FlightBridgeED Air and Surface Transport Symposium 2025 (FAST25) – Main Stage Schedule

Dr. Richard Levitan is a leader in airway management with over 30 years of experience in high-volume trauma centers and rural critical care hospitals. A graduate of Bellevue Hospital’s first Emergency Medicine residency class, he has served in prominent academic institutions in NYC and Philadelphia and now focuses on clinical care, teaching, and medical device development.

Dr. Levitan is the inventor of innovative airway tools, including the Airway Cam, Levitan FPS optical stylet, Control Cric, and Universal Stylet Bougie. He pioneered the design of the I-gel supraglottic airway and has published extensively on laryngoscopy and airway techniques.

As an educator, he has developed advanced training models, including the Airway Training Series and CRICALOT, which are used globally to teach critical airway procedures. Dr. Levitan continues to inspire clinicians through his lectures, courses, and contributions to advancing airway management.

Dr. Peter Antevy, the innovator of the Handtevy Pediatric Resuscitation System, is a nationally recognized lecturer and expert in the field of pre-hospital pediatrics. He serves as the EMS Medical Director for Davie Fire-Rescue, Coral Springs Fire Department, Southwest Ranches Fire Rescue and MCT Express, Associate Medical Director for Palm Beach County Fire Rescue, Miramar Fire Rescue and Seminole Tribe Fire Rescue, and is an Associate Medical Director for FlightBridgeED.

Dr. Jeff Jarvis is the chief medical officer and system medical director for the Metropolitan Area EMS Authority in Fort Worth, Texas, and an associate medical director for FlightBridgeED. He hosts The EMS Lighthouse Project Podcast, which reviews the scientific evidence guiding our EMS practice. Dr. Jarvis began his career in EMS over 30 years ago and remains a licensed paramedic today. His research interests include airway management and clinical performance measures. He is a proud father to two wonderful kids, a husband of 33 years, and a loyal Aggie.

Jean-François Couture, MD, CCFP (EM), is COO and Director of adult content for EZResus. He worked exclusively in critical care, including the ICU, for the first 10 years of his career and now concentrates his practice in emergency medicine. After completing a fellowship in critical care through the Resuscitation Leadership Academy, he has maintained an interest in teaching, simulation, quality assessment, and, of course, the logistics of resuscitation.

Damian Schwab, NRP, FI/SI.

Originally from Florida, and is married with a son. Started in EMS in 2001 as an EMT-B and then became a firefighter in 2003. Shortly after, joined the U.S. Army as a combat medic (68W). Became an Army Flight Medic in 2010. Deployed to Afghanistan in 2010 and 2011 with C Co 3-10 Mountain DUSTOFF. Completed over 300 combat aeromedical missions during that deployment. In 2012, completed the U.S. Army’s first-ever Critical Care Flight Paramedic program. Deployed to Afghanistan in 2013 with C Co 3-10 Mountain DUSTOFF. Completing over 100 more combat aeromedical missions. Continued to serve at locations at Fort Drum, NY, Fort Myer, VA, Camp Humphreys, South Korea, and Fort Rucker, AL.

Before retiring from the U.S. Army, he was at Fort Rucker at the Directorate of Evaluation and Standardization (DES) as the Senior Flight Medic, Flight Instructor, and Hoist Master for the U.S. Army. He was responsible for writing, standardizing, and implementing the Army’s Rescue Hoist Program and medical training and evaluation of aeromedical providers, policies that are still used today.

After retiring, he still works for the Army as an instructor at the Department of Aviation Medicine at Fort Novosel, AL, where he teaches two courses: the Flight Paramedic Course and the Joint Enroute Care Course. Both courses teach advanced military providers (doctors, PAs, Nurses, Paramedics) from all services transport considerations in austere environments in military helicopters.

Dr. Bernardoni completed her medical degree and one-year Research Fellowship at the University of Wisconsin. She then completed her emergency medicine residency at the University of Cincinnati, where she served as Air Care Resident Assistant Medical Director during her final year. She continued her training at the University of Cincinnati for her two-year anesthesia critical care fellowship. Currently, Dr. Bernardoni divides her clinical time between the Emergency Department, Cardiothoracic ICU, and Med Flight, where she serves as the Assistant Medical Director of Quality. This split allows her to practice across the continuum of care from pre-hospital through inpatient. She recently developed an anesthesia critical care fellowship pathway at UW for emergency medicine graduates, for which she is the Associate Program Director. She is also an associate medical director for FlightBridgeED in the area of ECMO. Her professional interests include bringing advanced critical care education to pre-hospital and emergency department providers and quality improvement through multi-disciplinary peer review and simulation training. In her free time, Dr. Bernardoni enjoys gardening, cooking, yoga, and spending time with her husband and two children, Finnley and Ford.

Geoff is one of our best friends and colleagues from way up north in Canada. He has been an active flight paramedic for the past eight years and is the founder and lead instructor of Master Your Medics (https://masteryourmedics.com). Part of the reason he created Master Your Medics is because he remembers going through paramedic school and trying to teach himself by reading textbooks repeatedly. He was frustrated that I was only making progress in small steps, understanding just the surface of medicine – similar to why we created FlightBridgeED and FAST. Seven years ago, Geoff became committed to teaching students WHY we do the things we do. He wanted to teach EMTs and Paramedics to dig below the surface of medicine and truly understand it. He has taught thousands of EMS students at several EMS colleges and has provided consultation to other educators to help improve their courses. We are excited to bring Geoff Murphy to the main stage and our Workshop offerings.

Dr. Qasim currently works as an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, Prehospital Care, and Critical Care in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, United States. He obtained his medical degree from the University of Karachi. He then completed postgraduate training in Emergency Medicine and Critical Care in the United Kingdom, where he also worked as a Consultant in Emergency Medicine and a BASICS Prehospital Care Physician. He moved to the United States to complete training in Trauma/Surgical
Critical Care at the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, Maryland, before taking up his current role in Philadelphia. His academic interests lie in advanced trauma and endovascular resuscitation, airway management, simulation, and prehospital care.

You can follow him on BlueSky at: resusone.bsky.social

You can follow him on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zaffer-qasim-3b371a2

Chris Pfingsten hosts EMS 20/20, a podcast where he and his co-host, Spencer Oliver, review real out-of-hospital calls to find lessons that can’t be found in textbooks. Chris has been a Paramedic in a busy 911 system, volunteered as a firefighter, and was a supervisor at a large ambulance company before arriving at his current job as a Flight Paramedic.

Jason is a Prehospital Emergency Medicine and Critical Care Retrieval Physician working as the Clinical Lead for the Irish Health Service Executive’s National 24-hour Emergency Telemedical Support Unit, MEDICO Cork. Based in the Emergency Department at Cork University Hospital, he has a master’s degree in disaster medicine and over 25 years of experience providing Prehospital Critical Care around the world. He’s the Medical Director of West Cork Rapid Response and Assistant Medical Director of the Anaesthesia Trauma and Critical Care course. He is the Secretary to the Faculty of Trauma and Critical Care, Royal College of Surgeons of England, and the Vice Chair of Ireland’s prehospital Emergency Care Council.

Michael Lauria is a former USAF Pararescueman and Critical Care/Flight Paramedic, now an EMS and Critical Care Fellow at the University of New Mexico Health Science Center. He is also the Associate Medical Director and an active Flight Physician for UNMH Lifeguard, our critical care transport program. In addition, Michael Lauria serves as Medical Director for FlightBridgeED! His primary areas of academic interest include Human Factors, Engineering Psychology, and human performance in resuscitating critically ill or injured patients.

William Heuser, PharmD, BCCCP, MS, EMT-P, FP-C is a clinical critical care pharmacist, course director/clinical professor of pharmacology, clinical toxicologist, and certified flight paramedic/firefighter. William has presented at several national conferences across the United States and has extensive research experience in resuscitative medicine, having published several articles in peer-reviewed journals. As a clinical toxicologist at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research at Northwell Health, his research focuses on the acute resuscitation of critically ill and dying patients. His research focuses on developing novel pharmacological cocktails coupled with emergency cardiopulmonary bypass to save the lives of patients who fail traditional advanced cardiovascular life support (ACLS) treatment.

Preston Fedor, MD, FACEP, FAEMS, is a board-certified Emergency Medicine and EMS Physician whose career niche is operational medical support for commercial spaceflight and atypical EMS environments. Currently, he is the EMS Medical Director for Tesla in North America and a console flight surgeon for Axiom Space. A combat veteran, he serves as a flight surgeon for the US Air Force’s Detachment-3, a specialized unit that provides worldwide rescue coverage for astronauts. Previously, Dr. Fedor was the founding EMS Medical Director for SpaceX, supporting vehicle development sites, offshore astronaut recovery, disaster and rescue planning, and human spaceflight medicine. His diverse prehospital background includes work with federal Urban Search & Rescue, US Forest Service, Sydney HEMS, and numerous fire departments, law enforcement agencies, and ambulance services nationwide.

Jason is the Senior Vice-President of Field Operations for Apollo MedFlight. His career of serving others for 25 years started in the fire service in 1999 as a volunteer firefighter, and he joined the air medical industry in 2005 as a flight paramedic. Still, he will tell you some of his best lessons learned, and the most fun was having served as a law enforcement officer. Jason obtained his paramedic education from Northwest Shoals Community College, a bachelor’s degree in organizational leadership from Bethel University, and a Master of Business Administration Degree specializing in Data Analytics from Louisiana State University – Shreveport. Jason has been an industry presenter for multiple conferences across various leadership and clinical care topics, a published educator and reviewer, and received the 2017 Tim Hynes Award.

Michael Frakes is the Chief Quality Officer and Director of Clinical Care for Boston MedFlight. A Nebraska native, he began his career in EMS with an AAS in Emergency Medical Services from the Johnson County (KS) Community College, ultimately collecting a BS in Nursing from the Johns Hopkins University and an MS in Nursing from the University of Connecticut. Michael’s transport and medical experience includes positions as a firefighter, EMT, Paramedic, Flight Communications Specialist, and nursing experience in the ED, pedi ED, ICU, and transport. His non-clinical education includes a BA in Economics and Political Science from the University of Kansas, certificates in Health Care Quality from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Patient Safety from Johns Hopkins, and Barbeque Judging from the Kansas City Barbeque Society. He is a Six Sigma Black Belt and is a Fellow of the College of Critical Care Medicine, the Academy of Emergency Nursing, the Academy of Air and Surface Transport Nursing, and the American College of Healthcare Executives.

My name is Mike Verkest, and I am starting my 28th year in Emergency Medical Services. I currently work for ESO as an Industry Engagement Partner, ESO provides an integrated suite of software products for EMS agencies, fire departments, and hospitals that are transforming the way first responders collect, share, report, and analyze critical information to improve community health and safety. I am part of the content development and training team. After living in Oregon my whole life, We relocated to Austin, Texas.

I retired from Clackamas Fire District #1 where I served as Captain in the EMS Division as a training officer and program manager. I have two advanced EMS board certifications through the IBSC, FP-C, and CCP-C.

Dr. Mark Piehl is a board-certified pediatrician and pediatric intensivist who loves taking care of critically ill children, teaching pediatric emergency medicine to others, and dreaming up better ways to care for sick kids. He received his medical degree with honors from the UNC School of Medicine and his master’s degree in public health from the UNC School of Public Health. Mark is a pediatric intensivist at WakeMed in Raleigh, NC, and served as Medical Director of the WakeMed Children’s Hospital from 2009-2015. He is a clinical associate professor of pediatrics in the Department of Pediatrics at the UNC School of Medicine and has a clinical faculty appointment in Pediatrics at Duke University. Mark is very happily married with three awesome kids. He is also the CMO and co-founder of LifeFlow, whose mission is to help save the lives of critically ill patients by developing innovative tools that assist healthcare providers in improving resuscitation.

Bruce is a critical care registered nurse and paramedic whose clinical background includes the ICU, ER, trauma, cardiology, and critical care transport/flight. He holds graduate degrees in education and advanced practice. He lives in CT with his wife, Stephanie (also a nurse), and three beautiful children – Ava Mae, Adelynn Lue, and Jackson Lee…oh, and Bella, our Boston Terrier!

Flight paramedic and base manager with eighteen years of successful professional experience in EMS and management. His clinical and leadership development background spans both military and civilian settings, and he has served in several capacities as a leader and prehospital clinician. He specializes in air medical and critical care transport as well as organizational and leadership development, is an active speaker on various leadership and clinical topics, and is an established and successful educator for prehospital clinicians of all levels. Cody has a passion for human performance improvement and prehospital care’s mental health and performance aspects, particularly how leaders at all levels contribute to those elements of performance and well-being.

Shaylah has dedicated 13 years to Emergency Medical Services and has been a Registered Nurse since 2015, specializing in critical care and emergency settings. Since 2018, she has worked as a flight clinician, combining her passion for acute patient care with aviation. Shaylah enjoys creative and educational roles, utilizing social media to promote accessible information and mentorship. She actively contributes to the social media committee for the Air & Surface Transport Nurses Association (ASTNA) and co-hosts their podcast, Runways & Roadways. In her leisure time, Shaylah enjoys fly fishing and snowboarding.

James Boomhower, MS(c), FP-C, NR-P, C- NPT, CCISM, has been involved in EMS for over 20 years in various health systems throughout New England. He currently functions as a critical care transport specialist and paramedic, lead peer support director with Boston Medflight of Bedford, Massachusetts, and crisis and peer supporter for the ECHO FAST team and the state of RI CISM team. His desire to bring mental health awareness to the EMS arena has spurred him to create the Stay Fit 4 Duty platform and work to implement a peer support program in his workplace. James is working to realize his goal of promoting recognition, management, and acceptance of acute stress in EMS providers worldwide, alongside obtaining licensure as a professional licensed counselor.

It’s hard to write a short bio about the guy who started this whole thing, right? Let me try to hit the highlights. Eric Bauer is the CEO and co-founder of FlightBridgeED. When critical care transport medicine was shrouded in mystery, and critical care transport education was horrible (at best), Eric walked into the darkness and turned on the lights. More than a decade later, Eric’s dedication to our industry continues to open doors, advance the practice, and bring about a positive change that helps responders and providers of all types provide better patient outcomes. He was the first to demystify mechanical ventilation for transport providers – a curriculum that has become the award-winning foundation of in-the-field ventilator management. Speaking of awards, Eric and his work at FlightBridgeED has won multiple awards, most recently being the only Paramedic to be given the title of Fellow in ASTNA. We could go on, but this would get lengthy. Suffice it to say that Eric’s talks at FAST have always been a highlight of the conference, or any conference for that matter! Eric is an advocate and mentor to so many in the industry. He loves meeting, talking with, and helping nurses and paramedics directly. His email inbox is an open door, and FAST25 allows Eric to meet with the people in the industry he loves face-to-face. The only direction we were given for this bio from Eric was that he wanted to invite you to FAST25 personally! We can’t wait to see you there!