Presenters 

Christopher Way

Chief Christopher Way was appointed the Chief Officer of the Kootenai County EMS System in North Idaho on September of 2013.  Prior to his current position he served as an EMS Chief for a county in Southeast Kansas.  Chief Way attended Labette and Coffeyville Community Colleges for his EMS certifications and holds a Bachelor's of Arts degree in Business Management from Mid America Nazarene University. 

Chief Way has been involved in EMS since January 1992.  For over twenty-six years he has served, initially, as an EMT and EMT-I and then in 1994 became a paramedic.  As an EMT he served on a rural Ambulance service while becoming a paramedic.  After becoming a paramedic he was hired in a large metropolitan EMS System and served in several roles including; paramedic, field training officer, clinical instructor, tactical paramedic, and Operations Supervisor/Shift Commander.

In late 2001 Chief Way was hired as the EMS Chief of a county EMS agency in Southeast Kansas.  During his tenure there he served as the agency head, on several local response/clinical committees, Commander for the regional Incident Management Team, Chairman of the Regional Homeland Security Council, Deputy Commander for the State EMS response team, Member of the State Incident Management Team, Regional and State Trauma Councils, and the CDC/ACS National Committee on Field Triage.  In addition to these assignments Chief Way has served in several Incident Command Roles at several natural disasters in Kansas and on mutual aid/EMAC assignments.

In his current role Chief Way oversees the delivery of Emergency Medical Services via a fire-based EMS system.  This is done through six (3 ALS and 3 BLS) transport departments and five BLS first response only departments.  Through these agencies KCEMSS responds to over 19,500 requests for service annually and transports over 12,500 patients a year.  Through his role as EMS Chief he serves on many local and regional EMS, Fire, Emergency Management, and Healthcare committees.  Chief Way is also the current Past President of the North Idaho Fire Chief’s Association, the Chairman of the Idaho Emergency Medical Services Advisory Council, Chairman of the state Time Sensitive Emergency Commission, serves as the Region III Director and Chairman of the Membership Committee for the National Association of EMTs Board of Directors, is actively involved in both the Idaho and International Association of Fire Chiefs, stays involved on the CDC/ACS Filed Triage Committee, serves on the Kootenai County Airport Board of Directors and is the Vice Chairman of the Heritage Health Board of Directors.

Chief Way, his wife and two daughters live in Hayden, Idaho.  In his free time he enjoys traveling and many of the recreational activities/opportunities available in North Idaho and the Pacific Northwest.  Feel free to contact him at chrisw@kcemss.org. 

Bill Justice 

Steven Romp