AMLS Committee

• Cory S. Richter, BA, NRP, Chair

  

  Cory S. Richter, BA, NRP, is a retired deputy chief for Indian River County Fire Rescue in Florida. He has been in EMS for 40 years and has worked for several agencies, including a private ambulance service conducting non-emergency transports and responding to 9-1-1 calls. Cory now works for Indian River Shores Public Safety Department (IRSPSD) as the IT Director. IRSPSD is a public safety agency that covers the town of Indian River Shores for police, fire, and EMS. Cory manages all the network and system programs for the agency and works with the medical director on the EMS protocols.

  Cory is an active NAEMT provider and instructor for AMLS, PHTLS, EPC, GEMS, and TECC, and is affiliate faculty for AMLS, PHTLS, EPC, TECC and GEMS. Cory works with American Heart Association as a training center coordinator, holds ACLS and BLS instructor certifications, and is a regional faculty for ACLS and BLS. Cory was the task force chair for his region in Florida and a member of the state Emergency Communication Center committee. Cory is on the National Fire Protection Association 450 and 451 technical committees.

  Cory earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology from Franklin Pierce College and an Associate’s Degree in Fire Science and EMS from Indian River State College. He was chairman of the Florida EMS Advisory Council and served four years; he was the chairman of the Florida EMS Strategic Plan; and is active on several state committees. He has devoted many years to both national and state-level EMS issues – one being the creation of the Florida Drug Shortage Committee.

  
  

• R. Zachary Louderback, MD, Medical Director

  Dr. Louderback began his career as an EMT in high school and has worked in various urban, suburban, and rural EMS agencies since. He completed his emergency medicine residency at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), which includes extensive field time as an EMS physician. He then went on to complete fellowship training in EMS, also at UPMC, which includes broad exposure to EMS operations, protocol development, and medical direction as well as extensive ground and aeromedical prehospital field time.

  Dr. Louderback currently practices emergency medicine for United States Acute Care Solutions (USACS), which contracts with the Centura Health System in Denver, Colorado. He assists with medical direction for multiple Denver Metro Area agencies and he has played an integral role in the preparation and launch of the ET3 pilot program in Denver, Colorado. He is committed to advancing paramedic education strategies and innovation. His fellowship research focused on EMS resource allocation and dispatch reform.

  
  

• Bengt Eriksson, MD, Assoc. Medical Director

  

  Dr. Bengt Eriksson has a great interest in healthcare education – both teaching and learning.  He has been a consultant anesthesiologist and intensive care physician at Mora Hospital in Sweden for the past 33 years, as well as the Medical Director for Prehospital care in Dalecarlia County.  He studied medicine at Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm and began his career in surgery, but changed after 3 years to anesthesiology and intensive care. He was appointed Medical Director of the ninth HEMS base in Sweden in 2016 and has been head of the emergency department of Mora Hospital for 10 years.

  Bengt serves as the National Medical Director in Sweden for both Advanced Medical Life Support (AMLS) and Prehospital Trauma Life Support (PHTLS). He is responsible for the National Scope of Practice in prehospital trauma care for the Swedish Ambulance Service. He has been responsible för the as for the Swedish module of the SSAI (Scandinavian Association of Anesthesia and Intensive Care) Education in Emergency Medicine as well. He has been  a Prehospital Trauma consultant at The National Board of Health and Welfare regarding trauma care in Sweden  and has served as a Board Member of the Swedish OHCA (out-of-hospital cardiac arrest) registry and Society of leaders in Swedish EMS (FLISA).

  
  

• Douglas F. Kupas, MD, EMT-P, FAEMS, FACEP, Medical Editor

  Dr. Kupas is medical director for Geisinger EMS and co-director of Mobile Integrated Healthcare for Geisinger Health System, his professional home for the past 30 years. He is a professor of emergency medicine and an EMS physician who is board-certified in both EMS and emergency medicine. Dr. Kupas also serves as the director of the Resuscitation Program at Geisinger. Dr. Kupas is an avid researcher and passionate advocate for EMS practitioners and patient safety. His clinical interests include CPR, hypothermia, end-of-life care, trauma triage, EMS patient and practitioner safety and EMS airway management.

  Dr. Kupas’s EMS career began 40 years ago when he joined Lower Kiski Ambulance Service in Leechburg, PA, on his 16^th birthday as a volunteer. He later became a paramedic and a physician. He earned his medical degree from Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University and completed his residency in emergency medicine at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, PA. Dr. Kupas is the Medical Director of NAEMT, President-Elect of NAEMSP, and serves on the EMS Subboard of the American Board of Emergency Medicine.In 2020, Dr. Kupas received the Rocco V. Morando Lifetime Achievement Award from NAEMT and NREMT.

  
  

• Gerald Beltran, DO, Assoc. Medical Director

  Gerald Beltran, DO, MPH, MSIS, MSCJA, FACEP, FAEMS works as a physician and clinical scientist with expertise in Emergency and Emergency prehospital medicine. Dr. Beltran has rendered aid and care to patients with medical and traumatic ailments in both the hospital and prehospital environments with increased attention on improving patient care through healthcare integration. He completed his residency in Emergency Medicine at the Medical College of Georgia and a Fellowship in EMS (Prehospital and Disaster Medicine) at Emory University. He has been working clinically teaching residents, medical students, paramedics and EMTs, first responders, paramedic students, first responder students, and advanced practitioners about acute and emergency medical care for over 15 years.
  

  Dr. Beltran started as an EMT over 35 years ago which fostered his admiration for the job that EMS clinicians, fire, and police do every day. His first career was as a police officer and he continues to serve in that capacity. He has over 13 years’ experience as a road police officer. He is an instructor in Standardized Field Sobriety Test, CPR/First Responder, and Mental Health instructor with the Massachusetts Police Training Council. He currently is the Division Chief for the Division of Prehospital and Disaster Medicine at Prisma Health – Upstate. Prior to that he was the founding Division Chief for the Division of Prehospital and Disaster Medicine at Baystate Health in Massachusetts. He has the privilege of serving as a Medical Officer for the Trauma Critical Care Team with the National Disaster Medical Support (NDMS) under the Department of Health and Human Services and previously with the FEMA USAR MATF-1 team. He has supported multiple EMS, Fire, and police agencies as their medical director. Additionally, he has helped develop as well as support several Tactical EMS (TEMS) teams, including in the north metro-Atlanta area and Hampden County Massachusetts.
  

  Dr. Beltran’s work as an Emergency Medicine and Emergency Medical Services physician specialist, has provided him with the opportunity to publish various topics of interest including environmental illness, bacteriology, improving prehospital safety processes and devices, risk management, facial injuries, and prehospital care. Most of Dr. Beltran’s focus has been interweaving prehospital care impact on Emergency Medicine outcomes. With years of experience in collaboratively integrating different key healthcare stakeholders in addressing emergency and acute care, he has been able to contribute this interest and experience in a research venue with prehospital (e.g. EMS, police, fire, first responders, public health, etc.) and academic colleagues. 

   

• Jon R. Krohmer, MD, FACEP, FAEMS, Assoc. Medical Editor

  

  Dr. Krohmer has recently retired as the Director of the NHTSA Office of EMS in the Department of Transportation and as the EMS Medical Director for the Caroline County (MD) Department of Emergency Services. He also served as the NHTSA Acting Associate Administrator for Research and Program Development from October 2018 to January 2020.

  Previously, he was the principal deputy assistant secretary for DHS Office of Health Affairs and DHS deputy chief medical officer. He began serving in that position as a member of the Senior Executive Service (SES) with DHS in September 2006 and served as the acting assistant secretary for health affairs and chief medical officer from August 2008 to August 2009. Dr. Krohmer was an attending physician and director of EMS, emergency medicine residency and Department of Emergency Medicine at the Spectrum Health Butterworth Campus in Grand Rapids, MI, associate professor of emergency medicine at the College of Human Medicine at Michigan State University and EMS medical director of Kent County Emergency Medical Services and was the medical director for the West Michigan Metropolitan Medical Response System and the Region 6 Consortium.

  Dr. Krohmer received his undergraduate degree at Ferris State College, School of Pharmacy in Big Rapids, MI, and is a graduate of the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor, MI. He completed his emergency medicine residency and EMS Fellowship at Wright State University in Dayton, OH. He is board certified in emergency medicine and emergency medical services. He is an Adjunct Professor of Emergency Medicine at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. He continues to work on multiple EMS-related projects.

  
  

• Anne Ellerbee, AAS, NRP

  Anne Ellerbee, AAS, NRP has been in the medical field as an EMT/paramedic for over 42 years. She started teaching public safety courses in the mid-1980s and began her formal teaching career in the technical colleges in 1988 where she was a program director for all EMS related programs. She has traveled to Lagos, Nigeria, Africa to do AHA instructor training for physicians throughout the country and remains active with the development of on-line training for individuals overseas. 

  Anne is a prior co-author in the Nancy Caroline revision of Emergency Care in the Streets paramedic textbook and has produced several custom courses. She is affiliate faculty for many of the NAEMT educational courses and has served as the national Region 2 EPC Coordinator for NAEMT.

  Mrs. Ellerbee has won many awards to include the bronze trauma award, and EMT/Paramedic of the year for 1986 and again in 1993. She was a state regional EMS Instructor of the Year in 2002, 2007, and 2015. In 2004, she was winner of the Governor's DTAE Educator’s Excellence Lighthouse Award. While serving in Iraq, she received a service medal award of excellence for her role in re-establishing the base clinic at the Baghdad Police Academy Annex after a devastating fire. On her return home from Iraq she worked with the Department of Defense as a flight medic instructor. She is currently semi-retired and works part-time with the local fire department.

   

• Michael Kaduce, NRP, MPS

  

  Michael Kaduce is the director of the Falck Health Institute, where he leads the initial education initiatives for Falck.  Michael began his EMS journey as an EMT in Iowa and later became a paramedic/firefighter for the Urbandale Fire Department.  After four years, Michael became an EMS Educator at the University of Iowa, providing EMT and paramedic initial and continuing education. Michael then joined the UCLA Center for Prehospital Care at the David Geffen School of Medicine as the EMT program director, overseeing the country's largest EMT education program for 6 years.  He has a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a Master of Professional Studies in Homeland Security and Public Health.  Michael has been published on prehospital patient care and EMS educational best practices and serves as an author for the most widely used EMT and paramedic textbooks.  Michael is the West Coast representative for the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians Board of Directors and has taught NAEMT courses around the globe. Michael is also a research associate for the UCLA Prehospital Care Research Forum.  

  
  

• Kelly Kohler, MS, Paramedic, CCP-C, CHSE, NCEE

  

  Kelly Kohler, MS, Paramedic, CCP-C, CHSE, NCEE has been a paramedic in New York for 28 years. Kelly is currently a simulation educator at the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine, adjunct faculty at Dutchess Community College EMS Programs, and a paramedic at Empress EMS.

  Kelly is the former director of the National Training Network for the American Heart Association where she worked for fourteen years. Kelly has presented at numerous conferences on Simulation and was the winner of the iSimulate Excellence in Simulation Award in 2019, and the SUNY Chancellor's Educator of Excellence Award in 2020. Kelly has written test questions for NREMT and PHTLS, written scenarios for PHTLS, GEMS and AMLS, and has written lessons for the Jones and Bartlett Paramedic Flipped Classroom curriculum.
  
  

• James Li, MD, NAEMSP Liaison

  Dr. James Li is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine and Associate Program Director of the EMS Fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis. He is board-certified in emergency medicine and emergency medical services. He is an active medical director dedicated to exploring how educational innovations improve patient care. He currently serves as medical director for City of Clayton Fire Department, Saline Valley Fire Protection District, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals EMS, and Christian Hospital EMS Academy.

  Dr. Li began his prehospital career as an EMT-I with Emory EMS, a volunteer collegiate agency. He earned his medical degree from Drexel University College of Medicine. He completed his emergency medicine residency and EMS fellowship at the University of Cincinnati where he had extensive experiences with ground, helicopter, and tactical EMS. Dr. Li is an active member in the National Association of EMS Physicians and currently serves as Editor of the NAEMSP Blog and Vice Chair of the Education Committee. 

   

• Jeff J. Messerole, EMT-P

  Jeff Messerole, EMT-P is currently the Education and Exercise SME for the Pandemic Resiliency Initiative in Iowa, and the EMS Programmer for Iowa Lakes Community College. Jeff brings 43 years of experience as an honorably discharged and decorated Army Medic, EMT-Basic, EMT-Intermediate, and 37 of those years as a Paramedic. Jeff’s professional memberships include the immediate past Chair of the AMLS Committee; PHTLS/AMLS Affiliate Faculty; BLS/ACLS/ACLS-EP/PALS/PEARS Training Center Faculty for Spencer Hospital TC, and Iowa Homeland Security Adjunct Faculty. 

  Jeff is an instructor in the following courses – BLS/ACLS/ACLS-EP/PALS/PEARS, PHTLS/AMLS, Advanced Disaster Life Support, Traumatic Brain Injury, All NIMS courses, HAZMAT, and WMD/Terrorism. Jeff is currently the Chair of Iowa’s Quality Assurance Standards and Protocol committee and Co-chair of the Iowa EMS Advisory Committee. Jeff serves on the following committees or groups – Past President of the Iowa EMS Association, AHA’s Stroke, and STEMI Task Forces. Jeff serves on NW Iowa’s CISD team. Jeff is adjunct faculty for multiple community colleges and a reviewer and contributor to medical texts. He is a frequent speaker throughout the United States, leveraging his combined experience in prehospital and in-hospital care of the sick and injured and his years of teaching. Jeff is also CEO of EMS LLC, an EMS Education and Consulting Company.

  
  

• Alex Protzman, Paramedic

  

  Alex is the Major of Clinical Operations for Riley County EMS in Manhattan, Kansas. He has been involved in EMS since 2009 and his current role since 2018. Alex also serves as a subject matter expert for various paramedic programs throughout the state.==

  Alex is involved in several areas of NAEMT Education. He currently serves as the education coordinator for the state of Kansas. Alex holds provider, instructor, and affiliate faculty status in AMLS, PHTLS, EPC, EVOS. He also maintains provider and instructor status in AHDR and MHRO. Alex has presented at numerous local and national conferences on topics such as excited delirium syndrome, acute cardiac care, emergent neurological conditions, and mental health resilience. Alex is currently studying psychology at Fort Hays State University, intending to continue to help strengthen emergency responder resiliency through a better understanding and research into the various aspects of these unique professions.