Fun facts:
Cindy Lehman
Flight Nurse
STATMedEvac 18
Years of service – 1
Operations Control Specialist
Currently serving as Interim Supervisor for the Operations Control Specialists.
Years of Service – 8
Jenn Plourde
Flight Paramedic
Years of Service – 1 year
Fun facts about Jenn:
Starting off the new year, we’re celebrating two amazing STAT MedEvac employees, Maggie Zaliponi and Mike Shaffer, who have reached their Mission Milestones. Thank you both for your hard work, commitment, and the positive impact you make every day at STAT MedEvac.
Pictured above: Sharon Grossman, Samatha Adams, both from the PPC (Professional Practice Council), Maggie Zaliponi celebrating 3,000 missions, and Jim Houser, President and CEO of the Center for Emergency Medicine and STAT MedEvac.
Pictured above: Sharon Grossman from the PPC (Professional Practice Council), Mike Shaffer celebrating 3,000 missions and Jim Houser, President and CEO of the Center for Emergency Medicine and STAT MedEvac.
Sam Briski
Senior Mechanic
Years of Service – 7 years.
STAT MedEvac is lucky enough to have Santa’s direct phone line, and we called him into work last week! Santa made a special visit to UPMC Children’s Hospital in Harrisburg, continuing a heartwarming tradition we started together years ago. We’re honored to help keep this joyful tradition going for many years to come. You can find the full article on TheBurgNews.com at Santa arrives to visit children at UPMC via MedEvac chopper – TheBurg.
Also thank you to FOX43 News for this coverage of Santa and his elf visiting the children. Santa brings holiday cheer to pediatric patients with helicopter visit.
Dr. Paul Paris, Medical Director Emeritus, the Pittsburgh Emergency Medicine Foundation, has been known to many in Western Pennsylvania in various roles. An EM physician at UPMC – Presbyterian, an on-line medical director to many of the EMS providers, a mentor to EM residents and researchers and, the hand-picked leader to take over the Center for Emergency Medicine of Western Pennsylvania from it’s original creator, Dr. Ron Stewart.
Dr. Paris was recently recognized by PEMF as the 2025 Ronald D. Stewart Excellence Award. We took a few minutes to talk about his career and how he feels about the impact he has had on many EMS careers.
We’re celebrating three amazing STAT MedEvac employees this month, Eric Rothen, Hollee Russell and Neal Franchock, each have reached their Mission Milestones. Thank you all for your hard work, commitment, and the positive impact you make every day at STAT MedEvac.
Pictured above: Jim Houser, President and CEO of the Center for Emergency Medicine and STAT MedEvac, and Eric Rothen celebrating 5,000 missions.
Wednesday, December 17th, is National Wright Brothers Day. Established in 1963 by Congress through a joint resolution, “Wright Brothers Day” is used to honor the brothers’ first successful powered flight that changed the history of aviation as we know it.
Orville and Wilbur Wright were American aviation pioneers credited with inventing and flying the world’s first successful airplane. Orville’s first flight was made on December 17, 1903 in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. It lasted 12 seconds and 120 feet around the site of the Wright Brothers National Memorial in the Outer Banks.
While the brothers were not the first to build and fly experimental aircraft, they were the first to invent aircraft controls. Their breakthrough invention was their creation of a three-axis control system, which enabled the pilot to steer the aircraft effectively and maintain its equilibrium. Their system of aircraft controls made fix-wing […]
