Founding Members

Freddy K. Lippert

Emergency Medical Services in Copenhagen

Freddy is Chief Executive (CEO) of Emergency Medical Services in Copenhagen, the Capital Region of Denmark and chairing the Resuscitation Committee in Copenhagen, covering Medical Dispatch, Emergency Medical Services and all hospitals in the health care trust. Freddy is an associate professor, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen. Freddy has more than twenty-five years of experience in resuscitation, trauma care and emergency medicine and has published more than hundred scientific publications.

Recent research and publications include improved outcome from Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest and implementation and use of public access defibrillation programs.

Freddy was one of the chairs of the Utstein meeting 2015 and 2016 on Best EMS Practice and community programs: A Call-to-Establish-a-Global-Resuscitation-Alliance. He is a founding member and advisory board member of the Global Resuscitation Alliance.

Freddy is also a founding member of the European EMS leadership network and has organized the first European EMS congress in Copenhagen in 2016 and the following in 2017 and 2018.

Jeff Ranous

State and Community Advocacy
American Heart Association (AHA)

Jeff Ranous, Vice President of State and Community Advocacy for the American Heart Association (AHA), has been with the Office of State and Community Advocacy at the National Office of the AHA for the past ten years. Jeff has served in various roles on the team and became the team’s Vice President four years ago. Prior to taking his current position with the National Office, Jeff was the AHA’s Wisconsin Senior Advocacy Director for three years. Previous to joining the American Heart Association, he was the Advocacy Director for the American Cancer Society in Wisconsin for over eight years. Jeff started his advocacy career in 1988 when he served as an intern for first term Governor, Tommy Thompson. He then went on to become a Research Assistant in the Wisconsin Legislature which included serving as the Clerk of the Labor Committee and chief staff for the Majority Caucus Chair.

Terry Vanden L. Hoek, MD, FACEP

University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System

As an accomplished physician and scientist, Dr. Vanden Hoek brings a track record of success in leading and supporting programs in patient care and biomedical research. Terry worked over the past 15 years at the University of Chicago, where he served in several leadership positions including Director of the Emergency Resuscitation Center, Chair of the CPR Committee and Interim Chief of Emergency Medicine. He led efforts to improve survival from cardiac arrest in both the medical center and community setting through automated external defibrillator (AED) and enhanced CPR training programs. During this time he also served in a national leadership role as the chair of the Advanced Cardiac Life Support committee as they developed new CPR guidelines for the American Heart Association.

Dr. Vanden Hoek completed his residency training in Emergency Medicine at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center in 1995, where he served as their chief resident. He received his medical degree with honors from the University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine in 1991.

Terry Vanden Hoek has received numerous awards for education and research, including awards from the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, Searle Foundation, Medtronic Foundation and the American Heart Association. His research efforts have been multi-disciplinary and highly collaborative. He has helped mentor several physician-scientists with specialty backgrounds in pediatrics, pulmonary/critical care, surgery, hospitalist medicine and emergency medicine. Given the multi-organ challenge of resuscitation following cardiac arrest or hemorrhagic shock, Terry has served as an invited reviewer for three institutes within NIH, including NHLBI, NIGMS and NINDS. His research has resulted in the development of novel in vitro and in vivo models of cardiovascular resuscitation and therapeutic hypothermia protection that have been supported by the NIH and Department of Defense for over a decade. More than 70 publications– including basic, translational and clinical studies–regarding the time-sensitive treatment of reperfusion stress responses in the heart following whole body ischemia have resulted from this work.

Victoria L. Vetter, M.D., MPH, MSHP

Perelman School of Medicine
University of Pennsylvania

Victoria L. Vetter is Professor of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and is an attending cardiologist/electrophysiologist at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in the Division of Pediatric Cardiology. She graduated with her undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Kentucky, received her pediatric training at Johns Hopkins Hospital and Vanderbilt University Hospital, and trained in pediatric cardiology and electrophysiology at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia where she has been since her training. She has a MPH and a MSHP (Master of Science in Health Policy) from the University of Pennsylvania.

Her research interests have been in the evaluation and treatment of abnormal heart rhythms in children and in the prevention of sudden cardiac arrest. She is interested in applying the knowledge base of the public health field to health policy to effect changes that will increase survival of children with conditions associated with sudden cardiac arrest. She has worked with a number of community and national advocacy organizations including Parent Heart Watch where she chairs the Medical Advisory Board. She is the Medical Director of Youth Heart Watch at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, an affiliate of Project ADAM, a national program aimed at public access defibrillation and automated external defibrillator (AED) implementation within schools. Currently, Youth Heart Watch is helping to implement school AED programs in all Philadelphia School District schools. She works with regional efforts such as the CPR Ready Coalition in Southeastern Pennsylvania to improve bystander CPR and AED use throughout schools and communities.

Mary M. Newman, MS

Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation

Mary M. Newman, MS, is president and co-founder of the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation, a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to raise awareness about sudden cardiac arrest and help save lives. Foundation initiatives include a website that serves as a comprehensive information clearinghouse on sudden cardiac arrest, an online community for survivors and their families and others affected by sudden cardiac arrest, research, and programs for secondary schools and colleges.

Previously, Newman served as executive director of the National Center for Early Defibrillation at the University of Pittsburgh, and as cardiac arrest research coordinator at the Krannert Institute of Cardiology, Indiana University School of Medicine. Earlier, she served as founding editor of Currents in Emergency Cardiac Care, a newsletter of the Citizen CPR Foundation and the American Heart Association. Newman helped found the Citizen CPR Foundation and served on its Board of Directors for 17 years.

Newman is author/co-author of numerous articles published in peer review journals, trade journals, newsletters, and the popular press. She created the “Chain of Survival” metaphor, which has been adopted by multiple agencies worldwide. She is also a long-time contributor to the Journal of Emergency Medical Services.

Teri Campbell, RN, BSN, CEN, CFRN

Illinois Heart Rescue
University of Chicago

Teri Campbell RN, BSN, CEN, CFRN is the Director of Illinois Heart Rescue (ILHR) a grant funded state wide QA/QI project tasked with more than doubling neurologically intact OHCA survival in the State of Illinois. Teri oversees and coordinates the direction of the Data, Pre-hospital, Hospital and Community Spheres. Since 2012, Illinois is proud to report that overall survival for OHCA has quadrupled.

Clinically, Teri is a Flight Nurse at the University of Chicago, UCAN aeromedical program.

Thomas Rea, MD

University of Washington
Harborview Medical Center

Thomas Rea is Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington where he works clinically at Harborview Medical Center. He serves as the Medical Program Director for King County Emergency Medical Services. He has a career interest in improving care and outcomes for emergency conditions through rigorous evaluation to include cardiac arrest, serious trauma, sepsis, and other cardiovascular emergencies. He has served with the AHA BLS Subcommittee and is an investigator and participant in the US HeartRescue Consortium and the Resuscitation Academy.

Richard Price

PulsePoint Foundation

Richard Price is President of the PulsePoint Foundation. Price retired as the Fire Chief for the San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District on December 31, 2012 after a distinguished thirty-three year fire service career. Price has a strong technical background and is well known for using technology to shape management processes and encourage civic engagement.

In 2012, Chief Price was named “Citizen of the Year” in his hometown of Danville. Price is the 2012 American Heart Association “Heart of Gold” honoree and a 2013 JEMS “Innovator in EMS”.

Price holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration (MPA) from California State University Hayward. He is a California State Certified Fire Chief and is an internationally certified Chief Fire Officer (CFO). In 2009 Price completed the four- year Executive Fire Officer (EFO) Program at the National Fire Academy in Maryland. Price is a graduate of the Harvard University Senior Executives in State and Local Government Program at the Kennedy School of Government and the Strategic Management of Public Organizations Program at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley. In 2011 Price graduated from the Center for Homeland Defense and Security (CHDS) Executive Leaders Program at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA. Price is also a Certified Special District Administrator (SDA).

Price is President of the San Ramon Valley Exchange Club and a member of the San Ramon Regional Medical Center Hospital Governing Board. Price is Past President of Leadership San Ramon Valley, Past President of the Contra Costa County Fire Chiefs Association and a past Incident Commander on both the Contra Costa County and East Bay Incident Management Teams

Enter the 2017 PSA Video Contest

Videos will be reviewed, scored, and ranked using a set of evaluation criteria. The five top-ranked submissions will be played for 2017 ECCU attendees during plenary sessions. The winner will be announced during the closing plenary session on Friday, December 8th, 2017. An AED will be awarded to the creators of the top-rated video. Other prizes include CPR Anytime kits and the SCA FDN’s popular “Push Hard & Fast Here” t-shirts.  After the conference, the top videos will be featured on the CCPRF and SCA FDN websites, Facebook pages and YouTube channels.

See how you stack up. Develop a video and submit your entry by October 23, 2017 to be included.

Submit Your Video Today!

Set up a YouTube account. It’s free and easy. Sign up
Upload your video to YouTube.
Send an email to eccuvideo@sca-aware.org Include the following information:

Title of your video
Name of the submitting organization
Name, phone and email for the primary contact person.
A link to your video.

Videos will be kept on a private playlist until after winners are announced at ECCU on December 8, 2017. Then, they will be posted at www.youtube.com/SCAFoundation.

It’s that easy. Questions? Contact eccuvideo@sca-aware.org

Contest Rules:

Videos must begin with a title and may be no longer than 90 seconds in length.
File size must be less than 500 MB.
The following formats are accepted: AVI, MPEG, WMV, MOV (Quicktime).

Farhan Bhanji, MD, MSc

Professor of Pediatrics at McGill University
Associate Director of Assessment at Royal College of Physicians

Farhan Bhanji is a Professor of Pediatrics (Critical Care) at McGill University and the Associate Director of Assessment at the Royal College of Physicians of Canada – where he supports the Examinations (and assessment practices) for the 68 Specialties and 126 National Examinations.

Farhan is the immediate past Chair of the Education Committee for Emergency Cardiovascular Care at the American Heart Association. Additionally, he serves as the education lead in Resuscitation for the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and is the Vice-Chair of the Education, Implementation and Teams task force of International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR).

Farhan has previously served as the Director of the Fellowship in Health Professions Education at McGill University as well as the Fellowship in Pediatric Emergency Medicine. He was the inaugural recipient of the Richard and Sylvia Cruess Faculty Scholar in Medical Education at McGill (Educational Scholarship) and served as a Visiting Professor at the Medical Education Development Center of Gifu University, Japan from January to March 2013.

Martha Lopez-Anderson

Parent Heart Watch
Executive Director

After the sudden death of her seemingly healthy 10-year-old son in 2004 blindsided Martha, she immersed herself in education and training relating to the prevention and treatment of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) in youth.

For nearly a decade, Martha served as the Chair for the Board of Directors of Parent Heart Watch, the only national organization solely dedicated to the prevention of SCA and sudden cardiac death (SCD) in youth. Martha led the organization in the establishment of its nonprofit status and development of a vision and strategic plan that has enabled the organization to evolve into a national voice that has affected significant change.

Now as Executive Director of Parent Heart Watch, Martha continues to advocate for primary and secondary prevention strategies, namely heart screenings for early detection of conditions that may lead to SCA and the importance of being prepared in the event of a cardiac emergency. Her next challenge is to see that Parent Heart Watch’s vision to eliminate preventable deaths and disabilities from SCA in youth by 2030 is achieved.

Martha’s activism over the past 23 years spans to multiple municipal, county, state and national boards advocating on behalf of citizens, particularly youth in education, health and safety.

To honor her son, Sean, Martha also founded Saving Young Hearts, a Florida nonprofit organization that has been advocating for SCA prevention in youth for more than a decade. Saving Young Hearts facilitates the proper placement of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in schools and other places where youth congregate, CPR and AED training, the implementation of Emergency Response Plans and provides youth heart screenings for early detection of conditions that may lead to sudden cardiac arrest and death.

Martha has been featured in various written publications and television for her contributions to the community and children’s welfare. Martha has co-authored several research papers on sudden cardiac arrest and death in the young with leading medical experts that have been published in medical journals¹. She has also been a guest speaker at state, national and international conferences focused on youth health and safety.

Martha Lopez-Anderson is originally from the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and moved to Central Florida in 1991. She has been married to her husband, Andy, for 24 years and has a surviving son, Alan, now 33 years old.

Sophie Skellett, MD, MA, MB, BChir, MRCP, RCPCH

Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust

After completing sub-specialty training in pediatric intensive care medicine at Guy’s Hospital in London I joined Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust in 2002. Initially I worked as a Consultant in the Children’s Acute Transport Service and Cardiac Intensive Care Unit but since 2004 I have been working as a consultant in the Pediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care units. I have an interest in education, training and leadership and was unit training director for seven years helping to develop a program for PICM trainees and implement the intensive care outreach team. My main interest however is in resuscitation and the acutely unwell child and I was first a member then Chair of the Resuscitation and Deteriorating Child Committee at GOSH for the past 11 years. I am also a member of the Resuscitation Council UK executive committee, Pediatric sub-committee and Chair of the EPALS sub-committee and co-author of the 2015 Pediatric BLS and ALS algorithms.

Paul E. Pepe, MD, MPH

**Event/Disaster Preparedness for the Office of Health System Affairs at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW)
Riggs Family Chair in Emergency Medicine (EM)**

Paul E. Pepe, MD, MPH, a Professor of Medicine, Surgery, Pediatrics, Public Health and Riggs Family Chair in Emergency Medicine (EM) is also Director of Regional Out-of-Hospital Care Systems and Event/Disaster Preparedness for the Office of Health System Affairs at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW) in Dallas, USA. He is also City of Dallas Director of Medical Emergency Services for Public Safety, Public Health & Homeland Security and the Emergency Medical Services/Public Safety Medical Director for Dallas County government. More recently, helping to create resuscitation research centers of excellence in South Florida, he was appointed as the Medical Director for Research, Education and Special Operations for the Broward Sheriff’s Office Fire Rescue Division as well as Palm Beach County, the City of West Palm Beach, Davie Fire Rescue and Coral Springs Fire Rescue (just named the EMS provider agency of the year by the State of Florida).

Both a longstanding academician and in-the-trenches clinician, Dr. Pepe was the Chief of EM at both UTSW and Parkland Hospital, the public emergency-trauma center for Dallas between 2000 and 2014 and, prior to that position, he was the EM Chair for the Medical College of Pennsylvania Pittsburgh campus at the affiliated Allegheny General emergency-trauma center. Before his appointments in Pennsylvania, Dr. Pepe also gave longstanding service as a tenured Professor of Surgery, Medicine and Pediatrics at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. During that distinguished academic career, he has also simultaneously served as an assistant to the Seattle Fire Department EMS medical directors (1977-82), as the (inaugural) Director of the City of Houston EMS System (1982-96) and as Commonwealth Emergency Medical Director for Pennsylvania (late 90’s).

With nearly 500 full-length published scientific papers, including many landmark publications in resuscitation medicine such as the original American Heart Association (AHA) Chain of Survival treatise, Auto-PEEP, permissive hypotension trials in trauma care and the Chicago airport AED study, Dr. Pepe has become renowned for a street-wise style in planning, implementing and overseeing a systems-approach to lifesaving, both operationally and through many successful clinical trials. With often intrepid and creative design in some circumstances, his past and current programs have consistently resulted in some of the highest cardiac arrest and trauma survival rates worldwide for both adults and children. In addition, he is considered a pioneer role model in the EM subspecialty of EMS as well as the prehospital delivery of critical care. Board-certified in Internal Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Pulmonary Medicine and EMS, he has now been designated a Master of both the American College of Critical Care Medicine and the American College of Physicians (MCCM, MACP).

Beyond providing many support services for the FDA and NIH over the past 2 decades, Dr. Pepe has served for years as emergency medicine-trauma consultant to various entities such as the White House Medical Unit (WHMU) and U.S. Secret Service (USSS) and he continues to coordinate the so-called Eagles consortium, a cohesive de facto coalition of the jurisdictional 9-1-1 (EMS) system medical directors for the United States’ 40-50 largest cities and several pivotal federal agencies (e.g., FBI, USSS, National Disaster Medical System & WHMU). Also, a veteran, on-the-ground leader in multiple U.S. disasters, he has been cited for heroism in the U.S. Congressional Record.

Cited as a “mentor to millions”, Dr. Pepe frequently has received national and international awards from numerous professional organizations across a myriad of disciplines. Relevant to his effectiveness in advancing resuscitation science, when receiving an award for lifetime achievements from the American College of Emergency Physicians, presented in Washington, DC by then U.S. Surgeon General, Richard Carmona, Dr. Pepe was cited as “the most accomplished emergency medical services physician of our generation”.

Mimi Peberdy, MD, FACC

C. Kenneth Wright Professor of Internal Medicine and Professor of Emergency Medicine

Virginia Commonwealth University

Dr. Peberdy did her Internal Medicine and Cardiology training at the Medical College of Pennsylvania, where she was on faculty for several years as Assistant Professor, Director of the Coronary Care Unit and Associate Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory. She joined the faculty at Virginia Commonwealth University in 1993, where she is now the C. Kenneth Wright Professor of Internal Medicine and Professor of Emergency Medicine. She is the Deputy Director of the VCU’s Weil Institute of Emergency and Critical Care Research and the Director of Human Research at the Victoria Johnson Center for Critical Care. She serves as Medical Director for the hospital’s Resuscitation and Rapid Response Teams as well as the VCU regional referral center for the treatment of patients with cardiac arrest. She Chairs the Resuscitation Committee and is a member of the Medical College of Physicians Board of Directors, the Executive Committee of the Faculty, and numerous other Hospital and University committees.

Dr. Peberdy’s research and clinical interests include resuscitation, congestive heart failure, and acute cardiac care. She has been either principal or co-investigator on numerous externally funded research projects through both the National Institutes of Health and industry grants. Dr. Peberdy has authored or co-authored over 200 research papers and has served as session chair, panelist and abstract reviewer at a number of national and international professional meetings. She serves as regular editorial reviewer for such journals as JAMA, Resuscitation, Critical Care Medicine, Circulation, and the Joint Commission Quality Journal, and is a member of the Editorial Board of Resuscitation. Dr. Peberdy is one of the founding physicians of the American Heart Association’s Get with the Guidelines-Resusciation program and has participated in the writing the last 5 sets of resuscitation guidelines. She is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association.

John A. (Jack) McMaster

American Red Cross
President – Preparedness, Health & Safety Services

John A. (Jack) McMaster assumed the role of President – Preparedness, Health & Safety Services for the American Red Cross in 2010. He is responsible for the $140M commercial training portfolio of Red Cross preparedness, health & safety training courses and associated products, including First Aid, CPR, AED and Aquatics offerings.

He has led the introduction of digital products at The American Red Cross including Simulation Learning technologies for classes and the highly successful transition of public health and disaster information to Mobile Apps. The apps and classes cover a range of preparedness and response topics, including first aid, weather disasters, simulation learning classes, and blood donations. Many of the Apps and digital classes have earned awards, including a Webby for the Blood Donor App in 2016.

Mr. McMaster holds a BS from Manhattan College, a MA from New York University in International Political Science, a MBA from the Stern School at New York University, and completed the PMD program at the Harvard Business School.

Brian Eigel, Ph.D.

American Heart Association (AHA)
Senior Vice President of Emergency Cardiovascular Care (ECC)

Brian Eigel, Ph.D. is responsible for leading the development of products and services that help people prepare and respond to first aid and cardiac arrest emergencies.

In this role, Dr. Eigel directs the strategic vision and leadership for global science, product development, education, editorial and project management to support ECC business strategies. He oversees multiple product and service lines including education courses for healthcare providers, consumers and businesses on First Aid, CPR and AED usage. He also supports the AHA mission to fight for stronger public health policies and provide lifesaving tools and information to prevent and treat cardiac diseases.

Under Dr. Eigel’s leadership, the AHA developed the 2010 and 2015 AHA Guidelines Update for CPR and Emergency Cardiovascular Care while collaborating with the American Red Cross on the development of the 2010 and 2015 Guidelines Update for First Aid.

Among the important products and services that Dr. Eigel is responsible for advancing is the AHA’s Resuscitation Quality Improvement (RQI) program, a groundbreaking new approach to maintaining competence in CPR.

Dr. Eigel holds a Bachelor of Science degree from The College of William and Mary and earned his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Kentucky.

Tore Laerdal

Laerdal Foundation for Acute Medicine

Tore Laerdal is Chairman of the Board of the Laerdal Foundation for Acute Medicine, which since 1980 has provided financial support to nearly 2000 practically oriented research projects. (www.laerdalfoundation.org)

Mr Laerdal is also Chairman of the Board of the Laerdal Medical, a world leading company within training material and therapeutic equipment for acute medicine. www.laerdal.com

Mr Laerdal serves as Chairman of the Board of three external research foundations in Norway. He holds a degree from the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, and has received a Honorary Doctorate in Science from the University in Hertfordshire in the UK.

Allison Thompson

Project ADAM Administrator Wisconsin/National Affiliate Program, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin

Alli joined Project ADAM in 2014. Project ADAM (Automated Defibrillators in Adam’s Memory) is a program of the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin and the Herma Heart Center. She has six years of public health experience including program planning and implementation of health initiatives in schools and communities throughout Milwaukee. Alli received her bachelor’s degree in community health education from the University of Wisconsin Lacrosse. She uses her health education and program planning background to strengthen Wisconsin schools and communities to be prepared for sudden cardiac emergencies and continue growth of the Project ADAM affiliate program nationally.

Robb S. Rehberg, PhD, ATC, NREMT, FACFE

William Paterson University

Dr. Rehberg is a Professor and Coordinator of Athletic Training Clinical Education at William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey. He is also a founding partner of The Rehberg Konin Group, LLC, serves as co-founder and President of Sport Safety International, and is a staff member at the Center for Concussion Care and Physical Rehabilitation at Overlook Medical Center in Summit, NJ. Dr. Rehberg previously served as the Director and Chief of Emergency Services at Montclair State University in Montclair, New Jersey, and spent 13 years as the head athletic trainer at Westwood Regional High School in Westwood, New Jersey.

A graduate of West Chester University (B.S.), the United States Sports Academy (M.S.S.) and Touro University International (Ph.D.), Dr. Rehberg has spent his career working in the athletic training, sports medicine, and emergency services fields. He has authored several refereed papers, and two textbooks, as well as over a dozen peer-reviewed online courses that have trained over 200,000 coaches, parents, and athletes in 23 countries. An award-winning lecturer, Dr. Rehberg frequently at state and national meetings on sports emergency care, spinal injuries in sports, sudden cardiac arrest in athletes, and concussion management.

Dr. Rehberg served as a member of the medical staff for athletics (track and field) at the 1996 Olympic Games. He has been active on both state and national levels, having served on the First and Second National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) Inter-Association Task Forces for the Appropriate Care of the Spine-Injured Athlete, the Task Force on Appropriate Medical Coverage for the Secondary School-Aged Athlete, the NATA Hall of Fame Subcommittee, and several other committees at the state level. Dr. Rehberg has also served as a technical adviser to the National Safety Council since 1992 and was a member of the American Heart Association Task Force that developed the first-ever international guidelines for first aid in 2000. He was a charter member of the New Jersey Disaster Medical Assistance Team.

Dr. Rehberg currently serves on the NATA Foundation Board of Directors, as the District 2 Treasurer of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association, is a Trustee of the Brain Injury Alliance of New Jersey, and served as president of the Athletic Trainers’ Society of New Jersey from 2007-2009.

Dr. Rehberg has received numerous awards in recognition of his professional accomplishments by. Most notably, he is an inductee in both the New Jersey Scholastic Coaches Association Hall of Fame and the Athletic Trainers’ Society of New Jersey (ATSNJ) Hall of Fame. He is also the recipient of both the NATA and ATSNJ Service Award, and in 2014 received distinction as a Most Distinguished Athletic Trainer. Dr. Rehberg has also been recognized by his alma mater, having been an inductee into the West Chester University Legacy of Leadership, and is a past recipient of the Ordo Honoris (Order of Honor) Medal and Award from the Kappa Delta Rho National Fraternity. Most recently, Dr. Rehberg was named a Fellow of the American College of Forensic Examiners.

Marion Leary, RN, MSN, MPH, FAHA

University of Pennsylvania

Marion Leary RN MSN MPH FAHA is the Director of Innovation Research for the Center for Resuscitation Science at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research, education and clinical care on Cardiac Arrest, CPR quality and Therapeutic Hypothermia. Ms. Leary’s goal is to incorporate innovation into the work that is performed in these areas including Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, wearables, mHealth and other digital applications. Ms. Leary has a grant through the Medtronic Foundation and the Laerdal Foundation exploring the use of virtual reality to train lay bystanders in CPR. Ms. Leary is an author on the American Heart Association’s digital health consensus statement and has presented nationally on the topic of digital innovation and resuscitation science. Ms. Leary is also a consultant with the Penn Medicine Social Media and Health Innovation Lab and is a contributor to the Huffington Post writing about health, technology and other areas.

Karl B. Kern, MD

Sarver Heart Center and University of Arizona

Karl B. Kern, MD, is a Co-director of the Sarver Heart Center and the Gordon A. Ewy, MD Distinguished Endowed Chair of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Arizona, where he is a Professor of Medicine.

Dr. Kern is an interventional cardiologist, with a large practice based at the Sarver Heart Center within the University of Arizona. Dr. Kern is the coordinator of the University of Arizona Sarver Heart Center Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Research Group.

He was inducted as an honorary member of the European Resuscitation Council in 2014 and named a “CPR Giant” by the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation and the American Heart Association in 2015. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Drexel University College of Medicine’s Alumni Association in 2014, and the Arizona Business’ Lifetime Achievement in Health Care Award in 2016. Dr. Kern has been named as one of the “Best Doctors in America” since 1996.

Joseph P. Ornato, MD, FACP, FACC, FACEP

Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center/Medical College of Virginia

Dr. Joseph P. Ornato is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center/Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia. He is also Medical Director of the Richmond Ambulance Authority, Richmond Fire and EMS, and Henrico County Fire & EMS.

Born in New Haven, Connecticut, he graduated from Boston University Medical School magna cum laude and completed his training in Internal Medicine at New York City’s Mount Sinai Hospital and in Cardiology at New York Hospital-Cornell University Medical Center. He is triple board certified (Internal Medicine, Cardiology, Emergency Medicine).

Dr. Ornato is an active researcher in the field of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Dr. Ornato is an Editor of the journal Resuscitation. He is past Chairman of the American Heart Association’s (AHA) National Emergency Cardiovascular Care Committee and its Advanced Cardiac Life Support Subcommittee and served as the AHA’s national representative to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s National Heart Attack Alert Program’s Coordinating Committee and Chairman of its Science Base Subcommittee. Dr. Ornato served as a Special Consultant to the Circulatory System Devices Panel of the Food and Drug Administration. He chaired the National Steering Committee on the joint-sponsored NIH/AHA/Industry Public Access Defibrillation Trial and as Principal Investigator on a Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Bioterrorism Training grant. He served as Cardiac Co-Chairman of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium (ROC) and as Principal Investigator for VCU on the NIH-sponsored Neurological Emergency Treatment Trials (NETT) Network. Dr. Ornato is a member of the prestigious National Academy of Medicine (formerly known as the Institute of Medicine).

Stuart Berger, MD

Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago

Dr. Berger is Executive Director, Heart Center; Interim Division Head, Cardiology at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.

It is under Dr. Berger’s direction that Project ADAM was established, in November of 1999, after the sudden, unexpected deaths of several student athletes in Southeastern Wisconsin. He along with others advocated for passage of the ADAM Act in the United States Congress, a bill that will provide funding for a national clearinghouse for the dissemination of information that will assist schools establish AED programs.

Dr. Berger has published several papers, chapters and has edited books in the field of pediatric cardiology as well as on the topic of sudden cardiac death in children and adolescents.

Bentley J. Bobrow, MD, FACEP, FAHA

Arizona Emergency Medicine Research Center at the University of Arizona College of Medicine

Dr. Bentley J. Bobrow is Professor of Emergency Medicine and Associate Director of the Arizona Emergency Medicine Research Center at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. He is also Medical Director for the Arizona Department of Health Services’ Bureau of EMS and Trauma System. He has partnered with public health officials, EMS agencies, hospitals, and the public to develop a statewide reporting and educational network for responding to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, which has resulted in a significant increase in the rates of bystander CPR and a tripling of survival from sudden cardiac arrest in Arizona.

Adam Cheng, MD

Alberta Children’s Hospital

Adam Cheng is Director of Research and Development, KidSIM Simulation Program at Alberta Children’s Hospital; Full Scientist, Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, and Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics at the University of Calgary in Calgary, Canada. He is chair and co-founder of the INSPIRE network, an international research simulation collaborative with over 200 institutions, focused on improving outcomes of critically ill children. He has served on the Board of Directors of both the Society for Simulation in Healthcare and the International Pediatric Simulation Society. He has provided leadership for various international simulation conferences and delivered lectures and workshops at conferences around the world. Dr. Cheng conducts research with interests in cardiac arrest, cardiopulmonary resuscitation and debriefing, and has led numerous multicenter simulation-based research trials. He has edited several textbooks and co-authored the Education chapter of the 2015 American Heart Association Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation guidelines.

William H. Montgomery, MD

University of Hawaii, School of Medicine
Department of Surgery

Dr. William H. Montgomery was a co-founder of the Foundation in 1987 and served as its President until 2004. He is an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology at the University of Hawaii School Of Medicine.

He recently retired from the multispecialty Straub Clinic and Hospital in Honolulu where he was Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology for 38 years. He remains in private practice. During his career at Straub he held many other administrative posts including Chief of Staff, Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer. His activities outside Straub include active participation in the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), He currently serves on its Board of Directors and is the Director of the ASA Consultation Program. He is also the President of the Hawaii Society of Anesthesiologists. Additionally he is a member of the Hawaii State Ethics Commission.

Dr. Montgomery’s interest in CPR and resuscitation began in 1973 at the Hawaii Heart Association where he began teaching American Heart Association (AHA) CPR courses. In 1975 he was invited to join the AHA activities at the national level and he has been very active in teaching, writing educational materials and ECC program administration. He served as chair of the AHA national BLS, ECC and program administration committees to name a few. He was chair of the 1985 Silver Anniversary National Conference to review the Standards and Guidelines for CPR and ECC and has coordinated subsequent conferences including the most recent 2010 International Consensus Conference on CPR and ECC. His special interest is fostering international cooperation in the resuscitation field and was an organizer of the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR) and its chairman from 1998-2006.

He has received numerous awards recognizing these achievements including the American Heart Association’s Meritorious Achievement award in 1995, induction as an Honorary Member of the European Resuscitation Council in 2004 and honored as a “Giant” in resuscitation by ILCOR and the AHA in 2000

Dr. Montgomery served as the ECCU program chair for several of the conferences. The Foundation created the William H. Montgomery, MD Excellence in Education Award in 2006. This award, sponsored by the Laerdal Foundation for Acute Medicine, is named in his honor and serves as encouragement to ECCU concurrent session presenters to strive for excellence in their presentations.

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