CONFERENCE SPEAKERS L-Z

Tom Lewis, MD is the Mercy EMS Medical Director. Dr. Tom Lewis is responsible for comprehensive medical oversight of all clinical care provided in the Mercy EMS system throughout Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma. The ground EMS system is currently comprised of 29 stations in 14 counties. Dr. Lewis is board certified in both Emergency Medicine and Emergency Medical Services. He graduated from the University of Kansas School of Medicine in 2001, attended specialty training at the Michigan State / SCHI Emergency Residency Program with a special interest in prehospital care. He worked with ground and air ambulance services and developed a comprehensive regional tactical EMS system in Saginaw, Michigan. He continues to work with various governor advisory boards and regional EMS committees. Dr. Lewis has worked at the Mercy Emergency Level I Trauma Center in Springfield, Missouri since 2004 and helped develop an area tactical EMS program while staying involved in EMS education and training. Dr. Lewis is driven by the compassionate delivery of quality prehospital care and is actively involved in education and all aspects of clinical practice.

Chad Metz is a paramedic with 15 years of experience in pre-hospital care. He serves as the Officer of Quality Improvement and Patient Safety at St. Charles County Ambulance District, where he works to enhance patient outcomes. Chad is also a faculty member for the NAEMSP Quality and Safety Course.

George Miller has been with the Missouri Bureau of EMS since 2017 serving as a Regulatory Auditor/Inspector and in April 2024 became the Bureau Chief. 

Braxton Morrison started his EMS career in 2014 after serving in the United States Army. Becoming a law enforcement officer the following year, Braxton quickly gained experience in emergency services. With that experience came critical incidents unknowingly compounding military traumatic stress. Soon after, Braxton began providing crisis intervention and peer support to others in emergency services. Braxton found this to be his passion and obtained a PhD in human services with a specialization in disaster, crisis, and intervention from Walden University in 2023. Braxton is dedicated to the wellness of emergency services, but specifically EMS clinicians, as they are still one of the most under-recognized emergency response professions. Braxton now serves as a death investigator, is a fellow in the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress, an approved instructor for numerous ICISF courses, and actively teaches EMS continuing education courses and presents on wellness-related topics.

Phil Moy, MD is an Emergency Physician at Mercy Health Systems in St Louis MO for over 15 years. He finished his EMS fellowship at the University of North Carolina and has been an EMS physician for over 12 years. In that time, he has been active in educating paramedics through podcasts like the Prehospital Emergency Care Podcast and the AMPED podcast, been an active EMS medical director for helicopter and ground services, involved in local government Time Critical Diagnosis committees, and a board member of the National Association of EMS Physicians.

Paul Pepe, MD, Medical Director for Public Safety/EMS, Dallas County (TX), leads the Metropolitan EMS Medical Directors (aka, “Eagles”) Global Alliance. Primary-founder/first nationally-elected president of NAEMSP, he was also the first full-time EMS Medical Director (Houston;1982-1996), responding on the streets 24/7, and soon forging the future EMS subspecialty while also executing vanguard scientific investigations in prehospital care. With more than five hundred scientific publications to date, many are already considered landmark papers (“auto-PEEP”, "permissive-hypotension" in post-traumatic hemorrhage, “Chain-of-Survival”, "limited-ventilation CPR", Chicago-airport "public AED use", and "Neuroprotective/heads-up CPR" -- among others). Recognized for heroism and street-savvy leadership during major 9-1-1 responses over the years, including a formal citation in the U.S. Congressional Record, he continues to receive prestigious honors such as 2020 NAEMT Medical Director of the Year Award and (unprecedented) back-to-back Star Research Achievement Awards (2020,2021,2022,2023) across numerous subjects from the Society of Critical Care Medicine as well as other top research recognitions (in 2022 alone) from the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) and the EMS 2022 International Conference. While ACEP had already named him the "most productive emergency medical services physician of our generation” in 2005, most would say that he maintains that status today.  

Brad Perry is a veteran paramedic and EMS leader with over three decades of service. He began his EMS career in Southern Illinois alongside the legendary Charles Kelly at MedStar EMS. After serving as Captain and Medical Officer for the Berkeley Fire Department, Brad joined the Des Peres Department of Public Safety, where he served as Detective, Chief Medical Officer, and a supervisor with the Greater St. Louis Major Case Squad.Brad currently serves as Director of EMS for SSM Health in St. Louis, leading a multi-agency EMS system and developing education and leadership initiatives. He previously built one of Illinois’ largest EMS systems from the ground up at HSHS St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, where he also led emergency management and hospital command through a major cyberattack. A Board Member and Education Committee Chair for the National Association of EMS Educators, Brad has taught the Level II Instructor Course internationally since 2017, specializing in social interaction, leadership, and administrative fundamentals. He also served on the Illinois EMS Advisory Board, contributed to National Registry exam development, and is Medical Liaison for World Wide Technology Raceway. Brad’s expertise spans EMS system design, education, clinical oversight, and incident command —continuing a lifelong mission to elevate EMS through innovation, service, and leadership.

Justin Rapoff, DO is the Medical Director for St. Louis Elite Medical Systems. Prior to this he was the Regional EMS Medical Director for SSM St. Louis for 9 years where he oversaw forty three municipalities, one hundred fourteen ambulances, and over one thousand eight hundred EMT-P/B’s in the greater St. Louis Region. Prior to working in St. Louis, he completed a residency in Emergency Medicine and a fellowship in Tactical Medicine in Chicago, working with the Cook County Sherriff’s Hostage Barricade Terrorism S.W.A.T. team. He has his own YouTube channel devoted to EMS training shorts among some very innovative training he has brought to the St. Louis region including the EMS intubation Challenge and EMS Warrior Challenge. Growing up in central Illinois, undergraduate studies in Biology at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, and Medical School at Kansas City University, along with family and friends, have kept him in the Midwest for most of his life.

A former paramedic, Mike is completing his 51st year in EMS and has authored over 600 articles in professional journals. He’s mentored leaders in Fire, telecommunications, EMS, public health, and healthcare on ways to lead with kindness, compassion, and data. Mike serves as the Improvement Guide for FirstWatch. He teaches improvement science as an Associate Professor in the University of California San Francisco’s MS in Healthcare Administration and Interprofessional Leadership and as an Adjunct Professor in UMBC’s MA in Emergency Health Services Management.

David K. Tan, MD is Chief Medical Officer at the St. Charles County Ambulance District (SCCAD) and an Adjunct Professor at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.  Dr. Tan is SCCAD’s first full-time EMS medical director and the founding Chief of the EMS Division in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Washington University.

Nationally, Dr. Tan is past president of the National Association of EMS Physicians and a former Principal Member of the National Fire Protection Association’s Technical Committee on EMS. At the state level, he was appointed by Missouri’s governor to serve as Vice-chair of the State Advisory Committee on EMS. Regionally, he is Chairman of the Metropolitan St. Louis Emergency Transport Oversight Commission and serves as Medical Team Manager for the St. Louis Metropolitan Urban Search & Rescue (US&R) System. He is certified as a tactical EMT and is medical director of the St. Charles County Police Department and certified as a Structural Collapse Rescue Technician and Medical Specialist with St. Louis Metro US&R TF-1. He is also a graduate, with honors, from the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch.

Rebecca Tracy, DO, MS is an Emergency Medicine and EMS physician at SSM DePaul Hospital and EMS Medical Director for SSM Health St. Louis. Dr. Tracy completed her Emergency Medicine residency at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine and fellowship in Emergency Medical Services at Washington University in St. Louis. She has a background in education, having developed and delivered a wide range of EMS-focused lectures, simulations, and continuing education for field providers. Her commitment is to empowering EMS professionals clinical decision making through evidence-based, practical, and scenario-driven education.

John Wilmas, MD attended medical school at St. Louis University, completed his residency in Emergency Medicine at Washington University. He is currently an attending physician at Mercy Hospital St. Louis. Since completing residency, he has been actively involved in EMS, currently serving as Medical Director of multiple St Louis County EMS agencies including West County EMS and Fire Protection District, Kirkwood Fire Department, Olivette Fire Department, Creve Coeur Fire Protection District, Monarch Fire Protection District, Metro West Fire Protection District, Ladue Fire Department, and Frontenac Fire Department. In addition, he serves as the Medical Director for ARCH Air Medical Service and provides guidance as a National Physician Advisor for Air Methods.