Although it wasn’t a surprise, Amera Gilchrist received a very special birthday present when, surrounded by friends and family, she was promoted to assistant chief of Pittsburgh’s Emergency Medical Service—becoming the only woman or African American to reach that rank.
But she said it wouldn’t have been possible if not for the people of Freedom House Ambulance Service—the all-Black service that invented modern EMS in the 1960s.
“It’s awesome,” she said of the Feb. 16 ceremony.
“But I can’t take all the credit. This is for all the people who came before me that pushed me to this position. Freedom House was the staple of this department. It’s because of all the men and women who worked there that I got to this point.”
Gilchrist, named a New Pittsburgh Courier Woman of Excellence in 2014, most recently served as district chief of EMS, where she supervised daily field operations. She joined EMS in 1999 and rose to crew chief, a capacity in which she served until 2013. She is completing her work on her bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Management at Robert Morris University.
Gilchrist said being the first African American and first woman to make assistant chief is very meaningful for her.
Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire
“I have two daughters that I’m trying to raise to be successful, intelligent women and I’m just trying to be for them what it means to work hard and achieve greatness,” she said.
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