Gregg C. Lord
BA, NREMT-P

Chief Gregg C. Lord presently serves as a Senior Policy Analyst for the George Washington University’s Homeland Security Policy Institute. His career in Public Safety spans more than twenty-five years and has embraced progressive roles in both rural and urban jurisdictions. He became a paramedic in the early 80’s and was promoted through the ranks to become EMS Operations Chief of the second largest EMS system in New England at Worcester Emergency Medical Services, Worcester, Massachusetts until his retirement five years ago.

During his tenure in Worcester, Chief Lord was instrumental in the growth of the department from 24 EMTs to a complement of 100 Paramedics responding to 30,000 emergencies per year via both ground and rotor to a population of 300,000 people spread over 120 square miles. Among his many managerial accomplishments was the conversion of the operation to a response-driven staffing plan that was highly efficient and economical. He worked successfully with the paramedic union to create an innovative schedule to maximize time off and improve moral. He developed a full time medical director position within his EMS system and leveraged that to include oversight of first responding agencies. In 1991, he was instrumental in creating a merger of the EMS system into to the UMASS Medical Center system, the local Level One Trauma Center. He was a founding member of DMAT MA2 and as such was part of several national responses. Among his patient care initiatives was the development of Medication Assisted Intubation (RSI) in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He has been active on both local and state EMS Advisory Boards and was instrumental in the creation of broad local “standing order” system to improve delivery of out of hospital care.

As Chief of Worcester EMS Operations he served as the EMS Incident Commander for the Worcester Cold Storage Fire in 1999 that took the lives of six firefighters and operated for fourteen days during the piece by piece dissection of the building to find the lost fireman. During the operation he concurrently had EMS command authority for the Worcester Fire Memorial Service that saw more than 200,000 converge upon the community to pay their respects to the lost firefighters. Additionally this involved mounting the largest dignitary protect detail in the departments history due to the sheer number of VIP’s, including the President and Vice President of the United States.

Chief Lord has lectured nationally and internationally on EMS systems management, leadership and operations. He is an Adjunct Faculty Member for various Institutions and Agencies including Institute for International Disaster Emergency Medicine, Texas A&M University, U.S. Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, University of Massachusetts Medical Center, Copenhagen Fire Department, Appalachian Technical College, and the Georgia Public Safety Center. Chief Lord holds a Bachelor Degree in Business Management from the McCamish School of Business at Reinhardt College.

Prior to accepting his current position at the George Washington University, Chief Lord was Division Chief of Emergency Medical Services for Cherokee County Fire Department in Cherokee County, Georgia. A rapidly growing Metro Atlanta County, Cherokee planned to replace the private provider of emergency transport and integrate the service into the County Fire Department. During his four years with Cherokee County, Chief Lord provided leadership and operational execution to achieve that goal. Cherokee County Fire has 200 EMTs and Paramedics and serves 500 square miles in both an urban and rural environment.

Gregg Lord is a member and officer of several professional organizations including NAEMT, NREMT, NAEMSP, and GAEMS. He is also currently seated as a member of the Board of Directors for the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians, the Georgia Emergency Medical Services Association, and is Vice Chairman of the Administrators Division of NAEMT.