EPC Committee

• Shannon Watson, CCEMT-P, Chair

  Shannon Watson began her EMS Career in Jacksonville, NC, where she earned her Paramedic license and Associate’s degree in Emergency Medical Science. She since completed her Bachelor’s in Business Administration and is starting her Master’s program this year. Shannon joined Christian Hospital EMS ten years ago, diligently working her way to the Assistant Chief position for the EMS Department. Watson is an instructor for a variety of certifications and teaches nationally at EMS conferences. She is a member of the East Central Region EMS Committee for St. Louis, and in 2012 became a contributing author of the Pediatric Education for Prehospital Providers (PEPP) textbook and author of the chapter on resuscitation. Watson was the NAEMT Emergency Pediatric Care (EPC) Regional Coordinator for two years prior to joining the EPC committee.

  Shannon realized her love for education while at Christian Hospital EMS, where she was a field training officer and member of the education committee. Then, she became Clinical Supervisor and assisted in the development of the Christian Hospital EMS Academy, which offers more than 30 EMS courses annually to employees and outside EMS participants. She advanced to Community Health Supervisor and assisted in developing and implementing the Community Health Access Program (CHAP). She supervised the mobile integrated healthcare (MIH) program and EMS portion of CHAP for three years prior to moving into the Assistant Chief role for Christian Hospital EMS. She is married to a firefighter/paramedic and has two children.

  
  

• Katherine Remick, MD, Medical Director

  Dr. Katherine Remick is Associate Medical Director for Austin-Travis County EMS System and an attending physician in pediatric emergency medicine at Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin, Texas. She completed her residency and chief residency in pediatrics at Washington University and fellowships in pediatric emergency medicine and emergency medical services at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and Los Angeles County EMS Agency.

  Dr. Remick was Co-Primary Investigator of the California Pediatric Readiness Project (the pilot study for the National Pediatric Readiness Project) and actively serves on the National Pediatric Readiness Resource Development Group for the federal EMS for Children program. She also serves on the Texas EMS for Children Advisory Committee and the Governor’s EMS and Trauma Advisory Council Medical Director’s Committee for the state of Texas. She is a member of the National Association of State EMS Officials EMS Education Task Force on Pediatrics.

  
  

• Mark X. Cicero, MD, Assoc. 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 a pediatric emergency medicine doctor in Columbus, Ohio and is affiliated with Nationwide Children's Hospital. She received her medical degree from Northeast Ohio Medical University and has been in practice for more than 20 years. She is one of 59 doctors at Nationwide Children's Hospital who specialize in Pediatric Emergency Medicine.
  
  
  

• Emily Nichols, MD, Associate Medical Director

  Emily M. Nichols, MD has been an adult emergency medicine physician since 2006. She has worked in the cities of New York, Philadelphia, and Baton Rouge in addition to New Orleans. Dr. Nichols is board certified in both adult and pediatric emergency medicine and is able to care for persons of all ages during their sickest moments. She has also studied public health; her career interests include public health, disaster response, and provider wellness. Dr. Nichols has worked in community clinics in urban and rural settings in the US, Costa Rica, Belize, Haiti, Brazil, and South Africa. She was an integral part of relief efforts in Port-au-Prince Haiti during the 2010 earthquake, and in 2014 she taught emergency response, first aid, and “train the trainer” courses to responders in Northern Haiti. Dr. Nichols has lectured nationally on the topics of provider wellness and secondary traumatization; she has lectured internationally on building diverse EMS agencies and the development of 911 systems and emergency medicine in the United States. 

  Dr. Nichols values the EMS Continuum of Care and the unique role of EMS in health care, public safety, and public health. She enjoys spending her free time with her daughter and her husband, Jonel Daphnis MD, MPH, who is also an emergency physician. 

• Sylvia Owusu-Ansah, MD, AAP Liaison

  

  Sylvia Owusu-Ansah is a board-certified pediatrician, and a pediatric emergency medicine and emergency medical physician. She is the medical director of Prehospital and EMS at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She has spent a majority of her career developing curricula and providing education for EMS personnel in both urban and suburban environment, 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 Pediatric 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 is 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, 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, PEPL, 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 is currently attending nursing school with a projected graduation date of December 2020.

  
  

• Jeremy Sidlauskas, MPA

  Jeremy Sidlauskas is the Deputy Fire Chief of Administration for Pasco County Fire Rescue (PCFR) in Florida.  PCFR has approximately 700 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!

  
  

• Jonathan Willoughby, Paramedic

  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. Mr. Willoughby is currently completing a Doctorate of Educational Technology program through Central Michigan University while working for a rural volunteer ambulance service. He is a lifetime member of NAEMT, a former State Education Coordinator for NAEMT, and a member of NAEMSE.