If you weren’t doing EM, what would you be doing? Medical: family medicine, non-medical: maybe social work, alternate reality: Party planner / fancy chef

What superhero or cartoon character would you be? Remember the Winnie the Pooh story where he goes to Rabbit’s house for lunch and eats too much honey and then gets his tummy stuck in the door trying to leave and has to live there for a few weeks? I really identify with that.
Random fact: Hippos produce weird red sweat that is part sunscreen and part antibiotic.

Kendra Mendez, MD

Home town: Frederick, MD
Undergrad: Columbia University
Major: Neuroscience and Behavior
Med School: New York University
Hobbies/Interests: trying out new recipes, scrapbooking, Netflix
Favorite movies or TV shows: GAME OF THRONES, Friends, Charmed, Scandal, Shameless, The Big Bang Theory
Favorite Music: 90s throwbacks and salsa
Favorite Foods/Restaurant: Peruvian ceviche

Five year plan: finish residency and fellowship, pursue a global health project, travel travel travel
If you weren’t doing EM, what would you be doing? I would be a chef or a marine biologist

What superhero or cartoon character would you be? A Charmed one, ideally Piper so I could freeze time
Random fact: I’m the youngest of 37 cousins on my dad’s side

Keegan Skidmore, MD

Home town: Woodsville, NH
Undergrad: Boston College
Major: English and Communications
Med School: Brown
Hobbies/Interests: Running, Reading and Raising two kids
Favorite movies or TV shows: Arrested Development, Seinfeld, Silicon Valley, Little Einsteins
Favorite Music: Whatever’s on the radio and The Wiggles
Favorite Foods/Restaurant: rice and beans; pancakes; Fried cheese with club sauce

Five year plan: Finish phase 1 of Sudden Valley
If you weren’t doing EM, what would you be doing? Bead or Bee salesman

What superhero or cartoon character would you be? Mr. Bananagrabber
Random fact: The first frozen banana stand was opened on Balboa Peninsula by Don Phillips around 1940

Kashif Smith, MD

Home town: Philadelphia, PA
Undergrad: Princeton
Major: Computer Science
Med School: Columbia University, College of Physicians & Surgeons
Hobbies/Interests: programming, working out, personal finance
Favorite movies or TV shows: Get Out, Breaking Bad, The Dark Knight, Better Call Saul, Game of Thrones
Favorite Music: Jay-Z, J. Cole, The Weekend, Rihanna, Fun., Meek Mill, I miss the old Kanye
Favorite Foods/Restaurant: Chubbys, Dalesandros, Butcher & Singer

Five year plan: Pay off loans, code more, plan the next 5 years
If you weren’t doing EM, what would you be doing? Coaching football in the fall and coaching track in the summer, software engineer

What superhero or cartoon character would you be? Super Saiyan Goku vs Final form Frieza
Random fact: I was the Pennsylvania State champion for the 60 meter dash in high school. I also don’t get guac if it’s extra

Matt Tripod, MD

Home town: Sayreville, NJ
Undergrad: Rutgers University
Major: Economics
Med School: Eastern Virginia Medical School
Hobbies/Interests: Running, Travel, Amateur Carpentry, Professional Bar Trivia
Favorite movies or TV shows: Big Trouble in Little China, Office Space, Backdraft, Fight Club, Coming to America. Not too big on shows but I can watch some HGTV
Favorite Music: Top 40 and Pop country
Favorite Foods/Restaurant: I really like pretzels and tomatoes (generally not together)

Five year plan: Residency, Fellowship, Attending
If you weren’t doing EM, what would you be doing? I’d still be a firefighter in Va Beach

What superhero or cartoon character would you be? Meteor Man. I can’t think of any other superheroes that can communicate with dogs.
Random fact: In India I’m known as the “Casanova of Kolkata”