EPC Committee

• Jonathan Willoughby, Paramedic, Chair

  Jon Willoughby started in EMS after serving 4 years in the Marine Corps.  He worked as a dispatcher, a paramedic, a firefighter/paramedic, and as a search and rescue paramedic for the Department of State Air Wing in Iraq. He then worked in New Mexico as a lead instructor for University of New Mexico on the USAF Pararescue Paramedic Program and was appointed as an Air Force civilian to the clinical coordinator position for the USAF Pararescue Paramedic Program. Jon was later appointed as the paramedic program director for a collaboration of two accredited paramedic programs in Minneapolis, MN with Hennepin County Medical Center, eventually being promoted to Deputy Chief of EMS Education.

  Jon completed his Doctorate of Educational Technology from Central Michigan University and now works as an ED Nurse in a Level III Trauma Center in Cedar Rapids, IA.  He is a lifetime member of NAEMT and the NAEMT State Education Coordinator for Iowa.  He is affiliate faculty for PHTLS, AMLS, TCCC/TECC, and EPC courses.
  
  

• Katherine Remick, MD, Medical Director

  

  Dr. Kate Remick, MD is Associate Chair for Quality, Innovation and Outreach and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin, Co-Director of the National EMS for Children Innovation and Improvement Center, and Medical Director for San Marcos/Hays County EMS System. Additionally, she is co-Director of the National Pediatric Readiness Project (NPRP) and a core member of the Prehospital Pediatric Readiness Steering Committee.  Both a pediatric emergency medicine and EMS physician, she is the lead author on the national joint policy statement “Pediatric Readiness in the Emergency Department” and co-author of the joint policy statement “Pediatric Readiness in EMS Systems.” 

  She works collaboratively with national stakeholders and their respective organizations to coordinate national efforts focused on pediatric readiness in emergency care systems. Using quality improvement science as an underpinning of her work, Dr. Remick has led numerous large-scale national quality improvement collaboratives. She currently serves as a member of the Texas Governor’s EMS and Trauma Advisory Council. She has lectured across the United States and internationally on a variety of topics related to pediatric emergency care, prehospital care, and quality improvement efforts.  Her primary focus is system-level readiness to support delivery of high quality emergency care to children across the healthcare continuum.
  

  
  

• Mark X. Cicero, MD, Associate Medical Director

  Mark X. Cicero MD, FAAP is an associate professor of pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) at the Yale School of Medicine, the director of the pediatric disaster preparedness program, an EMS physician and an Attending Physician at Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital. Dr. Cicero has designed experiential and didactic curricula in pediatric disaster medicine, and has numerous publications about triage and prehospital response. He is a member of the National Biodefense Science Board and the principal investigator for the Pediatric Research In Disaster Education (PRIDE) network, which has received funding from HRSA and the AHRQ.

  Currently, Dr. Cicero leads a project entitled Pediatric Emergency Care Coordination in EMS Agencies: Measuring the Influence, Magnifying the Improvement, which is supported by a grant from Emergency Medical Services for Children.

  
  

• Ann Dietrich, MD, Associate Medical Director

  Dr. Ann Dietrich is currently the Division Chief of Pediatric Emergency Medicine in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Prisma Health in South Carolina. She is also a Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine. Dr. Dietrich received her medical degree from Northeast Ohio Medical University and has been in practice for more than 30 years.
  
  
  

• Emily Nichols, MD, Associate Medical Director

  Emily Nichols, MD is an emergency physician practicing in New Orleans, LA. She served as the Director of New Orleans EMS from 2018-2021 after working closely with first responders in New York and Philadelphia during her medical training. She now serves as Deputy Medical Director with New Orleans EMS, and she practices in the Emergency Department at Ochsner Medical Center. She is board certified in emergency medicine and pediatric emergency medicine. 

  Dr. Nichols' EMS interests lie in prehospital trauma resuscitation, quality improvement/assurance, provider professional development, and culturally sensitive and equitable EMS practices. She has also studied public health and volunteered in North and South America as well as Africa. She was an integral part of relief efforts in Port-au-Prince, Haiti following the 2010 earthquake, and in 2014 she taught emergency preparedness and response to first responders in Cap Haitien, Haiti.

  Dr. Nichols has lectured nationally and internationally. She continuously advocates for increasing recognition of prehospital critical care and works within her community to build interprofessionalism amongst emergency clinicians. Dr. Nichols enjoys spending her free time with her daughter and with her husband who is also an emergency physician.

  
  

• Sylvia Owusu-Ansah, MD, AAP Liaison

  

  Sylvia Owusu-Ansah is a board-certified pediatrician, and pediatric emergency medicine in addition to being an emergency medical physician. She is the medical director of Prehospital and EMS at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is also now the EMSC Medical Director for the state of Pennsylvania. She has spent a majority of her career developing curricula and providing education for EMS personnel in both urban and suburban environments, including government agencies such as the U.S. Secret Service.

  Co-author of EMS textbooks, Dr. Owusu-Ansah serves on numerous national committees related to EMS and prehospital care. In addition, she has spent a large portion of her career advocating with the American Academy of Pediatrics Federal Affairs Office in Washington DC on numerous pieces of pediatric health legislation and helping to pass legislation to provide epinephrine auto-injectors in schools for children who may have anaphylaxis at school. She heads one of the first prehospital tracks for pediatric emergency medicine fellows.

  Dr. Owusu-Ansah serves as the associate vice chair of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. She inspired and co-authored the first anti-racism statement for UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, and co-authored statements for the National Association of EMS Physicians (NAEMSP), as well as the National Registry of EMTs (NREMT). She was the inaugural chair for the diversity task force for NAEMSP, is on NREMT's diversity task force, and is one of the physicians for the Rapid Response Team led by the Dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine to aide in addressing and providing solutions for systemic racism at the medical school. She now co-leads the hospital’s first ever pipeline program for local under-served middle school students and underrepresented medical students.

• Sabine Sagner, RN, CCNRP

  

  Sabine began her EMS career in Fayetteville, NC, more than 25 years ago as a volunteer firefighter and EMT. She worked for several years in North Carolina and Washington State before moving to Illinois in 2000.  Since then, she has worked as a Paramedic in both Illinois and Missouri and while within diverse EMS environments, she has always been grounded in education. 
  
  Sabine holds instructor certifications in BLS, ACLS, PALS, PEPP, PHTLS, AMLS, TECC, and EPC. She is a NAEMSE-certified instructor and nationally registered Critical Care Paramedic.  Sabine holds a Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice and a Master’s degree in Business Administration/Management. She currently works as a registered nurse in an emergency department.

  
  

• Jeremy Sidlauskas, MPA

  

  Jeremy Sidlauskas is the Deputy Fire Chief of the Professional Standards Bureau for Pasco County Fire Rescue (PCFR) in Florida.  PCFR has approximately 800 members and serves a population of nearly 700,000 people.  Prior to this, Jeremy served for nearly 20 years with the Pinellas Suncoast Fire Rescue District as a District Chief and Paramedic and 12 years as a Flight Paramedic with Bayflite.  Jeremy is an Affiliate Faculty Instructor for Emergency Pediatric Care (EPC), Prehospital Trauma Life Support (PHTLS), and Advanced Medical Life Support (AMLS) through the NAEMT.  Jeremy was a program and curriculum developer with Pinellas County EMS Training and recently helped develop an inter-government training partnership between Pasco and Pinellas Counties.

  Jeremy possesses a Master of Public Administration (MPA) Degree and a Bachelor of Applied Science Degree in Public Safety Administration (Fire and EMS Cross-Discipline).  Jeremy is credentialed by the Center for Public Safety Excellence as a Chief Fire Officer (CFO) and the United States National Fire Academy as an Executive Fire Officer (EFO).  Jeremy has been married for 18 years and has 4 children.  Jeremy is an avid sports fan, especially his Super Bowl Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers, American League Champion Tampa Bay Rays, and Stanley Cup Champion Tampa Bay Lightning!