CONFERENCE SPEAKERS & FACULTY

 Erica Carney, MD is a double-boarded Emergency Medicine and EMS Physician. She completed her EMS Fellowship at Washington University School of Medicine, and subsequently returned to Kansas City, MO where she currently practices as a staff physician in the Emergency Department at University Health Truman Medical Center - Hospital Hill / UMKC SOM. She also serves as the EMS Medical Director for the State of Missouri, for the City of Kansas City, Missouri (KCFD), the Central Jackson County Fire Protection District, the UMKC EMS Education System, and the Kansas City Zoo

Remle Crowe, PhD is an expert in EMS research and quality improvement. Her EMS career began as a volunteer EMT and instructor with the Red Cross in Mexico City, where she also worked at Ford Motor Company as a Powertrain Quality engineer certified in Six Sigma. As an EMT with a passion for advancing the EMS evidence base, she went on to earn her PhD in Epidemiology and has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications. Now, as Director of Research at ESO, Dr. Crowe routinely uses data to improve community health and safety.

Robert Dunne, MD graduated from the University of Michigan’s Inteflex program (a combined bachelor’s degree MD program). He completed emergency medicine residency training at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, MI where he was chief resident. 

He is the author of peer reviewed papers, book chapters and educational materials. He lectures extensively on EMS, preparedness and topics in trauma and emergency medicine. Currently medical director Detroit East Medical Control Authority and the City of Detroit Fire Department. He is subspecialty board certified in EMS by the American Board of Medical Specialties and the program director of the WSU EMS fellowship and is a full professor at Wayne State University, School of Medicine. 

Dr. Dunne has served as a tactical medical director for the Wayne County Sheriff.

During the pandemic, Dr Dunne has filled many roles across the region. His EMS role expanded to include all of public safety and serves as a medical advisor to the City of Detroit. He served as interim medical director for the Detroit Health Department. 

Brian R. Froelke, MD is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He attended the University of Cincinnati Medical School and continued his training at Barnes Jewish Hospital where he served as Chief Resident. He assisted with the construction of an EMS Fellowship Program in which he was the inaugural fellow in Emergency Medical Services. He is the EMS medical director for Christian Hospital EMS in Saint Louis as well as a number of local emergency response agencies. He is the EMS Medical Director for the East Central EMS Region. He is President of the Interstate Disaster Medical Collaborative and the EMS Medical Director for East Central Region.

W. Scott Gilmore, MD is the Medical Director of St. Louis Fire Department, Affton Fire Protection District and Lemay Fire Protection District. He started his career in EMS over 20 years ago as an EMT-A working in a fire based system. He continued his training and became an EMT-I, EMT-P and EMS Educator. Prior to becoming the Medical Director of the St. Louis Fire Department, he served as the Assistant Medical Director. In addition to being the Medical Director, he works as an attending physician in the Emergency Department at Mercy Hospital South in St. Louis, Missouri and serves on the Board of the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians. 

Joe Holley, MD is the Medical Director for the State of TN Department of Emergency Medical Services as well as the Memphis and Shelby County Fire Departments and several municipal and private ambulance services in West Tennessee. He is the Chief Medical Officer for Priority Ambulance and holds the position of Associate Professor in Emergency Medicine for the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. Dr. Holley has served on over 30 deployments, including Hurricane Katrina and the Pentagon on 9/11, as the Medical Director of Tennessee Task Force 1, Urban Search & Rescue Team and serves on the national FEMA Incident Support Team. He is a member of the CAPCE Board of Directors, the National Association of EMS Physicians and a Fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians. Dr. Holley is board certified in Emergency Medicine and was among the first group of physicians in the nation to earn the designation of Fellow of the Academy of Emergency Medical Services.

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.

Kevin Mackey, MD is double boarded in EMS and Emergency Medicine. He completed medical school at St. Louis University, went on to complete his emergency medicine residency at the University of Pittsburgh before joining Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento in 2004 as a full time emergency physician. Dr. Mackey currently serves as the fire service medical director for the Sacramento Fire Department and the Sacramento Airport Fire Department and he is the interim medical director for the Sacramento County EMS Agency. He is also the Associate Fellowship Director for the UC Davis EMS Fellowship. Dr. Mackey’s leadership in EMS also involves positions in state and national organizations on the board of directors for both the National Association of EMS Physicians (NAEMSP) and the National Registry of EMTs. Dr. Mackey is an accomplished lecturer having delivered EMS focused topics at local, national, and international meetings. 

Meg Marino, MD is the Director and Medical Director for New Orleans EMS and a pediatric emergency medicine physician. She serves on local and national committees and lectures nationally and internationally with the aim of improving the prehospital emergency care that patients receive. Dr. Marino has a strong interest in provider wellness and promoting diversity in EMS.

Taz Meyer is the Chief of the Missouri Bureau of Emergency Medical Services. He joined the Bureau in May 2021 after twenty years of service with St. Charles County Ambulance District [SCCAD] and more than thirty five years in the emergency medical services industry.

Phil Moy, MD is a board-certified Emergency Medicine and EMS physician who enjoys educating through his podcasts; The Prehospital Emergency Care Podcast, The But Why EMS Podcast, and the Air Methods Prehospital Education Podcat (AMPED). He is also the medical director for ARCH Air Methods and Lincoln County Ambulance District. 

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.  

 Thomas Platt, EdD is the chair and a professor in the Department of Community Health Services and Rehabilitation Science (CHSRS). Platt has more than thirty years of experience in EMS and has served as principal investigator for the Pennsylvania Department of Health Bystander Care Project and the U.S. Department of Transportation First Responder National Standard Curriculum Project. He completed his undergraduate degree in public administration at the University of Pittsburgh, a master's degree in adult education at Penn State and a doctoral degree in instructional design at the University of Pittsburgh School of Education. Platt has also served as project manager for international development projects. He's authored numerous ancillary products and texts for EMS education and has served as a paramedic for EMS agencies, a flight paramedic for STAT MedEvac, and a volunteer firefighter

Justin Rapoff, DO is the Regional EMS Medical Director for SSM St. Louis since 2014. He oversees forty three municipalities, 114 ambulances, and over eighteen 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. 

Chuck Sheppard MD graduated from Cornell University in 1967 with a BS Engineering Physics, Graduated University of Missouri Columbia MD, Internship and Residency Internal Medicine Presbyterian Hospital San Francisco. Medical Director Haight Ashbury Free Medical Clinic San Francisco in the 1970’s. He has been practicing Emergency Medicine for over forty years, has been involved in prehospital medicine for over thirty five years and Air Medicine/critical care transport for over twenty five years. He has been the medical director for Mercy Life Line for twenty one years and full time ED physician at Mercy Springfield. He was awarded the AMPA Medical Director of the Year in 2006, the AMPA president’s award for contributions to education 2012, and the Missouri Chapter of ACEP RR Hannas award for outstanding Missouri Emergency Physician. He has lectured extensively in the prehospital critical care world including at AMTC.  

David Sizemore, MPH, EMT-P began his career at the St. Louis Fire Department as a paramedic on Medic 10 and continued on that path for 9 years. While remaining part-time in the city, he went on to work for Air Methods as a flight paramedic in Warrenton, Mo for about five years. After his time as a flight paramedic, he transitioned back to the ground and began his career as a firefighter paramedic with the Metro West Fire Protection District in 2008. During his fifteen years as a firefighter, he has maintained his focus on EMS and worked as an EMS Training Officer, EMS QA Officer, and even took a role with Pediatric Emergency Standards, Inc, which you might know as Handtevy. He has a Master's Degree in Public Health and maintain my focus on education, EMS, and making great paramedics even better! 

Jason White, MPA  worked for the DHSS for twelve years and since has been involved with advocacy work in Missouri, Kansas, and occasionally in Washington DC. His advocacy has involved a wide range of EMS, and 911 issues such as financial, clinical, and organizational. Jason stays involved in his local community having served as a city councilmember and participating in more than fifteen local campaigns. 

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, Kirkwood Fire Dept., Olivette Fire Dept., Creve Coeur Fire Protection Dist., Monarch Fire Protection Dist., Metro West Fire Protection Dist., Ladue Fire Department, and Frontenac Fire Dept. In addition, he serves as the Medical Director for ARCH Air Medical Service and provides guidance as a National Physician Advisor for Air Methods.