When Amera Gilchrist was made a section chief in Pittsburgh’s Emergency Medical Services in 2013, she said you’d have thought she won the Publishers Clearing House by her reaction: a huge wad of tissues and tears, which she said, “wasn’t pretty.”
“Later I realized I hadn’t heard a thing after (then-Acting Chief Mark Bocian) said ‘district chief.’ I had to call him up a few hours later and ask him questions about the job,” she said at the time.
Now, five years, two chiefs, and an intervening promotion to assistant chief later, the New Pittsburgh Courier has learned that Gilchrist has been named deputy chief of EMS, second in command, the highest rank ever attained by an African American in the bureau.
This time her reaction was a little different. Of course she was elated, but the elation was tempered.
“I don’t think it really hit me until a few days later when I saw my name and ‘deputy chief’ on the glass door to my office at the end of the hall—you can’t miss it—and I thought, ‘wow, this is really real,’” she told the New Pittsburgh Courier. “But it was bittersweet because I instantly thought about Freedom House, and all their sacrifices, that made it possible for me to be here.”
Before Freedom House, ambulances were essentially hearses. It was the first modern ambulance service in the entire nation—carrying defibrillators, tourniquets, oxygen, all the life-saving equipment we take for granted—including crews trained in emergency triage. It began operations in 1971—and all of its crew members were Black.
Despite their superior training and expertise, when the City of Pittsburgh started its own service, it hired only a handful of the Freedom House drivers. One of them was John Moon, who rose to the rank of assistant chief in the new bureau—he was one of the first people Gilchrist called with the news.
“He was so happy for me. He was the one who actually hired me,” she said. “I was doing clinicals at Allegheny General Hospital when I got his phone number and called him to ask about getting hired as a paramedic. He said no one had ever done that before.”
No one had ever done that because, in 1999, the city didn’t hire paramedics—that was a promotional position—it only hired emergency medical technicians. Moon hired her on the spot as an EMT.
“And when the first paramedic slot opened up, I got it. So I can say I have worked from the very bottom—and I think of all the men and women who sacrificed and didn’t get here,” she said. “But I have two daughters who get to see this—and I tell them they have no excuses.”
Even so, she’s not Wonder Woman. She credits her husband, a retired firefighter, with making everything she’s done possible. In addition to raising her 8- and 11-year-old daughters, they also raise her 24-year-old special-needs son—all while she also tries to complete her degree in public administration at Point Park University.
“It’s a lot, but I’m blessed to be able to do it—and to have the support to do it,” she said. “I couldn’t ask for a better partner in crime than my husband.”
The current City of Pittsburgh EMS Chief is Ronald Romano.
Gilchrist said her official swearing-in will be sometime early next year because the city now likes to hold those ceremonies for all the Public Safety departments—police, fire and EMS—at once. Hopefully that will include her replacement as assistant chief.
“Right now, I’m doing both jobs,” she said. “So I’m still doing Steeler games, the Regatta, Light Up Night. But I did get a new truck—it’s unmarked, but it still has the new car smell.”
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