William Levi
William McKinley Levi, Jr. is being honored and remembered for serving as a proud EMS professional, who helped more than 1,000 students receive scholarships through his personal work as a videographer and sports columnist. Will had served the Las Vegas community for nearly twenty years in his professional and personal life. He is remembered for his smile and kind nature, both of which had an impression on coworkers and patients alike.
Will led by example. Friends describe him as someone who was always willing to teach, help, or support his fellow EMS responders in any way he could. He was a solid EMT who was skilled in his profession. His knowledge was respected, but it was his humility that was admired. Will was not a proud person who kept his expertise to himself. He was more than happy to mentor or offer advice to any of his coworkers who asked him for help.
Will’s deep sense of caring for his community was also present in his personal life. He enjoyed editing videos on sports-related events and had his own column. This side project helped many high school athletes receive financial support for a college education.
Clifford Fontaine
Clifford Fontaine began his career in EMS at MedicWest (formerly Southwest) Ambulance in 2002 as an EMT-Intermediate (now AEMT). He has been described as “one of the most genuine and caring individuals around,” and was well known for his smile, bear hugs, and commanding saunter. He immediately drew everyone into his presence.
Cliff is being honored and remembered for providing life-saving aid to victims of a multi-vehicle crash that happened while he was on his way home from vacation in Utah. After securing their children in their vehicle, Cliff and his wife began aiding the victims. Cliff relayed the seriousness of the incident to Utah Highway Patrol, giving fellow first responders vital information that helped them to prepare for their response. Cliff even performed CPR on a four-year-old girl while waiting for the arrival of the responders. The girl ultimately survived the accident. All this was done on Cliff’s personal time; he didn’t have to intervene, but he did. He will always be a hero and his compassion and intervention earned him a commendation from the Utah Highway Patrol.
Jacob Dindinger
Jacob Dindinger is being honored and remembered for his faithful service in EMS. His young life was cut short following a senseless and deadly shooting spree that shocked the Tucson area last summer. Jacob left us as a fallen hero, who died in the line of duty on July 30, 2021.
For those who knew him personally, Jacob was a dedicated EMS professional who was continually seeking ways to grow in his career. He was driven, but not arrogant. He knew that failure was a part of life and that it was a setback, but it did not have to be the outcome if you chose to pick yourself up and move forward. These are the words that Jacob lived by as he worked hard to succeed in his professional development.
Jacob left a mark on all of us and made an impact on his community with each interaction he had. We are all better people for having been touched by him and his family.
Todd Wobbe
Todd Wobbe has dedicated his life to serving his patients and community. With more than forty years of EMS experience, Todd has been on several hurricane and COVID deployments. He has volunteered “at a moment’s notice” to pack up and travel across the country to serve those in great need, often leaving his family for weeks or even months at a time.
When he is not on deployment, Todd puts a lot of his time and energy into patient education. He goes out of his way to make sure every patient he cares for understands his or her medical conditions and medications. Patient care is so important to Todd that his partner reports that he is the only Paramedic she has ever worked with and was adamant that every patient has a pillow and a blanket. He never leaves the ambulance without both of those items on hand.
In addition, Todd loves his coworkers and treats them like family. He is always willing to lend a hand or an ear to help a fellow crew member. He has mentored a countless number of EMTs and Paramedics and is willing to take time out to help newcomers improve their knowledge and skills.
Lauri Wempen
Lauri Wempen is being honored as a Star of Life for her leadership and service to her community and to clinicians throughout her state. Lauri has been with Guardian Flight Wyoming for the past six years and has been working in EMS in communities throughout Wyoming for the past thirty-five years. Among her many achievements, Lauri served as the EMS Director for Fremont County EMS from 1998-2013. During this time, she instructed new EMTs and helped to build the EMS personnel in Wyoming, many of whom are still working the front lines today. She also continued to take ambulance calls to support her staff and community. Additionally, Lauri was an appointed member of the Wyoming Governor’s Board for Public Safety and Communication from 2007–2013, and she represented Wyoming in 2010 during EMS on The Hill in Washington, D.C.
Lauri obtained her Firefighter 1, Firefighter 2, and Firefighter Instructor 1 certifications, and worked as a volunteer Firefighter in Fremont County, Wyoming. She started working in 2001 and retired from the fire service in 2021. In 2013, Lauri obtained her Paramedic degree and continued her education to progress to the Flight Paramedic level. Lauri joined Guardian Flight in 2016 as a Flight Paramedic and has worked her way up to the base lead.
Mario Vialpando
Mario Vialpando is being honored for exhibiting exceptional patient care during several critical, high-profile calls. Mario is described as a “team player” who always goes the extra mile in his duties, and is praised for his skill and his willingness to offer extra help when the situation calls for it.
In one incident, Mario saved a twenty-two-year-old man who had suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his lower right jaw. The young man, who was bleeding profusely, was on the roof of an apartment building and was in excruciating pain. Through Mario’s medical expertise and serene composure, the man was safely extricated and transported to a facility where he received further life-saving care. This is just one example of the passion and command of knowledge that drives Mario to do his job so well.
Likewise, Mario cares for the well-being of his coworkers just as he cares for his patients. Mario is a staunch supporter of his colleagues’ mental health. He openly gives out his phone number to coworkers, encouraging them to call him if they want to talk or have something heavy on their minds.
Mario also mentors new EMTs and Medics, while fostering a healthy and safe learning environment for them. He is known for always being kind and courteous to everyone he meets.
Lauren Van Damme
Lauren Van Damme is being recognized for her commitment to her base, and for her public relations efforts during COVID deployments. Lauren began her career as a secretary with EagleMed in Kansas before working her way through the ranks to become a frontline pilot in King Air 200s. In October 2021, a pilot was injured in an off-duty accident. Along with the other pilots at the base, Lauren worked a ten days-on-five-days-off rotation to ensure that the base stayed in service and that the patients and customers were served. Her concern for her patients’ care is mirrored by her concern for her teammates’ welfare.
Similarly, in August 2021, another of her coworkers, a Flight Paramedic, was injured in a rock-climbing accident that left him immobile for a short period of time. Lauren took it upon herself to cook several crockpot meals, freeze them, drive them more than four hours away to his home, and show him and his wife how to warm them up for quick meals.
Robert Sebree
Robert Sebree has saved many lives in the twenty-five years he has been with AMR, though one recent incident, in particular, stands out.
On August 24, 2021, when Robert was working a shift in Simi Valley, a call was made about a four-year-old boy who was having trouble breathing. Upon Robert’s arrival, Simi Valley police were already on-scene trying to help the developmentally disabled child with a cleft palate who appeared to be choking. Robert intervened and visualized the child’s airway with a direct laryngoscopy, which revealed an anterior airway with an oblong-shaped object with one rounded, smooth closed end and one rounded open end. The diameter was approximately the size of a penny, and the smooth side was found facing downwards in the hypopharynx. Robert used Magill forceps to remove the object with the result of an immediate improvement in the patient’s mental awareness.
The child was transported to Adventist Health in Simi Valley and made a complete recovery. Robert was hailed a hero by his colleagues and was called the medic, “who saved this kid’s life!”
Dylan Schoch
Dylan Schoch performed life-saving techniques to save a child who was suffering physical trauma from a vehicle accident. On Easter Sunday last year, Dylan was called to a motor vehicle accident on a busy stretch of a local highway. Upon completion of the initial triage, it was determined there were five patients; three adults and two children. Dylan was assigned one of the pediatric passengers, a seven-year-old boy, who was pulseless and apneic. Dylan jumped into action, extricating the child and treating him. He at once recognized that the child’s best chance for recovery was at a pediatric Level 1 trauma center, and called for helicopter transport. Dylan and his partner worked to establish and maintain the patient’s airway, performing ventilation and compressions when Return of Spontaneous Circulation (ROSC) was achieved. A needle thoracotomy was successfully performed with a return of lung sounds.
Thanks to Dylan’s skill and medical judgment, the young patient survived. And while the child has undergone a series of extensive surgeries and therapies, he is progressing well and is back at home.
Franchon Robinson
Franchon Robinson is being recognized for building and maintaining an extraordinary communications center. AMR’s Central Mississippi is the state’s busiest provider of ambulance services. As a result, everyone who supervises at that center must be sharp, quick on their feet, and fully knowledgeable about how the center works. Franchon fits that description to perfection.
In addition to being the “public face” of the communication center, Franchon ensures that her staff is efficient, effective, resourceful, and courteous with all customer groups with whom they interact. She has immeasurably contributed to managing mass casualty situations as well as short-term disasters. In such situations, she has had to quickly assemble additional crews and ambulances while engaging with on-scene incident commanders and hospitals, determining which hospitals can receive multiple patients in a short period of time.
In the last few years, Franchon’s communication center has worked hard to ensure that all field crews were immediately informed of the policy and procedural changes related to the pandemic. As a result, her operation has had a very high compliance rate.
KC Robbins
KC Robbins exemplifies servant-leadership by helping her crew members and coworkers meet the demands of the day. As someone who is always looking for new ways to improve and expand protocols, KC is often busy either filling in as a Supervisor and Field Training Officer in McDonough County, Illinois, or training staff in Buchanan County, Iowa, which is home to a new operation she helped to found. Her devotion to her job has taken her to many places across the nation, including New York City and Florida for COVID-19 response support, and Washington, D.C. for the 2021 Inauguration of President Biden, where she served as strike team leader.
KC’s consistent desire to help is reflected in her willingness to travel and serve at operations other than her own, particularly when those operations are severely short-staffed. She has worked many 100-hour weeks providing yearly training sessions for both McDonough County and Buchanan County operations. She also ran a COVID vaccine clinic in Chicago for Pfizer for five to six weeks with little to no assistance or guidance. KC is a self-motivated individual who is driven by her passion to help others in any way she can.
Jack Rathgeber
Jack Rathgeber is dedicated to service, no matter where it takes him, even if it requires traveling by mule to treat a patient who suffered broken ribs and bones in a mountainous area. The situation happened while Jack was on duty as a supervisor and a call came in about a person in the mountains who had suffered trauma and was stuck in a ravine. Volunteers in the area had tried to help the patient but only made matters worse when one of them tripped and landed on the patient’s broken shoulder. Because the crew on staff was a Basic Life Support (BLS) crew, Jack joined the crew members and went to the mountains to find and help the patient. After trying to get a Search and Rescue team to assist, Jack spotted forest personnel riding a mule. Jack explained the situation to the forest worker who let Jack ride the mule as he searched for the patient.
Once he arrived at the patient’s location, Jack was able to give the patient pain medication and help the volunteers get the individual onto a backboard. Jack and the volunteers carried the patient out of the ravine, two miles back to the ambulance. He also made sure the patient was taken to the hospital for further treatment.
Nicole Piazza
Nicole Piazza is being honored for displaying great skill and calm in several pediatric cardiac arrest situations, and for responding to calls even though she was off-duty. In one recent event, Nicole was on her way home when she heard that there was a multiple shooting in Hartford. Even though she was off-duty, Nicole did not hesitate to go to this call, which was in a dangerous and unsafe area. Once there, she contacted the crews involved and provided excellent communication to support the EMS effort. The scene was quite hectic and yet, Nicole remained calm. She was praised for her service that day and for the many other times she showed up to help when she was not on duty.
Nicole also serves as the Chair of her operation’s Risk and Safety Committee—a role she takes very seriously. She is not only passionate about the safety of her patients, but also the safety of her teammates. It is not uncommon for her to stay late to give support to crew members after they have returned from a difficult call.
So, whether she is training a new hire, providing care to her patients, or advocating for her coworkers, Nicole prides herself on being the best that she can be.
Cassandra Moreno
Cassandra is being honored as a Star of Life for her exceptional bravery. Cassandra had been working as an EMT for only nine months when a shooter approached her and her partner, Jacob Dindinger, as they were preparing for a medical call. The man opened fire into the cab of the ambulance, shooting Cassandra in the arm and striking Jacob multiple times.
Despite her own injury and her concern for Jacob’s life, Cassandra bravely and calmly got on the radio and called for help, providing a detailed description of her assailant and an assessment of her and Jacob’s conditions. She then tried to treat Jacob’s wounds until other units arrived. Police were able to find and stop the assailant, but unfortunately, it was only after he had gone on a deadly shooting spree. There are no words that can fully capture the courage Cassandra demonstrated on that terrible day.
Daniel MacDowell
Daniel MacDowell demonstrates a spirit of service for others and an impeccable work ethic. One specific situation where these distinguishing traits were clear was a call that involved a boy who had an allergic reaction to an insect bite. At first, everyone at the scene, including the boy’s family, thought the reaction was mild and did not require an emergency response. However, as Daniel, who was among the first to arrive at the scene, was putting the boy in his family’s car, he noticed that the boy had fainted and his face was starting to swell. Recognizing that anaphylaxis was imminent, Daniel showed courage, medical judgment, and leadership beyond what can be expected from a new EMT, and stopped the family from going to the hospital. He then measured and administered the correct dose of epinephrine per protocol, reversing the symptoms and saving the child’s life.
Once the ambulance arrived on the scene, the boy was found safe and in stable condition. His family members stood by, smiling as tears ran down their faces, forever grateful that the boy was still alive—all thanks to Daniel.
Bryanna Johnson
Bryanna Johnson is being honored for her role in extinguishing a fire in an aircraft, pre-flight. Although she suffered burns to her hands, Bryanna’s heroic act helped save both a patient and a Paramedic. The incident happened as the aircraft was preparing to lift from a hospital. Bryanna realized that her partner’s flight suit had caught fire and acted quickly. She pulled her partner from the aircraft, while also protecting the pilot and patient onboard, triaged the situation, and rendered care to her crew member. Bryanna then requested additional ground and air resources for the scene and collaborated with the pilot and hospital staff to ensure everyone was cared for promptly. Her professionalism and focus during this unexpected and chaotic event are hailed as the reason the situation ended well.
Those who know her well say they are not surprised by Bryanna’s cool and collected demeanor in an emergency situation. Her dedication and commitment to the field of air medicine has allowed her to care for more than 750 patients.
Brooke Holoubek
Brooke Holoubek is being recognized for her diligence and strong work ethic, which she demonstrates daily, regardless of the challenging circumstances she may face. Since the time she joined REACH, Brooke has been a dedicated EMS professional who is constantly seeking ways to polish and improve her service as an advanced neonatal provider at her base. It is not uncommon to see Brooke respond to paged-out neonatal transport requests or requests that were held past the end of her scheduled shift.
Her enthusiasm for her work is also evident in her service to local rural areas, where she provides critical clinical expertise to community hospitals when called upon for neonatal and pediatric transports. Brooke’s humble leadership, willingness to serve, and dedication to and love for her work are just a few of the qualities that make her an exemplary model of excellence.
Kimberly Hiner
Kimberly Hiner is being honored as a Star of Life for her tireless and selfless work on special assignments during the pandemic. Kimberly served alongside the AMR/REMSA’s SOS Team that worked with specialized nursing facilities to train their staff on how to use Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in the first stages of the pandemic when these facilities were at significant risk. Through this training, Kimberly’s team helped reduce the rate of infection among staff members. Kimberly also went to Northern California for two extended deployments to work at COVID vaccine sites and was a REMSA/AMR COVID Response Strike Team member. Kimberly always puts the safety and welfare of others first, and her extensive knowledge and willingness to train others helped keep many people safe during the pandemic.
Cathy Heikes
Cathy Heikes is being honored as a Star of life for exhibiting tremendous leadership and attention to care during the pandemic response in New York. Cathy, who spent thirteen years in the U.S. Army as a nurse and served in Operation Desert Storm, used her incredible experience to provide support in aiding virus-related emergencies and evacuations in the greater New York area when the region was experiencing a surge of COVID-19 infections.
Cathy’s compassion, skill, and medical expertise, particularly as they relate to traumatic situations, made her an invaluable presence in New York, which had become known as the epicenter of the American coronavirus in the early part of the outbreak. During her deployment, she responded to and cared for a countless number of patients infected with the virus.
In 2004, then-Governor Kathleen Sebelius appointed Cathy to serve on the Southwest Kansas Regional Trauma Council. For fifteen years, Cathy worked with the multidisciplinary council to improve trauma care systems across her home state.
Also, as the base medical manager for Eagle Med 4, Cathy has trained and mentored countless air medical professionals, developed new practices and protocols and provided exceptional patient care. She believes deeply that she must be willing and capable of doing anything she asks her team to do.
Michael Gibson
Michael Gibson is being honored as a Star of Life for his unquenchable curiosity and desire to invent medical devices that improve patient care and treatment. During the early days of the pandemic, Michael discovered that there was a lack of proper equipment to ventilate patients. So, rather than trying to find an improper fitting oxygen mask or using another oxygen device outside of its intended purpose, he invented a new oxygen mask. This new mask provides oxygen to the patient while also providing negative pressure around the patient’s face that stops the aerosolization of droplets. The new mask basically keeps a patient from infecting others around him. Michael’s invention eventually got the attention of General Motors, which became interested in producing the medical mask. However, once the pandemic began to wane, GM’s interest did too. But that has not stopped Michael from moving forward with his idea. He is currently working on receiving FDA approval for his innovative invention.
In addition to his creative spirit, Michael is known as a selfless steward who loves to share his knowledge with new nurses, Paramedics, and others who work in the field of patient care. He is articulate, self-motivated, and considered by his peers as a leader in medical education.