Boston EMS Chief's Bio

Richard Serino, Chief of Department

Richard Serino began working for Boston EMS in 1973; over the years he rose through the ranks and in 1999 became Chief of the Department and a Bureau Chief for the Boston Public Health Commission. During his tenure as Chief, he has seen the agency expand and improve to become nationally recognized for the first rate services provided by the agency’s EMTs and Paramedics. For more than fifteen years Mr. Serino has served as an Incident Commander; as well, he has been the Medical Incident Commander for over 35 mass casualty incidents and for all of Boston’s major planned events, including the Boston Marathon, Boston’s Fourth of July celebration, Boston’s First Night New Years Event, and the Democratic National Convention in 2004, a National Special Security Event (NSSE).

Mr. Serino oversees and helped develop the DelValle Institute for Emergency Preparedness, and serves as Director of the Metropolitan Medical Response System. Since 1998, Mr. Serino has been a member of the National Faculty for the Domestic Preparedness Program. He was also one of the original contributing members for the Department of Defense Domestic Training Program and Metropolitan Medical Response System. Mr. Serino has been involved, since its inception, with the Lessons Learned Information Sharing (www.llis.gov) network for emergency responders. As a consultant to the Pentagon and the Department of Defense, Mr. Serino served on the 9/11 after-action assessment team to assess medical consequence management policies and procedures. He was also part of the Navy's Bureau of Medicine –Homeland Security DVATEX team assessing US Naval medical facilities internationally. His experience and expertise has led to numerous invitations to speak at nationally recognized events; just in the last year some of the places he has spoken at the National Disaster Management System 2007 Conference, Ireland's Immediate Care Society’s National Conference, the American Public Health Association 2007 Conference, the United Kingdom’s Ambulance Service Association AMBEX Conference, the Public Health Preparedness Summit 2007, and the 2007 EMS Today Conference and Exposition, guest lecturer at Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government. He also served as a contributing author for two recent publications on emergency preparedness, ‘Mass Medical Care with Scarce Resources: A Community Planning Guide’, published by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and ‘In a Moment’s Notice: Surge Capacity for Terrorist Bombings’, published by the U.S. Department for Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Mr. Serino attended Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government Senior Executives in State and Local Government program in 2000, completed the Kennedy School’s National Preparedness Leadership Initiative in 2005, and recently graduated from the Executive Leadership Program, Center for Homeland Defense and Security at the Naval Postgraduate School. Mr. Serino was recently appointed to the editorial board for the Journal of Emergency Medical Services; and is a member of the Board of Directors for Metropolitan Boston EMS Council and Chair of the American Red Cross- Blood Services Massachusetts Board of Directors. In 2006, Mr. Serino was recognized as “Person of the Year” by the Boston Press Photographers Association. In addition he has been the recipient of numerous awards for heroism, meritorious service and community service, Mr. Serino has been awarded the City Excellence Award from the Boston Management Consortium; the Henry L. Shattuck Public Service Award – the City’s highest honor for contributions to public service; the National EMS Memorial Service Annual Award; the United States Coast Guard Commandant’s Commendation and the United States Secret Service Directors Award in 2004. Mr. Serino was recognized by the Boston Globe as one of nine international figures for advocacy for International Action for Children for his work on violence prevention.

Contact Information:

Phone: (617) 343-2367

Fax: (617) 343-1191

E-mail: serino@bostonems.org