Southside Fire Department Board of Directors’ President Tim Blanco recently announced the hire of Chuck Kearns as Chief Executive Officer. Kearns will work alongside Southside Fire Department staff and the board of directors to further develop and implement its mission of providing the highest level of emergency service to all of Chatham County.

“Throughout his career in the EMS and Fire industries, Chuck has grown several substantial and exceptionally strong emergency response programs,” said Blanco. “Chuck is an outstanding leader with a real commitment to community service. We look forward to continuing our integral role under Chuck’s expertise as an emergency response team within Chatham County.”

With over 25 years of experience in the emergency response and healthcare service industries, Kearns previously served as the director of a large Florida County’s Fire and EMS Authorities. Having decades of disaster management and response experience in a coastal community of a million people, he was appointed to serve on the FEMA National Advisory Council.

Kearns received his bachelor’s degree in political science and his masters of business administration from the University of South Florida in Tampa, Fl. He is a certified EMT (1983) and Paramedic (1984), NAEMT Instructor, Rescue Scuba Diver and Advanced Emergency Medical Dispatcher.

He has won countless awards for his leadership, success, and service, including the Florida Department of Health’s Public Health Education Leadership Award, Florida Governor’s Sterling Award for Quality Improvement, and the Florida Department of Health’s EMS Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1985, he received a lifesaving award signed by President Ronald Reagan for helping rescue five drowning swimmers when he was an open-water, beach patrol lifeguard.

Kearns currently serves as the president of the National Association of EMTs.