It is with great honor and pride that I recommend Ms. Lisa Camp for the 2014 Stars of Life Award. Ms. Camp should be recognized due to her support of the citizens of the State of Texas and the Country through her leadership in quality pre-hospital care and community wide emergency response. When it comes to emergency medical services, Ms. Lisa Camp basically is the sage in the area. She gives much of her time to the EMS community and the Medics across the country. She has been at the forefront in the areas of patient care, public access, medical control, disaster preparedness, public education and training. Lisa Camp’s Emergency Medical Services are using cutting edge technologies to help their patients recover as fully as possible from emergencies. One of these technologies that Lisa was instrumental in setting up was the use of an I.C.E. (Induced Cooling by EMS) protocol. Lisa also noted a lag time in Cardiac patients getting into the Cardiac Catheterization Labs. Lisa attacked this challenge head on and her response was for the medics to start double-lumen IV catheters in the field, administration of Heparin, and to send 12-Lead ECGs via telemetry. Ms. Lisa Camp has served as the mentor, supporter and advocate for EMS throughout the Country. She has created a successful continuing education program that kept members informed, providing motivation and confidence regarding their abilities to provide excellent patient care. Lisa encourages FVFD to be active with the community and assists in bimonthly free immunization clinics, Community CPR training, and other safety and injury prevention activities. I was once asked “what is a hero?” I answered this “a hero is someone you strive to imitate”. Lisa Camp is my hero for all the wonderful things he does for her community and Country.”

Stanley Caballero has been employed with Acadian Ambulance for only 14 months, but during that time he has made such an impact that he was named Acadian’s 2014 Texas Paramedic of the Year. He works full-time in McKinney, Texas, and is also a mentor to new employees and critical care paramedics. Stan’s strong work ethic and compassion for others exceeds far past his day-today job duties as a paramedic. Stan is involved with a non-profit hunger relief organization called Numana, which empowers people to package meals and send them all across the world to serve the starving. Recently, he was a part of a worldrecord breaking event in Nashville, Tenn., where more than 530,000 meals were packaged for the hungry around the world in less than one hour.”

“I would recommend Marisol Puerto for this recognition.  Marisol and I were partners on Medic 98 (now M920) prior to my promotion, where I had the pleasure of witnessing, first hand, an individual that is dedicated to the EMS profession.  She has earned the respect, the admiration, and the trust of her colleagues within the HCEC family. Marisol is dedicated to continuing her education both professionally and academically. I have had the pleasure of interacting with numerous students through my background at Texas A&M University and with HCEC; I can truthfully say that over the course of those interactions, very few have impressed upon me as much as Marisol has.  She is a solid, bright, and intelligent person that has pushed herself to achieve her goals.”

“She serves so many roles for HCEC—Field Training Officer, In-Charge Paramedic, Bike Medic, Card Class Instructor, Interview Panel participant—which only a few others can lay claim to. Marisol represents HCEC Core Values extremely well and I feel she deserves to be recognized on a national level.”

Shaun Kirkdorffer exemplifies each pillar of HCEC’s Corps Values every time he comes to work. He is a trusted professional, a trusted colleague, and a trusted member of the community. Shaun is the embodiment of stewardship, working not only as a leader at HCEC but also leading community outreach through his church.

His colleagues state that Shaun is a great example of an AAA Star of Life. He is a role model employee and upstanding citizen. He represents us well both on and off duty. He currently serves us as an FTO and In Charge. He is and has been involved with outreach ministries for inner-city youth through his church. He is well known by a good majority of the citizens in our community not only for his job duties, but also for his involvement with the community.

In January of 2000, Marco Villasenor moved from El Paso, TX to join Austin-Travis County EMS (ATCEMS). Marco moved up the ranks and became a Field Training Officer and then Captain. For the last 7 years he has been a Designated Medical Officer (DMO) under the Clinical Performance Improvement group.

As a DMO, one of Marco’s key rolls is to evaluate the performance and provide CPR performance feedback for every cardiac arrest patient treated by ATCEMS. As a result of his work, Marco was awarded the Medical Directors Award in 2014, and he received a travel scholarship to the American Heart Association’s Resuscitation Science Symposium in Chicago of the same year. Through “Pit Crew” training and CPR Performance feedback, ATCEMS experienced significant improvement in compression fractions and resuscitation rates. Marco’s contributions in this initiative were instrumental in these improved performance measures. Today the DMO’s are part of the response matrix and are dispatched on high priority calls when they are closer.

Kyle Schutt is a Paramedic who has been employed with Austin-Travis County EMS (ATCEMS) since 2015. Kyle believes being a public servant is a rewarding job that requires hard work and dedication but comes with the knowledge that you have made a difference in someone’s life. Additionally, it is his belief that all members of EMS share a passion for going the extra mile for our patients, and that is what makes our profession special.

During Kyle’s three years at ATCEMS, he has received two Medical Phoenix Citation awards for confirmed cardiopulmonary arrest saves who were discharged from the hospital, and he has recently been promoted to the Medic II position. Kyle received his Paramedic certification from the University of Texas Health Science Center and his Bachelor’s in Exercise Sports Science from Texas Tech University.

Dena has been in public safety service for 23 years. She began her public safety career as a Police Dispatcher for The University of Kansas Police Department (Go Jayhawks!). During a ride-out while working at Southlake DPS for her EMT-B training, she answered the 911 call, dispatched the responding unit, and ended up transporting the patient with that unit and its crew to the hospital. Many only ever get to experience one side or the other of a 911 call; rarely both.

Dena has been a member of the Austin-Travis County EMS (ATCEMS) team since 2009 and is grateful to be employed by an agency that believes in the values of putting our patients and community first. EMS calls are received, triaged, and dispatched by ATCEMS Communications Medics, including delivery of pre-arrival treatment instructions. The Communications Medics’ role in the success of patient outcomes is considered equally as important as the treatment that the responding Field Medics provide. This is part of our “Zero-Second Response” model, in that at the moment a call for EMS assistance comes into our call center, our community is speaking to an ATCEMS Medic at the “zero-second.”

In addition to reading and taking walks along the beach, Dena loves to quilt for her grandkids, Kaden, Brooklynn, Emma, Tristan, and now baby Peyton… please no more for now, I need to get caught up!

Brendan Cluskey emigrated to the United States of America from Dublin, Ireland. Since arriving, he has dedicated himself to giving back to the nation that has so warmly welcomed him. “I feel that I owe a great debt of gratitude to America, so helping others in their times of need just feels like the right thing to do,” he says.

Since joining Austin-Travis County EMS in October of 2010, Brendan has excelled in all areas of Paramedicine and has now enthusiastically taken on the challenging role of Field Training Officer. During his time in Austin, Brendan has received many accolades and awards, most notably The Meritorious Service Award for bravery in 2014.

Brendan greatly enjoys family time with his wife, Joanne, and daughter, Isabel.

Richard is the type of Paramedic who always serves his patients and coworkers with respect, understanding, compassion, and dignity. Richard started his career with ETMC EMS in December 1991, and he is still rocking the streets to this day with the same demeanor he started with.

Not only has Richard touched the lives of countless patients, he has also gained countless friendships with the everyday folk he comes in contact with. His addictive humor makes it easy to get caught up in his stories, no matter how many times you’ve heard them.

Over the past years, Richard has had a great influence on new and seasoned EMS personnel as a Field Training Officer. Richard enjoys sharing his past experiences, whether they are good or bad, to help the crews stay safe. As he talks about the past, you will always hear him say, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

Richard has always been a great asset to his EMS family and deserves recognition for going above and beyond in an effort to make every day better for the future.

Cyndy Rider is a full-time paramedic with Lifenet, Inc. in Texarkana, Arkansas. As a child, she split her time between her home in Texarkana and the family farm in Garland City, Arkansas where her father was a farmer and member of the volunteer fire department. After graduating from Arkansas High, she attended Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Interdisciplinary Studies and Mass Communication.

In 2011 she moved to Providence Village, Texas with her husband, Thomas Rider. While living in North Dallas, she felt a strong desire to leave the retail industry after more 10 years and pursue a childhood dream of becoming a paramedic/first responder. In 2013 she completed her EMT training at UT Southwestern and began working for Allegiance Ambulance in Carrollton, TX. In 2015 she returned to school to become a Licensed Paramedic. She moved back to Texarkana and began working at Lifenet the following year.

Cyndy is well-respected among her peers and co-workers for her positive and cheerful attitude, passion for her job, and exceptional care and concern for her patients. Fellow employees describe Cyndy as, “…always coming to work with a positive attitude and is constantly showing compassion for her patients as well as her coworkers. She cares about her patients and always wants to do her best!”

Cyndy thoroughly enjoys working with students as a preceptor. She takes great pride in teaching others, not only the skills necessary to become a confident and proficient paramedic, but also how to maintain a positive attitude in stressful and sometimes difficult circumstances. She is grateful for the opportunity this job has given her to have a meaningful impact on the lives of her patients and fellow employees.

In her spare time Cyndy enjoys camping, traveling, spending time with her four dogs, playing piano, and serving the members of Fairview United Methodist Church.

As Hurricane Harvey worsened, AMR Houston committed to relocate dozens of patients from one hospital to another. Jamie volunteered to serve as AMR’s liaison at the receiving hospital. Over several hours, AMR evacuated 88 patients to safety and Jamie was hailed for beautifully overseeing this operation.

As the storm raged, a hospital asked AMR to return a discharged patient to his home. Two crews tried but were unable to reach the hospital. Jamie decided to give it “one last shot” and enlisted a crew partner. In darkness, heavy rain, and high winds, they made their way through less-flooded back roads to make the transport happen.

Jamie worked day and night, staying positive and frequently checking on the well-being of the crews. Many in the area had lost everything. When Jamie’s leadership told him to go home and rest, he went home but he didn’t rest. Instead, Jamie assembled a cooking team which provided four days of fresh meals to the numerous AMR personnel working in Houston, deployed from several states.

Jamie’s selflessness during Hurricane Harvey shows why he is known for total commitment to his calling.

With typical modesty, Jamie says everything he does is part of a team effort.

From the moment of his first EMS call as a paid on-call EMT in 2004, Brandon knew this career was his calling.

Brandon came to MedStar in 2012 as a Paramedic. He moved up to Field Training Officer and eventually was selected for promotion to MedStar Mobile Integrated Healthcare (MIH) team as a Mobile Healthcare/Critical Care Paramedic in 2015.

In this role, Brandon is responsible for managing high EMS system utilizers and patients at-risk for preventable 9-1-1 calls, hospital Emergency Department visits, and in-patient admissions.

Brandon enjoys the tangible impact he has on the patients he treats. On the MIH team, that impact is not simply a 30- to 40-minute patient encounter, but helping his MIH-enrolled patients over the long term. “As a field Paramedic, I can make patients better, but as an MIH provider, I can help make them well,” he explains.

Brandon was a contributing author of the Community Paramedicine textbook and is a member of the NAEMT Community Paramedicine Curriculum Committee and the Critical Care Paramedic Advisory Committee for the International Board of Specialty Certifications.

He has also presented at national EMS conferences such as EMS Today and EMS World, and he is a member of the Adult Protective Services of Tarrant County Community Board.

Brandon recently graduated from the University of North Texas Health Science Center’s Geriatric Practice Leadership Institute, where he developed a new screening, assessment, and intervention process for fall-risk patients.

“Infectious positivity” is the best way to describe Texas Medic of the Year Alex Aste, and that trait carries over into every aspect of his job at Acadian in Houston.

Alex joined Acadian with plenty of experience. He has a bachelor of science degree in paramedicine, worked as a combat medic during two separate tours in the Italian Army, and saw action in Afghanistan on a Medevac unit.

Alex came to the United States in 2011 to continue his education and received a bachelor’s degree in human biology with a minor in chemistry from the University of California San Diego.

Unfortunately, when Alex moved to Houston with his wife, who was pursuing a law degree, his Paramedic certification was not recognized, and he was forced to start over with his EMS education.

Now Alex is at the top of his class in the Paramedic program at Alvin Community College in Houston, and he’s looking forward to graduating in August and working again as a Paramedic.

Alex always puts the customer first and provides exemplary service regardless of the situation—he already has an impressive number of commendations. He has had perfect attendance and has never been late for work since starting with Acadian in August 2016.

He also plays an integral role in the Houston Life Gift Operations. In fact, if he isn’t at school or working an extra shift, you will find him serving as a Life Gift Operator.

Acadian Texas Paramedic of the Year Alec D’Storm is always professional and comes to work ready to shine. As a role model who strives for excellence, he holds other employees to a higher standard, and that makes them strive for excellence, too. 

Alec showed his aptitude and commitment to his career early on. He graduated in the top of his class and has received a Meritorious Service Award.

Based in Bexar County, Alec has been with Acadian since 2014, and he has become one of the most well-known medics in our area.

He has a background in management and puts that knowledge and experience to work in his role at Acadian. Or should we say many roles: He is a preceptor for EMTs and Paramedics, a Safe Baby Program trainer and co-coordinator, and a PALS, ACLS, and CPR instructor. 

Alec has volunteered for many different projects, including being the face of EMS at career days at area schools and Shattered Dreams programs. He has been loaned to Acadian’s Safety Management Systems as a medic for an onsite clinic, helped to make training videos, and assists with Baptist mobile health events.

And even with this lengthy list, he’s always looking for ways to contribute more. Alec started helping with our local Explorer program recently, and he assisted with our latest acquisition, too.

Tracy Sims has held the position of lead medic for only two years now, but has been able to do so much in that short amount of time. Tracy quickly became a problem-solver and was recently promoted to Field Training Officer in November of 2016. Tracy has taken his passion for helping others and used his skills to help new employees that are struggling with becoming a lead medic in our organization. Tracy takes time to recognize weakness and has mastered the art of connecting with new employees on a personal level to explain deficiencies in a way that quickly leads to a resolution. Tracy has always led by example and never shies away from a challenge. His eagerness to provide patient care and help others has been a great example for others to follow. The impact Tracy has on his community is measured not only by those he has helped but also by all those that he has trained.

When faced with a difficult situation, some people ask why. Cindy Hitchcock asks how she can help.

An EMT and Administrative Assistant for AMR’s Hunt County operation, Cindy also works standby events and street shifts on occasion. Cindy also teaches free community CPR classes and is the primary coordinator of a school-based CPR program. Cindy is a Child Passenger Safety Technician who spends considerable time teaching parents good practices and helping obtain car seats for underprivileged families. As president of a community-based drug prevention organization, Cindy has been instrumental in building community partnerships and increasing awareness of the dangers of drug use. If all that isn’t enough, Cindy organizes holiday food drives, breast cancer research fundraisers, and summer safety programs for kids in north Texas.

Last year, Cindy was awarded Hunt County EMS Employee of the Year.

When it comes to involvement and teamwork, Acadian Ambulance Texas EMT Rhonda Dees-Lockwood, shines daily. Rhonda joined Acadian in 2011 during the Northstar acquisition, and has since been an anchor on one of the region’s dedicated 911 trucks, functioning at the EMT-Intermediate level.

Rhonda is actively involved in Acadian’s Critical Support Intervention Team, and is a Safety Committee member. Rhonda is a preceptor and a station monitor, and participates in community events while representing our organization.

Rhonda’s life outside of work demonstrates similar threads of service to others. Rhonda is actively involved in the American Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, and Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

It is this dedication to serving her community, coupled with her commitment to serving her patients, that make Rhonda a clear choice for our 2017 Acadian Ambulance Texas EMT of the Year.

Sloane Brown, Paramedic with Acadian Ambulance in Texas, found her passion for EMS when working as a lifeguard for the City of Allen. At 19, Sloane saved her first life when one of her peers became unresponsive and apneic. Sloane followed her training as a lifeguard to open the patient’s airway and provide rescue breathing until Paramedics arrived.

Sloane’s father enrolled her in the very next EMT class. After completing it, Sloane and her father attended Paramedic class together in Burnet County, then volunteered together with the local fire department.

Sloane joined Capital EMS in December 2012, then Acadian Ambulance in June 2015. Sloane works in Lampasas County, and has recently become a preceptor. In addition to working full-time, Sloane is taking a full load of college courses.

When Sloane is not studying or saving lives, she enjoys spending time with her friends and her two dogs, Stark and Diezel.

Sloane was chosen as a Star of Life as she is Acadian’s Texas Paramedic of the Year.

Elizabeth has been an EMT at MedStar for three years. Elizabeth has always had a passion for caring for people and a career in EMS has always been her dream, even as a small child. Once Elizabeth was old enough, she began working in local hospitals to gain the patient care experience necessary to apply for a position at MedStar.

Elizabeth loves helping people, and enjoys the daily excitement and fun that every shift brings! Elizabeth is currently in Paramedic school and looks forward to advancing her career with new clinical skills.

Elizabeth also acknowledges the hard moments in EMS. Elizabeth remembers her most difficult call as being a very tragic child abuse case that resulted in a child suffering a cardiac arrest, as she and her partner worked feverishly to save the child’s life.

Elizabeth was nominated by her peers to represent MedStar as a Star of Life.

Thomas joined MedStar three years ago in the fleet services department. Thomas’ fleet role is to inspect every ambulance just before it is deployed into the field to assure the vehicle is in top condition before it hits the streets of Fort Worth. Thomas joined MedStar because he was looking for meaningful work—the type of work he could be proud of whenever he sees ‘his’ units on the streets, responding to calls for help. What Thomas likes most about being part of the MedStar team is the people he gets to work with, “These are simply good people. They are fun and very understanding about the important role every member of the team plays ensuring we can put an ambulance in front of an address.”

Thomas was chosen by his peers as a Star of Life nominee, in recognition of his dedication to not only his role, but to the MedStar team.