Assistant Chief
Cy-Fair Fire Department
Justin Reed is an assistant chief and EMS director of Cy-Fair Fire Department (CFFD), a large fire-based EMS system in the Houston metropolitan area, serving a population of 640,000. He leads a team of 150 full-time staff members and 16 ambulances, responding to more than 40,000 calls annually. An industry leader in innovation and practice, CFFD was ranked number one in customer satisfaction for large services in 2023 by EMS Survey Team.
Reed is a born healthcare innovator. He goes through life challenging the status quo and asking, “What can we do better?” as he seeks to improve patient care and streamline processes. He is constantly collecting best practices to further the performance improvement journey of CFFD and the entire industry. His vision for the future of EMS involves greater integration of prehospital care with the broader healthcare system, fostering collaboration across disciplines to enhance access, community health, and well-being.
His appointment to national boards demonstrates his commitment to improving the profession. As an example, he is currently director-at-large for the National EMS Management Association.
Reed is actively applying this passion in support of the hospital and prehospital health systems in the nation’s third-most-populous county as representative to the SouthEast Texas Regional Advisory Council, known as SETRAC. SETRAC is designated by state health services to reduce death and disabilities related to trauma, disaster, and acute illness using a robust coordinated regional healthcare system. He is an active member of the IOAWL Leadership Council, which aims to reduce preventable traffic deaths from stalled vehicles. Recently, he appeared in a documentary on the U.S. fentanyl crisis. He was recognized as one of the American Ambulance Association’s 40 Under 40 in 2021.
Reed deploys innovation skills via his involvement in numerous disaster response initiatives. He helped develop the Force Protection Strike Team, a program designed to provide medical care to disaster responders, significantly reducing deployment attrition rates during incidents like Hurricane Harvey and the 2018 West Texas wildfires. He recently worked with the National Science Foundation Convergence Accelerator to recommend industry changes to current off-the-shelf exoskeletons so they can be used by EMS professionals during routine responses.
Reed, who has 20 years of experience in EMS, is known for his exceptional leadership and his focus on patient care and customer service. His leadership style is characterized by humor, humility, and a relentless pursuit of improvement and innovation. With his emphasis on leadership training and promoting first responder careers to young people, he’s played a vital role in attracting and retaining talent to the profession.
Reed holds a bachelor of science in emergency medical care from Western Carolina University and a master’s in healthcare innovation from the University of Pennsylvania. He is a fellow of the American College of Paramedic Executives.
He is a writer published in peer-reviewed journals. He is also a speaker known for delivering tangible insights to his audience in a humorous and engaging style. Outside of work, Reed serves in numerous capacities, such as on the board of Cy-Fair Helping Hands, addressing SDOH in the local community, and active in Haiti, teaching prehospital medicine while working with developmentally delayed children.
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Why Strong Prehospital/Hospital Partnerships Are Good for Business ... and Good for Patients (93H)
Tuesday, March 25, 2025
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