From left, Gregg Henderson, Associate Vice President for Campus Planning Art Elbert, and Mark Stapf award Rene Perez his certificate.

First class of first responders certified

Eleven Techers recently celebrated their completion of a training course in first response—a big step toward Caltech’s becoming self-sufficient in an emergency situation, says Chief of Security Gregg Henderson.

The newly certified first responders are Juan Balcazar, Kathleen Carpenter, and Tim McHugh, security supervisors; John Bender and Jessica Edwards, resident advisors; Aleen Boladian, staff member in geology; Irma Cruz and Loren Kajitani, security administration staff members; and John Gutierrez, Rene Perez, and Robert Shumway, security officers.

Led by the Student Health Center’s Mark Stapf, the course comprised 60 hours of classroom training and approximately 40 hours of additional study, which trainees—all full-time students or staff—took on voluntarily. “I want to recognize these folks that gave a lot of their own time,” says Henderson, who hosted a dinner and ceremony for the trainees at the Rathskeller. “It means a lot to me, because their dedication and willingness to do this is moving security forward on campus.”

More than just first aid and CPR training, the course tested trainees with scenarios such as extracting an accident victim from a vehicle and dealing with disaster situations. Henderson hopes to hold another training course in the fall, with the goal of getting the Caltech community to be “capable of sustaining ourselves medically” in the event of a regional or national emergency. In such cases, he notes, the Institute would not be able to count on overburdened Pasadena city services. “We need to be able to take care of ourselves.”

Campus community members interested in first-responder training may e-mail Henderson at gregg.henderson@caltech.edu.
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