Dan Dworkis M.D., Ph.D.

About

Dan Dworkis M.D. Ph.D., FACEP, is the Chief Medical Officer at the Mission Critical Team Institute, the founder of The Emergency Mind Project, a board-certified emergency physician, and an assistant professor of emergency medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. His work focuses on building teams that can successfully and sustainably apply knowledge under pressure.

Dan performed his emergency medicine residency with Harvard Medical School at the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency at Massachusetts General Hospital/Brigham Health, and holds an M.D. and Ph.D. in molecular medicine from the Boston University School of Medicine. His book, The Emergency Mind: Wiring Your Brain for Performance Under Pressure, is used by people working under pressure across a variety of disciplines from emergency medicine to entrepreneurship to athletics and beyond.

Books by Dan Dworkis M.D., Ph.D.

Recent Posts

The Other Last-Mile Problem

Discover how teams struggle and succeed at turning theory into coordinated action under stress.

Why Some Systems Keep Working When Things Go Wrong

Why do some systems adapt while others break? The ACE Model shows how capacity, ability, and experience support resilience under stress.

Balancing Micro- and Macro-States in High-Performing Teams

Great teams win by seeing the whole system. Explore how focusing on the macro, not the micro, drives better decisions under stress.

Model Drift: How Mental Models Degrade Over Time

Regular checks for drift help teams keep their model aligned with current conditions.

Getting Everyone on Your Team to Play the Same Game

High-stakes teams can find shared purpose and move together fast by asking three questions before they act.

Changing Culture When You’re Not in Charge

You don’t need a title to lead. Four small, strategic moves can help you shape culture, improve teamwork, and make an impact—no matter where you stand in the hierarchy.

Bridging the Gap Between the Front Line and the Front Office

The gap between front-line and front-office leaders (the "F2F distance") can make or break trust, adaptability, and crisis performance in elite teams.

Building Organizational Capacity for Large-Scale Change

How complex systems build in resilience and navigate large-scale change by staggering transitions, harnessing diverse teams, and building in redundancy and flexibility to adapt.

Preparing for High Performance in Unpredictable Situations

What if game day could start at any moment? How to approach high performance when your team has to be ready (and stay ready) before the clock starts.

Intelligent Defaults: How Great Teams Can Speed Up Decisions

Pre-decided actions that guide teams in crisis — or "intelligent defaults" — reduce friction, speed up decisions, and help teams perform under stress.