Avery Whitfield, who serves as a paramedic for the Dare County EMS Department, was named Dare County Employee of the Month for May 2022 at the Dare County Board of Commissioners meeting that was held at 9 a.m. on Monday, May 2, 2022
“Avery came to the department in December of 2018, and she has been a steady go-getter the entire time that she’s been here,” said Dare County EMS Director Jennie Collins, who was one of the nominators of Whitfield for the award.
“One of her true passions is to help with training—whether it’s the incumbent personnel and our continuing education platform, personnel that may be going for their paramedic [certification] or even the newest employee,” Collins continued. “She has this gift to make them feel very, very comfortable and make sure that they are feeling empowered with their knowledge.”
Collins went on to highlight Whitfield’s work as a member of Dare County EMS’s MedFlight team, which recently assisted with an externship program for physicians interested in pursuing emergency medicine board licensure. As a member of this team, Whitfield provided firsthand knowledge and information about the wide array of challenges her department faces both on the ground and in the air on a daily basis.
“She is assigned to MedFlight, and she talked to them about some of the unique challenges in the coastal environment and the unique challenges of providing EMS on a barrier island. She did a great job,” said Collins.
In addition to praising Whitfield for her efforts within the EMS Department, Collins also commented on her kind nature and willingness to assist her colleagues with their needs outside of the workplace as well.
“She has a heart of gold,” Collins said. “We had a new employee who was going through orientation, and this person was trying to find housing. As we all know, it’s very difficult, and Avery recognized that this was especially an issue for this person with their commute every day, so she opened up an apartment in her home and offered this to this new employee, which was a godsend until their rental became available.”
As she presented Whitfield with the May 2022 Dare County Employee of the Month award, Collins thanked Whitfield for her dedication and service to the community, and commented that she hopes Whitfield’s baby—who is due at the end of the month—will be “a future paramedic for Dare EMS.”
For more information about the services provided by the Dare County EMS Department, visit DareNC.com/EMS.