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Keith Wells, an assistant professor of health sciences in Western Carolina University’s emergency medical care program, recently won the 2008 Founders Award from the Appalachian Center for Wilderness Medicine.
The center, a regional nonprofit committed to promoting quality wilderness medicine education, bestows the award annually to a person who advances wilderness medical care in the region through outstanding service to the organization.
Wells (pictured), a resident of Asheville, not only serves as director but also secretary and webmaster for the center. In addition, he is a founding member and leader of the center’s project to improve the environmental sustainability of wilderness and traditional emergency medical services operations, an effort called the Green EMS Initiative.
A member of the WCU faculty since 2006, Wells is involved in developing new curriculum centered on wilderness medicine for the university’s emergency medical care program.
Wells has worked as a paramedic and trauma center nurse. He holds an associate’s degree in emergency medicine from Guilford Technical Community College, a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Winston-Salem State University and a master’s degree in nursing with a concentration as a nurse practitioner in family practice from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Western Carolina is one of only 14 in institutions in the nation to offer a bachelor of science degree in emergency medical care accredited by the Committee on Accreditation of Education Programs for the EMS Professions. The program is offered on campus and online by the School of Health Sciences within the College of Health and Human Sciences.
Graduates have pursued careers as paramedics, educators, physicians, physician assistants, researchers and emergency medical services administrators.
For more information about the emergency medical care program, contact director Michael Hubble by phone at (828) 227-3516 or by e-mail at mhubble@email.wcu.edu.
Maintained by the Office of Public Relations
Last Modified: Monday, Dec. 1, 2008