2008 CIEMS Conference Presenters

Kyle Bissell, PS

Kyle has been involved with EMS since 1993. He is a volunteer, part-time and career fire fighter/paramedic and has been involved in teaching continuing education to EMS providers for 10 years throughout Iowa.

Heather Brodie, BS, PS

Heather is a Flight Paramedic for LifeFlight in Des Moines. She has 9 years of EMS experience as a paramedic which includes experience with a hospital based service, a 911 service and a volunteer ambulance service.

Craig Clark, DO

Dr. Clark practices at the Iowa Heart Center in Des Moines. His research interest is in clinical trials in heart failure and emergency cardiac care. Prior to medical school, Craig was a paramedic in Central Iowa for several years.

Dennis Cochran, PS, RN

Dennis is a Flight Nurse with Mercy One and the lead triage nurse for Iowa Heart at Mercy. In his distant past he has taught EMT Basic courses!

Monty Doll, PS

Monty graduated in 1996 with an AAS in Paramedicine from Rochester Community College in Minnesota. He is currently a Lieutenant for West Des Moines EMS.

Maria Farmer, MSN

Maria practices nursing in the Emergency Room at Allen Health Systems in Waterloo, IA. She also serves as a nursing instructor at Allen College and is a member of the Forensic Nursing Association. She enjoys providing teaching assistance to paramedics.

J.D. Fellows, RN

JD is currently a representative for Stryker selling orthopaedic devices. He was formerly an EMT.

Dan Glandon, PS, CCP

Dan is a retired U.S. Coast Guard Chief Warrant Officer. He is currently employed as Lead Flight paramedic with Air Evac Lifeteam in Ottumwa, Iowa, EMT-PS with Davis County hospital EMS and adjunct faculty at Indian Hills Community college. He received the Part-time Instructor of the Year Award from IEMSA in 2005.

Laurie Sena Gehrke, RN, BSN, CEN

Laurie has been a nurse since 1981, functioning in numerous roles during that time. Since moving to Iowa in 1996, she worked as a flight nurse for Mercy Air Life. For the past 5 years she has worked as a Pediatric Transport Nurse at Blank Children’s Hospital, working in conjunction with the Iowa Health System, Life Flight Helicopter Service, and Midwest Ambulance to transport ill and injured children.

John Hanson

John has been involved with EMS since 1990, starting as a first responder and working up to an Iowa Paramedic. He has been farming over 25 years raising corn, beans, hogs, cattle, and sod grass. John has been teaching EMS since 1991 in NW Iowa and volunteers for both Remsen and Granville Ambulance services

Jackie Heinle, RN, BSN

Jackie is the Nurse Manager for the Burn Treatment Center at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Jackie is a frequent and popular speaker at EMS Conferences in the Midwest.

Brian Helland, PS

Brian is the Deputy Chief of Quality Management and Training for West Des Moines EMS. He started working in EMS at a rural county-based hospital system and since then has worked as an ALS provider in a tiered response system, a public safety system and also for a fire based system. Brian is a native Iowan originally from Marshalltown.

Malinda Hilzer, EMT -B

Malinda is one of the Communications Specialist for Mercy One Dispatch. She has experience as an EMT B with various services such as Fraser Medical and the Lucas County Health Center Ambulance Service.

Jeff Johnston, RN, PS

Jeff is currently the Education Coordinator and a flight nurse for Mercy One. He has a vast history in the field of EMS, starting as a volunteer with Stuart Rescue. He has also been an EMS Program Instructor for Mercy School of EMS and teaches TNCC and ACLS classes.

Karen Jones, RN

Karen is a nurse with Life Flight in Des Moines. She is a contributing editor to the Transport Nurse Advanced Trauma Course as well as an instructor for that course and travels the US teaching this.

Christopher Le Baudour, MS.Ed., NREMT-I

Christopher is the Director of Communications for REACH Air Medical Services, a large helicopter/airplane air ambulance provider in the Northwest US. He is also a faculty member in the Department of Public Safely – EMS Division at Santa Rosa Junior College in CA, where he has been teaching since 1984. Chris is a prolific writer and has several ESM publications on the market.

Chris Nollette, Ed.D., NREMT-P

Chris is a native Texan who has been a flight, tactical and street paramedic for over 27 years. He now serves as the Director of the Riverside Community College District EMS Program in Riverside, CA.

Kristy Oswald, RNC

Kristy is a neonatal transport nurse for Blank Children’s Hospital and attends high-risk deliveries at IMMC to assist in resuscitation and stablilization of the infant. An additional duty is to maintain a consistent quality of care for infants away from the Neonate Unite while in surgery, MRI, or while receiving other tests.

Douglas Polking, PS

Doug will be familiar to the regular crowd at the CIEMS Conference as he served on the board and also chaired the conference for a number of years. He is the Service Director for Pella Community Ambulance.

Richard Sidwell, MD, FACS

Dr. Sidwell is the trauma surgeon at Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines. Dr. Sidwell enjoys speaking with audiences and has done so as various conferences throughout the Midwest.

Jeffrey Westpheling, MD, MPH

Dr. Westpheling practices at St. Luke’s Work Well Clinic in Cedar Rapids, IA. Jeff was a paramedic/firefighter with Des Moines Fire Department and precepted numerous paramedic students in Central Iowa, prior to going to medical school.