Meet Our Team of Instructors

Stephen Wood

MS, ANCP-BC

Stephen is the CEO of TRMA Tactical Training, LLC. He is an acute care nurse practitioner in the department of emergency medicine at Winchester Hospital. He is also currently a Fellow in the Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School. He is the associate medical director for Winchester Fire and Police departments and an imbedded consultant for the Woburn Police Department and the Southern Middlesex Regional Drug Task Force. He is the chairperson of the Winchester Hospital Opiate Task Force as well as the Middlesex County Mental Health Working Group. He is a member of the Woburn District Court Heroin Education Awareness Task Force and a former member of the North East Law Enforcement Council School Threat and Response Team. Stephen has over 25 years of EMS experience and has worked in a variety of roles as an EMT, EMT-I, paramedic and now as a nurse practitioner. Stephen has worked in a diverse array of EMS settings and systems including rural, urban, non-transport and air-medical critical care transport settings. Stephen was a flight paramedic with Boston MedFlight for nine years and also served as the quality assurance coordinator and disaster management coordinator during this tenure. Stephen remains active with EMS working with the Winchester Rescue Task Force team, a cooperative law enforcement and medical tactical support team. He also develops and implements the continuing education curriculum for Winchester FD and PD as well as other area EMS and law enforcement agencies. He is an active member of the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association, National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators and the National Tactical Officers Association. His was formerly a criminalist with the New Hampshire State Police crime lab in the toxicology division. Stephen was the Assistant and then Associate Director of the BIDMC Fellowship in Disaster Medicine and faculty of the BIDMC Fellowship in Disaster Nursing from 2009 – 2015. He has authored several chapters in one of more prominent texts in disaster medicine with a focus on social media, riot agents and emerging disease.

Philip Ciampa

Firefighter-Paramedic, Winchester Fire Department

Philip Ciampa is a Firefighter-Paramedic for the Winchester Fire Department with over 17 years of experience in EMS. Prior to joining the fire department, he was providing care to some of metro Boston's busiest urban communities. Since joining the department, his dedication to his profession has extended beyond just his firefighter-paramedic role. He currently serves the department and town as the Paramedic Coordinator and is always trying to contribute to innovative and progressive advancements for the department. He was one of the founding members of Winchester's File of Life system, and started the Winchester High School's Emergency Medical Technician Scholarship program which sends some of the youngest students in the state to be trained as EMTs to provide pre-hospital emergency care. He has also taught pre-hospital care for both UMass Amherst and Mass Bay Community College.

Dan Perenick

Sergeant, Winchester Police Department

Dan is a 29-year veteran of the Winchester, Massachusetts Police Department and is currently assigned to the detective bureau as the department’s School Resource Officer (SRO). SRO/Sgt. Perenick has been responsible for the safety and security of 4,500 students and 600 school staff members for over 10 years. He is both an A.L.i.C.E. and ALERRT active shooter instructor and is the former Commander of the North Eastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council (NEMLEC) School Threat Assessment Response Systems (STARS) Task Force and a founding member. Dan has received extensive multi-school hazard training and has considerable experience in school safety and critical incident management. SRO/Sgt. Perenick played an instrumental role in initiating, organizing and training the Rescue Task Force (RTF) with the Winchester Fire and Police Departments. He instructs educators and public safety officers in safe school planning, juvenile issues, incident management and is a well-known presenter at various community, regional, statewide and national forums on topics related to school safety. SRO/Sgt. Perenick is the law enforcement coordinator of the Winchester Public School District Incident Management Team (IMT) and is a former member of the US Department of Justice National Institute of Justice (NIJ) Technical Working Group (TWG) on School Safety. He is also the past President of the Massachusetts Juvenile Police Officers Association (MJPOA) and is the past Massachusetts representative to the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO) where he holds the national certification of Practitioner.

Rick Tustin

Chief, Winchester Fire Department

Rick Tustin is a 32-year veteran of the Winchester, Massachusetts Fire Department and is currently serving as the Chief of the department. Previously he served as the Fire Prevention Officer for the department and town. In addition to prevention and command duties, Rick assists the Chief of the Department with Emergency Management and currently serves as the Chair of a 22 community Mystic Regional Emergency Planning Committee. He is the fire department co-chair of the Winchester Public School District Incident Management Team (IMT), is the Vice-Chair of the Massachusetts Fire Training Council, is a member of the State Fire Marshal’s Public Fire and Life Safety Education Task Force. Rick is a former member of the NEMLEC STARS team and was the first fire service professional to be appointed to that team shortly after its formation to make the circle complete with law enforcement, schools, mental health and fire service working together to enhance school safety. Rick is past president of the Fire Prevention Association of Massachusetts (FPAM), and is a co-founder and current President of the Massachusetts Association of Safety and Fire Educators (MaSAFE) Rick holds a Bachelors Degree in Fire and Emergency Service Administration and is a graduate of the UMASS/Massachusetts Fire Academy Chief Fire Officer Management program and has received extensive multi- hazard school training and has considerable experience in school safety and critical incident management. Rick is a certified fire instructor and has instructed educators and public safety officers in safe school planning, fire and life safety education, juvenile fire setting issues, incident management and is a well-known presenter at various community, regional and statewide forums on topics related to prevention, school and workplace safety. In 2005 Rick was the recipient of the Massachusetts Fire and Life Safety Educator of the Year award and in 2010 was the recipient of the Norman Knight Firefighter of the Year award for Community Excellence.

Timothy McDonough

Lieutenant, Winchester Police Department

Lieutenant Timothy McDonough has been with the Burlington Police Department since 1987. He was promoted to lieutenant in 2018, and previously held detective sergeant and sergeant positions. He is currently the Officer in Charge of the 4-12 shift and the Firearms Training Unit. He is a certified Massachusetts Police Firearms Instructor (Rifle, pistol, shotgun, taser and 40mm less-lethal launcher) as well as a Defensive Tactics / Use of Force Instructor and Investigator. Lieutenant McDonough was also a member of the NEMLEC SWAT Team for 25 years, a regional team that covers 60 cities and towns. He has attended several advanced tactical schools including Federal Active Shooter Instructor, Advanced Homicide Investigation, and LAPD SWAT Tactics (2007, 2009, 2013 and 2015). He is certified as an Active Shooter Instructor for police through ALERRT and FLETC, a certified Force Science Analyst, and is certified in ALICE and CRASE active shooter response for civilians. Lieutenant McDonough is also a recipient of the George L Hanna Memorial Award for Bravery, issued by Governor Romney in 2006. This is the highest award and honor for Massachusetts Police Officers.

Benjamin Podsiadlo

Director of Clinical Integration at Armstrong Ambulance Service

Benjamin Podsiadlo is a career emergency services leader, with over 30 years of experience as an urban 911 Paramedic, EMS Chief and Emergency Management Director in some of the busiest emergency response systems in the United States, as well as high volume urban health systems. As an EMS Chief and Medic, Ben has responded to hundreds of major emergency incidents and disasters since beginning his career in 1988 and has served as the EMS Incident Commander at numerous major and declared incidents. Ben’s professional focus has been public policy that improves collaborative data driven cross disciplinary coordination and integration of emergency response operations. To develop public policy experience, he served as Director of Special Projects for a State Senator for two years while continuing to actively work as a paramedic in the City of Lowell. Ben has been repeatedly recognized and published as a driving force for excellence in out of hospital emergency medical response. Ben has had specific leadership successes in enhancing capabilities and integrating systems for pandemic response, trauma care, mass casualty, HazMat, cardiac and stroke care, and tactical medicine. Ben provides advocacy and support for emergency services at the federal level as an inaugural and past board member of the IAEMSC. Ben also serves as a consultant and expert for plans, programs and exercises for clients from the Washington, DC to Canada while engaged by prestigious firms such as the Urban Shield National Exercise Program (Cytel Group) and the IAFC affiliated consulting group, ESCI. Ben is currently the Director of Clinical Integration at Armstrong Ambulance Service in Arlington, Massachusetts, a major provider of 911 EMS services in the Metro-Boston region. He continues to serve as a tactical medic and tactical medic team advisor for a regional SWAT team.

Carl (Bud) Fuller

Lieutenant (Retired), Winchester Police Department

Lieutenant (Ret.) Carl (Bud) Fuller retired in February 2019, after serving over thirty-six years with the Winchester Police Department as a Lieutenant in the Patrol Division. He served as the Officer in Charge of the Firearms, Defensive Tactics and the Department Honor Guard, and was an EMT throughout his career. Bud was a well-known member of the North Eastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council (NEMLEC) SWAT and Regional Response Team for over thirty years, where he served as an operator, team leader, medic, firearms instructor and defensive tactics instructor. Bud was involved with over 200 NEMLEC SWAT and Regional Response Team calls for service and he was a recipient of the George L. Hanna Memorial Award for Bravery in 2006. The SWAT team received numerous awards over the years, including recognition for their response following the Boston Marathon Bombing. Bud was a MPTC Certified Firearms Instructor and Defensive Tactics Instructor and taught in-service training for over twenty-five years at the Northeast Regional Police Institute (NERPI) at Camp Curtis Guild in Reading, MA, where he instructed courses in defensive tactics and officer survival. In addition, in 2015 he was certified by the Texas State University as a trainer for Advanced Law Enforcement Response Training (ALERRT) for terrorism response tactics and training for an active shooter.

James A. Cullen, III

FBI Task Force Officer 

James Cullen, III is a veteran police officer with over 27 years of experience. He retired as the Deputy Chief of the Groton Police Department in Groton, Massachusetts. He served in numerous patrol and administrative functions and over the years was assigned to several specialty units. He was a 12 year member of the North Eastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council (NEMLEC) Regional Response Team. Chief Cullen served as an FBI Task Force Officer with the Merrimack Valley Drug Unit here in Boston and also at FBI HQ in Washington, D.C. on the Violence Reduction Unit/Active Shooter Team. He holds certification as an Active Shooter Instructor in both law enforcement and civilian disciplines and is a graduate of the FBI Crisis Negotiation Course. He has earned two Master’s Degrees, one in Criminal Justice Administration from Western New England College and the second in Leadership from Norwich University. He is a graduate of the 243rd Session of the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia.