She knew why she was dying. She couldn’t say a word.
Dr. Tamara Moores Todd has run codes as an emergency physician and survived one as a patient. Her keynote helps leaders and care teams hear the voices that matter most, before it’s too late.
Keynote speaker · Emergency physician · Park City, Utah
Triple board certified physician · No. 1, Top 50 Women Leaders in Healthcare (2025) · 2026 Women Tech Awards honoree · Adjunct Professor, University of Utah · Dance fitness instructor
Signature keynote
I Couldn’t Speak: An ER Doctor’s Lesson in Being Heard
Keynote, 45 to 60 min · Fireside, 30 to 45 min · In person or virtual
The day after giving birth, Tamara went into anaphylaxis from an infusion that had been substituted in error. She had treated that exact emergency many times. This time she was in the bed, fully aware, and unable to speak.
She walks audiences through four moments from that day, told from the hospital bed and from the side that builds the systems around it. With candor and real humor, she shows how expertise disappears once you become the patient, what a code feels like from the bed, why errors live in systems rather than people, and why presence is part of care.
She is just as honest about what came after, because the people who give care are human too. Audiences leave moved, a little lighter, and ready to act on Monday.
Four moments from that day
None of it matters. Her credentials vanished. She was a woman who had just had a baby. Expertise is no shield once you’re the patient.
But she’s not wheezing. Barely moving air while a code unfolded around her. What a code looks, sounds and feels like from the bed.
This was not a single person’s fault. A formulary, an alphabetized order list and a missing alert. Fix the system, not the person.
The one hand. In a crowded room, one person held her hand. That presence changed her lived experience afterward.
The aftermath
Somatic trauma and PTSD came home with her. She talks about it plainly, and about walking back into the emergency department six months later. Her first anaphylaxis patient back at work had epinephrine in under two minutes. The talk closes on what she made of it all, and an invitation to the room.
Audiences leave able to
Plan for low-frequency, high-acuity events. Rare, critical moments go better when teams prepare for them with structured simulation.
See a code through the patient’s eyes. What the patient hears while the team works, and the small signals that say “you’re heard.”
Fix systems, not people. How order lists, formularies and missing alerts set good clinicians up to fail, and what to change first.
Practice presence. Concrete ways to make patients and teams feel seen, starting with one hand held.
About Tamara
Both sides of the hospital bed
Tamara Moores Todd, MD is an emergency physician, health system executive and Newsweek published writer. The day after she gave birth, she nearly died from an anaphylactic reaction to an IV iron infusion that had been substituted in error. She knew exactly what was happening and could not say a word. Her account of that day has changed how clinicians and leaders think about presence, safety and voice.
She is triple board certified in Emergency Medicine, Clinical Informatics, and Health Care Administration, Leadership, and Management. She is a Chief Health Informatics Officer, still works shifts in the emergency department, and is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Utah. She was named No. 1 on the 2025 Top 50 Women Leaders in Healthcare list and a 2026 Women Tech Awards honoree.
Audiences describe her as clear, humble and funny. She has been known to close a keynote with a short, very silly song about healthcare. She lives in Park City, Utah, where she delights in building forts with her kids and teaching dance fitness classes at the local rec center.
As seen in Newsweek: My nurse was terrified. I knew why I was dying, but I couldn’t speak.
Book Tamara
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Keynote fee: On request
Formats: Keynote, fireside, workshop, virtual
Based in: Park City, Utah
Bookings: AGL Collective LLC
Prefer email or phone? looheru@gmail.com or 435-214-9168
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Two more talks for leadership rooms
Borrowed Time: Designing a Life of Abundance in a World Built for Burnout
Keynote, briefing or workshop · 30 to 60 min
Burnout is a systems failure, not a personal one. Tamara reframes burnout, productivity and balance through the lens leaders know best: systems design, incentives and risk. Teams leave with a simple model for restoring margin and shared language for time and capacity.
Calm Is a Skill: Emergency Room Lessons for High Stakes Leadership
Keynote or workshop · 45 to 60 min
How emergency teams triage, communicate and decide in minutes, translated into habits leaders can use in a crisis, a board meeting or a hard conversation. Built for executive and corporate audiences.
Best fit: health system and hospital leadership meetings, nursing and patient safety conferences, maternal health events, women’s leadership summits, grand rounds, life sciences and medical device companies, and any leadership team that works under pressure.
