Our Speakers

 EMS Division Director

Office of Emergency Management

 Dan Pojar currently serves as the EMS Division Director in the Milwaukee County Office of Emergency Management. This role provides comprehensive administrative oversight and support to the Milwaukee County EMS System which comprises of 15 EMS agencies and over 1,500 EMS Clinicians with 140,000 patient encounters each year. Dan oversees the administrative functions of the EMS System focused on Clinician Development, Quality Improvement, Data Analytics and Strategy, Special Operations and Research in Milwaukee County. Milwaukee County EMS has partnered with the Medical College of Wisconsin since 1973 to provide an EMS Medical Direction team. Milwaukee County EMS is committed to equity, compassion and innovation. Dan started his EMS career in 2006 while attending Creighton University and completing his BSEMS in 2010. Dan’s interests are in EMS research, equity and high-quality patient care. Dan is a co-creator of the nationally recognized Milwaukee County COVID-19 dashboard as well as a co-creator of the Milwaukee County EMS intelligence dashboards. 

 Associate Professor, Emergency Medicine

Director, Emergency Medical Services Distinction Track

Emergency Medical Services Faculty

 Amber Rice, MD is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Arizona and serves as the Medical Director for Northwest Fire District and Golder Ranch Fire District in Southern Arizona. A recognized leader in prehospital care and resuscitation science, Dr. Rice directs the AREST Prehospital CPR Training Program and the Undergraduate Certificate Program in Clinical Research. Her work focuses on advancing evidence-based prehospital care and translating resuscitation science into high-performance EMS practice. 

 Associate Clinical Professor, Surgery

Director, Geriatric Trauma 

Tanya Anand, MD, MPH, MT(ASCP) FACS, is a clinical associate professor of surgery with the University of Arizona Department of Surgery Division of Trauma, Surgical Critical Care, Burns and Acute Care Surgery. She is also the director geriatric trauma, Assistant Trauma Medical director, and Director of Research within the Division. Dr. Anand’s research interests are diverse, but she is particularly interested in understanding response to injury and resuscitation via glycocalyx shedding dynamics and the post injury metabolome in the critically ill trauma patient.  She is especially interested in how aging impacts older adults after traumatic injury.

Dr. Anand is certified by the American Board of Surgery in General Surgery and Surgical Critical Care and obtained a certification in Advanced Trauma Life Support, among other clinical certifications. She is a member of multiple professional societies, including the American College of Surgeons, American Association for the Society of Trauma, and Association of Women Surgeons.

  Banner Children’s Specialists Pediatric Forensics 

Savannah Apodaca is a family nurse practitioner working with the Phoenix area- Banner Children’s CARE Team also known as the pediatric forensics, Children At Risk Evaluation Team.

Savannah began her career in nursing after graduating from the University of New Mexico College of Nursing, in 2007. Savannah’s nursing experiences include NICU, general pediatrics, home health pediatrics, and school nursing, caring for the medically fragile population.

During her career as a bedside nurse, Savannah received the 2013 New Mexico Nursing Excellence Award for Excellence in Maternal-Child/ Women’s Health Nursing.

Savannah went on to attended the University of St. Francis Leach College of Nursing Family Nurse Practitioner program and graduated in 2017. Savannah began her NP career working in family practice and treating substance use disorders at a Federally Qualified Health Center.

Savannah transitioned to working in the field of Child Abuse Pediatrics in 2020 at the University of New Mexico Children’s Hospital and since 2021 with Banner Children’s. Her everyday work includes providing specialty medical care and forensic evaluations for physically abused and neglected children from birth to adolescents. She collaborates with non-profit, city and state agencies. She works with a multidisciplinary team in referring children of abuse or neglect to community resources and ongoing medical care. She provides ongoing education and resources to the community and healthcare clinicians on awareness and prevention of childhood maltreatment. Savannah is passionate about advocating for children and strengthening families.

Savannah received the 2025 Banner Health Advanced Practice Provider Award, Excellence in Professionalism and was a National award nominee for the “2025 Advanced Practice Provider Rising Star.”

Savannah is an active member of the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioner’s (NAPNAP) Special Interest Group on Child Maltreatment and Neglect, recently co-authoring literature on “Mandatory Reporting…” for the Journal of Pediatric Health.

Most recently Savannah pursued her interest as a Forensic Nurse Examiner / Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner working in Maricopa County with the adult and adolescent population. Continuing the important work in advocating for victims.

Trauma Outreach and Injury Prevention Coordinator -Banner UMCT

 Pete Plahmer is a Registered Nurse and currently the Trauma Outreach and Injury Prevention Coordinator for the ACS Level I Trauma Program at Banner University Medical Center-Tucson.  He is also a member of the Continuing Education Provider Unit for the Society of Trauma Nurses and a member of the Air and Surface Transport Nurses Association.  An RN for 18 years, Pete has worked primarily in Emergency Medicine, Trauma, and as a Flight Nurse. Pete’s professional interests include working with community partners in educating high school students on decision making skills and has been part of the multi-agency gun violence reduction program in Tucson, the Village Program, from its inception. 

 Chief, Division of Emergency Medical Services

Professor, Emergency Medicine (Clinical Scholar Track)

Program Director, Emergency Medical Services Fellowship

Director, Emergency Medical Services Degree Program

Professor, Emergency Medicine, College of Medicine – Phoenix

 Dr. Gaither is the EMS fellowship director and the medical director for the Tucson Fire Department as well as several EMS training programs. Dr. Gaither also teaches in and is the director for the EMS degree program. 

 Associate Clinical Professor, Emergency Medicine

Advanced Emergency Medicine Ultrasonography Faculty

University of Arizona

Dr. Baker completed a postbac premedical program at Johns Hopkins University. She then worked as a ski patroller and wilderness guide before moving to Tucson for her medical education, followed by four years in community emergency medicine in Tucson and Nogales before returning to academic medicine at the University of Arizona in 2018. She serves as core faculty for the Tucson Campus residency program and is a facilitator for the Clinical Reasoning Course.

Dr. Baker completed her diploma in mountain medicine (DiMM) through the Wilderness Medical Society. Dr. Baker is the medical director for the local search-and-rescue group, the Southern Arizona Rescue Association, where she also serves as a volunteer rescuer and rope-rescue technician. 

 Clinical Associate Professor, Surgery  

Lourdes Castañón, MD, FACS, is the director of the Burn Program at Banner - University Medical Center Tucson and a clinical associate professor of surgery with the Department of Surgery, Trauma, Surgical Critical Care, Burns, and Acute Care Surgery at the University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson.

Dr. Castañón comes to the department from Allegheny Health System in Pittsburgh, Penn., where she served as an attending surgeon since 2014. Dr. Castañón earned her MD from the State University of New York Health and Science Center at Brooklyn. She then went on to complete residency in general surgery at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center, also in Brooklyn. Following residency, Dr. Castañón completed a fellowship in surgical critical care and burns at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and a fellowship in acute care surgery and trauma at the Yale University School of Medicine. She is certified by the American Board of Surgery in General Surgery and Surgical Critical Care as well as Advanced Burn Life Support, among other clinical and teaching certifications.

Dr. Castañón is a member of multiple professional societies, most notably, the American College of Surgeons, the Pan-American Trauma Society, the International Society of Burn Injuries, and the American Medical Association. She has authored and co-authored numerous studies on a range of burn-related topics in peer-reviewed journals as well as presented at many national, regional, and local conferences. Dr. Castañón is fluent in both English and Spanish.

 Assistant Clinical Professor, Emergency Medicine

Medical Director, Pediatric Emergency Department, Banner - University Medical Center Tucson

 Nathaniel Fox was born and raised in New Mexico where he did medical school at the University of New Mexico.  He finished his residency at the University of Arizona in the Combined Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics Residency Program. He currently works as an Assistant Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics at Banner University Medical Center Tucson where he is also the Pediatric ED Medical Director and Core Faculty for the Combined EM/Peds Residency Program.  

 Clinical Associate Professor, Surgery 

Michael Ditillo, DO, FACS, is a clinical associate professor of surgery with the Department of Surgery, Division of Trauma, Critical Care, Burns and Emergency Surgery. He is the director of Geriatric Trauma, Acute Care, and Surgical Critical Care at Banner University Medical Center Tucson. Additionally, he is the program director of the General Surgery Residency Program and he is the director of the Fellowship in Acute Care Surgery.

Dr. Ditillo earned his undergraduate degree from Long Island University and his medical degree from the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine. He completed his residency in general surgery at the Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York, and was fellowship-trained in trauma and surgical critical care at The R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore. ≠≠≠

After finishing his fellowship, Dr. Ditillo served as assistant professor of surgery at the Yale School of Medicine/Yale New Haven Hospital for five years before moving to Pittsburgh. In Pittsburgh, he served as an assistant professor of surgery at Allegheny General Hospital in the Division of Trauma, Acute Care Surgery, and Surgical Critical Care. He was also the director of the Trauma Critical Care Unit, the associate director of the critical care fellowship program, and the assistant residency director of the general surgery fellowship program.

Dr. Ditillo's clinical interests are in geriatric trauma, post-cardiac arrest hypothermia, coagulopathy in trauma, and hemostatic resuscitation. As director of the Geriatric Trauma Program, he also chairs the annual Fall Prevention Symposium, an educational event including lectures, balance and tai chi classes, and a wellness fair geared toward older adults in the community.

  Associate Professor, Emergency Medicine 

Banner University Medical Center- Tucson

 Dr. Pacheco is a Tucson native who grew up in a family dedicated to growing and harvesting cotton in Southern Arizona. He is also a Wildcat for life, having completed college, medical school and a five-year combined residency program at the University of Arizona. He is passionate about airway education and is the airway lead for Banner – University Medical Center Tucson. He maintains the department airway registry and is committed to airway quality improvement, education and research. He has authored and co-authored book chapters and peer-reviewed journal articles, and he has presented at national and international conferences. 

  Assistant professor in the Division of Trauma, Surgical Critical Care, Burns, and Acute Surgery at the University of Arizona College of Medicine  

Trauma Medical Director- BUMCT

Collin Stewart, MD, is originally from west Texas and grew up in southeast Arkansas. He attended Texas A&M University where he obtained undergraduate degrees in biomedical science and forensic entomology. He then completed his Medical Degree from the University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas, Texas. He completed his general surgery residency at the Sunrise Health Graduate Medical Consortium in Las Vegas, Nevada, followed by a fellowship in surgical critical care and acute care surgery at the University of Arizona.

Dr. Stewart's interests include rib fracture treatment and outcomes, improving hospital resource utilization, and resident education. He enjoys being outdoors, running and cycling, as well as spending time with his wife and three children.

Clinical Professor, Surgery

Dr. Matthews has a master’s in biology with an emphasis in anatomy and physiology, and clinical gerontology.  He is a graduate of University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine, completed his vascular surgery fellowship at the Chandler Medical Center in Lexington Kentucky and his Trauma/CriticalCare Fellowship at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento California. When he is not working Dr. Matthews enjoys spending time with his family.