Paul M. Paris, MD, FACEP, LLD (Hon.)

• Professor for the Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
• Chief medical officer for the Center for Emergency Medicine of Western Pennsylvania
• Medical director for Emergency Medical Services Institute
• Senior medical advisor for the City of Pittsburgh Department of Public Safety

Dr. Paris is committed to integrating academic and community resources into a novel dynamic emergency care system for the region. Throughout his career, Dr. Paris has helped create and advance a variety of organizations and programs to further emergency medicine education, professional growth, and research. Most recently, Dr. Paris has initiated Emed Health, a center designed to examine the role of emergency medicine, particularly EMS, in improving health promotion. His goal is for EMS to play a larger, more integrated role within UPMC.

E-mail: parispm@upmc.edu

Vince Mosesso Jr., MD

• Medical director of the Prehospital Care Team
• Member of the University of Pittsburgh Division of Emergency Medical Services faculty
• National medical director for the Advanced Medical Life Support Course
• Medical director for the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association (formerly National Center for Early Defibrillation)

Throughout his career, Dr. Mosesso has been active as a volunteer, paramedic, administrator, teacher, and researcher in the prehospital field. He chaired the the American Heart Association (AHA) Allegheny Division's Operation Heartbeat program and now serves on the national AHA Basic Life Support committee and AED Task Force. Recent research efforts have included serving as the principal investigator for the Pittsburgh site of the Public Access Defibrillation Trial and currently for the ASPIRE Trial which is evaluating a mechanical CPR device.

E-mail:  mosessovn@upmc.edu

E-mail: rickensmj@upmc.edu

Miles Darby, EMT-P, has been active with EMS for over 18 years. During that time he has served as a paramedic and a supervisor. He also has a background in EMS education and has been actively instructing classes such as EFR, EMT-B, and Paramedic. Miles serves as a lead evaluator for the Emergency Medical Service Institute. In addition to professional certification classes, he instructs ACLS, First Aid, and CPR/AED classes, and is also certified as a special instructor through the Commonwealth’s Municipal Police Officer Training Commission.

E-mail: darbymo@upmc.edu

Deborah J. McCoy-Freeman, BS, RN, NREMT-P, is the EMS education specialist for the Prehospital Care Program. Before joining the program, Ms. McCoy-Freeman worked as an RN in the Emergency Department at UPMC Shadyside. Prior to moving to Pennsylvania, she served as regional emergency services coordinator for Altru Health System and training officer for the Altru Ambulance Service in North Dakota, where she also coordinated a Federal Rural EMS Grant project. She was responsible for coordination of the Eastern North Dakota Region of the CISM Team. Ms. McCoy-Freeman has been a paramedic since 1991, a registered nurse since 1978, and has been an EMS nurse educator since 1989, teaching all EMT levels. She lectures nationally on a variety of EMS-related topics and is active in offering outreach EMS education.

E-mail: mccoydj@upmc.edu

Linda Reiger, MS, EMT-P, is the EMS specialist at UPMC St. Margaret. Her responsibilities include the reviewing of prehospital care reports, accumulating prehospital statistics, and database management for the American Heart Association Training Center. She serves as regional faculty for BCLS, ACLS, PALS, and various EMS-related programs. With more than 20 years experience, Ms. Reiger maintains instructor status in EMT, Paramedic, BCLS, ACLS, PALS, and BTLS, and is the training site coordinator for the American Heart Association Training Center at UPMC St. Margaret.

E-mail: reigerla@upmc.edu

Robert M. Hrabar, EMT-P, served with the Pittsburgh Bureau of EMS for 19 years prior to joining the UPMC Prehospital Care Team in September 2004. He was certified as an EMT in 1978 and a paramedic in 1981. The majority of Mr. Hrabar’s years with EMS have been active with ACLS, PALS, CPR/AED, child passenger safety, field precepting, and prehospital education. His career began as a volunteer EMT and firefighter, and he worked for six years with private ambulance companies. Within these roles he has served as a provider, crew chief, and supervisor. Bob is the EMS Specialist for UPMC Shadyside.

E-mail: hrabarrm@upmc.edu

Dale Mitchell, EMT-P, has been involved in the fire and EMS field for the past 19 years. He has spent 11 years as a paramedic and the last five years as an EMS supervisor. Dale developed a protective services program for a local vocational school at which he taught for five years. Dale is an instructor in various rescue, HazMat, and EMS areas. He continues to remain active as a firefighter and a paramedic in the field.

E-mail: mitchelldm@upmc.edu

Rich Kaufman, MBA, EMT-P, is the EMS specialist for UPMC Presbyterian, he concentrates on medical command development and trauma care. Rich is a graduate of the Center for Emergency Medicine Paramedic Program 1993, The California University of PA, and Waynesburg University. His responsibilities focus on the evolution of the UPMC medical command system and trauma care process improvement. He has been involved in EMS and public safety for 18 years as an EMT, paramedic, field supervisor, response unit paramedic, and instructor of CPR, ACLS,PALS, EVOC and ITLS classes. He is currently active as a volunteer fire and rescue officer and as a field paramedic.

E-mail: kaufmanre@upmc.edu

Timothy B. Potts is the UPMC SMART Unit driver. Tim has been active in fire and EMS for over 10 years. He is an EMT but is currently working on completing the paramedic program. Tim is also an instructor in first aid, and is a CPR/AED instructor for the American Heart Association. Tim contributes most of his time to prompt equipment retrieval in the emergency department for the EMS agencies, and he is also active in the health fairs and community events throughout the region to which the UPMC Health Van travels.

E-mail: pottstb@upmc.edu

Cheryl Rickens, RN, BSN, is the EMS specialist for the AED (automated external defibrillator) Program within UPMC, under the medical direction of Dr. Vince Mosesso. The AED Program consists of implementing and maintaining AEDs throughout UPMC that are not hospital-based, as well as providing support in training and awareness. This same format is used in the community for PAD (public access defibrillation) programs. Her career highlights include a strong cardiology background, including Coronary Care Unit, Cardiac Catherization Lab, and research in cardiology focusing on women’s heart health and assessment; as well as non-traditional assessments for women, men and families. Credentials obtained include certification for CCRN and CCRC, AHA instructor.

E-mail: rickensc@upmc.edu

Jeff Reim, BS, EMT-P, has been involved with EMS for the past 27 years. Prior to joining the staff at UPMC Prehospital Care, he served 19 years with the City of Pittsburgh Bureau of EMS as a paramedic, crew chief, and training instructor. In addition to his duties as Quality Improvement Specialist, Jeff will also be involved in teaching CPR, ACLS, BTLS, and other EMS education programs throughout the region.

E-mail: reimjm2@upmc.edu

Molly Evers, EMT-B, executive secretary for the Prehospital Care Program, provides administrative support. She also brings customer service and creative skills to the department along with a degree in graphic design. Molly has completed the EMT-B course at the Center for Emergency Medicine and has assisted with numerous special events.

E-mail: eversmm@upmc.edu

Scott Dolan, EMT-P, is the EMS Specialist for UPMC South Side. He has actively been involved in emergency services since 1991. Scott has served as a fire officer, EMS supervisor, CISM team member, hazardous materials technician, 911 center supervisor, as well as a county EMA deputy. He has been active in EMS education as an EMT and paramedic program instructor, AHA instructor as well as an instructor for various Homeland Security Courses.

E-mail: dolansp@upmc.edu

Charles F. Yelich, BS, EMT-P, is a graduate from the EMS degree program at Drexel University and a graduate of Westmoreland County Community College with an Associates of Applied Science in Computer Information Technology. He has over 35 years experience in EMS and volunteer firefighting. Currently he is the QA Specialist for UPMC Mercy Prehospital Care. His duties include command CQI, patient follow-up, trauma QA for prehospital services and the Mercy Stroke program. He is also an EMT, EMT-P, ACLS, PALS and ITLS instructor for WCCC and a state and national evaluator for EMSI. Charles also teaches American Sign Language for healthcare professionals.

E-mail: yelichc@upmc.edu

Jeanne Odenheimer, has been the administrative assistant for Prehospital Care at UPMC Mercy since 1994. She also assists the manager with duties for the Training Center, providing support for AHA courses, including ACLS and PALS and distributing CPR cards from completed classes. She has a degree in Biology and has worked as a medical transcriptionist and a medical secretary. She was the first female member of the Wilkins Twp VFD #3, where she was their secretary for 14 years. She has been involved with the corporate rowing program at Three Rivers Rowing Association and has been captain of the UPMC Mercy rowing team for nine years.

E-mail: odenheimerj@upmc.edu

Peter K. Frenchak, NREMT-P, is the EMS Specialist at Magee-Women’s Hospital of UPMC. Pete has been involved in EMS for 16 years, starting out with a volunteer fire department and volunteer ambulance service. Prior to joining UPMC, Pete served in Butler and Lawrence Counties as a paramedic, and still serves there part-time. Pete’s EMS career also lead him to Mesa, Arizona where he was an EMS Supervisor, and an EMS strike team member responding to Houston, Texas during Hurricane Rita in 2005. An adjunct instructor at CCAC, Pete holds instructor status with the Pennsylvania Department of Health as an EMS Instructor, in addition to the American Heart Association with disciplines in ACLS, PALS, CPR, and First-Aid.

E-mail: frenchakpk@upmc.edu

Curtis W. Neill, EMT-P, is the Manager of Special Projects through the Center for Emergency Medicine. In his role, Mr. Neill will provide leadership to several new initiatives underway within Emed Health. Curt will also work closely with the Prehospital Care team with various research, education and medical command system programs. Before joining the team, Mr. Neill worked for Baldwin EMS serving as the Assistant Chief. During his 28 year EMS career, he has remained active as field clinician, rescue technician and EMS program instructor and was principally responsible for the development of several innovative community health and safety programs. In addition, Mr. Neill has served as an officer and Board member with the Brentwood-Baldwin-Whitehall Chamber of Commerce, Cloverleaf YMCA and currently is an active member and committee chair with the Allegheny County EMS Council.

E-mail: neillc@upmc.edu

Shane C. Spielvogle, RN-BSN, PHRN, has been involved in EMS and Fire/Rescue for the past 16 years. A graduate from the University of Pittsburgh School Of Nursing in 1997, Shane has extensive experience with both prehospital and inpatient care. Shane’s nursing career has covered a wide spectrum of care including, Cardiac, Emergency Department, and ICU. In the prehospital setting, Shane has worked as a flight nurse for STAT MedEvac, and still provides care in the field setting as a Deputy Chief/PHRN with United Volunteer Fire and Rescue in East McKeesport, Pa. His administrative experience includes working in risk management and patient safety where he led several process improvement and patient safety initiatives, as well as managing an Intensive Care Unit.

E-mail: spielvogles@upmc.edu

UPMC Prehospital Care Affiliates

E-mail: bolandaa@upmc.edu

E-mail: holihanm@ph.upmc.edu

E-mail: reiserjt@upmc.edu

Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh Affiliates

E-mail: david.lacovey@chp.edu

E-mail: richard.lippert@chp.edu

E-mail: robert.mclafferty@chp.edu