Dr. Stephen L. Powell is a practicing emergency physician and EMS physician in North Carolina. Throughout his career, he has worked within large tertiary referral health systems, including Level I trauma centers, while also maintaining experience in community emergency medicine. This combination has provided him with a broad perspective on emergency care delivery across diverse patient populations and healthcare environments.
As an EMS physician, Dr. Powell has extensive experience leading both rural and urban emergency medical services systems as a medical director for 911, fire, and EMS agencies. He provides physician oversight for organizations serving diverse populations across a wide range of geographic, operational, and resource environments. His work has focused on system-wide quality improvement, protocol development, disaster preparedness, cardiac arrest care, and the implementation of innovative prehospital programs designed to improve patient outcomes.
An internationally recognized educator, Dr. Powell has delivered hundreds of hours of instruction to physicians, paramedics, medical students, residents, fellows, and public safety professionals. His educational efforts have spanned local, regional, national, and international audiences. He has served as an invited professor in Spain and has led educational exchanges in trauma and disaster medicine for visiting physician groups from Ukraine. He currently serves as Program Director of the ACGME-accredited EMS Fellowship at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, where he mentors the next generation of EMS physician leaders.
Dr. Powell previously served as Medical Director and faculty instructor for the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Tactical Medicine Course in Quantico, Virginia, helping train federal law enforcement personnel in the medical management of high-risk operational environments. His interests in operational medicine also extend to event and motorsports medicine. As a member of a national motorsports safety team, he provided on-track emergency care for professional motorsports events across the United States, including NASCAR, IndyCar, and MotoAmerica competitions, caring for drivers, crew members, officials, and spectators in complex, high-acuity environments.
Dr. Powell is an active researcher, educator, and scholar with peer-reviewed publications spanning emergency medicine, emergency medical services, resuscitation science, rural healthcare, toxicology, and public health. He has authored book chapters in major medical references, contributed invited educational content for national audiences, and presented scholarly work at regional, national, and international scientific meetings. His work has been featured through organizations including the National Association of EMS Physicians (NAEMSP), the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM), the American Heart Association (AHA), the Resuscitation Science Symposium (ReSS), the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM), and other leading academic forums. His academic interests center on improving outcomes in time-sensitive emergencies through evidence-based systems of care, implementation science, and innovation.
In addition to his clinical, educational, and scholarly leadership, Dr. Powell is actively involved in research and innovation focused on improving outcomes from sudden cardiac arrest and other time-critical emergencies. His interests include cardiac arrest systems of care, bystander CPR, public access defibrillation, AED deployment strategies, emergency medical services, disaster medicine, trauma, tactical medicine, and the application of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, telemedicine, and drone-delivered automated external defibrillators (AEDs). Through these efforts, he remains focused on advancing emergency care both within healthcare systems and in the communities they serve, helping ensure that lifesaving interventions reach patients as quickly and effectively as possible.
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