Office of EMS Director Drew Dawson has been awarded the NHTSA Administrator’s Employee of the Year Award. Acting Deputy Administrator Ron Medford presented the award during a December 3rd ceremony held in the expansive West Atrium of DOT headquarters. In accepting the award, Mr. Dawson was cheered on by a packed crowd of NHTSA employees, including the entire staff of the Office of EMS and key State and Federal EMS leaders.
However, the Awards Program more specifically outlines what earned Mr. Dawson this year’s honor: “His expertise, thoughtfulness, strategic thinking, work ethic, and demeanor have given NHTSA a model EMS office that plays an outsize role in developing, coordinating, and implementing national EMS policies.”
Outsize
Drew Dawson brought an “outsize” work ethic to NHTSA in 2003 that’s arguably as large as his home State of Montana, where he served for more than 20 years as its EMS Director. In fact, according to staff, he is rarely found without his Blackberry in hand and at times they have had to insist he take vacation time. And while that staff is small in number, their efforts and accomplishments under Mr. Dawson’s leadership have been anything but. This year alone, two additional members of the EMS Staff, Laurie Flaherty and Hector Williams, won Administrator Awards of their own. Working as part of a larger agency team, Ms. Flaherty and Mr. Williams were honored for “diligence, perseverance, and creativity in rapidly developing administrative rules and implementing a new multi-million dollar E9-1-1 grant program.”
Coordinating
Their winning yet collaborative effort brings to mind the word “coordinating.” Anyone who knows Mr. Dawson knows of his commitment to keep NHTSA true to its roots as the “coordinating” agency on EMS system issues within the Federal government. In a 2006 interview with EMS Magazine, Mr. Dawson had the following to say about his approach to working with other Federal agencies on EMS issues and policies: “We are not in competition with each other, but rather we work together in a coordinated manner¬tapping each other’s talent, expertise and resources; cooperating with each other rather than building silos around our respective programs.”
FICEMS and NEMSAC
Indeed, under Mr. Dawson’s watch the Federal Interagency Committee on EMS (FICEMS) and the National EMS Advisory Council (NEMSAC) have launched and are currently formalizing the NHTSA tradition of bringing people in and outside of government together to cooperate on solutions to the EMS challenges of today, while planning for those of tomorrow.
Congratulations to Drew and his EMS Office.