Dr. Aisha T. Terry was born and raised in Goldsboro, North Carolina. She graduated with honors from the esteemed Duke University with a bachelor of science degree in Biology, and minors in Chemistry and Spanish. In 1999, she began her medical training at the reputable University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine on a 4-year full scholarship. Dr. Terry then joined the ranks of the highly-sought emergency medicine residency program at the University of Maryland Medical System in Baltimore, Maryland in June 2003.
Dr. Terry was elected President of the national Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association (EMRA) in the fall of 2005. Under her leadership, EMRA’s budget reached an all-time high of $1 million and she spearheaded the implementation of the ACEP/EMRA Mini-health Policy Fellowship in Washington, DC which continues to successfully run today.
Dr. Terry is very active in the premiere specialty society of emergency medicine, the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), and served as an elected member of its Board of Directors from 2017 to 2025. In this capacity, she and her fellow Directors governed and set the advocacy agenda around emergency care and emergency medicine practice on behalf of its nearly 40,000 members. In the fall of 2022, she was elected President-elect of ACEP, completed her Presidential year from 2023 to 2024, and her Immediate Past-Presidential year from 2024 to 2025.
In 2011, she completed her Executive Master of Public Health degree from the elite Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in New York, New York, where her focus was on hospital management and health policy.
At present, Dr. Terry serves at the prestigious George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences and the Milken Institute of Public Health in Washington, DC as a Professor of Emergency Medicine and Heath Policy. She is the chief executive officer of the Minority Women in Science Foundation (MWSF), a non-profit organization that empowers the dreams of future leaders with interest in science careers. The MWSF provides mentorship, tangible resources, networking opportunities, and career-long support to its beneficiaries.
