Lawrence E. Tan is Chief of Emergency Medical Services for the New Castle County (Delaware) Department of Public Safety. New Castle County EMS is a county municipal third-service paramedic agency responding to almost 30,000 incidents a year and serving a population of over 530,000. In December 2009, New Castle County EMS became the first agency in Delaware to achieve national accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Ambulance Services (CAAS), and the first ALS-intercept agency to ever complete the accreditation process.
Chief Tan started his EMS career as a volunteer firefighter/EMT while in high school. He has over 27 years of service with New Castle County EMS and has served at all levels of the organization, including paramedic, EMS Lieutenant, Emergency Services Assistant Manager, Assistant Chief and Deputy Chief. His executive staff assignments have included commander of the Administrative, Operations and Special Operations components of the service, in addition to a special Homeland Operations Detail that operated as a component of the Office of the County Executive. He has received several departmental commendations and citations from both the New Castle County Department of Public Safety and other organizations.
Chief Tan is a graduate of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Paramedic Program, where he completed his field internship in Tulsa, Oklahoma and received an Associate of Science degree in Emergency Medical Sciences. He later graduated summa cum laude from Wilmington University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Human Resources Management, and was inducted into Sigma Beta Delta, the International Honor Society in Business, Management and Administration. He received his law degree from Widener University School of Law, and has been admitted to practice by the Supreme Courts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and the United States District Court of New Jersey. In 2007, Chief Tan was awarded a scholarship to attend the June 2008 session of the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government Senior Executives in State and Local Government Executive Education Program.
Chief Tan has presented at several conferences and seminars, including the EMS Today Conference and Exposition, International Conference on Tactical Emergency Medical Support, National Congress on Childhood Emergencies, National Collegiate Emergency Medical Services Foundation Conference and Exposition and the IAEMSC Inaugural Summit in 2009.
Chief Tan serves on the Health, Medical and Responder Safety (HMRS) SubGroup of the federal InterAgency Board (IAB) for Equipment Standardization and Interoperability, and the Department of Homeland Security First Responder Working Group in the Science and Technology Directorate. He is an Executive Committee Member on the FEMA Region III Regional Advisory Council and a member of the Delaware EMS Oversight Council. In 2008 he received a congressional appointment to the National Commission on Children and Disasters. The independent Presidential Commission is charged with conducting a comprehensive study to examine and assess the needs of children as they relate to preparation for, response to, and recovery from all hazards, including major disasters and emergencies.
In addition to the IAEMSC, his professional affiliations include the American Bar Association, Pennsylvania Bar Association, National Tactical Officers Association and International Tactical EMS Association.
Contact Information:
E-mail: Larry.Tan@iaemsc.org
Agency Web Site: www.nccde.org/ems
Chief Robinson is a 21-year veteran of EMS, and has been passionately committed to the support and growth of the EMS profession since he began his career as a volunteer EMT in 1989. He volunteered for several years prior to becoming a professional EMT for a private ambulance company in the Denver area. Chief Robinson began his career with the City and County of Denver in 1993 as a field paramedic and has been involved in every facet of the Denver Health Paramedic Division’s operation since then. He has been the recipient of many department awards, and of a Chief Executive Officer’s Special Commendation from Dr. Patricia Gabow, the CEO of Denver Health. Chief Robinson’s strong sense of duty to the citizens of and visitors to the City and County of Denver has always driven him to search for, create and implement best practices in Denver’s EMS system. He has been the beneficiary of outstanding mentorship from many leaders in EMS and health care and hopes to pay these benefits forward to future leaders in the EMS profession.
Since 2005, Chief Robinson has been the Assistant Chief over Operations, the Deputy Chief Paramedic position for the Denver Health Paramedic Division. The Denver Health Paramedic Division is the sole advanced life support service for the City and County of Denver, responding to approximately 85,000 calls for service a year. The service is a core service component of the Denver Health and Hospital Authority, a political subdivision of the State of Colorado.
The Paramedic Division includes the emergency medical dispatching functions at Denver 911, a robust education and training department, including its own paramedic school, and all field operations including mass gathering care, special events, the nation’s first paramedic bicycle team, and EMS operations at Denver International Airport. Staffing 25 dual-paramedic ambulances at peak staffing, the Paramedic Division’s dynamically deployed service covers 155 square miles and transports to 12 receiving hospitals.
In addition to his position at Denver Health, Chief Robinson is a founding member of the International Association of Emergency Medical Services Chiefs, and is currently the Association’s Vice President. He is a member of the Systems Subcommittee of the National EMS Advisory Council to NHTSA, and a member of the EMS Goal Leader Committee for the Colorado Governor’s Office of Homeland Security. James founded and is the chairman of the Denver Metropolitan EMS Consortium, and is a co-chair of the Urban Areas Security Initiative and North Central Region’s EMS Committees. Chief Robinson serves as a board of directors’ member of the Emergency Medical Services Association of Colorado, of the Student Emergency Medical Services Foundation, and is a co-chair of the Advisory Committee for Save a Life Denver, Denver’s public access defibrillation program through the Red Cross Mile High Chapter. Chief Robinson served as the Deputy Medical Branch Director for the planning of the 2008 Democratic National Convention, was a member of the United States Secret Service’s Steering Committee for the event, and was the EMS incident commander.
Chief Robinson is trained as a Denver Health Master Black Belt in the Toyota Production Systems "Lean" process analysis and improvement methodologies, has participated in the National EMS Preparedness Initiative summits through George Washington University, and is a member of Cohort 6 of the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative through the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and the Harvard School of Public Health. He is a member of numerous professional associations.
Contact Information:
E-mail: james.robinson@IAEMSC.org
Agency Web Site: www.denverems.org
Bio coming soon.
Bio coming soon.
Bio coming soon.
Chief (ret.) Frank P. Mineo, Ph.D., has been involved in EMS for over 30 years as a member of each of the primary sectors of volunteer, commercial, hospital and municipal EMS; serving in various roles as a provider, educator and leader. In addition to his operational background, Frank has also served as an EMS educator for multiple organizations throughout the city and state of New York. He has been a member of a number of regional EMS committees; including medical standards, certification and credentialing, training and education, and quality improvement.
Throughout his career, Frank has been an advocate for the increased recognition and growth of EMS, both operationally and educationally. It is the latter that lead Frank to the most recent accomplishment of his EMS career, when in 2009 he earned a Ph.D. in Organization and Management from Capella University. With his research focusing on EMS leadership, Frank's dissertation examined the relationships between leadership style and emergency services organizational culture; specifically studying whether or not leadership styles were different based on the type and nature of EMS organization the leader worked in. When added to the work of other distinguished EMS leaders and researchers; Frank's work in better understanding leadership styles can be used to help develop the EMS profession leadership competencies required for effective EMS leadership selection, education and training. This is particularly important in helping the profession ensure the availability of an adequate, qualified, and well-trained leadership pool for the EMS of today, and of the future.
Chief Benjamin Podsiadlo served as the Chief Paramedic and Director of "Greater Lowell EMS," the Advanced Life Support Paramedic service owned and operated by Saints Medical Center in Lowell, Massachusetts. He is a graduate of Northeastern University. Greater Lowell EMS is the largest regional 911 paramedic system in Massachusetts. It serves seven municipalities, including the City of Lowell and the Towns of, Chelmsford, Dracut, Dunstable, Tewksbury, Tyngsborough, and Westford, with a residential population of approximately 250,000. Greater Lowell EMS is the exclusive tactical medical provider for Northeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council (NEMLEC) SWAT, responding to over 40 municipalities. Chief Podsiadlo began his career in EMS in 1988, became a paramedic in 1991, and served as a paramedic for Greater Lowell EMS for nine years and as Chief Paramedic for the past seven years. He has led EMS operations at numerous major emergency incidents throughout the region. He has served as the Chair, EMS Committee – Writing Group, Northeast Cerebrovascular Consortium. He served as EMS/Medical Branch Commander and is the founder of the Bay State Marathon Medical Support Operations, 2005 – 2009. Chief Podsiadlo led the development of Field PCI Activation for STEMI and “Green Light” (direct transport of STEMI from Field to Catheterization Lab PCI Program) in the Merrimack Valley region. In 2008, he developed and led the implementation of the first prehospital Induced Therapeutic Hypothermia (ITH) program in New England and the inclusion of prehospital ITH in statewide protocols. He has served for many years as an active leader on the Massachusetts EMS Rapid Sequence Intubation (RSI) Special Project Group. In 1996, as a field paramedic for Greater Lowell EMS, he performed one of the first ground service RSI procedures in Massachusetts. Chief Podsiadlo is an activist and leader in state and local EMS policy, system improvement, and clinical and operational standards. He frequently presents on and serves as a panelist on: EMS system design and best practices, pandemic preparedness, preventing fatal opiate overdoses, prehospital therapeutic hypothermia, and PCI field activation for various audiences including: the Massachusetts General Hospital – Harvard Medical School 2009 Trauma and Critical Care Conference, American Heart Association Founder’s Affiliate and New York Chapter, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Middlesex Community College, and Merrimack Valley Critical Care Consortium’s affiliated hospitals. Chief Podsiadlo is transitioning to focus his efforts on public policy and projects related to EMS system design and development and homeland security preparedness.
Bio coming soon.
Chief John Peruggia is an Assistant Chief with the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) and is currently designated as the Chief of the EMS Command, where he is the ranking officer in charge of the department’s EMS Command.
His career started in 1983 as an Emergency Medical Technician, and shortly thereafter, he attended paramedic training at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Jacobi Hospital, being promoted to Paramedic in 1985. In January 1989, he was appointed as a Lieutenant.
Shortly following the 1996 merger of NYC*EMS into the FDNY, he was promoted to Captain. In 1999, Captain Peruggia was promoted to Deputy Chief where he served as the Executive Manager for Planning. In 2001, he was again promoted, this time to the position of Division Chief, and put in charge of the Department’s Operations Planning unit.
Following the attacks of September 2001 and a critical review of the response, the planning unit was expanded to the Operations Planning and Strategy unit where he continued his work in developing plans and procedures to help strengthen the Department in its’ preparedness efforts In 2003 he was promoted to Deputy Assistant Chief and finally, in July 2004, he received his last promotion, to Assistant Chief, as was designated as Chief of EMS Command.
Throughout his tenure with EMS/FDNY, Peruggia’s assignments have been balanced between field and administrative areas, allowing him to demonstrate his knowledge, competency and commitment to public safety as well as to establish himself as an experienced and informed leader. He has been responsible for developing and implementing several successful initiatives within the FDNY, including the Fire and EMS Periodical Medical Examination program, the Annual Fire Education Day program, the Event Action Plan for Special and Major events, as well as significant improvements to the EMS dispatching system.
In January 2004, Chief Peruggia completed the National Fire Academy’s Executive Fire Officer Program, a four-year program aimed to develop leaders in the field of Fire Service, the first member of the FDNY to earn such a distinction. In June 2004, Peruggia graduated from the FDNY Fire Officer Management Institute (FOMI) and in 2005 completed the FDNY Counter-Terrorism Leadership program. Aside from holding a Bachelor of Science in Emergency Disaster Management from Thomas Edison State College, Peruggia is currently considering to expand his educational horizons and has applied to the Master of Arts program in Homeland Security at the Naval Post-graduate College.
A Paramedic since 1974, Chief McCaughan has been a member of City of Pittsburgh Emergency Medical Services since its inception in 1975 and helped develop the service during its infancy. Having held the positions of Field Supervisor, Rescue Supervisor, Chief Supervisor, Assistant Chief and Deputy Chief, he was named Chief of the Bureau in December 2004.
Active in EMS for over 35 years, he is a faculty member at the University Of Pittsburgh School of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences, and the Center for Emergency Medicine of Western Pennsylvania. He sits on the JEMS Editorial Board and a number of other boards and committees, including the Pennsylvania Emergency Health Services Council (from which he received the 2008 EMS Administrator if the Year Award). He is a founding member and Chair of the Metro Chiefs section of the International Association of EMS Chiefs, Vice President of the Emergency Medical Service Institute and current Chairman of the Allegheny County EMS Council. He also served as a Member of the Emergency Medical Services Institute Regional EMS Planning Task Force and he chairs the Public Safety Committee on the Allegheny County / City of Pittsburgh Gaming Implementation Task Force.
Active in the water rescue community for many years, Chief McCaughan founded the City of Pittsburgh / Department of Public Safety’s River Rescue Unit; was a member of the Founders Committee / Board member and Past Chair of both the Pennsylvania Water Rescue Instructors Association and the Pittsburgh Safe Boating Council. He also Co-Chaired the Port of Pittsburgh / United States Coast Guard - Port Operations / Area Maritime Security Council and most recently sat on the United States Secret Service G-20 Summit Executive Steering Committee and Co-chaired the Health Medical Subcommittee.