History | Values | Founding Board of Directors | Advisory Council
Staff and Support | Founding Members | Biographical Sketches

History

Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) is a leading cause of death among adults over the age of 40 in the United States and other countries. In the U.S. alone, approximately 250,000 people die every year from SCA, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. SCA also affects many young people. Approximately 10 percent of SCA events occur among people less than 40 years of age.

The death toll from SCA is equivalent to the number of people who would die if three fully-loaded Boeing 777 aircraft crashed every single day. Imagine the public outrage if this were to happen. Yet the public does not seem to be aware—let alone protest—this travesty. Too often, common misperceptions prevail. The media often reports about people who die from “massive heart attacks,” reinforcing the mistaken notion that nothing could have been done. In reality, these sudden deaths usually represent SCA, a condition that can be treated successfully through early intervention with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and defibrillators.

Unlike many other medical conditions, survival from SCA depends on immediate intervention by bystanders, typically laypersons with no medical training who lack an understanding about their vital role in determining whether SCA victims live or die. Consequently, only seven percent of SCA victims survive in the U.S., when as many as 20 percent or more could survive if they were treated in a timely, effective manner. If the survival rate could increase to 20 percent, 50,000 lives could be saved each year.

While many laypersons are exposed to CPR training in school or at work, despite decades of large-scale initiatives, the number of laypersons who have learned and retained these skills and would use them in real world emergencies remains disappointingly low. Similarly, the public’s understanding of the lifesaving potential of defibrillators, particularly when used by laypersons, is severely lacking. Yet to reduce death and disability from SCA, the general public must learn that its engagement in the lifesaving process is vital.

There is an unmet need for an easily accessible, objective, comprehensive information clearinghouse on the prevention of death and disability due to SCA. While various organizations address specific conditions that cause SCA or specific populations affected by SCA and some organizations include SCA as one of many topics they address, and while there are a number of helpful industry resources, there is no one central repository of current, reliable information on SCA that addresses the condition of SCA before, during and after its occurrence. Furthermore, there is no central virtual meeting place for “any time, any place” exchange of information, ideas, experiences and guidance related to SCA.

The Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) Foundation has been established to meet this need. The Foundation is national in focus and global in reach.

Download the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation Postcard (PDF Document)

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Values

• Collaboration: We value collaboration, cooperation and collegiality as a way to strengthen our mission and the missions of all organizations with which it interacts. We believe that “none of us is as smart as all of us” (Warren Bennis, 1996). We believe in the importance of initiating and sustaining collaborative relationships.
• Service: We value high-quality, user-centered service, anticipating and meeting the information and communication needs of users.
• Academic Rigor: We value medical, public health, public policy and education research and the importance of providing current, reliable, valid, science-based practical information.
• Respect: We respect the individual skills, abilities and diversity of SCA Foundation users, staff, directors, advisors and mentors. We value excellence, accountability, and creativity.
• Integrity: We value integrity, neutrality and objectivity.
• Support: We value the importance of giving support to those personally affected by SCA by providing information resources and guidance from professional caregivers and by facilitating peer-to-peer communications.
• Systems Integration: We value the importance of an integrated systems approach to addressing SCA, recognizing that the prevention of death and disability from SCA depends on the active involvement of laypersons and emergency personnel within integrated EMS systems.
• Celebration: We value the importance of celebrating successes both in individual patients and in developing solutions to identified issues.

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Founding Board of Directors

• Norman S. Abramson, MD, FACEP, FCCM, Professor of Emergency Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA
• David H. Belkin, Esq., Senior Consultant, Skystone Ryan, Washington, DC
• Robert G. Gillio, MD, Lancaster, PA, Chief Medical Officer, InnerLink, Inc., Lancaster, PA
• Keith Griffiths, Partner, The Red Flash Group, Encinitas, CA
• Bobby V. Khan, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine/Cardiology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA (Chairman)
• Mary M. Newman, Pittsburgh, PA, President, SCA Foundation, Wexford, PA
• Robert A. Niskanen, Managing Director, Resurgent Biomedical Consulting LLC, Seattle, WA (Vice-Chairman)
• Paula Opheim, PharmD Candidate, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
• 
  

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Advisory Council

• Allan Braslow, PhD, President, Braslow & Associates, Greenwich, CT
• Henry Jampel, MD, SCA Survivor and Professor of Opthamology, Johns Hopkins University Medical Center, Baltimore, MD
• Michael Kumer, Executive Director, Nonprofit Leadership Institute, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA
• Richard A. Lazar, Esq., Portland, OR, Founder and CEO, AED Risk Insights, Portland, OR
• Keith Lurie, MD, Co-Director, Cardiac Arrthymia Center, Central Minnesota Heart Center, St. Cloud, MN
• R. Clinton Miner, PhD, Director, LEAN Institute, The University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK
• Joseph P. Ornato, MD, Professor and Chairman, Department of Emergency Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University/ Medical College of Virginia, Richmond, VA
• Edward M. Racht, MD, Austin, TX, Medical Director, City of Austin/Travis County EMS, Austin, TX
• Edmund Ricci, PhD, MLitt, Director, Institute for Evaluation Science in Community Health, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, Pittsburgh, PA
• Michael R. Sayre, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, The Ohio State University Medical Center, Columbus, OH
• Samuel F. Sears, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, University of Florida Health Science Center,
• Roger D. White, MD, Professor of Anesthesiology, Mayo Medical School, Rochester, MN
• Gary Zmrhal, CFO, Holy Cross Hospital, Chicago, IL

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Staff and Staff Support

• President: Mary M. Newman
• SCA Survivor Registry: Jeremy Whitehead
• Administrative Support: George Hughes Altman
• Website: M2Technology
• SCA Survivor Registry Recruitment and Support: Jane Litterini, RN
• Administrative Support: Lorraine Pollini
• Outreach: Jennifer Bassett, Judy Kristan, Jane Litterini, RN, Carol Montagnese, Alison Newman
• Legal Adviser: James R. Olson, Esq.
• Financial Advisers: Robert Goldstein, CPA, Carol Montagnese
• Contributing Writer: A.J. Caliendo
• Marketing/Media Relations: Cogs Communications, Inc., The Red Flash Group, SJH Design

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Founding Members

Platinum Level

• Boston Scientific CRM

Gold Level

• Cardiac Science
• Philips Health Care
  
• St. Jude Medical Foundation
• ZOLL Medical Corporation

Silver Level

• Physio-Control
  
• WelchAllyn

In-Kind Contributors

• Advanced Circulatory Systems, Inc.
• Elsevier Public Safety
• Emergency Care & Safety Institute
• InnerLink, Inc.
• The Red Flash Group
• Sprint Nextel Corporation / St. Jude Medical

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Biographical Sketches

Norman S. Abramson, MD, FACEP, FCCM
Professor of Emergency Medicine
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA

Norman S. Abramson, MD, FACEP, FCCM, is Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh whose research has focused primarily on cardiopulmonary-cerebral resuscitation. His previous appointments include Professor of Emergency Medicine at The Ohio State University, Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Associate Professor in the Division of Critical Care Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), and Associate Director for Clinical Affairs at the International Resuscitation Research Center at UPMC.

Dr. Abramson’s clinical experience includes serving as an attending physician in emergency medicine at hospitals in Western Pennsylvania and Colorado. Dr. Abramson also served as a flight surgeon in the United States Air Force.

Dr. Abramson has published numerous original research papers, reviews, invited papers, editorials, books, book chapters, and abstracts. He has been an invited lecturer at many universities and medical assemblies worldwide.

One of his principle research interests is improving neurologic outcome among survivors of sudden cardiac arrest. He served as a principal investigator of the International Brain Resuscitation Clinical Trials from 1979to 1994 and was co-author of several landmark resuscitation papers that promoted early defibrillation, the chain of survival, deferred consent for resuscitation research, and uniform reporting of cardiac arrest data.

Dr. Abramson has served in multiple leadership positions in medical associations including the Society for Critical Care Medicine, the American College of Emergency Physicians, the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, and the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine. He is also a reviewer for several medical journals.

Dr. Abramson received a Bachelor of Arts in Physics from Cornell University and a Doctor of Medicine Degree from New York University. His postgraduate work included an internship in internal medicine at the University of Wisconsin, residency in emergency medicine at the University of Cincinnati, and a fellowship in critical care medicine at the University of Pittsburgh where he served as chief fellow from 1979-1980.

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David H. Belkin, Esq.
Senior Consultant
Skystone Ryan
Washington, D.C.

David Belkin is one of the nation’s leading planned giving specialists with more than 22 years experience in philanthropy, He is a senior consultant for Skystone Ryan and also an independent consultant to nonprofit organizations.

Mr. Belkin’s background includes directing capital campaigns, endowment and planned giving programs, and grantmaking. Prior to joining Skystone Ryan, he served the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington as the director of its United Jewish Endowment Fund. Mr. Belkin spent his early career in government service including positions with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the General Services Administration and the House of Representatives Ethics Committee. He is the past chairman of the board of the Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers. He is currently on the board and treasurer of Jewish Youth Philanthropy Institute, a non-profit located in Washington DC.

Mr. Belkin is a frequent speaker at professional conferences and is a member of the National Capital Gift Planning Council. A licensed Certified Public Accountant, he received his law degree from Villanova University.

Mr. Belkin survived sudden cardiac arrest on February 18, 2007. Read Mr. Belkin's Story.

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Allan Braslow, PhD
President
Braslow & Associates
Greenwich, CT

Allan Braslow, PhD, is a specialist in medical and health care provider education, public health and safety, research and development, and EMS system development, education and implementation. He received his PhD in 1985 from the University of Illinois where he specialized in public and provider education, medical research dissemination and implementation, public health and safety, and educational psychology. He received his M.S. (1980) and B.A. (1974) degrees from The Pennsylvania State University.

Dr. Braslow is best known to the emergency cardiovascular care (ECC) community for his research and educational development work in CPR training. His publications and presentations have challenged the ECC and EMS field to consider the “real world” aspects of being an effective instructor and provider. His work has also focused on helping laypersons learn and perform CPR in actual emergencies. From 2002-2005, his research team was contracted by the AHA to evaluate the quality and effectiveness of the BLS and ACLS courses, in preparation for the latest course revisions. Many of the changes in the new courses, including the instructional methods and student skill evaluations, are a product of his team’s work.

Dr. Braslow has served as an expert and member of advisory boards for various agencies including:

• NIH, where he served on the advisory board for the Public Access Defibrillation (PAD) national research trial and as a program advisor for the National Heart Attack Alert Program
• USDOT–EMS Division, where he was Principal Investigator for the National Standard Curriculum on Bystander Care and also a Principal Investigator for the EMT-B program
• Other expert appointments have been with AHRQ (the US Dept. of Health and Human Services’ medical errors and simulation agency); the CDC; the Indianapolis 500 Motor Speedway; US Olympic Committee; Washington, DC EMS Presidential Inaugural Group; and the US Dept. of Justice.

Dr. Braslow also authored the first “Adult CPR” textbook and training program for the American Red Cross.

His greatest accomplishment, however, was the time seven years ago when he performed CPR on his own mother and helped save her life.

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Robert G. Gillio, MD
Founder/ Chairman/ Chief Medical Officer
InnerLink, Inc.
Lancaster, PA

Robert G. Gillio, MD, graduated from Lawrence University magna cum laude in 1976 and received his medical degree from Rush Medical College in 1980. He attended the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine, where he pursued a residency in internal medicine and a research fellowship in thoracic diseases. He moved to Lancaster in 1988, where he joined Pulmonary Associates and was awarded Doctor of the Year by the Nursing Practice Board. Dr. Gillio left a successful medical practice in the summer of 2000 to devote his attention to the founding of InnerLink. In 2003, he was appointed an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center at The Pennsylvania State University.

Dr. Gillio has coupled his skills as a physician with his quest to make the practice of medicine safer and better understood through technology. A leader in telemedicine, virtual reality surgical simulation, Internet-based education, and ase-based learning, Dr. Gillio has founded four companies and sold two of them to Fortune 500 companies. Dr. Gillio holds 13 patents on various medical and educational products, six of which are owned by InnerLink, Inc.

Dr. Gillio is the author of Lessons Learned from Ground Zero, an account of his experiences while providing health screenings to New York Police Department (NYPD) officers involved at Ground Zero. He has since participated in federal disaster simulations and debriefed the Pentagon facility staff regarding the events of 9/11. He is founder of the Lancaster Pennsylvania Citizen Corps Council and is a computer software and book reviewer for the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Dr. Gillio's current focus to utilize the web to create tools for education and care with online programs and personal health records, through his company, InnerLink, to try to make a systemic change in the preparedness of a nation for massive large scale catastrophes and individual emergencies, such as sudden cardiac arrest.

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Keith Griffiths
President
The Red Flash Group
Encinitas, CA

Keith Griffiths has 30 years of publishing, marketing and trade show experience, including the start-up of Jems Communications, where as president he helped lead the creation of multiple trade magazines, research journals, trade shows, newsletters, books, videos, and on-line resources for the emergency care market. With his partner, the late Jim Page, Keith arranged the sale of Jems in 1993 to the Times Mirror Corporation and continued to head the Jems Division for Times Mirror for the next four years.

He left to form his own consulting organization in 1997 and continues to serve as a contributing editor for the Journal of Emergency Medical Services. He serves on the College of Fellows for the National Academy of Emergency Dispatch, which has been a consulting client for the past nine years, and is on the Board of Directors for the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation. He serves on the advisory boards of several organizations, including Take Heart America, EPIC Medics, the National Institute for Urban Search and Rescue, and the James O. Page Foundation.

Keith has a BA degree in journalism from San Diego State University where he later studied marketing, advertising, accounting and management as a graduate student in its MBA program. He has been a frequent speaker at the Folio Magazine Publishing Seminars and is on the Board of Directors for the Western Publications Association, the leading organization for magazine publishers in the western states.

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Henry Jampel, MD
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD

Henry Jampel, M.D. is the Odd Fellows Professor of Ophthalmology at the Wilmer Eye Institute of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

On May 16th, 2000, at the age of 44, and 7 months after completion of the Ironman Triathlon World Championship in Hawaii, Henry had a cardiac arrest in the shower after a swim workout. After 27 minutes of CPR by 4 fellow swimmers who were also physicians, he was successfully defibrillated, a striking example of the exception that proves the rule.

Henry relishes in his full recovery from his cardiac arrest, and like most survivors, is passionate about reducing avoidable deaths from sudden cardiac arrest. He testified this winter (2006) in the Maryland Senate for a bill mandating AEDs in all high schools in the state, and was thrilled that the bill passed.

Henry joined an extremely small group of people in 2004, those survivors of sudden cardiac arrest who have subsequently completed an Ironman triathlon. He lives with his wife, Risa, a dermatologist, and has three children, Catherine 21, Joseph 18, and Sarah 14, who are happy that their dad is still around.

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Bobby V. Khan, M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Medicine/Cardiology
Emory University School of Medicine
Atlanta, GA

Bobby V. Khan, MD, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Medicine/Cardiology at Emory University School of Medicine and Director of the Coronary Care Unit and Cardiovascular Research at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. He serves as an attending physician at Grady, providing bedside and didactic teaching on a daily basis. In addition, he teaches medical students and graduate students and supervises PhD and post-doctoral fellows. He holds visiting professorships at multiple universities.

Dr. Khan’s research interests include studying mechanisms of action in the progression of atherosclerosis and heart failure and drug/non-drug therapies that may slow or stall this progression. A popular international lecturer, Dr. Khan’s work has been published in numerous peer-review journals. In addition, he is a manuscript reviewer for Atherosclerosis, Hypertension, Circulation, Diabetes Care, the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the American Journal of Cardiology and Biochimica et Biophysica Acta. He has served as an abstract reviewer for the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the American Heart Association and as an ACC Sessions chair for five years. He serves as a consultant to several pharmaceutical companies and holds multiple patents.

Dr. Khan graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, from Vanderbilt University, and a Doctor of Medicine (with honors) and a Doctor of Philosophy in pharmacology from the University of Tennessee. His postgraduate education included a residency in internal medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and a cardiology fellowship at Emory University. He has received multiple awards including “Outstanding Predoctoral Fellowship Award” and Outstanding Research Award.”

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Michael Kumer
Executive Director
Nonprofit Leadership Institute
Duquesne University
Pittsburgh, PA

Michael Kumer is the Executive Director of Duquesne University's Nonprofit Leadership Institute (NLI), and Associate Dean of the University's School of Leadership and Professional Advancement.

Since assuming the directorship of the NLI, Michael has produced and facilitated countless programs pursuant to nonprofit excellence. These programs have enjoyed a cumulative enrollment of thousands of board members, staff and volunteers representing hundreds of nonprofit agencies.

Michael accumulated a vast wealth of experience as a board/ advisory board member and officer of several regional and national nonprofit organizations, including Bands of America, Youth Education in the Arts and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. He is a past Board Chair of the Pittsburgh Chamber Music Society and the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble.

Prior to assuming his current position, Michael served as Dean of Duquesne University's Mary Pappert School of Music.

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Richard A. Lazar, Esq.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
AED Risk Insights
Portland, OR

Richard A. Lazar, Esq., is the founder and chief executive officer of AED Risk Insights, Inc., as well as chief executive officer and a co-founder of Atrus, Inc. He is recognized nationally as an expert on AED program operations, laws, and public policies.

Since the early '90s, Richard has written and lectured extensively on the subject of early defibrillation. He has also provided consulting services to AED manufacturers, AED distributors, AED consumers, and others. In addition to other legislative and regulatory activities, in 2000 Richard testified before the U.S. Congress in support of the Cardiac Arrest Survival Act, which is now law. AED Risk Insights was created to further the goal of rapid defibrillation by helping to make the process of buying, deploying, and properly using AEDs easier and less risky. Atrus was created to develop and implement technology-based solutions that rapidly link AEDs, AED users and sudden cardiac arrest victims.

In his prior role as a national emergency medical services (EMS) attorney, Richard defended lawsuits brought against EMS providers that included claims relating to the treatment (or lack thereof) of sudden cardiac arrest victims. As an EMS consultant, he designed EMS response systems. Previously, Richard served as an ambulance-based emergency medical technician, emergency department trauma technician, and EMS system administrator.

Mr. Lazar was also the founding President and CEO of Fios, a highly successful technology-based services company located in Portland. He holds a Juris Doctor degree (Cornelius Honor Society) from Lewis & Clark Northwestern School of Law, and a BS in Public Affairs from the University of Oregon.

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Jane Litterini, RN
SCA Survivor Registry Recruitment and Support
Wexford, PA

Jane Litterini, RN, graduated from McKeesport Hospital School of Nursing, McKeeport, Pennsylvania, in 1972. She received a Bachelor of Science in Public Health and Elementary Education from California University of Western Pennsylvania in 1974. She worked for 10 years at Westmoreland Community Mental Health Center Inpatient Adult Behavioral Health Unit. She later worked at the Allegheny Neuropsychiatric Institute in the dual diagnosis unit (organic brain damage and mental health diagnosis) where she was a nursing supervisor.

Ms. Litterini later worked as staff nurse in the dementia unit at the Forbes Metro Hospital for six years before accepting a position with Psychiatric Associates of Western Pennsylvania. There, she focused on psychiatric assessments and crisis intervention. Beginning in 1999, she worked for Lifecare Hospital in Pittsburgh as a clinical nurse liaison, where she assessed patients and performed intakes for patients entering adult and geriatric units. She also conducted outreach programs targeted to the local community. She admitted (under physician’s direction) patients from 26 counties in Pennsylvania.

Currently, she is volunteering for the SCA Foundation to help survivors of sudden cardiac arrest and their families, as well as families of SCA victims who did not survive. In addition, she is working to increase public awareness about sudden cardiac arrest and the need for early intervention by the public with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and more widespread use of automated external defibrillators (AEDs).

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Keith Lurie, MD
Central Minnesota Heart Center
St. Cloud, MN

Dr. Keith Lurie has an extensive background as a clinician, inventor and consultant to the medical industry. Dr. Lurie currently practices at the Central Minnesota Heart Center in St. Cloud , MN , specializing in electrophysiology. He has been a faculty member at the University of Minnesota since 1981 and is currently Professor of Internal Medicine and Emergency Medicine, Co-Director of the Cardiac Arrhythmia Center , and a Member of the Bioengineering Institute and post-graduate Biomedical Engineering faculty. Dr. Lurie is the founder and Chief Medical Officer of Advanced Circulatory Systems, Inc., a company committed to improving the outcomes of cardiac resuscitation, circulatory shock and head trauma through the commercialization of circulatory enhancement technologies.

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R. Clinton Miner, PhD
Director
The Lean Institute at Tinker AFB
The University of Oklahoma
Norman, OK

R. Clinton Miner, PhD, an expert in distance education, is Director of The LEAN Institute at the University of Oklahoma. Prior management positions held at the University of Oklahoma include serving as Director of the Center for Business and Economic Development and CCE Online Programs (2001-2004) and Director of Advanced Programs, University of Oklahoma (1995-2001).

Dr. Miner's accomplishments include the following:

Leadership and management

• Guided the University's complex, worldwide outreach operation of more than 100 employees staffing over 40 sites in 13 countries to unprecedented success in revenues, enrollments and quality programming;
• Effectively administered 13 different master and doctorate degree programs delivered around the globe with 1,700-2,000 newly admitted students each year, generating revenues of more than seven million dollars per year;
• Received recognition from the by American Association for Adult and Continuing Education (AAACE) with the Ray Ehrensberger Award for Excellence in Military Education and by the Council of Colleges for Military Education (CCME) with the award for Innovative Educational Programming.

Curriculum and program development

• Played a central role in the creation of a pioneering and highly successful interdisciplinary PhD in organizational leadership for Department of Defense leaders in Europe; Implemented creative Masters of International Relations and Managerial Economics programs and non-credit programs using powerful delivery solutions to meet the unique needs of adult learners; Directed the development and delivery of six cutting-edge training programs designed to meet specific professional needs, serving national and international audiences; Led the University's initiative to integrated innovative distributive education technologies into the University's outreach programs;
• Developed and deployed a regional training center with a portfolio of 17 different targeted workshops that provide in-depth training in process improvement strategies, for which he received one of Oklahoma's 2005 Innovators of the Year awards.

Effective partnership development and matrix collaboration

• Created pioneering executive management programs that partnered business, government and academia to provide progressive, senior-level education and training experiences for corporate leaders;
• Demonstrated the ability to effectively operate within the matrix fabric of academia by successfully orchestrating the complex collaboration among 10 academic departments, the University Graduate College and 12 service units employing more than 250 faculty;
• Generated the original vision for and led the development of a classroom-distributive learning blended executive program for community development leaders around the country that integrates academic, business, and community organizations.

A member of the U.S. Distance Learning Association and the Oklahoma Distance Learning Association, Dr. Miner's frequently taught courses include Distance Education (online), Program Development, Leadership in Organizations, Organizational Behavior, Leaders as Change Agents (online).

Dr. Miner graduated from the United States Military Academy, West Point, with a concentration in international relations. He later received a Masters of Human Relations with an emphasis in leadership and management, and a PhD in adult and higher education with an emphasis in distance education from the University of Oklahoma.

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Mary M. Newman
SCA Foundation President
Wexford, PA

Mary M. Newman is president and founder of the Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) Foundation. She served from February 2000 through June 2005 as co-founder and Executive Director of the National Center for Early Defibrillation (NCED) at the University of Pittsburgh and as faculty in the University of Pittsburgh Department of Emergency Medicine. While at NCED, she led the development of a website attracting nearly one million unique users from scores of countries, the development and widespread dissemination of multiple award-winning print and electronic educational materials, the creation of the SCA Survivor Network, and the creation of the SCA Coalition (previously called the SCA Alliance).

Previously she served as research coordinator for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest research at Krannert Institute of Cardiology, Indiana University School of Medicine, in Indianapolis, IN, where she studied the use of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) by law enforcement agencies and by response teams at the worksite. She also served as a site coordinator of the NIH Public Access Defibrillation study. In addition, she has conducted survey research related to public and professional awareness about SCA and implementation of early defibrillation programs and participated as a member of Braslow's video self-instruction (VSI) research team.

Ms. Newman is author/ co-author of numerous articles published in peer review journals, trade journals, newsletters, and the popular press. She is author/ co-author of Challenging Sudden Death: A Community Guide to Help Save Lives, Protest the Silence: Take Action Against Sudden Death!, and I Survived Sudden Cardiac Arrest! (a motivational DVD). She has been a contributing editor of the Journal of Emergency Medical Services (JEMS) since 1980. She created the Chain of Survival metaphor, which has been widely adopted by numerous organizations worldwide.

She was a co-founder of the Citizen CPR Foundation (CCPRF) and served on its Board of Directors and Executive Committee and on planning committees for its Emergency Cardiac Care Update for nearly 18 years (1987-2004). She was founding editor of the CCPRF/ American Heart Association (AHA) publication, Currents in Emergency Cardiac Care (1989-1994). She has served on multiple expert panels and committees of government and national nonprofit organizations, including participation in the DOT National Standard Curriculum on Bystander Care, participation in CPR curriculum development for the American Red Cross, and service on the American Heart Association AED Task Force. She was a volunteer emergency medical technician (EMT) with the Chester, N.J., Fire Department and a volunteer CPR instructor and AHA Affiliate Faculty member. Newman graduated magna cum laude from the University of Cincinnati and completed EMT training at Northeastern University. She is pursuing a Masters in Public Health.

Woman Promotes Awareness, Action for Cardiac Arrest (PDF download)

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Robert A. Niskanen
Managing Director
Resurgent Biomedical Consulting LLC
Shoreline, Washington

Robert A. Niskanen is the Managing Director of Resurgent Biomedical Consulting, LLC, in Seattle. He works with several companies on induced hypothermia, mechanical CPR devices, and airway control as methods to improve resuscitation. In addition, he is executive director of Take Heart America, a demonstration project aimed to improve survival from sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) in three U.S. cities.

Previously, he served as a Senior Principal Scientist at Medtronic Emergency Response Systems (ERS) in Redmond, Washington. He was part of the research efforts at Physio-Control Corporation/ Medtronic ERS, for more than 25 years, serving previously as the Director of Research and then VP of Clinical Research. He graduated from the University of Washington with a MSEE in 1976.

Bob has been active in biomedical engineering for more than 30 years. His primary professional interests center on resuscitation, emergency medicine and cardiovascular disease. He has been involved in both technical and clinical research in CPR, defibrillation, ventilation, acute myocardial infarction triage and medical data management. He delights in working with engineers, scientists, physicians, researchers, business professionals and others to solve problems in emergency medicine.

He is active with a number of professional organizations, including the National Association of EMS Physicians, the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, the American College of Emergency Physicians, the American Heart Association, European Resuscitation Council, and Citizen CPR Foundation. He was active with the National Center for Early Defibrillation during its existence at the University of Pittsburgh.

Bob is convinced that dramatic improvements can and will be made in the survival rate of sudden cardiac arrest through collaboration. He believes an increased emphasis should be place on the role and influence of SCA survivors in fighting this national medical tragedy.

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Paula Opheim, PharmD
Minneapolis, MN

Paula Opheim of Indianapolis, 24, is working toward a Doctor of Pharmacy degree at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. In 2004, when Ms. Opheim was finishing her second year in the School of Pharmacy, she suffered sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). She was jogging a half-mile to the campus workout facility on April 5th, 2004 when her heart went into a potentially fatal heart rhythm—ventricular fibrillation (VF). She stumbled several times before collapsing on the street. Officer Eric Greenberg, a university police officer, witnessed her event. He called his partner, Kelly Mohundro, who happened to be right around the corner. She gave Ms. Opheim cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) until paramedics arrived on the scene. Meanwhile, construction workers who were in the area also came to Opheim's aid. Greenberg also called Purdue University Fire Department paramedics who were no more than three minutes away. They arrived with an automated external defibrillator (AED) and shocked her heart once, restoring a normal heartbeat. She was then taken to St. Elizabeth Medical Center. Thanks to swift and effective response, Ms. Opheim did not suffer any neurological damage.

"God must have been watching me and wanted me to live. But there are a lot of awesome people, too. The police officers and paramedics were my guardian angels," said Ms. Opheim in an interview with Purdue University.

Ms. Opheim had been diagnosed at 15 with hypertropic cardiomyopathy (HCM), one of the chief causes of sudden cardiac arrest in the young, particularly young athletes. Several family members have the same condition, including her mother, grandfather and great-grandfather. In fact, HCM has affected at least 12 family members within three generations.

As a result of her personal experience with SCA and her career interests, Ms. Opheim began volunteering for the SCA Foundation in 2006.

Read Paula’s personal story in the Discussion Forum - "A Heart That Still Beats."

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Joseph P. Ornato, MD, FACC, FACEP
Professor and Chairman
Department of Emergency Medicine
Virginia Commonwealth University/Medical College of Virginia
Richmond, VA

Dr. Joseph Ornato is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University/Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia. He is also Medical Director of the Richmond Ambulance Authority, the Prehospital Paramedic System serving the City of Richmond, Virginia.

Born in New Haven, Connecticut, he graduated from Boston University Medical School magna cum laude and completed his training in Internal Medicine at New York City's Mount Sinai Hospital and in Cardiology at New York Hospital-Cornell University Medical Center. He is triple board certified (Internal Medicine, Cardiology, Emergency Medicine).

Dr. Ornato is an active researcher in the field of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Dr. Ornato is American Editor of the journal Resuscitation and is on the editorial board of the American Journal of Emergency Medicine. He is past Chairman of the American Heart Association's National Emergency Cardiac Care Committee and the AHA Advanced Cardiac Life Support Subcommittee. Dr. Ornato is a member of the American College of Cardiology's Emergency Cardiac Care Committee. He is the American Heart Association's national representative to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's National Heart Attack Alert Program's Coordinating Committee and he is Chairman of its Science Base Subcommittee. Dr. Ornato is also a Special Consultant to the Circulatory System Devices Panel of the Food and Drug Administration.

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Paul F. Pendergast
President, St. Francis Hospital Foundation
Hartford, Connecticut

Paul F. Pendergast is President of the St. Francis Hospital Foundation and Senior Vice President and Chief Development Officer for St. Francis Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut, a position he has held since June 2006. He has 38 years of successful fundraising, sales, consulting, staff and management experience in domestic and international markets.

Before then, he served as Senior Associate Athletic Director–Development at the University of Connecticut in Storrs. There he led a development team that serviced athletic donors and grew donor funds from $6.5 M to $17M in four years and grew the donor base from 4,500 to 8,000+.

Previously, he served as UConn’s Assistant Athletic Director-Corporate Relations where he led a marketing team that serviced athletic scholarships. He trained 70+ student-workers and interns as support staff.

His previous positions include National Accounts Manager–Pecos Learning Center Division at Aon Corporation in Minneapolis, Minnesota; National Program Manager for the Lexmark Corporation in Lexington, Kentucky; and multiple sales, marketing and management positions with the IBM Corporation in Europe, the Far East and the Americas.

Paul served in the U.S. Air Force during the Viet Nam War. He is a graduate of Grove City College in Pennsylvania where he received his BA in political science and was class president, and St. Edward’s University in Texas, where he pursued an MBA in international marketing.

He has served in elected positions for the Town of Simsbury, Connecticut, Board of Assessment Appeals and has held volunteer leadership positions for many organizations including St. Mary Parish (Simsbury, CT), St. Joseph Residence (Enfield, CT), St. Mary Bereavement Support Group, Ritter Family Foundation, American Cancer Society “Relay for Life,” Greater Hartford Notre Dame Alumni Club, Simsbury Culture, Parks & Recreation Commission, Simsbury Soccer Club, Connecticut Junior Soccer Association, U.S. Olympic Development Program, Grove City College Alumni Association, St. Elizabeth House Homeless Shelter, and the McLean Home and the Connecticut State Gaming Board.

He was named the Simsbury “Hometown Hero” in May, 1990 and Connecticut Junior Soccer Association “Coach of the Year” in 1989.

Paul is married to Linda Pendergast and has three sons (Sean, Kevin and Ryan), two step-daughters (Laurie and Shannon), and nine grandchildren (Aleisha, James, Sammy, Judy Anne, Hannah, Jack, William, Olivia and T.J.).

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Edward M. Racht, MD
Medical Director
City of Austin/Travis County EMS
Austin, TX


Edward M. Racht, MD is the Medical Director for the City of Austin/ Travis County EMS System, a diverse group of providers and agencies that includes the Austin Fire Department, Austin/ Travis 9-1-1 Emergency Communications, Austin/ Travis County EMS, Travis County Parks Department, STARFlight helicopter, Lower Colorado River Authority Rangers, Austin Aviation Police, 15 volunteer first responder fire departments and EMS agencies and a Corporate Response Group made up of 18 regional corporate response teams.

Dr. Racht has been involved in EMS for 14 years. He received his medical degree from Emory University in Atlanta and completed his residency at the Medical College of Virginia. Before relocating to Texas, he was an Assistant Professor and Associate Chief of the Medicine Section of EMS at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond. He was Medical Director for multiple career and volunteer EMS agencies, fire departments and the Richmond Police Department SWAT team. He was appointed by the Governor of Virginia to three successive terms on the State
EMS Advisory Board.

Dr. Racht is active at the state and national level serving as the Chairperson of the Governor's EMS and Trauma Advisory Council for the State of Texas and the Texas Affiliate Board of Directors of the AHA. He has also been active in International EMS, serving as a consultant to the World Bank and as the American founder of the Vladivostok and Moscow, Russia EMS Training Centers.

Dr. Racht has been actively involved in the creation of a "community chain of survival" in Austin that unites private and public agencies and individuals in a unique partnership designed to effectively manage sudden cardiac death. In 1999, Dr. Racht was named EMS Medical Director of the year for the State of Texas. In 2000, he was named Volunteer of the Year for the Capital Area Division of the American Heart Association. He was also featured in a cover article in JEMS on a "New Breed of Medical Directors" in July 1997 and recognized again in JEMS in 2005
for his leadership.

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Edmund M. Ricci, PhD, MLitt
Professor of Sociology in Public Health
Director, Institute for Evaluation Science in Community Health
University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health
Pittsburgh, PA

Edmund Ricci, PhD, MLitt is Director of the Institute for Evaluation Science in Community Health at the Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, in Pittsburgh, PA. His primary technical areas are evaluation and survey research methods. Most recently he has focused on minority health disparities, long-term care services and institutions, emergency and disaster medicine and substance abuse intervention programs. He has designed, directed or participated in more that 250 evaluation studies, dealing with a wide range of health and human service programs and organizations. As Professor of Sociology in Public Health, he teaches several doctoral level courses on evaluation science.

Dr. Ricci has served as a member of the National Academy of Sciences/ National Research Council, Committee on EMS, and Chair of the Health Services Research Training Study Section of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). He currently serves as a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Health and Social Policy. He is a member of the Behavioral Sciences Council, Association of Schools of Public Health and the Scientific Advisory Committee for the International Resuscitation Research Center. He has been a visiting faculty member at the Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Lisbon, Portugal, and the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica, and serves as a member of the Board of Examiners, Sir Venkateswara University, Andhra Pradesh, India.

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Michael R. Sayre, MD
Associate Professor
Department of Emergency Medicine
The Ohio State University Medical Center
Columbus, OH

Michael R. Sayre, MD, is a native of Cincinnati, Ohio. He attended Xavier University in Cincinnati and graduated in 1980 with a degree in Natural Sciences. He then attended the University of Cincinnati and received his Doctor of Medicine in 1984. Dr. Sayre completed a residency in Emergency Medicine at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh in 1987. He remained on the attending staff at Allegheny General until 1990 when he returned to Cincinnati.

While on the faculty of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Cincinnati, Dr. Sayre focused his efforts on EMS. He served as the Medical Director for the EMS program of the Cincinnati Fire Division from 1992 to 2000. In 2000, Dr. Sayre relocated to the University of Chicago to join the staff of the Emergency Resuscitation Research Center where he served as the Director of Clinical Research for the ERRC.

In 2003, Dr. Sayre moved to The Ohio State University and has focused his research on clinical trials involving the management of SCA. He is active with EMS research and serves as the Principal Investigator for the Ohio site in the ASPIRE clinical trial of the AutoPulse CPR assist device. He is currently the Chairman of the Basic Life Support Subcommittee for the AHA Emergency Cardiovascular Care Committee.

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Sam Sears, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Clinical and Health Psychology
University of Florida Health Science Center
Gainesville, FL

Dr. Sears is an Associate Professor at the University of Florida Health Science Center in the College of Public Health and Health Professions in the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology. He also holds a joint appointment in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine. His clinical practice is entirely integrated into the University of Florida Electrophysiology (EP) Cardiology team, where he provides psychological services on a routine basis to patients suffering from cardiac arrhythmias. He is a nationally recognized expert in the psychological care and quality of life outcomes of implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) patients. He is also a frequent and renown speaker to health care providers and ICD Support Groups around the country. During the past nine years, Dr. Sears has focused his research on the psychological effects of ICD patients. His co-authored book with Dr. Wayne Sotile, You Can Make a Difference: Brief Psychosocial Interventions for ICD Patients and Families, has been distributed to over 4,000 health care providers worldwide. Dr. Sears serves as a consultant to the biomedical device industry regarding the psychological and behavioral aspects of quality of life and patient acceptance of cardiovascular device therapies. He is the principal investigator on funded grants related to psychosocial treatments for ICD patients. Dr. Sears was honored by his peers by being awarded the “Early Career Contributions to Psychology Award” by the Florida Psychological Association in 1998. Recently, he was also honored by the students of his department by being awarded the “Research Mentor of the Year” 2002-03 and “Classroom Teacher of the Year Award” in 2002-03 and 2004-05.

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Roger D. White, MD, FACC
Professor of Anesthesiology
Mayo Medical School
Rochester, MN

Roger D. White, MD, FACC, is professor of anesthesiology at the Mayo Medical School and consultant in anesthesiology (cardiovascular) at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He is a member of the AHA BLS Subcommittee, the National Association of EMS Physicians, the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, and a fellow of the American College of Cardiology. He is also on the Board of Directors of the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians. He is co-medical director of Rochester's Gold Cross Ambulance Service and medical director of the City of Rochester Police/Fire Department Early
Defibrillation Program.

Previous activities related to defibrillation include chairperson of the US Food and Drug Administration's Defibrillator Working Group and membership on the AHA Task Force on Automatic External Defibrillation, Subcommittee on AED
Safety and Efficacy.

On-going clinical research projects include assessment of patient outcomes following out-of-hospital cardiac arrest caused by ventricular fibrillation and evaluation of the performance of biphasic waveforms in AEDs used by paramedics, police and firefighters. His bibliography includes 134 publications, the majority pertaining to emergency cardiac care.

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Gary Zmrhal
CFO, Holy Cross Hospital
Chicago, IL

Gary Zmrhal is a senior financial and operating executive with more than 30 years experience in professional services, consulting and healthcare management. He is a proven leader with creative problem-solving skills and experience in finance, analysis, budgeting, strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, vendor/ licensor negotiations and staff development. A seasoned entrepreneur with experience in new business development and expansion of existing products and services, Mr. Zmrhal is Managing Director, CIRE Consulting LLC in Naperville IL, which offers executive level expertise to financially distressed hospitals. He currently is acting Chief Financial Officer at Holy Cross Hospital in Chicago, and previously served as acting CFO for St. Vincent Medical Centers in New York, NY, St. Josephïs Hospital in Wayne, NJ, and Mercy Hospital in Chicago.

Previously he served as Partner, Blackmank, Kallick & Bartelstein LLP, a regional public accounting firm in Chicago. He also served as Vice President/ CFO of MacNeal Health Network/ Foundation in Berwyn, IL, where he was responsible for all accounting and finance functions and managed a 40-person staff. He worked for more than 20 years for the Big Six public accounting firm Arthur Anderson & Company.

Mr. Zmrhal is a graduate of Illinois State University and a certified public accountant in Illinois, Indiana and Iowa.

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