When Dave Kuchta came to Northwest Mississippi Community College in January he was not only beginning a new chapter of his career, he was returning to a program he’d been instrumental in creating.  Kuchta was hired in January as the director of Northwest’s Paramedic Program, replacing long-time director Brenda Hood, who retired in December.
The Warren, Ohio native has been living and working in Mississippi since 1994 when he went to work as the Advanced Life Support (ALS) Coordinator for the Mississippi State Department of Health, Bureau of Emergency Management Services (EMS). In 1995, Kuchta came to Northwest to assist in the accreditation process for the newly-formed program at Northwest. He assisted Hood as she got all the processes in place, helping with the interview processes for getting top quality students and helping get support for state and local people in order to help the program meet the one-year requirement for accreditation. “I spent an inordinate amount of time up here with this program when it was first getting started, “Kuchta said.

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