REMS

REMS’ new director hopes to steer program in right direction

BY LINDSEY FIELDER
Rice News staff

After more than 20 years working and volunteering as a paramedic, Cathy Sunday finally has her dream job.She is the new permanent director of Rice Emergency Medical Services (REMS).

Sunday stepped into the position Jan. 4, but this was not her first time at Rice. She taught the first intermediate REMS class on campus in 1999. “I just fell in love with the campus,” Sunday said. “The caliber of the students and the attitude of everyone I met was just fantastic.”

Until now, REMS has been run primarily by the student emergency medical technician (EMT) volunteers, with the student director serving a one-year term after graduation. As a permanent Rice employee, Sunday hopes to bring continuity to the program and build on the work that the students have already accomplished. “The biggest skill is being able to see both sides of the story before making a decision,” she said. “And I can do that.”

Sunday may have just started working full-time at Rice, but she’s lived in Houston her whole life. Growing up in a family of emergency medical personnel, she attended MacArthur High School. Sunday said she “caught the bug” after her brother, an EMT for a local volunteer fire department and now a paramedic for the Houston Fire Department, encouraged her to join a basic training class. “From then on, I was addicted to it,” she said.

She received her associate’s degree in emergency medical services (EMS) from San Jacinto College District. Over the years, Sunday has managed volunteer and paid programs and worked at clinics in the private sector and at correctional facilities. She has taught EMS classes at San Jac since 1992. She is currently a volunteer commissioner for an emergency services district.

Bill Taylor, chief of the Rice University Police Department and director of public safety for the university, said a search committee spent a year looking for the first REMS director that did not come from within the program. Based on the committee’s recommendation, Sunday was offered the position.

“Her combination of experience as a director of a volunteer emergency medical service and years working with students as an emergency medical technician instructor at San Jacinto College made her the best candidate for the position,” he said. “She developed an instant rapport with the search committee during the interview process.”

REMS began operating in the spring of 1996 with the first EMT program, which trained 22 Rice students as Texas Department of Health EMT-Basics. From that class, 18 EMTs were available to staff the program when it began that fall.

The number of volunteers has more than doubled to 45 since its inception. With four student supervisors, three lieutenants and one captain, Sunday said her job is to steer the group in the right direction. “This program is built to almost self-sustain itself. This is a student-driven program and they come up with awesome solutions to any problem that may arise. I just can’t say enough good things about the student volunteers.”

Sunday said working as an EMT can mean long hours, working an average of 80 hours per week to make a living — she once had four jobs at the same time. She said it is a luxury to work in one place where she can focus all of her energy. “I enjoy what I do [working in EMS],” Sunday said. “I enjoy it even more now that I’m at Rice.”