Board of Directors

• Dennis Rowe, President

  Dennis Rowe, Paramedic, is director of new business integration for Priority Ambulance Corporation in Knoxville, Tenn. He is part of a corporate start-up team to design and implement integration plans for new ambulance companies into the Priority Ambulance portfolio. His responsibilities include analysis of potential acquisitions, strategic plan development, and outcomes measurement. Prior to this role, he had been the company's director of operations.
  
  Dennis has extensive experience in emergency services in Tennessee. He spent 17 years at Rural-Metro Corporation, providing oversight of basic life support (BLS), advanced life support (ALS) and critical care ambulance transports for Knox County. Previously, he was the trauma coordinator for the Level One Trauma Center at the University of Tennessee Medical Center. He was actively involved in research publications, Trauma Center financial analysis, and day-to-day operations. Before moving to the surgery department, Dennis was part of the UT LIFESTAR helicopter program startup team.
  
  Dennis is an instructor and has participated in medical research projects in the Knox County/East Tennessee area. He has served as president of the Tennessee Ambulance Service Association and on the Tennessee EMS Divisions Clinical Issues Committee. He is a longtime member of NAEMT and has served on the Prehospital Trauma Life Support (PHTLS) Committee, NAEMT Bylaws Committee and on numerous other committees and appointed liaison positions.
  
  

• Matt Zavadsky, President-elect

  Matt Zavadsky is the Chief Strategic Integration Officer for MedStar Mobile Healthcare in Fort Worth, Texas. He has helped guide the implementation of several innovative programs with healthcare partners that have transformed MedStar fully as a Mobile Integrated Healthcare provider, including high utilizer, readmission reduction, observational admission reduction, hospice revocation avoidance, 9-1-1 nurse triage and partnerships with home health agencies.

  Matt also chairs the NAEMT EMS 3.0 Committee and is the co-author of the book “Mobile Integrated Healthcare – Approach to Implementation” published by Jones & Bartlett Publishing. He has a Master’s degree in Healthcare Administration, with a Graduate Certificate in Healthcare Data Management.

  Matt is also adjunct faculty for the University of North Texas Health Science Center, Department of Health Management and Policy, as well as an appointed committee member to the Joint Commission’s Home Care Professional and Technical Advisory Committee (PTAC) and the Lewin Group’s Hospital Outpatient Quality Reporting (HOQR) Program Stroke and AMI Expert Work Group, developing metrics for use in value-based purchasing measures for emergency departments.
  
  

• Bruce Evans, Secretary

  Bruce Evans, CFOD, SEMSO, NRP, MPA, is the Fire Chief for the Upper Pine River Fire Protection District, located outside Durango, Colo. He retired as the EMS chief for the North Las Vegas, Nev., Fire Department after serving 27 years in the Southern Nevada’s Fire and EMS system. Bruce is an adjunct faculty member of the National Fire Academy in EMS, Incident Management, and Terrorism Training programs. He has been a course developer for many of the National Fire Academy curriculums and serves as a technical writer. He is the recipient of the prestigious 2010 James O. Page EMS Achievement Award.   Chief Evans was awarded the NAEMT Presidential Leadership Award in 2014. The Colorado Governor appointed Chief Evans to the State Emergency Medical and Trauma Advisory Committee in 2014. Bruce is the liaison to the National Academies of Medicine preparedness committee.  

  Bruce chairs the NAEMT Advocacy Committee and has been on the development teams for several of NAEMT’s courses. He is a certified faculty member for the International Public Safety Leadership and Ethics training program. Bruce has coauthored text on EMS management, Crew Resources Management, and has written a text on Quality Improvement. He authored a bimonthly column on EMS for Fire Chief Magazine for over a decade.
  
  

• Chad E. McIntyre, Treasurer

  Chad McIntyre has worked in EMS for over 25 years. He worked several years as a street paramedic in Indianapolis, Ind., before serving as chief paramedic in a rural county EMS service in eastern Indiana. He later accepted a position with the University of Cincinnati in Ohio. Chad was recruited by Florida’s UF Health Jacksonville in February 2005 as a Flight Paramedic, later promoted to education coordinator and now serves as the manager of TraumaOne Flight Services overseeing the day-to-day operations of UF Health Jacksonville’s air medical program, injury prevention, and outreach education. He has extensive training and experience in adult and pediatric trauma care.
  
  Chad has served as an author on pediatric trauma for NAEMT’s Emergency Pediatric Care (EPC) program, the NAEMT Education Committee, Prehospital Trauma Committee, and currently is the Air Medical Representative to the National EMS Advisory Council. He is also a member of the NAEMT Foundation Board of Trustees. Chad has lectured extensively both domestically and internationally on helicopter EMS and the care of trauma victims.
  
  

• Conrad T. "Chuck" Kearns, Immediate Past President

  Chuck Kearns, MBA, Paramedic, A-EMD, is chief executive officer of Chatham Emergency Services in Savannah, Georgia. Chuck has been involved in public safety and EMS for over 30 years. Born in New York City, he began his career as a Florida open-water lifeguard in 1981, became Chief of the County Beach Patrol and was certified as an EMT two years later. He has spent much of his EMS career as a paramedic and EMS System Manager in Pinellas County, Fla., with Sunstar Paramedics. He rose to Director of Pinellas County Emergency and Public Safety Services (Fire, EMS & EMS Communications Services Administrator), where he served over 11 years. He has also been certified as an Advanced Emergency Medical Dispatcher (A-EMD) for over 18 years and a rescue diver since 1989.
   
  Chuck has consulted widely and worked in several different EMS system models. He has worked in government, private, hospital-based, rural and volunteer public safety agencies, and in positions spanning from basic life support first responder to underwater search and rescue dive team leader, to Flight Paramedic. Chuck has deployed to numerous hurricane and wildfire disasters since 1992 and frequently staffed an Emergency Operations Center command desk during disaster Activations. He has been involved in leadership positions of many EMS and emergency management organizations. He served as a site reviewer, standards revision project manager and board member for the Commission on Accreditation of Ambulance Services (CAAS). He also served two terms on the American Ambulance Association Board of Directors and was a member of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) Culture of Safety Steering Committee. He spent six years on the Board of the American Heart Association Florida-Puerto Rico Affiliate and has been a board member of two hospitals.
   
  Chuck is the recipient of many awards, including the Florida EMS Lifetime Achievement Award, a Meritorious Service Award for wildfires mitigation from Florida’s Governor, and a lifesaving award from former President Ronald Reagan for rescuing five people who were drowning. Chuck was appointed to two, four-year terms on the Florida EMS Advisory Council and served as its chairman. He was on the FEMA National Advisory Council and has served on the editorial advisory board member for EMS World Magazine since 2001. Chuck is a former, professional member of the National Association of EMS Physicians and served on two committees. He is a dynamic, dedicated and tireless advocate for EMS practitioners and issues affecting EMS. In addition to his EMS knowledge and experience, Chuck attended law school and holds an MBA degree in Marketing and Information Systems Management.
  
  

• Sean J. Britton, Director, Region I

  Sean J. Britton, MPA, NRP, is the emergency preparedness planner for the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems in Baltimore, Md., and a paramedic for Superior Ambulance Service in Binghamton, NY.  He is also a research associate for the Prehospital Care Research Forum at UCLA, a deputy EMS coordinator for Broome County, NY, and an adjunct assistant professor of Epidemiology and Community Health at New York Medical College.  Sean is a Certified Emergency Manager (CEM) and Certified in Public Health (CPH).
   
  Sean was formerly the director of public health for Broome County, NY, and the program coordinator for Emergency and Trauma Services at UHS Hospitals.  Sean earned a bachelor's degree in Community and Human Services from SUNY Empire State College and a master's degree in Public Administration from Binghamton University.
   
  Sean is an affiliate faculty member of the Prehospital Trauma Life Support (PHTLS), Advanced Medical Life Support (AMLS), and Geriatric Education for EMS (GEMS) courses. He was a co-author for the All Hazards Disaster Response (AHDR) course.   Sean received an NAEMT Presidential Leadership Award in 2016.
  
  
  

• Robert Luckritz, Director, Region I

  Robert Luckritz, JD, NRP, is the Executive Director of EMS for Jersey City Medical Center – RWJBarnabas Health, where he oversees a department of over 300 career and volunteer EMS providers responding to 90,000 calls annually. He has more than 20 years of experience in EMS, serving as an EMS provider in four states across the Mid-Atlantic and New England, where he has overseen all facets of EMS including Operations, Clinical Care, and Education. He also served as an adjunct professor of EMS Management at Springfield College in Massachusetts, and as the government affairs officer for a major New Jersey healthcare system.
   
  Robert received his bachelor's degree in EMS Management from Springfield College, a juris doctor degree from Western New England University, and is currently working towards a master's degree in Public Administration at Northeastern University. In 2015, he received the JEMS Magazine EMS10 Innovators in EMS Award, and was the recipient of a 2016 NAEMT Presidential Leadership Award. He has previously served on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Urban Hospitals, and is the current President of the New Jersey Association of Paramedics.
  
  

• Susan Bailey, Director, Region II

  

  Susan Bailey, BA, NRP, NCEE, is the Director of the Louisiana Bureau of Emergency Medical Services. She has been in EMS for over 25 years and has worked for hospital-based, private and municipal EMS agencies in rural and urban Louisiana.  

  Susan represents the Louisiana Association of Nationally Registered EMTs on the NAEMT Affiliate Advisory Council, serves on NAEMT’s Advocacy Committee, and is the NAEMT representative on the Commission on Accreditation for Prehospital Continuing Education (CAPCE) Board of Directors. She is an NAEMT Affiliate Faculty for multiple disciplines and teaches numerous NAEMT and American Heart Association (AHA) courses, including PHTLS, AMLS, PEPL, EMS Safety, GEMS, CPR, ACLS and PALS. She has provided leadership and patient advocacy presentations at conferences in the south-central region. Susan was the 2014 recipient of the NAEMT/Nasco Paramedic of the Year Award.

  Susan earned a Bachelor of Arts (Magna Cum Laude) in Management from Southeastern Louisiana University and is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Emergency Management from Millersville University. She is a lifetime member and former board member of the Louisiana Association of Nationally Registered EMTs.
  

   
  

• Cory Richter, Director Region II

  Cory Richter, BA, NREMT-P, is a Fire Fighter/Paramedic for Indian River Fire Rescue in Florida. He has been in EMS for 33 years and has worked for several agencies, including a private ambulance service doing both non-emergency transports and responding to 911 calls, until he took the position he is in today.
  
  Cory is active in NAEMT as an advocacy coordinator, Advanced Medical Life Support (AMLS) affiliate faculty and instructor, PreHospital Trauma Life Support (PHTLS) affiliate faculty and instructor, as well as an Emergency Pediatric Care (EPC) affiliate faculty and instructor. Cory is also an American Heart Association (AHA) training center coordinator, holds ACLS and BLS instructor certifications, and is a regional faculty for ACLS and BLS. Cory was the task force chair for his region in Florida and a member of the state Emergency Communication Center (ECC) committee. Cory is on the National Fire Protection Association 1917 and 451 technical committee.
  
  Cory earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology from Franklin Pierce College and an Associate degree in Fire Science and EMS from Indian River State College. He was chairman of the Florida EMS Advisory Council and served 4 years, he is the chairman of the Florida EMS Strategic Plan, and is active on several state committees. He has devoted many years to state-level EMS issues – one being the creation of the Florida Drug Shortage Committee.
  
  

• Chris Way, Director, Region III

  Chris Way is Chief of Kootenai County Emergency Medical Services (KCEMSS), Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Previously, he served as an EMS Chief in a Southeast Kansas county. Chris has been involved in EMS for more than twenty-five years in a rural Ambulance service and a large metropolitan EMS system. He has held varied roles including paramedic, field training officer, clinical instructor, tactical paramedic, operations supervisor and shift commander. In his current role, he oversees the delivery of EMS in a fire-based EMS system. Providing basic and advance transport, as well as first response service, KCEMSS responds to over 18,000 service requests annually and transports more than 10,000 patients.  
  
  Chris serves on many local and regional EMS, fire, emergency management and healthcare committees, such as local response/clinical committees, the regional incident management team, the regional Homeland Security Council, state EMS response team, state incident management team, regional and state trauma councils, and the CDC/ACS National Committee on Field Triage. Chris is a Past President of the North Idaho Fire Chief’s Association, chairman of the Idaho EMS Advisory Council, member of the state Time Sensitive Emergency Commission, and chair of the NAEMT Membership Committee. He is also involved on the CDC/ACS Filed Triage Committee, serves on the Kootenai County Airport Board of Directors and is a member of the Heritage Health Board of Directors. Chris earned his Bachelor's of Arts degree in Business Management from Mid America Nazarene University.
  
  

• Jason Scheiderer, Director, Region III

  Jason Scheiderer, MS, NREMT-P, is the EPIC implementation director of training for Eskenazi Health in Indianapolis, Indiana. He is currently coordinating all users in Eskenazi Health being trained on the new Electronic Health Records (EHR) system. This includes faculty at the IU School of Medicine, staff at the hospital, and members of Indianapolis Emergency Medical Service (IEMS).
  
  Previously, Jason was an education lieutenant with IEMS, the largest 911 service in the city responding to roughly 100,000 calls each year. A division of the Indianapolis Department of Public Safety, IEMS has a unique partnership with the Indiana University (IU) School of Medicine, Marion County Health and Hospital Corporation, and the City of Indianapolis, with Eskenazi Health as the supervising hospital. Jason teaches specialty continuing education classes such as Prehospital Trauma Life Support (PHTLS), Advanced Medical Life Support (AMLS), Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS), Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) and CPR, and also works in the field with students.

  Prior to the formation of IEMS, Jason worked for the Wishard Ambulance Service, first as an EMT, then paramedic and educator. He received his Master's degree in Emergency Service Management from The George Washington University and his Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Religion from Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Ind., where he started as a volunteer firefighter and EMT, and continued in several part-time fire and EMS positions throughout Indiana. Jason serves as the NAEMT Advocacy Coordinator for Indiana, and is a member of the Advocacy Committee and EMS Safety Course Committee. He was honored with the 2014 Field EMS Bill Advocate of the Year Award and is a member of the Indiana EMS education work group.
  
  

• Terry L. David, Director, Region IV

  

  Terry L. David is Chief for Reno Co. EMS at Hutchinson Regional Medical Center in Kansas. He has been in EMS since 1982, beginning as an EMT while working for the Hutchinson Kansas Police Department. He moved to a full-time EMS position in 1986 after spending nine years with two different law enforcement agencies. While working for Reno County/Hutchinson Hospital EMS, Terry became a paramedic and served in that role, as well as a relief supervisor. In March 1995, he began a dual role for Rice County as Director of EMS and Emergency Management Director. 

  Terry is certified as both a paramedic and Training Officer II in the State of Kansas. He has held positions with the American Heart Association as a regional faculty member and instructor, and is the training coordinator for the local chapter of the Health and Safety Institute. Terry also serves as Team Commander of the Kansas Major Emergency Response Group (MERGe), which is the Kansas ESF-8 Disaster Response Team, and has had command roles in state disasters. He has also been requested by the state legislature to testify on EMS disaster response and preparedness issues

  Terry is involved in EMS issues on a state, regional and national level, and in organizations including the Kansas EMS Association, Kansas Association of Counties, South-Central Homeland Security Council, Hutchinson Community College EMS Education Advisory Board, Governing Board of the Rice County Hospital, South-Central Healthcare Coalition and Kansas Healthcare Coalition Steering Committee. He is also the only EMS Director in Kansas to receive the Presidential Leadership Award from the Kansas EMS Association on three occasions and was the recipient of the 2008 Kansas EMS Administrator of the Year Award.
  
  

• Troy Tuke, Director, Region IV

  Chief Troy Tuke began his EMS career after obtaining both Paramedic and RN degrees from Brigham Young University-Idaho in 1989. He worked full time as an RN, as well as a Paramedic specializing in Critical Care/ER and Flight Nursing, before joining the Clark County Fire Department (CCFD) as a Firefighter/Paramedic in 1996. He was promoted through the ranks of fire engineer, EMS Coordinator, and is currently working as the Assistant Chief-EMS for CCFD. 
  
  Troy was deployed to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita as a medical specialist for Nevada Task Force 1 Urban Search and Rescue Team. He maintains his RN license, National Registry Paramedic Certification and license, and is an EMS Master Instructor and Paramedic Preceptor. He also serves NAEMT as the Advocacy Coordinator for Nevada and as a member of the Membership, Data and Advocacy Committees.
  
  A Nationally Registered Paramedic since 1988, Troy’s hobbies include mountain biking and skiing, and he is involved in many church youth programs. He has been married to his wife Debbie for 30 years and has two daughters, Brittany and Rylie.
  
  

• Charlene Cobb, At-Large Director

  

  Charlene Cobb, NREMT-P, has worked in EMS since 1980, beginning with the Sayville Community Ambulance Squad in Sayville, N.Y. In 1989, she moved to Pinellas County, Fla., and continued her work with Sunstar Paramedics. She became a Nationally Registered Paramedic in 1992, quickly advanced to become a field training officer and then an education coordinator, a position in which she has spent the majority of her career. She now serves as Sunstar’s community outreach coordinator and public information officer.
  
  Charlene has been a member of the NAEMT EMS Safety Committee since 2009 and often travels throughout the country teaching the EMS Safety course, which she helped to develop. She also serves as a member of the international EMS Safety Foundation and was awarded the organization’s prestigious Objective Safety Award in 2008.

  Charlene is passionate about community safety and is the chairperson for the Suncoast Safekids Coalition. She is a frequent contributor to local and national publications on EMS and Public Safety. She was the proud recipient of the 1998 State of Florida’s Paramedic of the Year Award. That same year she was also selected as the Pinellas County Paramedic of the Year, for her work on a language translation guide for fellow EMS personnel. In 2009, Charlene received the State of Florida’s Injury Prevention Award for her work to promote child passenger safety, and in 2010 received the Pinellas County EMS Public Safety Award, for her work to enhance ambulance safety. Charlene has dedicated her career to the health and safety of EMS patients, the EMS workforce, and the greater Pinellas County community.
  
  

• Jonathan Washko, At-Large Director

  Jonathan D. Washko, MBA, NRP, AEMD, is Assistant Vice President, Center of EMS for Northwell Health. Jonathan has been involved in the EMS industry for more than 30 years and has held progressive leadership positions with small, medium and large EMS systems in government, private, for-profit and not-for-profit entities.
  
  Jonathan is considered the leading industry expert on EMS system design, high performance EMS concepts, industry best practices, EMS deployment, lean business processes, system status management and EMS finance. He is often called upon by leaders of EMS systems in crisis, as well as those considered at the top of their game, in order to help transform these organizations to become the best they can be. He frequently speaks at national conferences, sits on various industry boards, and consults on an international basis.
  
  

• Craig A. Manifold, DO, Medical Director

  Dr. Craig Manifold serves as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Emergency Health Sciences, School of Health Professions at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. He is the former Medical Director for the San Antonio Fire Department and surrounding areas in Texas County including San Antonio AirLIFE.
  
  He attended the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and continued his training in Emergency Medicine with his Internship at Wilford Hall Medical Center, San Antonio, Texas and his Residency with the Joint Military Medical Centers Emergency Medicine Residency in San Antonio, Texas. Dr. Manifold is presently serving on several committees with the South Texas Regional Advisory Council (STRAC), American College of Emergency Physicians, and Governors EMS and Trauma Advisory Committee. He also serves as Joint Surgeon for the Texas Air National Guard, and Commander for the 149th Medical Group of the Texas Air National Guard in San Antonio.
  
  Presently, Dr. Manifold serves as Principal Investigator for several clinical trials. Dr. Manifold has had several publications and has presented at many national conferences as well as overseas in other world conferences.