Senior leadership team

Susan Long, president/EMS chief

After working as a paramedic in large and small ambulance services, Susan started her career with Allina Health in 1997, working as an ambulance manager for our North Metro area. 

Long then moved to Administrative Support Manager/Compliance Liaison and followed by Clinical and Support Services Director before serving as President/EMS Chief since 2019. Susan is a life-long educator who helped transition local EMS services to AHEMS (New Ulm and ALF), and was instrumental in getting our Community Paramedic program started. Susan is a Certified Ambulance Compliance Officer through the National Academy of Ambulance Compliance and maintains her paramedic credentials to stay connected with the work of our staff.

Joey L. Duren, MD, chief medical director

Joey L. Duren, MD, assumed the position of Chief Medical Director with Allina Health Emergency Medical Service (AHEMS) in March 2022 and leads a team of three physicians.

Duren has held the position of Medical Director for River Falls area hospital emergency department since 2017, and had been serving as interim AHEMS lead physician. Duren received her medical degree from University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences and completed her residency training in emergency medicine at Regions Hospital. 

Charles Lick, MD, medical director

Charles Lick, MD, is responsible for the care delivered by Allina Health Emergency Medical Service's personnel. He sets equipment and training standards and service protocols.

Throughout 20-year career, Lick has worked with community, health care and civic organizations to advance the cause of early defibrillation for sudden cardiac arrest. He founded Allina's Heart Safe Communities program, which was designed to increase the survival rate of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests by placing automated external defibrillators in public places.

Kevin Miller, director of operation and business development

Kevin Miller has been serving in EMS since 1986, all but two years as a paramedic. As Operations Director, he leads Allina Health EMS 911 responses, which provides more than one million people and 130 communities across Minnesota and Wisconsin with 9-1-1 ambulance service. Interfacility transportation, moving patients from or between hospitals, also falls under his responsibilities. Allina Health EMS has more than doubled in size since he joined the organization in 2008, with Miller and his Operations team managing more than 500 paramedic and EMT staff. 

Miller has a rich public safety background that includes law enforcement, military, municipal, volunteer, hospital-based, and atypical EMS response models. His tenure includes EMS leadership positions in Minnesota and Texas. Governors Walz, Dayton, and Pawlenty have appointed him to the Minnesota Emergency Medical Services Regulatory Board. Miller completed Bethel University's Organization Leadership program in 2008.

Jeff Czyson, director of operations - EMS workforce

Jeff began his EMS career as a caregiver in 1987 and entered leadership in 1999, earning a master’s degree in organizational leadership and management from Concordia University. In 2010, he joined Allina Health EMS. Jeff’s career has been highlighted by relationship building, innovation, and collaborative efforts both regional and statewide. These efforts produced the EMS Incident Response Plan, the Minnesota School Safety Center, the Hennepin County Ordinance #9 revision, and the EMS Multi-Agency Coordination Center to name a few. Jeff assembled and led a vehicle design team who pushed the ambulance manufacturing industry focus on crew and vehicle safety enhancements. This work was very successful and garnered a national award for innovation.

In his current role, Jeff is responsible for recruiting, hiring, staffing, employee development, and well-being. The experiences of public safety employees can be very difficult to deal with. Jeff’s team has produced therapy dog and peer support programs, employee well-being rooms, a chaplaincy/mental health program, guidance for frontline supervisors to engage employees, and continued work to help staff build resilience and healthy coping mechanisms.

Scott Tomek, EDS, MA, FF-C, CCP-C, C-NPT, director of risk, safety, education & the office of the medical director

Scott has been serving in EMS since 1983 and currently serves as the Director of Risk, Safety, Education, and The Office of the Medical Director. He leads Allina Health’s EMS Special Pathogens Transport team. He serves as a clinical skills instructor with the University of Minnesota’s School of Medicine’s Emergency Medicine program and continues to serve as a paramedic for a community-based paramedic service. Locally, he chairs the Century College EMS Advisory Committee and nationally, he serves as a peer reviewer for the Air Medical Journal and the Journal of Healthcare Risk Management. He has served as an item writer for the Flight Paramedic, Critical Care Paramedic, and Neonate, Pediatric Transport credentialing exams. He has authored many EMS journal articles and is a peer reviewer for many EMS textbooks.