MVW OF PEI 3

Thank you to our second Most Valuable Women recipient, Jessica Lake, for nominating Tara Hasey as the next recipient for Most Valuable Women of PEI Award. She grew up in a first responder household and always knew that she wanted to have a career helping people. Tara was instilled with empathy & kind-heartedness by her grandmother and determination & resiliency by her mother.

Tara Hasey was born and raised just outside of Antigonish, Nova Scotia in the quaint community of Linwood. She grew up in a first responder household and always knew that she wanted to have a career helping people.

In 2002, Tara graduated from the Maritime School of Paramedicine. With her Primary Care Paramedic diploma in hand, Tara has worked as a dispatcher, ground medic, and offshore medic in various locations across Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Northwest Territories and the western African countries of Morocco, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire and Gabon. She even got to celebrate becoming an Emerald Shellback by crossing the 0 latitude & 0 longitude intersection on a seafaring vessel!

In 2009, Tara went back to school at Holland College in PEI for the Advanced Care Paramedicine Program. After completing the DL program in 2014, she went on to work as an Advanced Care Paramedic in PEI as a ground medic, CEC medic at Western Hospital, and a Community Paramedic in the Mobile Integrated Heath (MIH) program. She now passes on her 14 years of prehospital experience to students through facilitating at Holland College and preceptorship on the ground ambulances.

Tara is a first responder mental health advocate, volunteering as a PEER Support team member and Wings of Change PEER Support Co-Chair. For the past 4 years, Tara has volunteered on the Paramedic Association of PEI's Board of Directors, first as a treasurer and now as an area representative. She is one of the organizers of the annual PAPEI Paramedic Symposium, Breaking Barriers: First Responder Mental Health Symposium, and Paramedic Services Week activities and events.

In 2017, Tara was voted by her peers as the PAPEI Paramedic of the Year. Tara often volunteers and assists with fundraising campaigns for the IWK Telethon, Relay for Life, Sick Kids Great Cycle Challenge, PEI Humane Society, Wounded Warriors and other various campaigns for friends and coworkers in need. Tara is a Community Council member for Medavie, reviewing grant applications for community based programs for mental health, post-traumatic stress and type 2 diabetes.

Tara is also a member of the Island EMS Honor Guard where she was a flag bearer in the 2019 Paramedic Chiefs of Canada opening ceremonies and wreath layer at the most recent Remembrance Day ceremony in Charlottetown. During the past 6 years that she has lived on Price Edward Island, Tara and her husband have taken in the vast beauty of the Island through hiking, biking, snowshoeing and camping. Other self-care activities include painting, discovering her genealogy, and relaxing with her husband and 4 fur babies.