Dr. David Persse
Director of Emergency Medical Services for the City of Houston
Public Health Authority, City of Houston
EMS Physician Director, Houston Fire Department
Chief Medical Officer for the City of Houston
Chairman of the Board for SETRAC, SouthEast Texas Regional Advisory Council
As hurricane clean up is still a work in progress for many across the city, we need to look to the future. We’ve asked Dr Persse to update us on how we should be preparing for the next emergency, how to identify residents/neighbors who might need special services and not realize what is available, how we can mitigate the loss of life in the next crisis, and the scope of SETRAC in our efforts. Rotarian David Persse is uniquely positioned to explain the many moving parts.
SETRAC has been an effective leader in aligning hospitals, first responders, emergency managers, and public health officials across a 25-county region to plan for disasters and respond in a coordinated fashion.
Dr. Persse's career in medicine started with ten years experience as a field paramedic and paramedic instructor in upstate New York and New Jersey.
After receiving his pre-med training at Columbia University in New York, he then attended Georgetown University School of Medicine. Graduating with honors in emergency medicine from Georgetown, he then completed residency training in emergency medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, California.
Dr. Persse is also a member of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee for the South East Texas Trauma Regional Advisory Council and a previous Chair of the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians. He is the recipient of the Keith Neely Outstanding Contribution to the National Association of EMS Physicians for his leadership during the Hurricane Katrina response, 2007, and the 2009 Michael K. Copass Award from the U.S. Metropolitan Medical Directors. He is a 2015 EMS Top 10 Innovator Award Winner from the Journal of Emergency Medical Services. Dr. Persse received an Honorary Doctorate in Humanities in Medicine from Baylor College of Medicine and was awarded the ACEP Outstanding Contribution to EMS Award in 2018. Dr. Persse is a Professor of Medicine and Surgery at the Baylor College of Medicine and Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Texas Medical School – Houston. He is also a Tactical Physician with the Houston Police S.W.A.T. team.
