Promotion not effective until 2009 but all three are already on the job
After months of discussion with the Fire District commissioners, the public, and volunteer and paid fire department staff, fire paramedics Valerie Harris, Mik Preysz and Patrick Shepler will become Orcas Island Fire Department Division Chiefs effective Jan. 1. The three paramedics presented the proposal to divide the Assistant Fire Chief duties into three positions in July of this year after the OIFD battalion chief William Wright resigned. The fire department commissioners formally approved the division chief proposal in November. In a separate proposal the commissioners approved the hiring of a fourth paramedic to eliminate current overtime shifts.
Valerie Harris
Valerie Harris wanted to be a nurse. “Since I was a teenager I had thought about nursing school,” Harris said. “When I became pregnant with my second child I decided to go to paramedic training. I knew very quickly it was the direction I wanted to go.”
She says her personality was better suited to the self-directed and independent paramedic style. She also likes the fact that as a paramedic she sees the entire gamut of medical and social issues.
Harris has worked in emergency medical service for more than 24 years and her resume includes honors as Skagit County Educator and Paramedic of the Year.
She has worked in a number of medical jobs including: Emergency Medical Technician, Nationally Registered EMT, National Ski Patrol Emergency Provider, Physician’s Assistant, Flight Medic and Lead Paramedic.
Harris said, “We are in a privileged position. We go into people’s environments and can see not only the immediate medical need but the social needs as well. We are the first line in patient advocacy.”
Where most paramedics see patients only once, deal with the emergency and pass them on to others, on Orcas Harris says they know the people and may be called to help the same person several times.
“We have brought people home to the station and made meals for them and provided them with clothes. We know their doctors and we know what needs to be done in follow-up,” she says.
As a Division Chief, her responsibility will be operations. She will be in charge of buildings, equipment, apparatus and overseeing aspects of personnel including scheduling and reports.
She says her goals for the new position will be to establish more definition and organization. Harris wants to establish building operations manuals that outline all the maintenance and other needs.
Harris said, “My goal is that if I am kidnapped by aliens, someone could step in and do my job because all the information would be available.”
The fire service has a reputation for being a hard place for women to succeed. “I think as a female you have to balance being tough and not too tough. I had to learn to take charge,” Harris said. “Overall, treating people well has always worked for me. Unfortunately, women always have to prove themselves. But overall it comes down to male or female, can you do the job.”
Harris will soon be both mother-in-law and boss to OIFD Lieutenant Chad Kimple who will soon be marrying her daughter Alicia Harris, who was a volunteer. In her limited spare time, she likes to garden.
Mik Preysz
Mik Preysz has been working in some type of emergency medicine since he was 14 and became a junior ski patroller with Advanced First Aid. He received his EMT education at Weber State University and went on to become a Shift Commander and the Department Training Officer, Technical Search and Rescue Field Commander, Emergency Response Team Field Commander and Ambulance Division Commander in Utah.
He was responsible for the department’s Field Training Program and the Wellness Program. He taught for Weber State University, Utah State Police Academy and the Utah State Department of Health.
When he moved to Washington, he went to work as a Flight Medic for St. Joseph Hospital in Bellingham and worked his way up to Chief Flight Medic. He worked at the Kent Police Department for only five months, “I hated the job because you drove around in a little area handling domestic disputes and drunk drivers,” Preysz said. “I got tired of seeing the crooks getting away with everything and the victims suffering with no recourse.”
His Flight Medic area included Orcas Island, which led to him working full time as a line paramedic with OIFD for two years until he took a full-time position with Skagit Medic, a job he worked while concurrently working on-call with OIFD and continuing his Med-Flight Position.
During his time at Skagit, he also ran a company that specialized in on-site medical training for hospitals, medical and dental offices throughout the Northwest.
In 2005, while still on-call with OIFD, Preysz accepted a position as Lieutenant Fire Medic with the department.
“This is the first time in my life that I only have one job. It’s fun and demanding and it takes all my time outside my family,” he says.
As Division Chief, he will be responsible for the department’s Health and Wellness program and Information Technology needs.
“My main goal is to let the volunteers know how important they are and to make sure none of their benefits are lost. I want to make sure the Health and Wellness Program successes continue,” Preysz said.
A primary goal will be to establish the Shared Care Plan database that will have clinics and, with the patient’s permission, input patient care details into a shared database that will be accessible by the OIFD paramedics from ambulances.
He lives in Lyndon, Wash. and commutes to Orcas for his shifts. When not working, he schedules his time to participate in his 14 year-old daughter’s many interests, including hip-hop dancing, horseback riding, soccer, modeling, ballet, jazz, and tennis.
Patrick S. Shepler
Patrick Shepler one day had a vision of himself in a fire rescue truck and knew that was what he wanted to do. He had been going to school to be a doctor. Student loan funding had been eliminated and he still had two or three more years of college before he could get into medical school.
“I took to the EMS training immediately,” Shepler said. “I enjoy what I do but I regret every day not being a doctor. I think they see more patients and are able to be more impactful in people’s lives.
“On Orcas, because we work in an austere environment, it allows us to provide a level of care not provided in an urban setting,” he said.
Shepler worked as a firefighter/paramedic in Florida for 23 years. He was a Rescue Lieutenant and the EMS curriculum development director for the countywide EMS system. He has taught emergency medical courses for St. Petersburg College and the University of Miami among others.
When in four years, they had experienced five hurricanes, Shepler and his wife decided they wanted to move and started looking at the Northwest.
One day while sitting in his office in Florida “as a fat and happy administrator,” Shepler decided to send off an employment e-mail inquiry to Orcas, which he had visited briefly on vacation. He tested and was offered the job as paramedic and accepted.
“It was after I accepted that I thought, ‘right now I can walk into 70 fire stations in Florida and everyone knows me and would put a cup of coffee in my hand. I am leaving family and friends and moving across the country.’
“I had a major anxiety attack. But we put our house on the market and moved here within two months” he says.
His division chief responsibilities will be for Education and Training for volunteers and staff, firefighters and paramedics and the public.
“I want to maximize member talent so that everybody is safe and efficient in their job. We have amazing resources and phenomenal talent among our staff and volunteers.”
He says an example of using individual talents is those members who have heavy equipment operating experience and providing them with training in heavy equipment rescue.
“Most people have no idea of the level we operate at or how incredibly well cared for they are,” he says.
“In what other profession are you invited by someone into their home, 24 hours a day, no questions asked, to take care of a loved one during their greatest personal emergency,” Shepler says.
In Florida, Shepler and his wife started the nonprofit Dalmatian Rescue of Tampa Bay, which his wife still runs. When not working he is spending time with their Dalmatians.
