Stephen Burritt Jr., who serves as a captain for Dare County EMS, has been named Dare County Employee of the Month for May 2024. The award was presented to Burritt by Dare County EMS Director Chief Jennie Collins during the Dare County Board of Commissioners meeting that was held at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, May 7, 2024.
Burritt initially began his service to Dare County on July 3, 2006, when he was hired to work as an electrician with the Building & Grounds division of the Public Works Department. On October 4, 2009, he transferred to Dare County EMS, where he began serving as an EMT Intermediate, and in the years that followed this transfer he earned three promotions within the department.
After earning his paramedic certification, Burritt was promoted to the position of paramedic on January 9, 2011. On August 3, 2015, he was promoted to lieutenant, and on July 15, 2018, he was promoted to his current position of EMS captain.
During her Employee of the Month presentation, Collins noted that Burritt has filled a variety of important assignments throughout his tenure with Dare County EMS—both within ground units as well as on Dare MedFlight, where he previously served as a lieutenant tasked with overseeing the helicopter’s operations.
In his current role as an EMS captain, Burritt is responsible for performing complex and advanced administrative support for Dare County EMS that includes tracking staff members’ continuing education hours, organizing a variety of departmental training assignments for current employees, organizing and facilitating orientation sessions for new hires; reviewing quality assurance and quality improvement reports; and supervising two training lieutenants to help them best meet the department’s training demands, among many other essential duties.
Collins also commented on the integral role that Burritt’s knowledge and experience gained during his time spent working for Buildings and Grounds plays in his current position—particularly when it comes to Dare County’s ongoing multiphase project to modernize and improve outdated EMS facilities located throughout the county.
“He has additional projects as far as [being] our go-to facility maintenance guy since he has that background with Buildings and Grounds that fit nicely, which lately has been very busy for him with the new stations and helping to do some of the testing for the acceptance of the various programs that we have coming out with the new stations as well as keeping up our existing stations,” said Collins, who also noted that Burritt is always ready and willing to jump in and assist with any issues that arise, regardless of when they happen to occur.
“As you can imagine, having our facilities operate on a 24/7 basis means that we don’t really ever get that time off,” she said. “And it’s often that I’ll get notified that we have a problem at one of the stations, and they’ll say, ‘Steve’s already in and working on the problem,’—and that’s on nights and weekends and holidays that that seems to to happen.”
As she continued her presentation, Collins also highlighted the praise that was shared in the Employee of the Month nomination forms submitted by his colleagues who recommended that he receive the prestigious honor.
“One of his greatest strengths is his coaching and mentoring, and that had a huge portion of his nomination,” she said. “He is adaptable to multiple personalities. He just can communicate very well with a whole sundry of people, and that makes him sought out by many. He is very respected by the employees. He’s a tremendous listener, he will reflect on the information, and he really wants to make people better.”
According to one particular Employee of the Month nomination form that was submitted, “He is a role model to others for building relationships and approaching a situation from a non-biased viewpoint, weighing all viewpoints and perspectives. His patience when communicating with others, ability to remain neutral across a variety of scenarios and the way he makes others feel that they’re being heard are just a few prime examples of his rapport. The care and passion he provides to his peers and community is evident and sincerely acknowledged by all. We are certainly proud of his efforts and impact on others.”
As she concluded her remarks and presented Burritt with his award, Collins commented, “Steve, thank you for everything that you do, and congratulations on being nominated and named Employee of the Month!”