Our Faculty

The Clinicians Behind AAEME's Programs.

Every AAEME course is taught by credentialed clinicians with active practice and direct medicolegal experience in impairment rating evaluation. Our faculty have built, defended, and testified to impairment rating reports in workers' compensation, motor vehicle, and disability proceedings. They are subject-matter experts in what they teach.

How AAEME Selects Its Instructors

AAEME does not operate on a single-instructor model. Each course is developed and taught by a faculty member with documented expertise in that specific clinical or methodological area. Every instructor is vetted against the same standards before they teach a single AAEME program.

01
Active clinical or professional practice
Faculty members are practicing clinicians and professionals, not retired lecturers or career classroom instructors. The methodology they teach is the methodology they apply in active casework.
02
Documented medicolegal experience
Every faculty member has authored impairment rating reports that have been used, challenged, and defended in legal proceedings. They teach from direct experience with what holds up in deposition and what does not.
03
Verified credentials and licensure
All clinical credentials, board certifications, and active licensure status are verified before a faculty member is engaged. Credential verification is reviewed on an ongoing basis.
04
Subject-matter specialization
Faculty teach within their area of expertise. The instructor for upper extremity methodology is not the same instructor teaching the spine, the psychological program, or the Nevada-specific track. Specialization is the standard.
05
Currency with AMA Guides editions
Faculty teaching CIRS programs maintain working currency across the AMA Guides editions relevant to their courses (4th, 5th, and 6th), including jurisdictional variation in how the editions are applied.
06
Non-clinical instructors held to parallel standards
Where AAEME programs include legal, regulatory, or technical content taught by non-clinicians, those instructors are vetted against equivalent standards: active practice, demonstrable expertise, and direct working knowledge of the subject they teach.

Christine G. Caldwell

Christine G. Caldwell founded AAEME in 2003 after more than a decade developing the clinical, software, and educational infrastructure that now defines impairment rating practice in the United States. She is the principal architect of the CIRS™ and NIRSAT™ credentials and remains actively involved in AAEME's program development and direct support of certified physicians.

Founder · AAEME
Christine G. Caldwell
BSN, CIRS™, CLNC

Christine has more than forty years of professional experience spanning clinical nursing, medical-legal consulting, medical file review, and impairment rating evaluation. She founded the American Academy of Expert Medical Evaluators in 2003 to deliver rigorous, accredited impairment rating education at a national scale, building on the curriculum and certification work she had developed since 1992 through WholePerson Technologies and Health Management Systems.

She is the architect of the CIRS™ designation, developed in cooperation with Tufts School of Medicine, and the NIRSAT™ program, the only privately developed impairment rating certification incorporated into a state's governing statutes. She has testified before the legislatures of California, Nevada, Maine, Texas, Massachusetts, and Wisconsin on workers' compensation cost containment and impairment rating standards, and her testimony has directly shaped the adoption of the AMA Guides as the workers' compensation standard across the federal government and 47 states and territories.

Christine continues to lead AAEME's program development, serves as the primary point of contact for certified physicians, and personally signs every CIRS™ and NIRSAT™ certificate the Academy issues.

AAEME Instructors

Listed alphabetically by surname. Every faculty member meets the standards above, teaches within their documented area of expertise, and maintains active practice in their field.

James M. Anthony
DO, JD, MBA
CIRS 5th Edition
Senior Faculty & Medical Director. Multi-credentialed physician-attorney with over 30 years of clinical experience. Former Program Director for Family Medicine residency and Governor-appointed member of the Nevada State Board of Osteopathic Medicine. Performing PPD evaluations since 2007 and serving on state review panels.
Jamie Lee Cichon
MD
CIRS 5th Edition NV IR Stress Disorders Psych & Neurocog IR
Faculty & Neuropsychiatric Lead. Triple board-certified in psychiatry, neurology, and brain injury medicine. Clinical focus on the assessment and treatment of TBI and PTSD within the workers' compensation system. Active evaluator for the Nevada DIR with extensive impairment rating and medical-legal testimony experience across multiple states.
Karyn Rae Doddy
MD
CIRS 5th Edition
Faculty & Senior Medical Evaluator. Board-certified Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation physician with over 35 years of clinical and academic experience. Core faculty for the PM&R Residency Program at MountainView Hospital. Authorized Workers' Compensation Medical Treating Panelist for the Nevada DIR. Expertise spans spinal cord injury, spinal radiculopathies, and advanced chronic pain management.
Justin W. Edwards
DO · CIRS/NIRSAT Certified
CIRS 5th Edition NV IR Stress Disorders Psych & Neurocog IR
Faculty & Psychiatrist. Specializes in mental health evaluations and treatment, with significant leadership experience as Chief Resident of Psychiatry. CIRS/NIRSAT certified evaluator integrating clinical psychiatry with medical-legal requirements in the Nevada detention and recovery sectors.
Michael A. Glick
DO
CIRS 5th Edition NV IR Stress Disorders Psych & Neurocog IR
Faculty & Senior Disability Examiner. Family Practice physician with nearly four decades of clinical experience. Former Medical Advisor to ABIME and designated Disability Physician for the Nevada Department of Industrial Relations. Extensive background in occupational medicine and quality assurance for workers' compensation rating panels.

Learn From the People Who Built This Field.

AAEME courses are taught by clinicians who do this work every day. Browse the course catalog or get in touch to discuss which program fits your practice.