Jeannie Newton-Riner
Associate Resources & Compliance Coordinator

Ms. Newton-Riner began her career in healthcare as a respiratory therapist. She worked in every type of hospital, starting at a small regional hospital with just over 100 beds then to a smaller hospital with just under 50 beds. Jeannie worked at the Medical College of GA in adult critical care with cross training in ECMO in the early 1990s as a Registered Respiratory Therapist an also worked at Memorial Medical Center in Savannah before transferring to the hospital-based EMS, MedStar. (which also had a rotor wing service, LifeStar.)

Jeannie started as a GA Basic EMT, obtained her Cardiac Technician and then her GA Paramedic, and eventually earned her National Registry certification and became a NREMT-P. During this time frame, Jeannie was also earning her BS with a major in Biology from GA Southern University in Statesboro. She immediately enrolled in graduate school and earned her Masters in Health Sciences Administration from Armstrong State University in Savannah. This led to a position as department head of a cardiopulmonary department in a rural hospital. In this role, she handled everything respiratory related as well as cardiac stress testing and holter monitoring. Jeannie also started a sleep study lab and enhanced pulmonary testing while there.

In the early 2000s, Jeannie transitioned to EMS education by managing a paramedic program at a local technical college. She started teaching core allied health courses there when online learning was ‘new’ technology, and also started a doctorate in education program at GA Southern while at the technical college. Later Jeannie was hired as a program evaluator in the mid 2000’s for the GA Office of EMS/Trauma. During this time Jeannie moved her family to Atlanta (Cobb County). She missed the field work so she took a position as Operations Manager for South Fulton at Rural/Metro.

While there Jeannie stood up the local communications center and was responsible for it as well as operations. After leaving RMA, she took a position at MetroAtlanta that allowed her to open a new division back in Savannah. She oversaw that division for three years and then returned where she built their Community Paramedic education program and then helped them earn CAMTS accreditation.

Over the course of her career, Jeannie has worked in essentially every aspect of EMS. She has worked in the field at every level, worked as a dispatcher, been responsible for CQI/QM, served as manager of clinical services, worked in EMS billing, dealt with logistics (supply and fleet), and served in an advisory role on EMSAC and most recently the Region 9 EMS Council. She is still a GA Paramedic, Level III EMS Instructor, Nationally Registered Respiratory Therapist, and Certified Community Paramedic. Jeannie is the Lead Faculty for the EMS Administration degree program at Columbia Southern University and is very supportive of the advancement of the EMS profession through education and innovative practices.