Allied health student Kenneth Silverwind has already accomplished many life goals: become a firefighter and flight paramedic, hone his martial arts skills and establish a foundation that helps first responders learn self-defense. He came to NAU to chip away at yet another dream: get a bachelor’s degree and level up professionally. Read about Silverwind’s recent experience providing medical care to those affected by Hurricanes Milton and Helene and find out what else is on his bucket list.
What brought you to NAU’s allied health program?
I came to the NAU allied health program after completing my associate’s degree focused on paramedic care a few years ago. I wanted to continue a degree program with the same focus as my previous degree that also correlates with and promotes advancement of my career as a flight and ground paramedic. The allied health program also promotes my knowledge and ability to become a better instructor in the multiple disciplines I teach.
How did you get involved with FEMA?
The opportunity to work through FEMA arose through my full-time position as a flight paramedic as our parent and sister companies have a contract to assist FEMA during nationwide disasters.
Take us through a day in your life as a hurricane recovery worker.
While deployed to the East Coast, my unit was assigned with assisting a local ambulance company in maintaining their normal responses while providing expert medical care to the increased number of response calls from those impacted by the hurricane.
For most of the deployment, we were fortunate enough to be at a base camp that provided sleeping quarters, food, laundry and shower services. Our normal days were broken down into 12-hour shifts with a counterpart crew doing the same job. Following our rest period, we would grab chow and do an ambulance and narcotic check-off with our counterpart crew and address any issues that arose throughout their shift. From there we simply ran our calls as we were assigned, identical to the way calls are run in my local area back home.
Although shifts were meant to be 12-hour rotations, we would constantly run over that time due to the nature of the calls and the distance we were traveling to provide patient care—which is normal for anyone in this profession. Once our shift was over, we would do our change-out with the oncoming crew and take our rest period until the next day when we did it all over again.
What has been the most rewarding part of responding to Hurricanes Milton and Helene?
As someone who genuinely loves providing medical care, being able to see the impact we had on the patients we saw throughout the deployment was the most rewarding part. All of the patients we treated experienced hardship and loss from the impact of the hurricanes. Being among the providers that were privileged enough to help was truly a blessing. Some of the patients we treated were incredibly touched to know that providers from all over the country were there to offer them help in their time of need.
Tell us about a significant childhood memory and how it has impacted your life today.
Growing up, my second home was a martial arts school where I went just about every night for the majority of my childhood and early adulthood. The owner of that school was a local fire chief and a paramedic himself, as was one of the main instructors at the school, who was a fire captain. I remember listening to them intently discuss a call they recently ran together.
At the time I was too young to really understand anything they were discussing, but listening to them discussing details of that call was something I will never forget. Although not too familiar with the intricacies of the conversation, I remember the atmosphere surrounding the scene. These two individuals greatly influenced my path to eventually becoming a firefighter/paramedic myself.
What did you want to be when you grew up?
I always knew I wanted to do something related to helping others and being the one that’s running toward the danger when everyone else is headed in the opposite direction. That left joining the military or being a first responder. Although I haven’t had the opportunity to serve in the military, I have been blessed enough to follow a childhood dream of being in the fire and EMS service and working closely with members of our local law enforcement agencies and members of the military in joint trainings.
What have you been most proud of recently?
I am incredibly proud to have been able to travel to the East Coast and serve the communities there doing something I truly love doing. I am also incredibly proud of the individuals I serve with and their dedication to being the best they can be and helping people.
What is your favorite way to spend a day off?
I like to spend some time with friends or drive down to southern Arizona and see family. If I am unable to spend time with anyone due to schedules, practicing martial arts, going for a hike or doing woodworking, or going to see a movie seems like a lovely day off to me.
What are three things on your bucket list?
I am eager one day to travel and visit some of the biblical areas on the other side of the world. I have family in Italy and Sicily that I would like to get in touch with and visit as well. It has also been a dream of mine to one day open my own martial arts school. Other than a recent hiatus due to career opportunities, I have been doing martial arts since I was 4 years old and even started my own foundation that trains first responders and educators in personal self-defense, so having my own school under my name would definitely be awesome.
Jill Kimball | NAU Communications
(928) 523-2282 | jill.kimball@nau.edu