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NAME: Allisynne Dunlap EMAIL: amd@access.mountain.net OCCUPATION: Paramedic/Safety Officer/EMS Administrator BIO: Although I am not involved in the fire services, I have been with EMS for almost 23 years. I feel that all women involved in the service professions can learn from, and help, each other. After all, the reason we have chosen to walk the path in life that we have chosen is because we all have answered that call of wanting to help in some small way to ease the suffering of our fellow humans in an individual way. There really is no difference in a Fire Fighter, or an EMT or Paramedic, or a Police Officer...in our own ways, we each contribute to making the world better on a case by case basis - for one person at a time. In the years that I have been lucky enough to be involved in EMS, I have gone from a volunteer with absolutely no training, to a paid Paramedic, to a Safety Officer with an MS in Safety Management, to a state-wide educator for the entire EMS system, to an EMS Administrator. And I still jump on the ambulance every chance I get (which, unfortuneately, is not so often as I would like)! I have learned something from every partner I have worked with...and I have had many over the years. I have learned much from the students in every class that I have taught. Most importantly, I have learned something from every call that I have been on and from every patient that I have had the privilege to pick up. There is something out there waiting to be taught to each of us from every encounter that we have in life. Something that can make us better caretakers, friends, family members, and better people - if we will just remain open enough to look for it, see it, listen to it, and learn! from it. The day that I quit learning from my experiences, and from the people that I meet and work with, and the patients that I work for, I will know that the time to do what I have so loved doing for these past two decades is over. I am no one special. I don't want my picture in the paper, or accolades, or recognition, or awards. It's far more than reward enough for me to know that I have done the very best that I can do for every patient that I pick up - whether it's a priority one emergency or a non-emergency transport. Every patient who has ever been laid on my cot has had a need, even if I don't see it at the time. To know that I have done my best is more than enough for me. I don't even wear my length of service pin or my Phoenix Award on my uniform, because I try hard not to draw attention to myself. My care for my patients, my co-workers and, now, the people who are working for me should speak for itself. I know that I will get a call on Christmas Day from a man that I resusciatated from cardiac arrest at a football game. At 78, he still substitute teaches, plays golf, and interacts lovingly with his family. He calls to thank me for giving him more time to love his family and to enjoy his life. I wouldn't trade that phone call for any award in the world. On my Christmas tree will hang a handmade ornament from an 18 year-old college girl...an athlete with whom I spent over an hour in a crushed car that she was entrapped in. In addition to her other numerous injuries, she had a broken back. She's rowing again, and I think of her every Christmas when I decorate my tree. I think of the several cardiac arrest patients that I have worked on Christmases past who didn't make it...and would like to think that, maybe, I had some small part in making a horrible and tragic moment better for those they left behind. I've patched and bandaged, started IV's and intubated, made phone calls and coffee for families, talked and advised, shut up and listened, hugged, cried, and yelled - not always appropriately or in the correct order. Sometimes the only thing I have done is held the hand and brushed the forehead of someone who is dying so they will know that there is someone with them who cares, and who wants them to know that they aren't alone. But I'm not special. I'm just me. I want to make the world a better place...and the only way I know how to do that is to touch and help one person at a time.