Robert G. Nixon Scholarship Winners Announced

EMS World Magazine is proud to announce the third annual winners of the Robert G. Nixon Scholarship, created in his memory by Nixon's family to provide access to educational opportunities for deserving EMS professionals. Each winner receives a three-day core conference registration and $1,000 to pay for travel expenses and lodging at EMS World Expo in Las Vegas, NV, August 31-September 2.

   Karen Novelli, EMT, was born and raised in Tarrytown, NY, where her father was chief of police, and where she first volunteered for the Tarrytown Volunteer Ambulance Corps (TVAC) more than 20 years ago. During her first 10 years with TVAC, she took all the additional training she could manage and taught for the Red Cross until life got in the way in the form of children, a divorce and her father's death from brain cancer. Eventually, she took the EMT course again and has become fully involved with responding to calls while she continues to learn, study and strive to "become the best I can be." She is a member of her company's Special Operations Division, is running for a position on the union board, and is saving up to attend paramedic school. "I love to learn," says Novelli. "I love the exhilaration of stepping into a classroom or training session and having someone share his experiences and expertise. Opening our minds to things around us and how they work is unparalleled. We must never stop noticing, analyzing, questioning and discovering."

   EMT A.J. (Amanda) Krebs' introduction to EMS was through wilderness medicine when she signed up for a class in 2009 to flesh out her camp counseling resume. Through scenarios, moulage and patient-actors, she learned the basics of patient assessment and wilderness medicine. "Halfway through the class, while creating a traction splint using a canoe paddle and bungee cords, I realized it was the medicine, not the wilderness, that made me love the course," she says. That week, she signed up for an EMT course, but was disappointed in the instructor's lackadaisical approach to patient care. She saw the same apathy on her college first responder squad. Days after becoming EMT-certified she signed up to be continuing education manager for the squad. "Over the next 18 months, I implemented peer-reviewed, scenario-based trainings, founded a QA committee, held a mock MCI drill and arranged for 83 hours of CE in topics ranging from water emergencies and psych calls to toxicology review," she says. "I love to learn and love to teach, although I can only pass on what I know. EMS World Expo will be one of my first opportunities to be taught. I'm excited to see other people teach so I can improve both my knowledge base and my ability to pass that knowledge along." A.J. works for Armstrong Ambulance in Revere, MA.