Faculty

Peter Antevy, MD is a Pediatric Emergency Medicine physician, EMS physician, and the founder of Pediatric Emergency Standards. He serves as the Medical Director for Davie Fire-Rescue, Coral Springs-Parkland Fire Rescue, Southwest Ranches Fire Rescue, and Associate Medical Director for Palm Beach County Fire Rescue. Dr. Antevy was appointed to serve as the lead pediatric EMS specialist/consultant for the highly-influential Metropolitan EMS Medical Directors Coalition. In turn, he has been the recipient of many regional, national and international awards, yet at the same time, Dr. Antevy remains a grounded, in-the-trenches EMS medical director as exemplified by his recent intrepid on-scene patient care at the Parkland, Florida high school shooting incident. A world-class lecturer and training expert, he has become an admired and sought-after educator-speaker for innumerable state and national conferences.

James J. Augustine, MD, FACEP is an emergency physician and Fire EMS Medical Director, and a Clinical Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.  He leads the prehospital care programs for US Acute Care Solutions, based in Canton, Ohio.  Dr. Augustine currently serves a Medical Director role with Fire Rescue agencies in Atlanta, Georgia, in Naples, Florida, and in Dayton, Ohio. 

Over the last 25 years, Dr. Dan Avstreih has ridden in every seat from an EMT through a flight physician and now EMS Physician.  After completing residency training at the University of Michigan, he began as an attending emergency physician the tertiary care/level-1 trauma center of Northern Virginia.  He has served as Associate Operational Medical Director Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department in Fairfax, Virginia.
Dr. Avstreih is dual board certified in Emergency Medicine and Emergency Medicine Services by the American Board of Emergency Medicine.  He holds faculty appointments at multiple medical schools and has published several articles and book chapters on EMS and Emergency Preparedness.  Dr. Avstreih was recently awarded the Commonwealth of Virginia 2019 Governor's Award for Physician Contribution to EMS.

E. Stein Bronsky, MD, is the medical director for the Colorado Springs (CO) Fire Department, American Medical Response (AMR) Ambulance Service, El Paso County, CO, and the El Paso - Teller County 9111 Authority. He also works as an emergency physician at Centura Health. Dr. Bronsky began his career as an EMT in 1991 and later practiced for several years as a paramedic before attending medical school at Vanderbilt University. He completed his emergency medicine residency and EMS fellowship at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU).  Dr. Bronsky is also a member of the Eagles Consortium.

Teri Campbell has been a nurse for over 30 years.  She has an extensive clinical background including high-risk OB, pediatrics, emergency, trauma, critical care and flight/transport.  She has been a flight nurse for 20 years and currently flies for the University of Chicago, UCAN program.  She is also a Director of a statewide cardiac arrest improvement project called Illinois Heart Rescue.  In 4 years ILHR has quadrupled out of hospital cardiac arrest survival and has tripled bystander CPR response, for the state.  She has authored numerous publications related to high-risk OB, pediatrics, cardiac, and transport topics. In addition, she has been blessed to have lectured at numerous regional, national and international conferences.

Kevin Collopy, BA, FP-C, CCEMT-P, NRP, CMTE is the clinical outcomes manager for NHRMC AirLink/VitaLink Critical Care Transport where he oversees the program's research, education, risk management, and quality assurance. Kevin regularly speaks across the United States and has taught emergency & wilderness medicine on 3 continents. He's an author of over 150 articles and book chapters including 12 peer-reviewed research abstracts and papers. In addition, Kevin serves on several national and international advisory boards, teaches the paramedic program at Cape Fear Community College and is pursuing a Master's in Healthcare Leadership

Dr. Colwell is the Chief of Emergency Medicine at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center and is also a Professor and Vice Chair in the Department of Emergency Medicine at UCSF School of Medicine. He completed his residency in Emergency Medicine at the Denver Affiliated Residency in Emergency Medicine (Denver General) in 1996 and worked at the University of Michigan from 1996 to 1998 before accepting a job as the Associate Medical Director of EMS at Denver General (now Denver Health) in July of 1998. He was promoted to Medical Director of the Denver Paramedic Division, Denver 911 System and Denver Fire Department in 2000 and was in that role for 10 years before taking over as Chief of Emergency Medicine at Denver Health in 2009. He was the physician at the scene for the Columbine High School shootings and treated victims of the Aurora Theater shooting in the Emergency Department. His academic interests including publications and national speaking have focused on trauma and EMS issues in addition to Disaster Planning and MCI management.

Dr. Remle Crowe is an expert in using data to power quality improvement and research initiatives in EMS. From truck clutches to clinical care, she has shown how improvement science and sound research methodology work to solve problems across fields. As an EMT with a passion for advancing EMS, she earned her PhD in Epidemiology and has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications. Now, as a research scientist at ESO, Dr. Crowe routinely uses data to improve community health and safety.

Dr. Dickson graduated with honors from the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio in 2001 and completed emergency medicine training at Indiana University in 2004. He serves as the EMS medical director at Montgomery County Hospital District EMS and an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston Texas. His academic interests include systems of care in stroke and other time-sensitive emergencies, neurologic emergencies and education. He is board-certified in emergency medicine in both the US and Australasia and has subspecialty board certification in EMS medicine. He has authored multiple professional articles and presented at regional, national and international conferences on emergency medicine and EMS topics.

Dr. J. Joelle Donofrio is medical director of emergency medical services at Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego and an assistant professor at UC San Diego School of Medicine.  Dr. Donofrio's research interests and publications involve pediatric disaster and prehospital care of both adults and children. Her other interests include paramedic pediatric education and optimization of prehospital system-based care. She is the West Coast and pediatrics representative for the Prehospital Emergency Care Podcast, a service of the National Association of Emergency Medical Service Physicians, and is an advocate of Free Open Access Medical Education.

Sophia Dyer, MD, FACEP, FAEMS has been with Boston EMS since 1999. She served as Assistant Medical Director and Associate Medical Director before being named the City’s first female Medical Director in March 2009. Dr. Dyer is an active Emergency Medicine physician at Boston Medical Center with a specialty in toxicology and EMS. Section head for the EMS Section. Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Boston University School of Medicine. She serves as the Co-Medical Director for the Boston Marathon and Associate Medical Director for Boston MedFlight.

Ryan Fields-Spack is a member a unique team within AT&T specifically chosen for their public safety experience. Their primary focus is to advocate for the needs of all public safety agencies and line level personnel as FirstNet is stood up across the nation.

Ryan Joins AT&T after 10 years with the city of Aurora, Colorado Fire Department. Prior to joining AT&T, Ryan served as a Captain. He also worked with the departments as a fire Lieutenant and the Coordinator for the City of Aurora Office of Emergency Management (OEM). Ryan started as a line level Firefighter/Paramedic.

Ryan is a graduate of the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security with a Master’s Degree in Securities Studies-Homeland Security and Defense. His thesis focused on how the human dynamic can be managed within a unified command on complex incidents such as an active shooter.

As a public safety advocate for AT&T and FirstNet, Ryan travels the country speaking to first responders on the challenges they face: learning what they need to do their job in an age of ubiquitous technology and capabilities. Ryan is also a member of the command staff tasked with managing the FirstNet Response Operations Group.     

Alexandra, Ryan's wife, is a co-director of Premier School of Dance, a dance studio in the Denver Metro area. Both Ryan and Alex is an avid cyclist and regularly ride hill climb races  in the Colorado mountains. Ryan is particularly gushy about his two boys (Bromley and Callan) and will be happy to show you the latest cute pictures of them.

Will Flanary is an ophthalmologist, writer, and comedian who moonlights in his free time as “Dr. Glaucomflecken,” a top hat wearing, mustachioed cartoon ophthalmoscope who has become a leading voice in ophthalmology and health care on social media. Effortlessly blending humor with education, Dr. Glaucomflecken has spent the last 5 years informing audiences on a wide range of topics, from navigating the confusing world of over-the-counter eyedrops to his own experiences as a patient in the health care system, all with his characteristic acerbic wit. His writing has been featured in The Ophthalmologist and The British Medical Journal. He has a passion for educating non-ophthalmologists about ophthalmology and is a frequent speaker at medical conferences across multiple specialties, including emergency medicine, primary care, and critical care medicine.

Dr. Cynthia Griffin DO, NRP is a board certified EM physician and fellowship trained flight physician whom began her EMS career > 20 yrs ago as a career medic. She currently practices as an attending emergency physician in the ED at St. Agnes Community ED in Fond du Lac WI and as a flight physician through the University of Wisconsin UW Health where they fly physician-nurse model. Dr. Griffin is active in social media as well as up to date critical care and HEMS practices given her current position. She is a strong EMS advocate and is passionate about ultrasounds, decision making, critical skills, & ultrasound.

Gary is the Department Chair of Emergency Services and the Paramedic Program Director at Rogue Community College in Southern Oregon. He has been a paramedic since 1984 and has extensive experience in both urban and rural EMS systems. He has been a Paramedic, Field Training Officer, Field Supervisor, Flight Medic, Operations Director, and since 2004, a full-time educator. He has presented at regional, state, national and international EMS conferences and written for JEMS and EMS World magazines. He also works as a Clinical Educator for iSimulate and Echo Healthcare and works as an EMS Expert Witness. In 2014, Gary was honored as the Oregon EMS Educator of the year and in 2017 he received a National Innovation of the Year award from The League for Innovation in Community Colleges.

William Heuser, PharmD, MS, EMT-P, is a clinical emergency department pharmacist, course director/clinical professor of pharmacology, and clinical toxicologist. William also works prehospitally as a firefighter and a Paramedic. William has presented at several national conferences across the United States and has extensive research experience in resuscitative medicine with several publications in peer-reviewed journals. As a clinical toxicologist at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research at Northwell Health, his research focuses on the acute resuscitation of critically ill and dying patients. A current focus of his research focuses on the development of novel pharmacological cocktails coupled with emergency cardiopulmonary bypass to save the lives of patients who fail traditional advanced cardiovascular life support (ACLS) treatment.

Jonathan Jui MD, MPH, Professor of Emergency Medicine at Oregon Health and Sciences University has served as the EMS Medical Director of Portland Fire and Rescue since 1989 and Multnomah County Emergency Medical Services since 1995.  He provides medical direction to approximately 1100 EMS providers in various agencies.  Additionally, he providers medical direction for the U.S. Forest Service Region 6 Incident Medical Specialist program and the Oregon State Police. Dr. Jui is member of the HHS National Medical Disaster System  Oregon 2 Disaster Medical Assistance Team (OR2 DMAT) and the Chair of the Oregon Disaster Medical Team.  As the U.S. Forest Service Region 6 IMS Medical Director, he has developed and provided direction for medical teams providing support to wildland firefighters on large fires in the western United States. Dr. Jui has a strong research interest in acute resuscitation and is a site Principle Investigator of the Oregon Sudden Unexpected Death Study. He is Board Certified in Emergency Medicine, Internal Medicine, Infectious Disease, and Emergency Medical Services. He also has a Masters of Public Health in Epidemiology.  

Dr. Kaufmann has worked as an emergency physician at Ascension St. Vincent Hospital and Health Systems in and around central Indiana.  He currently serves as the EMS Medical Director for numerous agencies. Dr. Kaufmann is board certified in both Emergency Medicine and the sub-specialty of EMS and was one of the first physicians in the country to receive this distinct sub-specialty certification.  In 2017, Dr. Kaufmann was granted fellow status by the National Association of EMS Physicians.  In early 2018 he was appointed the EMS Medical Director for the State of Indiana in the Department of Homeland Security.  Dr. Kaufmann has a strong passion for prehospital care and works endlessly to ensure that the organizations with which he works, maintains and delivers a high quality standard. 

Glen is an educator for Medtronic, specializing in Capnography. In addition, Glen is a Captain at a suburban EMS service north of Columbus, Ohio, and is in charge of Continuous Quality Improvement and Outcomes. He works as a respiratory therapist at a local Level I trauma center in Columbus. Glen attended Youngstown State University for his paramedic training and now holds his Bachelor's of Science in Emergency Medical Care with a minor in psychology from Eastern Kentucky University. Glen is passionate about evidence-based management of airway and pulmonary emergencies and enjoys teaching both medical professionals and lay providers in the community.

Chris Kroboth, MS, NRP, CCEMT-P, has been a career paramedic/firefighter for the last 15 years and in EMS for more than 21. He is also U.S. clinical education manager for iSimulate.

Melissa Kroll, MD is an EMS Physician at Washington University. She is the Associate Medical Director at Christian EMS. Her passion is improving EMS systems for improved patient care both locally and internationally.

Michael Levy M.D is Medical Director of the Anchorage Fire Department, the Medical Director for Emergency Programs, State of Alaska and the Medical Director for several of other Alaska EMS agencies. He is the President-elect of NAEMSP. He is the Chief Medical Advisor for Stryker Emergency Care. He has been involved in EMS from from Chicago to the Navajo Nation and for the last two decades in Alaska. His goal in EMS is to enable providers to improve the outcome of their patients through personal empowerment via education, training and evidence-based practice. 

He received his M.D. from Northwestern University followed by residencies in EM and Internal Medicine with board certifications in both as well as subspecialty boards in EMS Medicine. He is Affil Assoc Prof with the UAA Health Sciences. 

As an Associate Professor of EMS Professions at Austin Community College and creator of the Medic Mindset podcast, Ginger Locke, NRP, BA, has immersed herself in the psychology of medics. Prior to becoming a paramedic, she studied social psychology at the University of Georgia and the University of Leicester, UK.

Stephanie Louka, MD, AEMT is an EMS Physician at VCU Health in Richmond, VA. She's the course director for a prehospital point-of-care ultrasound course at Virginia Commonwealth University and enjoys working directly with multiple EMS agencies throughout Central Virginia. Her career in medicine began as an EMT with the Virginia Beach Volunteer Rescue Squad where she's currently a Life Member. She's also a volunteer Field Physician with Virginia Beach EMS, responding to calls and providing onsite medical direction.

Dr. Amal Mattu has had a passion for teaching and writing about emergency cardiology since he joined the faculty at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 1996. He has authored or edited 20 textbooks in emergency medicine, including eight focused on emergency cardiology and electrocardiography. He has also served as primary Guest Editor for Cardiology Clinics three times. He lectures nationally and internationally on emergency cardiology topics and has helped to create multiple conferences focused on this area. He has received more than 20 teaching awards, largely for his work in emergency cardiology. Dr. Mattu is currently a tenured Professor, Vice Chair of Academic Affairs, and Co-Director of the Emergency Cardiology Fellowship for the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Dr. David Miramontes started as a volunteer Firefighter-EMT while still in high school and went on to become a Registered Nurse (worked total of ten years as a ER/ICU RN, Mobile Intensive Care Nurse, and then received his BS in Physiology at UC Davis. He attended the Medical College of Ohio and Emergency Medicine Residency at the St Vincent Mercy Medical Center in Toledo Ohio, where he also was a Lifeflight Physician. He served as the Medical Director for Toledo Fire Dept. and 18 rural and suburban EMS agencies. He was the Assistant Fire Chief and Medical Director for District of Columbia Fire Department (Wash. DC) from 2011-14 and currently serves at EMS Medical Director for the San Antonio Fire Department the 7th largest city in the US.

Dr Fionna Moore is Medical Director for South East Coast Ambulance Service. Fionna has served a as Chief Executive Officer of the London Ambulance Service, which is the largest public ambulance service in E.urope. Joining the Service in 1998 as the first Medical Director, Fionna has worked closely with the Service with responsibility for Clinical Governance, Clinical Audit and Research, and the Service’s Cardiac and Trauma Care strategies. She was London Trauma Director from 2009-2013, implementing the major trauma networks in the capital. Since moving to SECAmb, she has focused on service improvement and developing critical care and urgent care specialist paramedics.  Dr. Moore is a founder member of the Global Resuscitation Alliance and the European EMS Leadership Forum.

John Morgan, MD began his involvement with EMS volunteering with the Charlottesville-Albermarle Rescue Squad while he attended The University of Virginia as an Undergraduate and Medical student.  He received his Doctorate of Medicine in 2000 from UVA and completed his residency in Emergency Medicine at Stanford in 2003. After his residency he returned to Virginia where he began his practice as an Emergency Physician. In 2004 he began serving as Operational Medical Director (OMD) for Loudoun County Fire Rescue and all of the volunteer EMS agencies in the County. Dr. Morgan is board certified in Emergency Medicine and is sub-specialty board certified in EMS by the American Board of Emergency Medicine. He represents the Northern Virginia region on the State Medical Direction Committee.

Dr. Paul Pepe, Dallas County (Texas) EMS/Public Safety Medical Director, is also the global coordinator for the metropolitan EMS medical directors coalition (a.k.a,,"Eagles"). A longstanding (now retired) Professor of Medicine, Surgery, Pediatrics, Public Health and Emergency Medicine, he has simultaneously served as a high-level state/municipal EMS Official for many decades. 
Co-founder and first nationally-elected President of NAEMSP, he pioneered EMS research in resuscitation for the past four decades with >400 full-length scientific papers, including the “Chain of Survival” treatise, "Auto-PEEP, "permissive hypotension in trauma, re-appraisal of mouth-to-mouth in CPR, the original Chicago airport AED study and the first clinical translation of “heads-up CPR.” Renowned for street-wise, system-based approaches to saving lives, he has been cited by professional societies as being the most productive emergency medical services physician of our generation. 

Babak Sarani is a Professor of Surgery and Emergency Medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine. He graduated from the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in 1997 where he also completed his surgery training. Following this, he completed fellowship training in Trauma and Critical Care Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh. He began his career as at the University of Pennsylvania. He was recruited back to GW in 2011 where he is the Founder of the Center for Trauma and Critical Care, a Level 1 Trauma Center.

Fred Scalera is the Director of Public Strategies for the AT&T FirstNet Program. He is responsible for facilitating collaborative innovation with FirstNet users and Public Safety.

Fred Scalera has a long history of public safety service and innovation. Fred retired in 2008 as a Deputy Chief with the Nutley Fire Department in New Jersey. During his time with the Nutley Fire Department, Fred was assigned to the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office Arson Task Force. Fred was the first Fire Service Arson Investigator to attend a Police Academy. He served as an instructor at the Essex County Police Academy for over 25 years. During Fred’s career with the Fire Service and Municipal Government he also became a Certified Fire Official. Other responsibilities included radio communications, the Township Information Technology Bureau and the Emergency Management Coordinator. Fred not only served his home Township of Nutley, but also within Essex County as a Deputy Sherriff, the Deputy Director of the County Office of Emergency Management and the Hazardous Material Coordinator.

Fred also served in the New Jersey State Legislature. He rose to be the Deputy Speaker of the New Jersey General Assembly and served Chairman of the Homeland Security Preparedness Committee. He was also served as the Bureau Chief of Interoperable Communications and was responsible for NJ as one of the FirstNet Early Builder projects.

Kenneth A Scheppke, MD, is a dual board certified specialist in emergency medicine and EMS serving as State EMS Medical Director for Florida. He is the Chief Medical Officer for Palm Beach County Fire Rescue, the Palm Beach State EMS Academy, two fire based aeromedical programs, and Associate Medical Director for the Broward Sheriff’s Office. Dr. Scheppke is a respected member of the Metropolitan EMS Medical Directors Coalition (Gathering of Eagles). He is a productive scientific investigator and educator in many areas including stroke care, cardiac arrest, prehospital use of ketamine, sepsis and successful approaches to address the opioid epidemic. Additionally Dr. Scheppke is an instrument rated pilot who volunteers to fly animals at risk for euthanasia to safe foster homes and flies relief supplies in times of natural disaster.

Corey serves as Professor and Chair of Vanderbilt's Dept. of Emergency Medicine and also Medical Director for Nashville Fire and our Airport. He has a long history of teaching in Emergency Medicine and have been in EMS since 1980. He is the former Fire Surgeon for the City of Atlanta, directed Grady EMS and has been Medical Director for NFD for more than 20 years. He is board certified in Internal Medicine, Emergency Medicine and EMS.

Susanna Visser is the Associate Director for Policy and Extramural Programs, Division of Vector-Borne Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She is currently deployed to CDC's COVID-19 Emergency Response, leading Policy and Partnerships for the Health Systems and Worker Safety Task Force. When not deployed, she works to apply 18 years of experience in pediatric epidemiology and partnerships to help prevent and reduce the impact of vector-borne diseases. 

Takeshia Williams, Ph.D., completed her doctoral training in Virginia and advanced fellowship at the Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters (CHKD) in Norfolk, Virginia. After fellowship, Dr. Williams joined CHKD as an attending psychologist to develop mental health programming for children admitted to the hospital for a primary medical purpose. Dr. Williams is trained in biofeedback, parent-child interaction therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, and trauma-informed care, and serves patients with medical conditions across several subspecialties. Dr. Williams is also assisting in the development of a traumatic stress follow-up assessment clinic for patients treated under the pediatric trauma service. In addition to her clinical work, she was appointed Assistant Professor through the EVMS Department of Pediatrics. In this role, Dr. Williams provides mental health education to health care professionals regionally and nationally.

C. J. Winckler serves as the deputy medical director for the San Antonio Fire Department and is an assistant clinical professor at the University of Texas San Antonio Health Science Center in both the Department of Emergency Health Sciences and the Department of Emergency Medicine. Winckler provides daily clinical supervision, via on-scene medical direction, online medical direction and performance improvement processes to over 1700 SAFD providers.

John Winstead is an ALS Technician with the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department. He is assigned to Fire Station 11 and is an active adjunct EMS Training faculty member teaching with the continuing education program, internship program and in-house paramedic program.

Betty Yang, MD, is an EMS fellow at the University of Washington. She trained as an engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, attended the University of Texas at Houston Medical School, and completed emergency medicine residency at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, where she became passionate about EMS. She hopes to optimize EMS systems, through education, practice guideline enhancement, and EMS research, with an emerging focus on ventilation science in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. As an EMS fellow, she is gaining a unique experience working closely with high-performing EMS systems, through Seattle Fire Department Medic One, King County, and Airlift Northwest. She has been involved in airway training development and quality improvement at the BLS and ALS levels, as well as whole blood implementation in the prehospital setting.

Natalie Zink received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan in December 2015 in Biopsychology, Cognition, & Neuroscience before beginning paramedic school in January. She’s been hooked on EMS for 4 years now, working the road in Ann Arbor, Michigan and Atlanta, GA. She served on the county Critical Incident Stress Management team and worked extensively in community outreach, teaching CPR to anyone who would listen. In her non-ambulance life, she worked as a Wellness Coordinator for Cottrell Inc. assisting the 1200 manufacturing employees in managing their benefits, overseeing a free clinic for staff and their families, and promoting health education. Natalie is continuing her education at the Medical College of Georgia to become a physician who advocates for EMS and maintains her Wonder Woman enthusiasm.