Podgwaite honored with Vermont EMS Lifetime Award
May 21, 2022 | By Lisa Scagliotti
Waterbury Ambulance Service Executive Director Mark Podgwaite is the recipient of the 2022 EMS Lifetime Award from the state of Vermont. Photo by Gordon Miller
To mark National EMS Week, the state of Vermont honored various emergency service responders this past week, announcing on Friday that Waterbury Ambulance Service chief Mark Podgwaite is the recipient of a lifetime achievement award.
The Vermont EMS Lifetime Award each year goes to an “individual who has made an extraordinary contribution to the advancement of EMS prehospital care representing in effect, a lifetime of outstanding service to the profession and the public,” the award announcement states.
A year ago, Waterbury Ambulance Service Inc. was named the state’s top ambulance service, so the second consecutive honor singling out Podgwaite individually is particularly rewarding given the intense pace the nonprofit agency has kept for more than two years given the COVID-19 pandemic.
The awards were announced daily by Will Moran, head of Vermont’s Emergency Medical Services in the state Department of Health. Nominations were collected from around the state for a roster of recognitions that also honored:
Essex Junction Fire Department First Response and Middlebury Regional EMS for First Response and Ambulance Service of the Year awards.
Scott Bagg, a registered nurse and paramedic with Northfield Ambulance Service and regional EMS training officer, as EMS Educator of the Year.
Advanced EMT Howie McCausland with Mad River Valley Ambulance Service named Children Champion of the Year.
Emergency Medical Responder Joe Perreault of Plainfield Fire & Rescue and paramedic Brooke O’Steen of Hardwick Rescue & Stowe EMS, as Basic Life Support and Advanced Life Support Providers of the Year awards respectively.
A hard-working leader
Podgwaite said his public safety career dates back to the 1970s in Connecticut where he began as a fire and EMS volunteer. In 1992, he signed on as a firefighter in Northfield and joined Northfield Ambulance in 1996, where he remains a member today.
In 2017, Podgwaite became executive director at Waterbury Ambulance Service. He previously worked in other EMS leadership roles including operations director at Lyndon Rescue and assistant chief of Northfield Ambulance; he currently heads one of the state’s regional EMS districts as well.
In nominating Podgwaite, Waterbury Ambulance Service Administrator Maggie Burke, herself an advanced emergency medical technician, highlighted Podgwaite as a role model calling him a positive and supportive leader.
“He has singlehandedly driven the organization's improved professionalism and overall care provided to our community over those last five years with the support of a team inspired by his drive,” she wrote.
Burke pointed out how for 48 hours a week she shares a 15-square-foot office with Podgwaite who doesn’t shirk overnight or weekend shifts. “It is easy to work hard when your leader is working twice as hard as you think is possible,” she wrote.
Podgwaite’s career has garnered him various awards and recognitions over the years, including leading the Northfield service when it was named best in the state in 2009 and Waterbury last year for that honor. His career in EMS includes over two decades of teaching, and training new personnel. “He has trained countless EMTs throughout the state and remembers everyone. He holds each of his students to a high standard and continues to provide guidance throughout their career,” Burke said in her nomination.
Over the past two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, Burke said Podgwaite’s expertise and dedication have guided the Waterbury agency’s expansion and deployment to add daily testing and vaccination efforts to their usual duties of community emergency response. Waterbury Ambulance has grown from two full-time employees and 30 volunteers to a team of more than 200 employees focused on pandemic response, working with dozens of other ambulance services, businesses and community organizations around Vermont on testing and vaccination efforts. She noted that a recent collaboration with Mad River Ambulance Service collected supplies to send to refugees in Ukraine.
Other Waterbury Ambulance team members contributed to Podgwaite’s nomination. "Since taking the helm at WASI, Mark has worked to foster a culture of safety, professionalism, and innovation, and has grown the organization and its connections statewide more than many thought possible,” said volunteer Jamie Benson. “Without missing a beat, Mark answered the call at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and has become a leader in the vital role of EMS in our testing and vaccination infrastructure statewide. Without his leadership, we would be in a very different place as a town, and possibly as a state."
Waterbury Ambulance board Vice President Jim Birmingham noted Podgwaite’s breadth of experience. “Mark has been a longtime member of the Vermont EMS community in a variety of roles including volunteer, educator, district administrator, and agency chief among many others,” he wrote stressing Podgwaite as an effective leader with crews, running programs, and overseeing the business of a community agency that has mushroomed in size and mission during the pandemic.
Podgwaite reflected on the honor and emphasized that accolades for the work carried out be shared. “Everything that has been accomplished was and is a team effort,” he said. “I am surrounded by a great team of folks whom I relish. They never say ‘no’ to whatever crazy plan I come up with to serve the folks we serve.”
Burke was careful to point out that she wasn’t making the nomination at the end of her colleague’s career. “Mark still has a lifetime of work to continue to do in Vermont EMS and we are lucky to have him,” she said.
