TN EMSC presents the Advocate for Children Award and the Joseph Weinberg, MD Leadership Award to two distinguished individuals each year. The award is presented at the Annual Update in Acute & Emergency Care Pediatrics Conference.
The Advocate for Children Award:
This award is bestowed upon an individual who has made an outstanding contribution of major significance to the Tennessee Emergency Medical Services for Children program. Candidates are from all areas of the continuum of pediatric emergency care. This person has provided an indispensable service which is above and beyond all expectations and their efforts demonstrate exemplary dedication to the well being of children.
Joseph Weinberg, MD Leadership Award:
Dr. Weinberg has been an instrumental figure in the establishment of Emergency Medical Services for Children both nationally and in Tennessee. He was one of the original authors of the first publication noting the deficiencies of the healthcare system as it relates to critically ill and injured children. He is the ideal embodiment of a pediatrician that combines his expertise in emergency medicine and political maneuvering to improve care for children.
This award is bestowed upon an individual who displays the attributes of a leader that can bring together diverse stakeholders and organizations to improve the care of critically ill and injured children.
2017 Awards:
Advocate for Children Award
Amy Cox, EMT-IV, CHEP, BS
Liason to Homeland Security and TEMA, TN Department of Health
Donita Woodall, CHEP
Regional Hospital Coordinator, Mid Cumberland Regional Office
James E. Tabor, Jr., MSM, CHEP
Regional Hospital Coordinator, Public Health Emergency Preparedness
Joseph Weinberg, MD Leadership Award
Rita Westbrook, MD, FAAP
Emergency Department Physician, East Tennessee Children's Hospital
2015 Awards:
Advocate for Children Award
Dr. Barry Gilmore, MBA, FAAP
Chief of Emergency Services, Associate Prof of Pediatrics, Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital
Joseph A. Weinberg
Sue Cadwell, MSN, RN, NE-BC
Director, ED Initiative, Hospital Corporation of America
2014 Awards:
Advocate for Children Award
Donna Tidwell
Director of EMS, Department of Health Division of EMS
Joseph A. Weinberg
Rita Westbrook, MD
Emergency Department Physician, East Tennessee Children's Department
2013 Awards:
Advocate for Children Award:
Bob Steele
Right Dose Foundation
Michael Wallace, BS, CCPM
EMS Operations Manager, Williamson Medical Center
Joseph A Weinberg, MD Leadership Award:
Lee Blair, RN, CEN, EMT-P
CRPC Coordinator, Monroe Carell Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt
2009 Awards:
2009 Awards:
Advocate for Children Award:
Julie A. Dunn, M.D., FACS
Trauma Surgeon, Johnson City Medical Center
Anne Carr, MPA
Principal, Smith Harris & Carr
Dr. Julie Dunn, M.D., FACS and Ms. Anne Carr, MPA and were awarded the Advocate for Children Award due to their continuing inclusion of children in the trauma system funding formula. During the 2007 legislative session a landmark bill was passed to create a trauma system fund for uncompensated trauma care and readiness costs to care for trauma victims. This effort was spearheaded by the chair of TN College of Surgeons, Julie Dunn, MD. She quickly recruited other advocates including the chief lobbyist for the teaching hospitals, Anne Carr. This past legislative session, 2009, they worked to amend the bill so that there is a possibility of increasing the amount in the trauma fund with a federal matching.
Joseph Weinberg, MD Leadership Award:
Angie Bowen, RN, BSN, CPEN, NREMT-P
CRPC Coordinator, East Tennessee Children's Hospital
Angie Bowen began working at East Tennessee Children's Hospital as an Emergency Department nurse in 1992. Since that time, she has served in the roles of Primary Transport Nurse with the Pediatric Critical Care Transport Team, Nursing Coordinator and Emergency Department Nurse Manager. Angie has been in her role as EMSC Regional Coordinator since 1999.
Angie is an instructor and course coordinator in many emergency-related courses and has served as the PALS National Faculty for Tennessee from 2005-2009. She served as a content editor for the Pediatric Education for Prehospital Professionals (PEPP) textbook, Edition II, published in 2004. Angie is active in her local chapter of the Emergency Nurses Association, where she has held officer positions since 2003. She is also a member of the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing.
Angie received her B.S. in Nursing from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and she also has a B.S. in Communications/Public Relations from the same institution. Angie began her EMS career working in the pre-hospital setting in 1988 and continues to work as a paramedic on a prn basis in the East Tennessee region.
2008 Awards:
Advocate for Children Award:
Susan O’Hare, ADN, BS, MSN
Former Vice President of T.C. Thompson Children's Hospital
Susan O’Hare is a certified pediatric nurse, pediatric nurse practitioner and was the Senior Vice-President of Specialty Facilities at Erlanger Medical Center who has served the children in Chattanooga and Tennessee in many capacities since 1993. As the current President of the Children’s Hospital Association of Tennessee, she has been a stalwart advocate for the care and welfare of children across the state. As a hospital administrator, an invited speaker at pediatric nursing educational conferences, and from her past experience as an oncology/hematology nurse, she has brought a host of talents from multiple areas to bear on the continuum of quality pediatric care.
Joseph Weinberg, MD Leadership Award:
Kevin Brinkmann, MD
East Tennessee Children’s Hospital
Dr. Brinkman is a pediatric intensivist at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital in Knoxville. As first a member, and subsequently, Chair of the Standards Committee of the Tennessee Emergency Medical Services for Children (TNEMS-C) Foundation, Dr. Brinkman coordinated and edited a comprehensive revision of the state rules and regulations and their interpretative guidelines which were accepted by the state Board of Licensing of Healthcare Facilities (BLHF) in 2008. The Committee, under Dr. Brinkman’s leadership, has gone on to work with the Tennessee Hospital Association and the administrations of the Comprehensive Pediatric Regional Centers to develop a standardized, pediatric, state-wide hospital transfer agreement in an effort to expedite and simplify the access to pediatric critical care across the state.
Pioneer Leader for EMSC Award:
TN EMSC decided to give special recognition this year to an outstanding individual. The Pioneer Leader for EMSC Award is presented to an individual who has demonstrated long-standing service to the life saving needs of children and supports EMSC's principles.
Robert A. Wiebe, MD
Children’s Medical Center - Dallas
Robert Wiebe, MD is Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine at Southwestern Medical School. He received the National Lifetime Achievement Award for EMS for Children in 1996. He received his undergraduate degree in Cuma lauda biology from San Francisco State University and his medical degree from Tulane Medical School.
Past Awards:
Advocate for Children Award:
2007—Vicki Cox, RN, BSN, T.C. Thompson Children’s Hospital
Vickie Cox is a registered nurse in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at T.C. Thompson Children’s and served as the second CRPC coordinator at that institution. Vickie used her organizational and computer skills, coupled with her common sense “Let’s make things easier” approach, to design a simplified system for all the hospitals throughout Tennessee to organize and select the elements of the interpretative guidelines of the EMSC rules and regulations that apply specifically to their designate level of pediatric preparedness (i.e., Basic, Primary, General or Comprehensive Pediatric Regional Center).
2006—Anne Cowan, MSN, CS, ANP, T.C. Thompson Children’s Hospital
Anne began her professional career as a registered nurse at T.C. Thompson Children’s Hospital in Chattanooga where she became the original Comprehensive Pediatric Regional Center (CRPC) coordinator. She is a genius or organization and follow through. Through her vision for the future of the EMSC program and her insightful, yet down to earth dealing with families, hospital administrations, paramedic/EMT’s, and physicians, she exemplified the mission and purpose of the EMSC program. After her retirement from nursing she continued as a consultant to the program and was the anchor of the state Pediatric Disaster Preparedness Project and related “tool kit.”
2005—Jayant K. Deshpande, MD, MPH, Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt
Dr. Desphande is a pediatric intensivist and pediatric anesthesiologist at Monroe Carroll Children’s Medical Center at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville. He was an original member of the Sub-committee on Pediatric Emergency Care (SPEC) which under his leadership become the Committee on Pediatric Emergency Care (CoPEC) which brought the EMS-C project to Tennessee. He was instrumental in developing the vision and implementing the reality of a state-wide coordinated program to specifically address the needs of critically-ill and injured children. Through his tireless efforts within the medical community and state government, he succeeded in influencing the state legislature to pass the first in the Nation state legislation that mandated all hospitals with an emergency department in Tennessee to participate in a program of pediatric preparedness in 1998.
Joseph Weinberg, MD Leadership Award:
2007—Joe Phillips, Director, Division of EMS, Department of Health
Joe Phillips has been the director of the state EMS since 1980. He was involved in the development of the state pediatric trauma guidelines in 1986, which lead to the formation of the Subcommittee on Pediatric Emergency Care (SPEC), and subsequently the introduction of the Emergency Medical Services for Children program in Tennessee. He has been a faithful supporter of the principles of EMSC within the state Department of Health.
2006—Mick Connors, MD, East Tennessee Children’s Hospital
Dr. Connors is a pediatric emergency medicine physician and head of the pediatric pain management service at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital in Knoxville. He served as Chairman of the Committee on Pediatric Emergency Care (CoPEC) from 2003 to 2006 during a turbulent transition period of the Committee which lead to a re-organization of its structure and the drafting of its original by-laws and vision/mission statements.
2005—Joseph Childs, MD, East TN Children’s Hospital
Dr. Childs is a pediatric intensivist and hospital administrator at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital in Knoxville who was recognized for his Herculean efforts in coordinating and editing the original rules and regulations governing the EMSC program and their interpretative guidelines in 1999.
2002—Joseph Weinberg, MD, Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center
Dr. Weinberg is a pediatrician and pediatric emergency medicine physician and former Director of the Emergency Department at LeBonheur Children’s Medical Center in Memphis. He has held many positions of leadership in pediatric emergency care at the state and national levels. Beginning in 1986 as a member of the ad hoc committee which drafted the state pediatric trauma guidelines, Dr. Weinberg advocated tirelessly for the welfare of critically ill and injured children. In 1989, by his efforts he secured the initial federal grant which funded the Emergency Medical Services Project in Tennessee, which lead to the formation of the Committee on Pediatric Emergency Medical Care (CoPEC). As a result of his tireless leadership and advocacy, the Tennessee EMSC program has been recognized nationally by receiving the Family Advocacy Award in 2001, the State EMSC Coordinator Award in 2000, and the Governor’s Award in 2000. In honor of his diverse contributions to pediatric emergency and critical care, in 2000 he was the first recipient of the award which bears his name. He is still advocating for children’s healthcare needs today.
