PRESIDENT
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Vinay Nadkarni MD, MS is the Endowed Chair of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He directs the Center for Simulation, Advanced Education and Innovation at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and has served as the Chairman of the AHA Emergency Cardiovascular Care Committee and International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation.

IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT

Medical College of Wisconsin
Department of Emergency Medicine

Dr. Aufderheide is a nationally and internationally recognized researcher in the field of cardiac resuscitation and emergency cardiac care. He has authored numerous textbooks, chapters, CPR courses and over 100, original, research papers in peer-reviewed literature, including two papers in the New England Journal of Medicine.

TREASURER
Physio-Control

Retired in 2019

Formerly VP, Regulatory and Clinical Affairs at Stryker

As Vice President of Regulatory and Clinical Affairs, Paula was responsible for global regulatory leadership, clinical research, and clinical affairs.  In this role since 2007, she worked with international regulatory agencies and standards organizations to maintain collaborative relationships and sustain regulatory compliance worldwide. In this role she led the effort to obtain Premarket approval for all the companies AED’s which became a new FDA regulation in 2015.

Paula has held a variety of leadership positions since joining Physio-Control in 1985, including Vice President of Clinical Research and Clinical Affairs and Director of AED Product Development.  Previously, Paula worked at Harborview Medical Center in electrophysiology and cardiovascular research.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Wichita State University. Paula has served on the Executive Board of the Citizen CPR Foundation as the Secretary/Treasurer since 2008.  Paula also served on the National American Heart Association (AHA) Nominating Committee, which followed a two-year term on the AHA National Board of Directors 2007-2009. Paula was an AHA volunteer for over 20 years and the Citizen CPR Foundation for more than 25 years.

Paula and her husband Greg live in Scottsdale, AZ and enjoy their first grandson in Arizona or Hermosa Beach, CA.

PROGRAM CHAIR

Director of Prehospital Education
Stony Brook University School of Medicine

In 2014, Ed celebrated his 47th year in the field of Emergency Medical Services. He started as a Basic EMT in 1967 in the New York City EMS System and served as a Combat Medic in Vietnam in 1968-69. Ed became one of the first paramedics in the New York City EMS System in 1975. He went on to become one of the first EMS Educators in the New York City EMS system.

EMERITUS MEMBER

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.

MARKETING CHAIR

President, ZOLL Foundation

Ward Hamilton retired as Senior Vice President from ZOLL Medical in 2017. He joined the company in 1992 as Vice President of Marketing. He was elected President of the ZOLL Foundation in 2018. Prior to ZOLL Mr. Hamilton was employed by the City of Pasadena Fire Department, Datascope Corporation and Laerdal Medical. He has worked in the field of resuscitation and devices for more than 40 years. Mr. Hamilton received his BA in Political Science from Hartwick College and holds a Master’s degree in public administration from the University of Southern California. He serves on the Board of Directors for the Citizen CPR Foundation and Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation, and is active in the American Heart Association.

Founder, Code One Training Solutions, LLC
Charleston, SC

Richard became interested in emergency care and resuscitation at an early age following the death of a sibling. This tragedy led to his involvement in the fire service, EMS and nursing.

Richard Shok founded Code One Training Solutions, LLC in 2007 while attending University of Connecticut’s School of Nursing. Richard recognized the need for consistent CPR training on college campuses as other classes were infrequent, distant, and of varying quality and content. Code One was established to fill this void and its on-campus CPR classes were well-received and highly praised by administration and students alike.

Upon graduation, Richard realized a similar gap existed in the community. Code One then launched its first community training center in 2009 and has continued to grow since then. Code One now operates ten training centers on the East coast from Georgia to Maine. Code One’s has a team of seven full-time staff members and 50 instructors who are all led by Richard as founder.

Instructor, EMT & AHA BLS Classes
Tahoka, TX

Traci Jolly is an outstanding EMT-P at the Lynn County EMS. She works full time on the service team and volunteers for 8-10, 12-hour shifts per month. Traci has also saved several patients after cardiac arrest as an EMT-P.

In her free time, Traci also serves as assistant director and co-instructor for all EMT and AHA BLS classes in the North Texas area. 

CEO, Tri-State Training & Safety Consulting
Aston, PA

Kevin Kerns, CEO of Tri-State Training & Safety Consulting and has developed an AHA 2015 guideline compliant CPR/FA program that has been critically acclaimed. Kevin manages 8 full-time instructors and over 100 staff members educating public and business professionals about CPR.

While serving as an EMT instructor, Kevin became aware of a lack of accessible training to the public which led to the beginning of his own training institute: Tri-State Training & Safety Consulting. His goal is to keep expanding the knowledge and awareness of CPR training and its extreme benefits to the public.

Program Manager, Medical College of Wisconsin 
Wauwatosa, WI

Jacob Labinski grew up understanding the power of Emergency Medical Services as his father was the Battalion Chief for the Milwaukee Fire Department. However, his path to administering and training CPR to the public looks different to most. Only having a basic life support CPR class in his background, Jacob had little prior knowledge about sudden cardiac arrest, community preparedness, and optimizing survival before accepting a position at the Resuscitation Research Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin in 2014 working under Dr. Aufderheide. It soon became his passion. 

In 2017, Jacob encountered an event that he will never forget and precisely changed the way he views community AED preparedness and the need for CPR training. While attending a recreational basketball game at a local school gymnasium, a friend of his suddenly fell to the ground and became unresponsive. Jacob’s instincts kicked in and he helped administer defibrillation and compression CPR to his friend. It was after several rounds of that process that he was able to resuscitate his friend, “Bob”. It wasn’t til later that Jacob found out from bystanders the school they played at had no AED clearly posted. The janitor did not even know where it was. One teammate had to break into the principal’s office to retrieve the AED. 

Jacob has since been promoted to Program Manager for the Resuscitation Research Center. The Resuscitation Research Center has improved the understanding of resuscitation best practice by implementing many cardiac arrest studies through the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium (ROC), coordinating placement of AEDs in all public schools in Wisconsin in collaboration with Project ADAM, supporting projects to provide dispatch-assisted CPR, educating the community in CPR and AED use, and optimizing EMS clinical practice and survival from cardiac arrest though scientific study.  

Paramedic, Richmond Rescue
Richmond, VT

Sarah Lamb has been working and volunteering for Richmond Rescue for nine years. She began her time there as a volunteer EMT and eventually went to paramedic school and was hired as a full-time employee. During her time as a paramedic, she took the lead on maintaining the HeartSafe designation for the Town of Richmond which as led to an interest in public AED placements and integrating community health efforts with EMS.

Sarah’s biggest accomplishment is making training accessible and enjoyable for all levels of providers. She put together a 20-minute training video demonstrating AED preparedness and CPR that has been shown widely to students and public safety professionals in Vermont and nationally. It has shown the value of police defibrillation and started the conversation in departments that do not currently carry defibrillators. The monthly squad trainings are attended by many neighboring agencies and frequently feature guest speakers. 

CEO, Stop Heart Attack 
Birmingham, AL

When Brady McLaughlin was 14 he became a lifeguard through the Boy Scouts of America. While a lifeguard, he used CPR to help save a child who had nearly drowned. Brady went on to serve in a variety of positions, a 9-1-1 dispatcher, an EMT, and eventually a CPR instructor. His interest peaked when he realized the following: the low chance of survival for a pre-hospital SCA in Alabama and the low percentage of bystanders who actually know how to perform high-quality CPR. 

Brady and his wife launched a CPR training business – Trio Safety CPR+AED – from their basement during their first year of marriage with just some AHA curriculum, 10 manikins, and some serious ambition to help increase SCA survival rates.  Less than 7 years later, they now have trained over 85,000 students mainly across the southeastern United States, employ 14 full-time team members, and support over 1,300 active CPR instructors.  Furthermore, they’ve merged the company with Stop Heart Attack – another Alabama based business that has installed over 15,000 AEDs nationwide.  Together, they developed and launched AED365 – a first-in-class iOS based AED program management system designed to ensure AED readiness, tracking, and support 24×7.  

Educator, San Diego Project Heart Beat
Chula Vista, CA

For as long as Raymon can remember, he has always had a passion to help others. He went to school and eventually started working as an EMT for American Medical Response in San Diego and was later asked to become a CPR Instructor for the San Diego Project Heart Beat.

In October of 2018, Raymon was asked if he would participate in a mass CPR training at a small K-8 school who had partnered with San Diego Project Heart Beat. Little did he know, that day his whole outlook on CPR training would change.

During his tenure, Raymon has had the opportunity to train thousands of people on early recognition, compressions and defibrillation during a sudden cardiac event, allowing student leaves the class confident and ready to assist in the event of SCA.

Assistant Manager & BCLS Instructor, Singapore Heart Foundation (SHF)
Singapore

Denise joined the Singapore Heart Foundation (SHF) in 2008 where she continues to hold CPR training for the community as an BCLS Instructor and trainer.  Throughout the years, she has been part of the core team that led the development of a training syllabus, accreditation efforts and administrative support for participants of SHF’s CPR, AED and First Aid programs. She is currently Assistant Manager and team lead of SHF’s Heart Safe Program.

Her efforts don’t stop there. In 2018 alone, more than 4,000 participants were certified through the SHF’s certification courses. Denise is instrumental in leading the administrative efforts, centre accreditation by Singapore Resuscitation and First Aid Council and upholding the training standards as well as teaching 5 different courses.

She also organizes CPR & AED related events and activities within the local community and nationwide throughout the year. The most well-known initiative, Project Heart, was held in October of last year and 662 participants were certified in CPR. During the same event, she also led the launch of an AED program targeted at primary medical and dental clinics and celebrated successful resuscitation efforts through the Survivor Awards.

Program Associate, San Diego Fire-Rescue
Sacramento, CA

Loralee became interested in SCA preparedness working as a Community Education EMT for Fire and Emergency Medical Services. In 2008, she was invited to join the San Diego Project Heart Beat team, which is San Diego’s Fire-Rescue’s Public Access CPR and AED program.

From then on, Denise worked tirelessly as a program associate with the San Diego Project Heart Beat. In this role, she has taught thousands upon thousands of people how to perform CPR and use an AED. She has helped expand the San Diego Police Department AED program, writing grants to obtain defibrillators for officer vehicles and training officers how to use them.

She has expanded the AED program in San Diego public schools, writing multiple AED grants that helped outfit locations. Denise has also spoken at multiple conferences, including ECCU, about various topics pertaining to SCA. 

Emergency Physician & AHA ACLS Instructor
Bengaluru, India

Prithvishree works as an emergency physician in India where there is a lack of  Emergency Medical Services and CPR awareness amongst citizens. By the time folks reach the Emergency department, too much time has lapsed and the outcome is poor. Therefore, it is essential to Prithvishree to train and educate the community regarding sudden cardiac arrest and CPR.

She has also been involved in training first responders such as police, firemen in CPR and first aid. In addition, her team have hosted multiple mass community training programs in association with Laerdel, where they trained community members as well as school children. She was also apart of a team who started a social media campaign: #CPR challenge. Members challenged their family, friends, and colleagues to perform CPR on mannequin/pillow and share on social media.

Communication Strategist, Melissa Russom Consulting
Clifton Park, NY

Melissa’s sister, Christie, died suddenly at the age of 24, Melissa went to the doctor was diagnosed with Long QT syndrome one week after her sister’s death. Weeks later, she had an ICD implanted in her chest.

She is now 37 and a mom of two daughters who also have Long QT. This diagnosis means that CPR and AED readiness is of the utmost importance to her as it could mean life or death for one of her girls. As an educator, Melissa works to teach families and friends on when to know the signs of distress and potentially save a life.

Melissa founded several organizations and campaigns aimed at SCA awareness including, a social media campaign, SelfiesWithAEDs, designed to make everyone more aware of the location of AEDs in public areas (grocery stores, schools, gyms, etc.). Melissa also founded Heartoberfest – an awareness and fundraising event held annually in upstate NY. The event has raised more than $180,000 and all funds go directly to the SADS Foundation. This year, she organized a CPR and AED demonstration to accompany the fundraising events.

Program Project Manager, King County EMS
Seattle, WA

Jenny Shin has dedicated her career and volunteer life to serving others in times of need.

Jenny is a Program Manager for grant funded research at King County EMS. She acts as the Pacific Northwest Cardiac Registry to Enhance Survival (CARES) coordinator, which is a part of the HeartRescue project that serves as an effort to measure and improve survival from out of hospital cardiac arrest. She has seven years of experience in data registries, program management, and research in pre-hospital settings.

Since joining the research team at King County EMS, Jenny has been passionate about helping communities improve survival from OHCA. She uses her epidemiological skills to use data that drives practice and protocol improvements. As a faculty member of the Resuscitation Academy, Jenny teaches EMS leaders from around the world on measuring and improving cardiac arrest survival rates.

Owner, Healthcare Certifications
Arlington, WA

Jeffrey began his public service mission as Firefighter/EMT and after several years on the job, he realized he wanted to do more for the people he cared for. He then attended Seattle Medic One/Harborview Paramedic Training. There he witnessed first-hand the impact of bystanders equipped with the mindset to make a difference and utilize CPR. After seeing the results of bystanders performing CPR after a Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) Jeffrey had a fire lit within him to bring awareness to the community and help protect life.

In 2014, Jeffrey launched a training organization, Healthcare Certifications, based in Bellingham, WA and developed a team of instructors. Community CPR education was then offered throughout the region and now empowers people all over the Pacific Northwest with the skills of CPR. Healthcare Certification is responsible for the placement of AEDs. In addition, he is also developing courses in emergency airway management and ECG recognition for medical providers, as well as instructing the community in other disciplines, including ACLS, PALS, and PHTLS.

Since January 2019, he has had the opportunity to serve as  Chairperson of the Western States Community Sub-Committee for the American Heart Association. Within this capacity he has opportunity to work with people with a similar passions across 10 states. He has also co-authored a ‘Community CPR Toolkit’ to help spread best practices and ideas.

Program Coordinator, Heart Safe Richland
Richland, WA

Over the past 10 years, as an American Heart Association BLS instructor, Josh has been involved in teaching CPR/AED & First Aid to both the general public and health care providers. During this time, it was blatantly obvious his community was willing to learn the lifesaving skills of CPR & AED use. However, it was his team that needed to enhance the delivery model and increase the availability training to more than just the AHA certification classes being offered at the local community college, hospitals and private businesses.

In 2018, Josh encountered an event that he will never forget. After witnessing a woman die after providing the proper ACLS procedure, Josh was responsible for explaining to a loved one, her best friend and father to their children she was deceased. It was after that, that he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, he could not sit back and passively provide CPR and AED instruction to the community any longer. He knew they needed to come up with a solution that would engage the city and equip them with the tools necessary to overcome emotions, recognize the emergency at hand, and act.

Due to Josh’s efforts, the community is a safer place to live. He enhanced community awareness surrounding the chain of survival. Josh is responsible for transitioning Heart Safe Richland from a concept to a reality. The Citizens CPR Foundation rewarded his efforts by asking him to participate as a Heart Safe Community program advisory committee member.  To date Richland Fire & Emergency Services has designated four Heart Safe Campuses. This program requires 80% of employees in a facility be trained in hands only CPR and have AED’s on site.  He has trained over 5,000 people in hands only CPR, facilitated a chain of survival video, and continues to build partnerships throughout the city and region. 

Senior Product Manager, American Red Cross
Union Beach, NJ

Nichole’s interest in preparedness and survival started as a teenager. She became a Red Cross lifeguard at age 15 and then became a Red Cross lifeguard Instructor, teaching CPR for five years to other lifeguards. In 2010, Nichole joined the Red Cross, working specifically in Training Services on resuscitation, preparedness, and first aid courses and products. It was a natural extension of her early life saving work.

Nichole Steffens is the product manager for the new American Red Cross Resuscitation Suite BLS, ALS and PALS courses. She led the cross-functional team that brought these courses to market, which involved more than two dozen people from sales, service delivery, science and IT as well as the inaugural user of this product line, the Military Training Network. Development work began in 2017 and the courses were successfully launched under Nichole’s leadership in 2019. Additionally, Nichole was the product manager for the 2017 update to the Red Cross CPR/AED for Professional Rescuers course, which teaches one- and two-rescuer CPR, ventilation, AED, assessment and choking skills.  

Business Owner & Instructor
Great Falls, Virginia

Andrew first learned about first aid, CPR and AED training in scouting where he recalls loving the hands-on experience. At age 16, he became a Red Cross volunteer and instructor. He enjoyed teaching and empowering people to make a difference while also growing his medical knowledge. When he started working for the federal government, he was asked to teach for his unit which led to him teaching the district and further. 

Andrew provides dozens of free classes for nonprofits with American Red Cross certification at the end of each class.  His business empowers every person, regardless of age, to take action and how to perform CPR or use a AED. He continues to give free certification classes because he sees it is making a difference in the field. He sees how much it helps the victim and their recovery before emergency responders arrive. 

EMT
Boynton Beach, FL

Sarah had always wanted to be involved in emergency response. It shifted between firefighting, the coast guard, emergency medicine, and trauma surgery. It wasn’t until she interacted with cardiac arrest on a more personal level on March 12th, 2019 that she changed her mind. 

Ed Kosiec lost consciousness in the dining room of the Chick-fil-A Sarah was working at. Sarah was the only one to know how to perform CPR at the scene. Due to her previous training from high school, she was able to identify cardiac arrest immediately and begin chest compressions until the paramedics to arrived. Because of something as simple as chest compressions, in conjunction with the firefighters’ rapid response time, it had a huge impact on the outcome of Ed’s survival; it was likely the difference between life or death.

Sarah continues to further her education and seeks to educate as many people as possible about CPR and AED Awareness. 

VP of Strategy & Sales, HeartHero
Denver, CO

Anthony currently works as the VP of Strategy at HeartHero, the distributor of the lowest-cost, easiest-to-use, and most portable AED on the market. Over the past 8-and-a-half years, Anthony has worked in AED sales, placement, distribution, management, and non-profit initiatives across the US and around the world in over 40+ locations. 

Through Jacob’s creative and passionate leadership, he has been able to assist in deploying over 40,000 AEDs. In his current role at HeartHero, he is working on deploying a strategy that will multiply these efforts and exponentially increase the amount of lives saved from Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA). He is committed to creating this new strategy which will allow consumers to inquire about device at a much more affordable price point while decreasing the burden of ownership. Additionally, he has developed a program management system to mitigate the risk associated with owning an AED thus increasing the deployment amongst businesses.

Co-Founders, SureFire CPR
Newport Beach, CA

Saving lives and empowering others to do the same has been a focus for this dynamic duo. Zack had been an EMT since 2002 and worked as a firefighter and paramedic at some of the busiest stations in Orange County. It was during that time, after running many cardiac arrest calls, he became increasingly aware of the lack of bystander CPR and SCA preparedness. In talking with his wife, Vanessa, they set out to try to empower others to act in an emergency. The two talked extensively about the problem and SureFire CPR was started in the living room of their two-bedroom apartment.

Zack would teach the CPR classes and Vanessa would handle the logistics. Vanessa was working full time as a CPA; Zack was working full time as a firefighter/EMT and they both spent all of their free time trying to get the word out to help others learn how to save lives. Their goal was to teach people what it was REALLY like to do CPR; talking about total experience from beginning to end. This was to help dissemble fears so they could have the confidence to be the difference in an emergency.

Since that first class in May of 2009, the two have trained over 135,000 people how to save lives! Today, SureFire CPR covers all Southern California with 4 locations and employs a 58-person team.

Clinical Research Coordinator, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Philadelphia, PA

Following an early career in EMS, Nabil started working with the Mobile CPR project, based out Philadelphia. During his work with EMS, we witnessed several cardiac arrests and Nabil served as a vital part of the treatment crew. From this experience, he saw first hand the impact early intervention can make.

For over 2 years, Nabil has served as one of two coordinators for the Mobile CPR project. Along with the one other coordinator, they have trained over 8,000 members of the Philadelphia community in Hands-only CPR. Philadelphia has thousands of members of a higher-than-average risk communities, that likely would not have received the training without this program.

Additionally, Nabil spearheaded the push to include opioid overdose reversal training into the Mobile CPR Project. This expanded the impact of the Mobile CPR project to provide support for a growing proportion of reported cardiac arrests in Philadelphia and the surrounding counties.

In his spare time, Nabil volunteers with Prevention Point in Philadelphia, providing health services, education and support to members of the community suffering from substance use disorder.

Certified Athletic Trainer & Citizen COR Instructor
Lakeland, Florida

As an Allied Healthcare professional, being prepared for life threatening injuries is part of Jordan’s job. As an Athletic Trainer, it was also his passion to provide the best medical care possible to his athletes, coaches, and patrons at all athletic events he worked. Jordan also grew up in a medically focused family and knew the importance of life-saving skills from an early age.

In April 2019 at a local high school baseball game, Jordan had to provide CPR and BLS to a baseball coach from the other team. The coach collapsed outside of the dugout and thankfully, Jordan was there and prepared with proper medical supplies. He was able to resuscitate the man with his AED in hand and after several minutes of BLS services. 

Now, Jordan advocates around the community about the importance of CPR and having healthcare providers at every local Athletic event. Since this event, 4 full time Athletic Trainers have been hired in Jordan’s school district and he has been blessed to speak at events about the importance of CPR training. Jordan continues to be a Citizen CPR instructor.

Assistant Fire Chief
Charleston, South Carolina

After years in the fire and EMS service, Michael witnessed numerous cardiac arrests. He saw firsthand the benefits that early, quality CPR training can provide to victims of cardiac arrest; specifically, those of sudden cardiac arrest. After having three confirmed cardiac arrest saves with no neuro-deficits, Michael noticed that the one thing they all had in common was early high-performance CPR. This has led him to share the skills and training with everyone he comes in contact with.

Michael’s experience led him to start teaching EMT courses. That was seven years ago. Now, Michael has developed a larger CPR instruction program available to not only first responders but the general public as well.

Over the past two years, the program that Michael developed for his city has trained hundreds of lay people through low cost (cost of the cards only) CPR training that is presented by the fire department. As this program developed and grew, he expanded the classes from walk-in classes on the weekends to set classes at the senior center during the week and offerings to Girl Scouts and Scouts of America leaders as well as participants. The program has now extended into babysitting classes for the youth that teaches them how to perform CPR on infants and children as well as what to do in a choking situation. The most recent growth in the program has taken it into a local college as CPR being a requirement to complete a course.

The high number of CPR certified people with the department’s city limits has also led to a significant increase in available AED’s with the cost being absorbed by the city at the approval of the city council.

Program Educator, University of California San Diego (USCD)
San Diego, CA

Over the course of Christian Bey’s undergraduate career at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD), he developed a keen interest in sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) care and prevention as part of his pursuit of education and training in emergency medical services. Christian began his EMT training in the summer of 2017 alongside many of his colleagues and was eager to find a position thereafter. However, upon completion of his training, he realized he wanted to do more than work as an EMT. He became aware of the educational and outreach aspects of EMS operations and began to appreciate their relevance to patient care and survival outcome in many areas, most notably CPR. Instead of applying for transport jobs during the fall quarter like the rest of his EMT class cohort, Christian began to discover how he could use his EMT training to support SCA outreach and education on the UCSD campus.

By 2018, Christian’s team had formally taught dozens of students hands-only sidewalk CPR events. He then began to create other educational workshops based on clinical EMT skills. Concurrently, he spearheaded a related, on-going project with UCSD to create a student-run EMS system that used student EMTs to respond to medical calls and staff events on campus. Throughout the development phases of the EMS system, he became familiar with SCA prevention and outcome activities by the Emergency Management Division of UCSD and San Diego Project Heartbeat.

Christian further began to realize that one of the most important aspects besides proper technique is early recognition and intervention. By teaching CPR to staff and students Christian wanted to ensure more individuals were prepared to recognize the signs of early cardiac arrest and, most importantly, understood the impact that the timing and quality of their care would have on patients’ survival outcomes.

The students, medical professionals, and most notably, cardiac arrest survivors whom he has encountered have reaffirmed his belief in the efficacy in SCA prevention programs and his desire to pursue medicine as a career path. Christian looks forward to continuing to teach CPR classes for EMS as a graduate student at UCSD. He is eager to remain a leader and innovator of EMS at UCSD’s initiatives in SCA management and prevention and continue to grow alongside the university and its surrounding community.

Assistant Professor, Duke University
Durham, NC

Motivated by her grandfather’s struggle with heart disease, Audrey completed her Master’s in Public Health in Social and Behavioral Sciences from the University of Florida, where she gained initial training in cardiovascular public health research and exposure to behavioral science concepts. After obtaining her degree, she pursued a position with Dr. Benjamin Abella at the Center for Resuscitation Science, Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) that blended her interest in cardiovascular health and emergency medicine. There she studied cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training dissemination strategies, cardiac arrest epidemiology, and clinical trial enrollment. During her time there, she became the Principal Investigator (PI) of a Mentored Clinical and Population Grant from the American Heart Association (AHA) examining national CPR training and bystander CPR disparities.

Currently, Audrey has served as an author of 28 publications, 11 of which she is the first author. Her focus touches on topics such as: resuscitation education, pragmatic clinical trials, and implementation science scholarship, with a concentration on cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) education. It has been an integral in the development and execution of an ongoing pragmatic clinical trial examining several CPR training dissemination strategies in her department. Through work conducted for her doctoral degree, Audrey examined racial and socioeconomic disparities in bystander CPR training and delivery. Her long term goal is to establish herself as a renowned cardiovascular epidemiologist and implementation scientist with the methods and skills to improve outcomes from sudden cardiac arrest and reduce the public health burden of cardiovascular disease. 

Research Project Manager, Center for Resuscitation Science – University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA

Ever since a young age, Dave has been interested in First Aid and emergency preparedness. Having continuously been CPR certified from 1992 it seemed a natural fit when Dave applied to work as a clinical research assistant with the Center for Resuscitation Science for a CPR education study. Little did he know when he started with the team at the University of Pennsylvania almost 8 years ago, cardiac arrest research and resuscitation would become so central to his career. 

For the past 8 years, Dave has grown from a research assistant with little experience in resucitaton to a data scientist and project lead. In addition to his work on various resuscitation related research projects, Dave also supports the Mobile CPR project, a community-based CPR education program, as the project manager and serves as the data coordinator for the CPR Ready Coalition in Philadelphia. He has now published 2 first-author resuscitation manuscripts related to cardiac arrest care and CPR education. Multiple other published manuscripts in the resuscitation realm as middle author.

Through data work, Dave has been able to shine a light on areas of need in the community, in addition to tracking performance and improvement over time. Dave represents a somewhat unique combination of academic data person and community activist/organizer. By combining the two he hopes to improve cardiac arrest survival throughout Philadelphia and abroad.

Commercial Accounts Manager, LifeSavers Inc
Verona, NJ

Michael’s interest in first aid and CPR began during his time in boy scouts. He quickly became the go to scout for all the first aid and safety training within the troop.  At age 15, Michael took a CPR and & First Aid class as a requirement for a camp counselor job and was hooked. 

Michael has been with LifeSavers, Inc for 20 years.  Over that time, Michael has taught countless numbers of training courses, worked with school districts in New Jersey and throughout the country to set up CPR and AED programs, and has worked with administrators, and educators to get their programs producing thousands of newly trained responders in communities every year. Michael has been an outspoken proponent of CPR and First Aid trained throughout his community. He has personally training youth sports coaches, civic organizations, and local school teachers to ensure everyone can be prepared. 

Director of Operations, Advanced Coronary Treatment (ACT) Foundation
Ottawa, Ontario

Jennifer comes from a long line of nurses. Her mother, grandmother and great grandmother were all nurses. From an early childhood, she knew she wanted to follow in their footsteps, but was unsure of what path it would lead her down. 

After completing her undergraduate degree, she discovered the ACT Foundation whose mission and dedication is focused on moving the needle on sudden cardiac survival rates through ensuring youth are empowered with CPR and AED skills. Jennifer’s outstanding commitment and passion for saving lives from sudden cardiac arrest, coupled with her incredible professionalism, expertise, skills and talent has driven her rise up the ranks from administrative assistant through program coordination, manager, to Director of Operations in just over 10 years.

Over that time, she has played a major role in the establishment of the ACT High School CPR and Defibrillator Program in over 1,800 high schools across Canada. Over 4.6 million youth are now empowered to save lives with CPR training in the Canadian education system.

Jennifer’s commitment to citizen CPR training has also motivated her to become a certified CPR and AED Instructor and travel to many Canadian rural, remote and First Nation communities to deliver the CPR and AED training herself to youth to ensure they have the same opportunities for this lifesaving training as their urban peers.

Founder, Advanced Professional Healthcare Education, LLC
Delefield, WI

Adam became a firefighter and ambulance driver in 2003 in Northern Wisconsin. At the time, the local ambulance services were proposing a Public Access AED (PAD) program that was meeting fierce resistance from the public. People were afraid that the unsupervised AEDs were going to be used for harm rather than good due to lack of education. As a result, in 2005, he became an AHA BLS Instructor. In his classes, he would teach about the benefits of CPR and early AED use. 

Last year, while working as a firefighter/paramedic, Adam and his crew were caring for a man who had syncope. During the transport to the hospital, the man became unresponsive and pulseless. Adam immediately began compressions and defibrillated once within 10 seconds. After 2 minutes of compressions, the man had a pulse and began to wake up.

Student
Morris, Minnesota 

Director of Community Markets, American Heart Association
Dallas, TX

Lana has served as the American Heart Association’s Director of Emergency Cardiovascular Care Science for over six years. During her time on the team, Lana made it her mission to positively change cardiac arrest survival statistics for the better by providing up to date comprehensive information on how to perform high-quality CPR.

Lana is the Program Lead for the AHA’s Hands-Only CPR program. Through the Hands-Only CPR program, the American Heart Association has installed 40+ Hands-Only CPR Kiosks in high traffic locations across the US. All-time total number of visitors for all kiosks has reached nearly 500,000 and over 250,000 have been trained in Hands-Only CPR. The AHA has also created several engaging Public Service Announcements about Hands-Only CPR that have generated millions of views. Each year, the AHA conducts a nationwide tour that brings Hands-Only CPR and AED training to underserved communities. This year, the tour is expected to train more than 8,000 people in-person and up to 20,000 residually through videos and lessons from those in-person.

Additionally, Lana is the lead or co-author of multiple scientific articles relating to resuscitation. Lana was the science lead for the development of the CPR in Schools™ Training Kit and model legislation. This legislation has led to over 2 million students trained annually in 39 states and the District of Columbia. Lana was the product lead for new CPR & First Aid Anywhere and CPR & First Aid in Youth Sports™ Training Kits which will help raise cardiac arrest awareness to new audiences.

CEO, Caretactics CPR
Albuquerque, NM

Joe was a corpsman in the US Navy, Firefighter, Police Officer/SWAT Medic, and Set Medic in the film industry before owning and operating one of the largest CPR training companies in New Mexico. His business, Caretactics CPR, trains over 300 community members per month in various life saving skills. Joe has done community outreach training for Special Olympics, Little League, and The Boy Scouts of America. He has developed a free hands only CPR training initiative for low income families of the Albuquerque area. As a veteran, firefighter, and police officer, he has gone above and beyond to serve his country and community as a public servant. Joe has also volunteered at local hospitals to teach new parents skills in infant CPR and first aid. He will continue to do so. 

Training & Recognition Officer, Arizona Cardiac Arrest Survivors, Inc
Glendale, AZ

A witness and SCA survivor himself, Brandon has an invested interest in sudden cardiac arrest and survival. Brandon uses his second chance at life to do incredible work in the cardiac community.

Brandon got involved in emergency cardiac response before his incident and before becoming a first responder. He first did CPR on a patient when he was Junior High; he lost the man and was the one to tell the patient’s family. Brandon became an EMT after that and utilized CPR multiple times during his work in the private sector. Brandon later became a police officer and was fortunate to work for an agency that equipped their officers with AEDs. He responded to countless calls for service, performed CPR, and utilized his AED multiple times. He went on to become a training officer and an industry expert on police cardiac response.

Brandon quickly realized how unprepared the vast majority of law enforcement is for cardiac emergencies. Brandon decided to start his own company “Griffith Blue Heart” where he trains, prepares, and equips Arizona law enforcement agencies for cardiac emergencies. Brandon developed an unprecedented program to help implement AED programs and innovative CCR training.

Brandon was brought in by the American Heart Association in 2016 to testify before Arizona Senate and the House of Representatives on the CPR in Schools bill. Brandon testified and spoke before the Senate and House multiple times. Because of his testimony, now every student in the state of Arizona has to learn CPR as a graduation requirement.

The ambitious young man has also started a new nonprofit to raise money for police agencies and purchase AEDs, provide high-quality CCR/CPR training with realistic field based scenarios, and conduct research and tracking on police emergency cardiac response. The nonprofit has just been incorporated and is called “Dynamic Cardiac CARE” (CARE is an acronym for “Cops Advancing Resuscitation Excellence).

Assistant EMS Chief, Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Carlisle, PA

One of Nathan’s first calls as a young junior firefighter was responding to cardiac arrest call for the father of a childhood friend of his. He hadn’t even taken his first CPR class at that time. It was ultimately that incident that inspired him to earn his first certification, which led him on a path that included an EMS certification and to his current job.

In 2013, after Pennsylvania rolled out their High-Performance CPR protocol, Nathan designed a contest for his crew that used video-performance in order to train compliance. As a result, his idea was picked up by the Heart Rescue Project in Pennsylvania and became a state-wide contest. In addition to this, he also ran a halftime “hands-only” CPR training at a local high school football game and has developed a quality improvement program for cardiac arrests that looks at KQIs vs simple survival rates.

President of Emergency Medical Services, University of California San Diego
Santee, CA

Christopher knew at an early age he wanted to do something. Something that could make an impact. When he was 12, he witnessed his father collapse on a plane ride home after visiting a treatment center for cancer in the Bahamas. His father passed on the way to the hospital from SCA. Christopher’s personal experience about bystander CPR or the chain of survival, it was more importantly about the love, compassion and the need to do something in the event of an emergency. He strongly believes that if we teach more people about what they can do in the face of cardiac arrest – and if we can even allow one person the chance to save their family member from a sudden cardiac arrest – that all our efforts are worthwhile.

Now, Christopher is the President of Emergency Medical Services at UCSD – which is an undergraduate student-run organization at the University of California, San Diego that provides both free hands-only CPR training and discounted AHA CPR certification courses. The organization’s goal this year is to expand the reach into the UCSD community by putting on one hands-only CPR event per month on campus. Brandon is currently working on getting certified as CPR instructor in order to host an increased number of AHA CPR certification courses on campus. To increase the reach into the community, they’re lowering the prices significantly to accommodate a typical student’s budget and they’re creating bulk discounts for people to save even more money if they bring one or more of their friends to get trained.

Pre-Med Student, Southeastern University
Palm Bay, FL

In 2017, Xavier, moved to Southeastern University’s campus for his freshman year of college.  He was welcomed onto the football team and at that time, was seeking his degree in physical therapy/pre kinesiology. Later that semester, the organization Who We Play For came to the university and provided heart screenings to the athletes.  Xavier presented with an abnormal arrhythmia and was encouraged to see a doctor about the abnormality. He eventually underwent surgery to open a pathway in his heart in 2018 that was successfully ablated. Xavier never had any symptoms to indicate an issue. He could have been a statistic and lost his life to sudden cardiac arrest on the field had he not gone through the screening. 

Xavier volunteers throughout the state of Florida alongside Who We Play For providing EKG’s for athletes at the middle, high school and collegiate levels. As the Vice President of the Student Christian Medical and Dental Association chapter on his campus, he arranges all the volunteers to screen his university three times per year capturing all athletes, new and incoming along with any transfer students. In April 2018, Xavier along with the Southeastern University Athletic Director, Drew Watson and the Executive Director of Who We Play For, Evan Ernst, were invited to speak at the National Association Of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) annual conference sharing his story and how Who We Play For operates. To date, several universities throughout the country have reached out to inquire how they can implement these screenings in their state.

Team Manager, Danish AED Network
Kastrup, Denmark

As the manager of Danish AED Network, Henriette is in charge of maintaining regular contact with AED owners to validate research data and ensure continued quality and correctness of that data, activate and deactivate AEDs when they have been in use or have been referred to by the emergency medical dispatch center, and support the emergency medical dispatch center in returning used AEDs to the rightful owners after usage. She also provides phone support to companies, laymen, and other stakeholders primarily regarding the use of AEDs, processes regarding used AEDs, and the Danish Heart Runner Project.

Public Access Defibrillator Specialist & Medical Device Consultant
Barrie, Ontario

Carly Jackson holds expertise in the field of Public Resuscitation and Public Access Defibrillators. Carly’s work in this space cemented her as one of the leading sales representatives and Automated External Defibrillators (AED) Specialists, with a focus on thoroughly understanding all the public access devices on the market. During this time Carly worked directly with various global leaders in AED device manufacturing, distributors across Canada and the USA, and local non profit groups. Carly was successful in developing a network across Canada of licensed distributors who acted to re-sell these defibrillators and their accessories to end users.

Her commitment to having the public fully understand sudden cardiac arrest, when & how to use a defibrillator – led her to working with a team of passionate individuals who were committed to make a universal standard for all AED’s. This project culminated in the public education movement which was taken out to the Canadian and American market in 2019. During this time Carly was responsible on a global scale for community engagement and held the position titled, director of distribution. Carly was most widely recognized as the brand ambassador for this movement and product line. During this time Carly not only directly managed all of the distribution partners, but she was successful in gaining the product the award for “New Product of the Year 2019” by Occupational Health & Safety.

In 2020 Carly has spent the majority of her time working with various AED distributors & non-profits to grow their business, expand their marketing campaigns, develop new products, and forge new partnerships amongst others in the industry. One of Carly’s main goals is to help her various clients collaborate with each other in an effort to make safer communities.  

President/COO, Avive Solutions, Inc.
San Francisco, CA

While still an undergraduate at UCLA, Sameer turned his experience with personal loss into a lasting impact through starting a Los Angeles based non-profit called Saving Hearts Foundation, that focuses on cardiac arrest prevention in youth via free ECG screening. Saving Hearts is now functioning as a sustainable foundation, screening over 5500 high school students in the just 5 years (and have found over 40 students with cardiac abnormalities requiring a second opinion). Through the heart screening program, Saving Hearts has also taught hands-only CPR to over 5,000 students. Today, due to the infrastructure and ongoing guidance Sameer provides, Saving Hearts is still a student-run non-profit that screens 1,000 students in the Los Angeles area per year.

In 2017, Sameer teamed up with two other students from MIT with similar interests and ambition, and founded Avive Solutions, a San Francisco-based company that is building a next-generation AED and revolutionary software to improve time to defibrillation. Since its founding, Avive has raised nearly $10M in funding from venture capitalists and renowned medical device investors and hired over 20 leaders from the medical device industry to help bring its game-changing AED to the masses. Sameer seeks to make Avive the most accessible and portable AED unit on the market, so that it will be available to anyone in need, regardless of their age, location, or other demographics. To help ensure accessibility, Avive will be smaller, lighter, more portable, and more affordable than any AED on the market today, and it will be coupled with first of its kind software solutions that will ensure an AED gets to a patient where and when it’s needed.

Girl Scout Troop 3803
La Jolla, CA

Five Girl Scouts from Troop 3803 in San Diego became passionate about the importance of CPR training and use of AEDs in the community in 2013 when one of their father’s suffered a Sudden Cardiac Arrest. He survived due to receiving high quality lay person CPR in the field before first responders arrived on scene. Since that event, the girls became interested in advocating for CPR training and propagation of AEDs in the community.

They were involved with trainings at their elementary school, Bird Rock Elementary, but as they transitioned to middle and high school, they wanted to work together on this initiative for their Girl Scout Silver Award. The girls researched about the SADS Foundation Heart Safe School Accreditation and decided it would be a great tool to advocate for increased CPR/AED awareness and training in their own community. They had several meetings with school leadership, the parent teacher association, and within their troop to support the initiative. The girls were personally involved with CPR training at Muirlands Middle School for both 7th and 8th graders and faculty. They led three Emergency Response Drills at the school, filming and debriefing the faculty involved in the drills. They worked with the school leadership and the school nurse to develop Cardiac Emergency Care Plans for children identified with possible cardiac issues and they handed out risk assessment forms for all students. It is their hope that this type of accreditation will be attained by other schools within the community, therefore continuing to increase awareness about the importance of CPR/AED training.

Executive Director, Greater Williamsburg HEARTSafe Alliance
Williamsburg, VA

In 2018, Connor was hired by Greater Williamsburg HEARTSafe Alliance to implement a new local program. Since then, Connor has become deeply passionate about cardiac arrest preparedness. He has learned so much from the fire chiefs and EMS agencies that are in partnership with the program. Connor started a training committee shortly after he was hired that would be instrumental in creating incredible efficiencies in the HEARTSafe training process. Because of his hard work, trainings have become so refined the team can train 20-30 people in less than 45 minutes. 

Part of the HEARTSafe program includes free hands only CPR training. Since launching the training program in February 2019, the team has trained over 1,000 people and seen multiple cardiac arrest victims survive due, in-part, to hands-only CPR.

Orange, California

November 9, 2017 was like any other day for Jennifer Hayes. She was 30 weeks into a perfect pregnancy with her second son. Then that evening, after putting their 3 year old son to bed, she collapsed at the foot of his bed and became the victim of a sudden cardiac arrest. Her husband Kyle heard her fall and rushed to check on her. He found her face down, unresponsive, having a seizure.

Knowing he had to act quickly for the sake of her life and that of their unborn son, he immediately called 911 and was instructed by the dispatcher to start CPR. In that moment, he recalled their neighbor Russ, a police officer, was home. Kyle immediately ran across the street and pounded on Russ’ door. Not waiting for an answer, Kyle rushed back home and began CPR, with guidance from the dispatcher. Meanwhile, Russ was perplexed by the panicked knock on his door and the fact that no one was standing there when he answered. He quickly noticed the Hays’ front door was open and entered the home to check on them. Immediately, he was summoned upstairs and took over CPR until EMS arrived.

Upon EMS arrival, Jennifer was in ventricular fibrillation and received two shocks from the defibrillator, code medications, and was intubated. A CPR feedback device was used by the responding team to ensure high quality compressions were performed throughout the resuscitation. In total, she received over 15 minutes of CPR, was taken to a local hospital, then subsequently airlifted to a higher level of care. Their son Micah Hayes was born nearly seven hours later by emergency C-section at 30 weeks. Following the C-section, targeted temperature management was initiated. Jennifer was discharged eight days after her cardiac arrest, only suffering some weakness and short term memory loss. Micah spent 71 days in the NICU before being discharged home. Thanks to the quick actions of her husband calling 911, eliciting help, and starting CPR, both Micah and Jennifer made full recoveries with no deficits.  She has since returned to my her job as the Resuscitation Coordinator at the local Children’s Hospital.

For years, she has had a passion to improve CPR quality and cardiac arrest outcomes and now as a survivor, that passion is deeper than ever. Jennifer hope to use her families story of survival to empower many bystanders to learn and perform CPR, communities to become heart safe, and first responders and hospitals to develop programs that promote high quality resuscitation. In their case, CPR didn’t just save one life, it saved two.

November 9, 2017 was like any other day for Jennifer Hayes. She was 30 weeks into a perfect pregnancy with her second son. Then that evening, after putting their 3 year old son to bed, she collapsed at the foot of his bed and became the victim of a sudden cardiac arrest. Her husband Kyle heard her fall and rushed to check on her. He found her face down, unresponsive, having a seizure.

Knowing he had to act quickly for the sake of her life and that of their unborn son, he immediately called 911 and was instructed by the dispatcher to start CPR. In that moment, he recalled their neighbor Russ, a police officer, was home. Kyle immediately ran across the street and pounded on Russ’ door. Not waiting for an answer, Kyle rushed back home and began CPR, with guidance from the dispatcher. Meanwhile, Russ was perplexed by the panicked knock on his door and the fact that no one was standing there when he answered. He quickly noticed the Hays’ front door was open and entered the home to check on them. Immediately, he was summoned upstairs and took over CPR until EMS arrived.

Upon EMS arrival, Jennifer was in ventricular fibrillation and received two shocks from the defibrillator, code medications, and was intubated. A CPR feedback device was used by the responding team to ensure high quality compressions were performed throughout the resuscitation. In total, she received over 15 minutes of CPR, was taken to a local hospital, then subsequently airlifted to a higher level of care. Their son Micah Hayes was born nearly seven hours later by emergency C-section at 30 weeks. Following the C-section, targeted temperature management was initiated. Jennifer was discharged eight days after her cardiac arrest, only suffering some weakness and short term memory loss. Micah spent 71 days in the NICU before being discharged home. Thanks to the quick actions of her husband calling 911, eliciting help, and starting CPR, both Micah and Jennifer made full recoveries with no deficits.  She has since returned to my her job as the Resuscitation Coordinator at the local Children’s Hospital.

For years, she has had a passion to improve CPR quality and cardiac arrest outcomes and now as a survivor, that passion is deeper than ever. Jennifer hope to use her families story of survival to empower many bystanders to learn and perform CPR, communities to become heart safe, and first responders and hospitals to develop programs that promote high quality resuscitation. In their case, CPR didn’t just save one life, it saved two.

Chair, Task Force on SCA in Youth

Dr. Berger is Executive Director, Heart Center; Pediatric Heart Center, Lurie Children’s Hospital Vice Chair; Clinical Affairs Pediatrics, Lurie Children’s Hospital.

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.

SUMMIT PROGRAM CHAIR

Director of Quality at Code One Training Solutions, LLC.

David’s current role is as the Director of Quality at Code One Training Solutions, LLC. In this position, David works to assist organizations to improve their systems of care for cardiac arrest and ensure that responders are ready, willing and able to act when faced with a medical emergency.  He is an active volunteer with professional organizations such as the American College of Cardiology, the Citizen CPR Foundation and a number of other not-for-profit groups. David has extensive background in cardiac arrest systems of care through his work at Code One and with the American Heart Association where he gained substantial experience in education, implementation, strategy development, and in helping systems achieve improved outcomes.

David is focused on helping bystanders to be ready, willing, and able to act. Additionally, he supports the concept that care provided by our EMS agencies must occur within a system that coordinates and integrates each facet of care into a choreographed group effort, focusing on survival to discharge from the hospital.

His strategic leadership is enhanced by an innate and practiced ability to convey complex information in a clear and concise manner to all levels within the decision making spectrum. 

AT-LARGE MEMBER

Dr. Tom Aufderheide is a Professor of Emergency Medicine with Tenure and Associate Chair of Research Affairs and Director of the NIH-funded Resuscitation Research Center in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He is a nationally and internationally recognized researcher in the field of emergency cardiac care, whose scholarly achievements include numerous state-of-the-art research studies and over 100 peer-reviewed publications, including two papers in the New England Journal of Medicine, that have had a significant effect on the practice of emergency medicine, particularly prehospital identification and treatment of the ischemic patient with the use of prehospital 12-lead electrocardiography and predictive instruments. He has served as principal and co-principal investigator on many important national studies, including the Public Access Defibrillation (PAD) Trial, which doubled survival rates for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and will provide the objective data on which to base national healthcare policy for the next decade.

Dr. Aufderheide is one of a handful of nationally recognized researchers actively engaged and NIH-supported in the complex area of out-of-hospital cardiac resuscitation research that is likely to significantly change national and international CPR education, training, and clinical practice, including the multi-site Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium (ROC) that has both cardiac and trauma clinical trial arms. He also is funded by NIH-NINDS for the NETT Network (Neurological Emergencies Treatment Trials), which will promote and conduct clinical trials in neurologic emergencies.

Griffith Blue Heart/Dynamic Cardiac Care 501.C3 Nonprofit

Brandon Griffith is a police officer and out of hospital sudden cardiac arrest survivor having survived at the age of 26. Brandon is the country’s leading expert on police cardiac response and law enforcement AED program implementation. Brandon is a former EMT and advanced law enforcement Instructor. Brandon is the owner/founder of Griffith Blue Heart where he prepares, trains, and equips law enforcement for cardiac emergencies. He also has the honor of serving as the President/CEO of Dynamic Cardiac Care 501.C3 nonprofit. 

Brandon is a current Citizen CPR Foundation 40 Under 40 committee member after being selected to win the CCPRF 40 Under 40 award as a member of the 2019 class. He also sits on the Arizona Heart and Stroke Health Improvement Program board and is a founding member of Arizona Cardiac Arrest Survivors.   

Brandon has been fortunate to use his advanced training and skills in the field where he has been credited with multiple life saves. He created an innovative advanced Cardio-Cerebral Resuscitation training course specifically for law enforcement. Brandon’s motto is “Earn Each Day” and he strives to make the biggest impact on SCA survival he can and earn his second chance at life. Brandon’s proudest accomplishment in life is being a father and husband.

Training Specialist, American Red Cross
San Diego, CA

Lance Timmons began his career in resuscitative care advocacy in 2016 as a Beach Director with Connecticut’s State Parks Lifeguard Program. In this position, he oversaw all training, operations, and emergency response protocol, which set a foundation for the beginning of a career within the American Red Cross. 

Within the American Red Cross, and with an emphasis on high quality Lifeguarding/CPR/AED training, Lance Timmons combined previous industry knowledge with the formal Aquatics Examiner Service. With this, he improved the safety of community visitors of all types of aquatic facilities. 

Lance later transitioned to oversee the growth, implementation, and development of CARES (Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival) in the state of Connecticut. The registry sought to collect invaluable SCA data elements and allowed for easily accessible metrics. As a result, this led to an increase in discussions focused on the improvement of the EMS systems within Connecticut. CARES now, and continues to be, a standing agenda item on statewide EMS advisory boards, councils, and committee meetings. 

Today, Lance lives in San Diego where he is continuing his passion to promote, increase, and improve all levels of training throughout Southern California, Hawaii, and the Pacific Islands.

Primary and Secondary Prevention, Disparities in Cardiovascular Health and a Vision for the Future

HEARTSafe Community Champions Webinar – Tuesday, February 9, 2021

Dr. Pavitra Kotini-Shah graduated from Eastern Virginia Medical School in 2011. She completed her Emergency Medicine residency at William Beaumont Hospital, Michigan. She currently works as an Emergency Medicine physician in Chicago, Illinois. She also serves as an Assistant Professor and Assistant Director of Ultrasound and Resuscitation Fellowship at University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. Kotini-Shah does research on cardiac strain, diastolic dysfunction, and use of ultrasound in sickle cell patients…read more.

Primary and Secondary Prevention, Disparities in Cardiovascular Health and a Vision for the Future

HEARTSafe Community Champions Webinar -Tuesday, February 9, 2021

Dr. Stacey Ellyn Rosen is Vice President, Women’s Health, Katz Institute for Women’s Health at North Shore-LIJ Health System and a practicing cardiologist and echocardiographer. She was formerly the Associate Chairman of the Department of Cardiology at Long Island Jewish Medical Center. She is Associate Professor of Medicine at Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine, served as Director of the Fellowship Program in Cardiovascular Disease for the past decade and currently serves as co-Director of the Homeostasis Course…read more.

Primary and Secondary Prevention, Disparities in Cardiovascular Health and a Vision for the Future

HEARTSafe Community Champions Webinar – Tuesday, February 9, 2021

Nancy Brown is Chief Executive Officer of the American Heart Association (AHA). The Association is a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives dedicated to ensuring equitable health for all – in the U.S. and around the world. Serving as CEO since 2008, Nancy has elevated the AHA as a global leader in heart disease and stroke science innovation. Under her leadership and 30+ year AHA career, the Association established the first-ever definition of “cardiovascular health” and just announced its bold 2030 global aspiration.“Together with global and local collaborators, we will equitably increase worldwide healthy life expectancy from 64 to at least 67, by 2030.” The Association’s work is led by over 40 million volunteers, scientists, staff and donors. Read more. 

Survival and Recovery from SCA with Greg Page

HEARTSafe Community Champions Webinar – Tuesday, January 12, 2021

Greg Page was best known as the original Yellow Wiggle – having started his career with his three founding-Wiggle mates, Murray Cook, Jeff Fatt, and Anthony Field almost 30 years ago.  Together, these Wiggly friends performed more than 6,000 concerts together all over the world.  They have performed to more than 3 million paying customers, sold more than 24 million DVD’s, and sold out the theatre at Madison Square Garden 13 times in one week!
However, Greg is now possibly best known as The Wiggle who had a cardiac arrest on stage – and survived.  After having left the group back in 2006 due to ill-health (nothing to do with his recent cardiac arrest), he had been out of the group for a long time – but the generation of fans that grew up with Page and the rest of the originals, are now in their late 20’s to early thirty’s, and that means the mix of Original Wiggles songs and a pub-rock environment is ripe for lots of innocent fun!
But that fun turned to near death for Greg when at the end of the most recent performance by the group, raising funds for bushfire relief, one of his arteries blocked 100% and caused a sudden cardiac arrest.  If not for the quick thinking and life-saving skills of bystanders, chances are Greg would have died. His life was saved because of CPR and an AED at Castle Hill RSL Club that was brought to the stage and used to revert his heart to a normal rhythm in time for paramedics to arrive and stabilize him until he received life-saving surgery.
Upon waking up in recovery, Greg was told that his chances of surviving that type of cardiac arrest were only 1 in 10.  That means he had a 90% of not making it that night.  This rocked Greg.  The fact that 90% of people who have a sudden cardiac arrest out of hospital do not survive, was a hard-hitting stat that he couldn’t ignore. 
And so, now on a mission, Greg’s purpose is to educate others about the importance of knowing CPR, and making AED’s more available in public places and in homes – but not only that, making sure that people know where to find an AED, by introducing a new initiative called “Heart of the Nation” which is a “badge of honor” like the Australian Made Campaign, which businesses everywhere can place on their entry doors, letting the community know that they have an AED inside if it is ever needed to save a life, just as Greg’s was.

Effect of Optimized Versus Guidelines-Based AED Placement on Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Coverage: An In Silico Trial 

HEARTSafe Community Champions Webinar – Tuesday, October 13, 2020

Christopher Sun is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management and Massachusetts General Hospital. His research interests lie at the intersection of optimization, machine learning, and healthcare delivery. He is particularly focused on 1) establishing actionable recommendations to optimize healthcare systems, 2) integrating emerging technologies and medicines into current healthcare practices, and 3) developing artificial intelligence approaches to improve the diagnosis, treatment, and management of patients. His work has been conducted in collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston, USA), St. Michael’s Hospital (Toronto, Canada), and Gentofte Hospital (Copenhagen, Denmark). He received his BASc in Engineering Science (Biomedical Engineering) and PhD in Industrial Engineering from the University of Toronto. 

Challenges in Implementation, Accountability and Leadership in Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest

HEARTSafe Community Champions Webinar – Tuesday, September 8, 2020

Ann is the Executive Director of the Resuscitation Academy Foundation. Working with faculty and staff from our partner organizations, Ann helped create the RA in 2008. Ann also serves as the Secretariat for the Global Resuscitation Alliance, a coalition of leaders from around the world committed to saving 50,000 additional lives per year from cardiac arrest by 2025.

Challenges in Implementation, Accountability and Leadership in Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest

HEARTSafe Community Champions Webinar – Tuesday, September 8, 2020

Dr. Eisenberg is Director of Medical QI at the King County Emergency Medicine Services and Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Washington. He has studied cardiac arrest and developed innovative programs to treat this condition for 40 years. He is the author of, “Resuscitate! How your Community Can Improve Survival from Sudden Cardiac Arrest” (University of Washington Press), as well as numerous books and articles on cardiac arrest.

CPR, Citizenship and Survivorship: Psychosocial Implications of Cardiac Arrest

HEARTSafe Community Champions Webinar – Tuesday, November 10, 2020 

Dr. Katie Dainty is a qualitative and mixed methods scientist and is the Research Chair in Patient-Centred Outcomes at North York General Hospital. She graduated with her PhD from the University of Toronto in 2010 and in addition to her appointment at North York General, she is an Associate Professor in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME) at the University of Toronto. Katie brings an extensive background in both clinical and implementation research and has designed and evaluated several innovative projects, with an emphasis on health care quality, knowledge translation and health systems improvement. 
Dr. Dainty’s research interests are studying how organizational and sociocultural variables shape health care quality improvement and patient-centred outcomes. Her main focus is on using qualitative research methods to understand the experiences of survivors, family members and lay responders of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and bring her findings to bear on thinking around innovation in approaches to improving bystander CPR and support for survivors and families post-discharge. She is also the founder of the Bystander Support Network (www.bystandernetwork.org). 
Dr. Dainty is Co-Chair of the Public Engagement Committee of the Canadian Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium and is also a member of the American Heart Association Subcommittee on Science. She was awarded the inaugural Canadian Institutes of Health Research’s Rising Star Award for Knowledge Translation, a Young Investigator Award from the American Heart Association and has over 70 academic publications. 

Effect of Optimized Versus Guidelines-Based AED Placement on Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Coverage: An In Silico Trial 

HEARTSafe Community Champions Webinar – Tuesday, October 13, 2020

Timothy Chan is the Canada Research Chair in Novel Optimization and Analytics in Health, a Professor in the department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, the Director of the Centre for Healthcare Engineering, and the Director of the Centre for Analytics and AI Engineering at the University of Toronto. His primary research interests are in optimization under uncertainty and the application of optimization methods to problems in healthcare, medicine, global engineering, sustainability, and sports. He received his B.Sc. in Applied Mathematics from the University of British Columbia, and his Ph.D. in Operations Research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Before coming to Toronto, he was an Associate in the Chicago office of McKinsey and Company, a global management consulting firm. During that time, he advised leading companies in the fields of medical device technology, travel and hospitality, telecommunications, and energy on issues of strategy, organization, technology and operations.

Bryan F. McNally, MD, MPH is Professor of Emergency Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. He graduated from Cornell University with an undergraduate degree in Meteorology. He began his formal medical education working as an Emergency Medical Technician and Paramedic in the Harlem and Washington Heights communities for the New York City Emergency Medical Service. He graduated from the Albany Medical College in upstate New York and completed his specialty training in emergency medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York after completing an internship at Boston City Hospital. He subsequently completed a two-year prehospital and disaster/emergency medical services fellowship at Boston Emergency Medical Service. His Masters of Public Health degree is in Health Service Administration from Boston University. He is board certified by the American Board of Emergency Medicine. His areas of expertise are emergency medicine and prehospital and disaster medicine. Dr. McNally is the Executive Director of the Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival (CARES), a CDC founded quality improvement program to increase survival for out-of hospital cardiac arrest in the United States. He serves as a consultant to the Pan Asian Resuscitation Outcomes Study (PAROS) and is a board member of the Asian EMS Council and a Visiting Professor at Duke National University of Singapore.

EMS Medical Director, State of Alaska

Anchorage, Alaska

Michael Levy, MD, FACEP, FACP, FAEMS, is an EMS physician and emergency medicine physician practicing in Anchorage, Alaska with a specific practice focus on improving community outcomes in life-threatening time-critical emergencies. He has practiced emergency medicine for over three decades.

As an emergency physician, he has provided front-line care in remote and urban environments as well as serving in administrative roles including department chair and president of the hospital medical staff. The majority of Dr. Levy’s clinical practice is now EMS medicine. He is the Medical Director and for the Anchorage Fire Department and for Anchorage Area-wide EMS, a position he has held since 1995. He is the Medical Director for Emergency Programs for the State of Alaska and has the honor to serve as the medical director for a number of other Alaska EMS agencies, including being the EMS Medical Director for the Kenai Peninsula Borough, Fairweather LLC, Anchorage Service Patrol among others.

Dr. Levy is the President of the National Association of EMS Physicians, the Alaska PI for the Heart Rescue Project and the president of the Loren Marshall Foundation, a 501(c)3. He is the Chief Medical Advisor for Stryker Emergency Care. He is the Medical Director for Global Medical Response’s International Motorsports Association medical program. Dr. Levy is a faculty member of the Seattle Resuscitation Academy and serves as a senior consultant for the Academy. He has served on a variety of national committees and expert panels and is a published author on a number of scientific articles.

Dr. Levy has been involved in EMS from Chicago to the Navajo Nation and has served as the civilian Medical Director for the Alaska Air National Guard Pararescue Squadron. His goal in EMS is to enable providers to improve the outcome of their patients through personal empowerment via education, training and evidence-based practice.  

Dr. Levy’s undergraduate degree was from the CU Boulder, with MD from Northwestern University followed by residencies in Emergency Medicine and Internal Medicine with board certifications in both as well as subspecialty boards in EMS Medicine.

He is based in Anchorage, AK where he is an Affiliate Associate Professor with the University of Alaska Health Sciences and practices community-based emergency medicine.

President of the the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch

Jerry Overton serves as the President of the the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch, the organization charged with setting standards, establishing curriculum, and conducting research for public safety dispatch worldwide. In addition, he is a member of its Board of Trustees and chairs of its Institutional Review Board. Previously, he served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Richmond Ambulance Authority (RAA), Richmond, Virginia, and prior served as the Chief Executive of the Kansas City, Missouri, EMS system. In addition, he provides technical assistance throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, having most recently providing assistance to upgrade the EMS system for the country of Lebanon. He is the Past President of the American Ambulance Association, was a member of the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on the Future of Emergency Care in the U. S. Health System, and was the Chief Financial Officer for the World Association of Disaster and Emergency Medicine. As an expert in EMS system design, he was named one of the 20 most influential leaders in EMS by JEMS magazine and has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of EMTs and the National Registry of EMTs.

Associate Medical Director of Emergency Medicine and the EMS Medical Director at Cheshire Medical Center / Dartmouth Hitchcock – Keene, NH

Dr. Suozzi has been involved in EMS for over 25 years. He attended medical school at Nova Southeastern University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Ft. Lauderdale, FL and completed his residency training in Emergency Medicine at the University of Connecticut / Hartford Hospital in 2008 and an EMS Fellowship at Hartford Hospital in 2009. He is currently the Associate Medical Director of Emergency Medicine and the EMS Medical Director at Cheshire Medical Center / Dartmouth Hitchcock – Keene, NH. He is also serves as Medical Director for New Hampshire e911 and Vermont EMS District 13 Medical Advisor. He is board certified in Emergency Medicine and Emergency Medical Services.

Program Director at the Center for Resuscitation Medicine at the University of Minnesota 

Kim Harkins is currently leading the Center for Resuscitation Medicine at the University of Minnesota as Program Director. She coordinates the mobile ECMO project in the Twin Cities metro area. She holds a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Minnesota and a Bachelor of Science degree in Education from Crown College.
Kim has worked in EMS, the fire service and emergency education for over 20 years.
She has served as AHA regional faculty, on the EMS Educators State Advisory group and currently participates in the Minnesota Sudden Cardiac Arrest Survivors Network, the American Heart Association and various projects such as Heart Safe Community Designation.

Founder and Chief Consultant for The 110 Group, LLC

Tim Williams is the Founder and Chief Consultant for The 110 Group, LLC. A veteran owned consultancy that helps companies adapt to an ever-evolving marketplace and obtain a competitive advantage by improving strategic execution and strengthening resources and capabilities.

For 20-years, Tim worked for the American Heart Association’s (AHA) CPR & First Aid division where he held a multiple leadership positions, including: National Director of Sales and the National Director of Operations and Quality where he led 3.2K contracted business partners and over 400K instructors across the US.

Tim served in the United States Naval Reserves as a combat medic with the US Marine Corps and was honorably discharged as a First Class Petty Officer. His early career was as a municipal fire/EMS Lieutenant and training officer, EMS Instructor-Coordinator leading a variety of training programs for fire and EMS agencies, as well as healthcare providers and corporations throughout the State of Rhode Island.

Resurgent Biomedical Consulting team and Via Heart Project

Pam Dodson retired from the Contra Costa County EMS Agency in California where she developed and coordinated programs for nearly 30 years.
During her time at CCC EMS, determined to increase the sudden cardiac arrest survival rate, Pam, implemented the County’s Public Safety AED Program, Public Access AED Program and the Contra Costa County HeartSafe Community Program. Pam coordinated the System of Care for Cardiac Arrest.

With a passion for changing the culture, Pam’s goal is to make it “normal” to step up and do CPR when someone collapses in cardiac arrest.

Pam graduated from California State University, Los Angeles with a BS in Nursing and a specialty in Critical Care. She worked as an RN in critical care units, emergency medicine and air medical prior to EMS. Pam is a BLS and ACLS instructor.

She currently works with the Resurgent Biomedical Consulting team and Via Heart Project.

Pam lives in Benicia, California. She cherishes every moment she has with her two grown children, Christopher and Kelsey and in her spare time Pam enjoys community service, flower arranging, reading, anything outdoors and is always ready to throw a party.

Critical Care PA at UConn Health in Farmington, Connecticut

Brandon Oto, PA-C, NREMT is a critical care PA at UConn Health in Farmington, Connecticut. He completed residency training at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and then held a staff ICU position in the University of Maryland system. Prior to that, he was a field EMT in the Massachusetts area. He has an interest in cardiac arrest and has worked with the HEARTSafe program for nearly a decade.

Officer of Coon Rapids, Minnesota

Passion, enthusiasm and people skills have helped Officer Bryan Platz transform the community of Coon Rapids, Minnesota into a Heart Safe Community. The success of the Coon Rapids program has ignited a firestorm of interest from other communities in creating programs of their own, not only in Minnesota, but around the world. The concept of the program: train the public in hands-only CPR and AED use so they can step in to “BE the Help” rather than wait for the help to arrive. So far over 30,000 community members have been trained in CPR and AED use and the community has already had several “saves.”
Officer Platz helped to designate the first military base in the nation as “Heart Safe” as well as two schools in Minnesota. He also worked to pass the AED Announcement Law.
Officer Platz has worked for the Coon Rapids Police Department for over 20 years. He is married and has two sons. He considers himself an all-around nice guy, good police officer and mediocre hockey player. If you meet him, he won’t let you leave the room until you know how to do hands-only CPR.

Pediatric Intensivist at Boston Children’s Hospital, Medical Director of the Medical-Surgical ICU and Critical Care Transport Team

Dr. Kleinman is a pediatric intensivist at Boston Children’s Hospital and serves as the Medical Director of the Medical-Surgical ICU and Critical Care Transport Team. She is responsible for the hospital’s resuscitation program and Training Center, including the system of care to prevent in-patient cardiac arrest.

Dr. Kleinman has volunteered for the American Heart Association at the national level for the past 20 years, including as Chair of the Pediatric Resuscitation Subcommittee and the Emergency Cardiovascular Care Committee. She is a member of the ILCOR Pediatric Task Force and has served on the writing groups for both AHA Guidelines and the ILCOR Consensus on Science with Treatment Recommendations (CoSTR). She is the current vice chair of the AHA’s Get With the Guidelines Pediatric Research Task Force.

Dr. Kleinman’s interests focus on the prevention of in-hospital pediatric cardiac arrest through the use of early warning scores, rapid response teams and physiologic monitoring. She has lectured on these topics nationally and internationally, and has taught AHA PALS and PEARS courses in Taiwan, Tanzania, and Italy among others.

Program Director, HEARTSafe Communities and Director of Quality at Code One Training Solutions, LLC

David Hiltz is Director of Innovation and Customer Experience at Code One Training Solutions, LLC.  In this position, he works to ensure responders are ready, willing and able to act when faced with a medical emergency.  David is committed to helping organizations improve their systems of care for cardiac arrest.  David has an extensive background in cardiac arrest response through his work at Code One and nearly two decades with the American Heart Association where he was responsible for education, implementation, strategy development, and helping responders achieve improved outcomes.

In addition to his work at Code One, David is an active volunteer with several organizations including the American College of Cardiology and the Citizen CPR Foundation where he serves as the Director for their HEARTSafe Community initiative.

Instructor, EMT & AHA BLS Classes
Tahoka, TX

Traci Jolly is an outstanding EMT-P at the Lynn County EMS. She works full time on the service team and volunteers for 8-10, 12-hour shifts per month. Traci has also saved several patients after cardiac arrest as an EMT-P.

In her free time, Traci also serves as assistant director and co-instructor for all EMT and AHA BLS classes in the North Texas area. 

EMS Medical Director, Emergency Department Assistant Director and Stroke Medical Director at Frisbie Memorial Hospital in Rochester, NH

Chief of Cumberland EMS

John Pliakas is currently the Chief of Cumberland EMS in Cumberland, RI. John has extensive experience in all aspects of emergency and critical care.

Professor of Medicine and the Director of Cardiac Electrophysiology in the UT Southwestern Department of Internal Medicine’s Division of Cardiology.

He joined the staff there in 1997 and became a full Professor in 2008. He served as Director of Evaluation of Athletes and Co-Director of the university’s Cardiac Electrophysiology Laboratory, Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Center, and Heart Station.

He has lectured or presented at conferences, grand rounds, or symposia of organizations including the American College of Cardiology, American Heart Association, Heart Rhythm Society, American Society of Medicine and Sports, Heart Failure Society of America, New England Regional Trauma Conference, and North American Trainers Association.

 Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Mercy Health System, Trinity Health in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Dr. Vigilance’s commitment to improving the health and well-being in under-resourced populations is evident through his work with AHA’s Multicultural Leadership Committee, as well as engagement in the AHA’s Social Determinants of Health Conference. Dr. Vigilance’s efforts in advocacy and community impact led to him being awarded the Great Rivers Affiliate 2019 Multicultural Leadership Award.

Global Emergency Services Outreach Leader, General Motors OnStar

With over 15 years of training and emergency operations experience, Char Poranganel is the Global Emergency Services Outreach Leader at General Motors OnStar supporting Canada and Global Regions in educating the emergency services community on OnStar Emergency technologies / services offered to subscribers.  Prior to this role, Char was responsible for managing Emergency call operations for in-vehicle emergencies including Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD) call handling and customer satisfaction for OnStar members across North America. Char also implemented Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) programs within the OnStar emergency operations center supporting advisors after handling difficult calls.

Char holds her B.A in Education from Brock University, Certificate in Adult Teaching & Training, is certified by the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation (ICISF) in Peer & Group Interventions, certified in ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) and MANERS Psychological First Aid Training.