The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS), Office of EMS\Trauma Systems Coordination is extremely pleased to announce that Maxie Bishop, Jr. has accepted position of State EMS Director. His first day on the job will August 1, 2006.

As often happens with high profile positions like this, the competition was fierce and a number of very highly qualified candidates applied for the position, thirty-six applicants in all.

Maxie is well known to many of the state EMS\trauma systems stakeholders. He was one of the original appointments to the Governor's EMS and Trauma Advisory Council (GETAC) to fill the EMS Educator slot, and he served until just recently as the chair of the GETAC Education Committee.

Maxie comes to us from the City of Dallas Fire Department where he's worked for the past two decades as a FF\Paramedic and as the EMS Training Coordinator. He also currently serves as an assistant instructor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Department of Emergency Medicine Education. A graduate of the University of Alabama-Birmingham with a bachelor's degree in business administration, Maxie currently holds licenses as both an EMT-P and RN.

Please join us in congratulating Maxie Bishop and welcoming him to state service. For those of you who don't already know him, you'll have the opportunity to meet and visit with him at the GETAC meetings here in Austin on August 9-11, 2006.