WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — The Lycoming Tioga Sullivan Emergency Medical Services Council recently presented its 2017 Kline A. DeWire Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award to Pennsylvania College of Technology’s director of paramedic technology programs.
The award is the most prestigious honor that the council presents, said Wendy S. Hastings, director of the LTS EMS Council, as she introduced its recipient, Mark A. Trueman, at a recent awards ceremony. It was established to recognize an EMS provider who has exhibited an ongoing and extraordinary dedication to the community and whose significant contributions to emergency medical services and the community personify the selfless giving, compassion and commitment that are DeWire’s legacy.
Trueman has served as Penn College’s paramedic program director since 2005. He became a full-time faculty member at the college in 2000, when he helped to transition the program from the Williamsport Hospital Paramedic Training Institute to Penn College.
He has served on the Lycoming County and Regional EMS Advisory Committee. Most recently, he joined Al Little, an emergency medical technician and former fire chief for Picture Rocks, to facilitate discussions among Lycoming County EMS agencies, the LTS EMT Council’s medical director, and county and municipal officials to address the crisis of dwindling volunteers and to create a better delivery model for emergency medical services in the county.
“He was the mastermind behind the conception, development and implementation of the hybrid EMT course based out of Penn College Workforce Development & Continuing Education that now reaches candidates in six counties in central Pennsylvania, and is soon to expand further,” Hastings said.
That program implements recorded lectures that can be watched online at the convenience of the participant. The lectures are followed by hands-on training at various sites across the region. It was developed to help boost the number of EMTs being certified in rural areas, where time and distance to training options discourage citizens from volunteering.
Trueman is a site visitor for the Committee on Accreditation of Educational Programs for the Emergency Medical Services Professions — under the auspices of the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs.
He has coordinated with the LTS EMS Council, the Department of Public Safety and the Marcellus Shale gas industry to offer educational opportunities to EMS providers on safer response to gas-drilling sites and participated on the Pennsylvania Emergency Health Services Council and other committees to promote high standards in EMS education.
In addition to his full-time work at the college, Trueman is employed part time with UPMC Susquehanna Health as a staff paramedic. He volunteers his time to teach continuing-education courses throughout the Lycoming, Tioga and Sullivan County EMS region.
He received the 2011 Pennsylvania EMS Educator of the Year Award and was named the Lycoming County EMS Instructor of the Year in 2005 and 2010.
Trueman received a bachelor’s degree in health sciences from Lock Haven University in 1995; graduated from the Williamsport Hospital & Medical Center Paramedic Training Institute in 1997; earned Critical Care Emergency Medical Technician-Paramedic certification from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, in 2002; and received a post-baccalaureate certificate in distance education from Penn State in 2009.
DeWire was an active leader and teacher in the Lycoming County emergency medical services community who died in 2007. He initiated several programs and, among many roles, was a part-time instructor at Penn College.
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