About
Fire and emergency services executive whose career spans municipal command, career and volunteer fire operations, hospital and private EMS, national professional leadership, clinical improvement, education, and publishing.
Rom Duckworth leads a combination fire and EMS organization while serving on the NAEMT Board of Directors and contributing to national trauma, sepsis, standards, conference, and editorial initiatives.
The through line is building things that outlast the person who built them: workforce pipelines, officer development, clinical quality programs, governance controls, and practical education that translates evidence into field performance.
He is an author and textbook contributor with international reach and a continuing commitment to developing current and emerging emergency services leaders.
Municipal command
Fire Chief, Ridgefield Fire Department, Connecticut. 2025 to present.
Executive responsibility for a combination fire and EMS system serving approximately 26,000 residents and responding to more than 4,500 calls annually. Leads 36 career firefighters and roughly 60 volunteers, directs ALS ambulance and paramedic engine operations and emergency communications coordination, and manages more than $6 million in operating and capital resources.
- Filled eight inherited firefighter vacancies, restored paramedic staffing, and achieved nine-firefighter shift staffing with stabilized overtime.
- Designed and implemented the department's first assessment-center promotional process, restored a full officer complement, and established continuous chief-officer coverage.
- Built a structured credentialing and career-development pathway from recruit through officer preparation, strengthening succession planning and readiness.
- Established mission, vision and values, Just Culture principles, policy-acknowledgment and controlled-substance accountability systems, and other governance controls.
- Revised the municipal EMS plan and advanced clinical initiatives involving blood products, point-of-care ultrasound, and cardiac arrest care while rebuilding regional mutual-aid coordination.
Career progression, Ridgefield Fire Department
Firefighter and paramedic in 1998. Acting officer and EMS coordinator in 2003. Lieutenant in 2008. Captain and shift commander in 2014. Fire chief in 2025.
- Developed an in-house paramedic service, education infrastructure, and clinical performance improvement systems that improved outcomes while lowering training costs.
- Built cardiac resuscitation quality systems associated with a threefold improvement in survival and American Heart Association Mission: Lifeline recognition.
- Served as EMS coordinator, senior shift commander, technical rescue coordinator, and acting chief officer while directing complex operational and cross-agency projects.
Earlier roles
Founder and Director, New England Center for Rescue & Emergency Medicine, LLC. 2009 to present. An education, consulting, and professional development organization delivering fire, rescue, EMS, leadership, clinical, and instructor development programs for local, national, and international audiences.
Emergency Services Training Director and Clinical Paramedic, Danbury Hospital and Danbury Health Systems. Approximately 1996 to 2009. Directed hospital-based EMS education from roughly 1999 to 2009 while maintaining clinical paramedic responsibilities across urban, suburban, and rural response environments. Managed ACLS, EMT, continuing education, and regional professional development programs, and served as liaison between the regional trauma, stroke, and cardiac center and emergency services throughout western Connecticut.
New Fairfield Volunteer Fire Department and Squantz Engine Company. Progressed through operational and company leadership roles to Assistant Fire Chief and the senior leadership role of Squantz Engine Company, which also operated Squantz Ambulance. Directed fire, rescue, and ambulance operations, served in departmental governance, developed the company's first formal recruit training program, and helped codify education and performance standards for officers.
Field Paramedic and Educator, American Medical Response, New Haven, Connecticut. 1995 to 2000. Lead field paramedic delivering ACLS, PALS, continuing education, and workforce development programs in a high volume private EMS environment.
National leadership and professional service
Board of Directors, Northeast Region Director, National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians. 2023 to present. Represents EMS professionals across the Northeast and contributes to national strategy, professional development, advocacy, clinical initiatives, and member engagement. Continued into the 2026 to 2027 board term.
Founding leader and chair, NAEMT Lighthouse Leadership mentoring program. Helped translate James O. Page's vision into a national, cohort-based mentoring infrastructure for emerging EMS leaders. Guides program design, mentor engagement, and leadership development. Recognized with the NAEMT Presidential Leadership Award.
Editorial, advisory, and conference leadership. Contributing editor and advisory capacities for Fire Engineering, JEMS, and FDIC International, shaping practical content, educational priorities, and faculty programming for national audiences.
NAEMT liaison, American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma. Connects EMS operational expertise with national trauma guidance and standards work through the ACS COT EMS Group and related collaborations addressing traumatic circulatory arrest, open fracture care, prehospital quality, and trauma research.
Advisory and medical education leadership, Sepsis Alliance and The Sepsis Institute. Provides practitioner and educator perspective for sepsis advocacy, clinical education, and public safety outreach. Helped develop nationally endorsed adult and pediatric prehospital sepsis programs, including work supported through BARDA DRIVe and the CDC.
Additional national service includes National EMS Management Association accreditation initiatives, the Coalition for National Trauma Research, National EMS Quality Alliance projects, FISDAP education and research, and Jones & Bartlett Learning and NAEMT education advisory activities.
Research, standards, and advocacy
- Co-authored updated national guidance for prehospital management of adults with traumatic out-of-hospital circulatory arrest.
- Contributed to the 2024 joint position statement on prehospital antibiotic administration for suspected open fractures, representing collaboration among ACS COT, OTA, ACEP, NAEMSP, and NAEMT.
- Led development of the NAEMSE position paper on sepsis education and translated emerging evidence into widely adopted EMS education, including adult and pediatric programs recognized for innovation.
- Testified before the Connecticut legislature and supported regional work to establish stroke systems of care and standardized prehospital stroke assessment across the Northeast.
- Advised on UK fire service integration of EMS and contributed international education for the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, Trauma Care UK, Australian paramedics, and the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs.
Selected emergency management and major incident leadership
- Municipal continuity and transition support, Ridgefield, 2025 to 2026. Maintained emergency management grant, reporting, planning, and administrative requirements during a leadership vacancy and supported onboarding of the successor.
- Multi-patient anthrax exposure, Danbury, 2007. Served as EMS Operations Section Chief within joint incident command.
- World Trade Center response, September 11 and 12, 2001. Led an emergency response team at Ground Zero through Danbury Health Systems in coordination with the New York State Office of Emergency Management.
- 111-patient school bus collision, New Fairfield, 1994. Served as Treatment Officer for a complex mass casualty response.
- Hurricane Andrew relief, South Florida, 1990. Provided volunteer EMS response during disaster operations.
Degrees
- 2022
- Master of Public Administration · Anna Maria College
- 2022
- Executive Fire Officer Program, graduate · National Fire Academy
- 2016
- BS, Public Safety Administration · Charter Oak State College
Certifications
- CFO
- Chief Fire Officer · Center for Public Safety Excellence
- CEMSO
- Chief EMS Officer · Center for Public Safety Excellence
- EFO
- Executive Fire Officer · National Fire Academy
- NRP
- Nationally Registered Paramedic, Connecticut Licensed Paramedic
- Instr.
- Fire Service Instructor III, Connecticut EMS Instructor, APCO instructor
- AHA
- ACLS for Experienced Providers, PALS, and BLS instructor
A note on roles
Rom Duckworth holds two separate roles. He serves as a municipal fire chief, and he independently owns and directs the New England Center for Rescue & Emergency Medicine, LLC.
Education, consulting, and speaking work described on this site is delivered through the LLC. It is not municipal work, is not offered on behalf of any department or association, and does not draw on municipal resources.
Education, consulting, and speaking services are provided independently through the New England Center for Rescue & Emergency Medicine, LLC. Organizations, agencies, publications, and employers named on this site are identified solely to describe professional history, service, and qualifications. Their appearance does not indicate endorsement, sponsorship, or affiliation, and nothing offered here is offered on behalf of the Ridgefield Fire Department, the Town of Ridgefield, Connecticut, or any other organization named.