AUSTIN, Texas — On International Women’s Day, Travis County leaders are honoring the brave women of STAR Flight.
- STAR Flight has four female crew members
- Nurses among few women in world to handle all responsibilities
As nurses and helicopter rescue specialists, STAR Flight crew members are tasked with dangerous duties to keep the community safe. Men have traditionally held those roles, but a group of female flight crew members want to change that.
Crew chief Jennifer Roberts has been working with STAR Flight for the past four years, and before that was a flight nurse for a decade. The 42-year-old said she knew she wanted to be a flight nurse when she was 16-years-old volunteering on the ski patrol in Maine.
“I had a co-worker that was severely injured in an accident, and it's a very remote area, very, very, far by ground to a trauma center. A flight crew came in and literally saved his life. “It was at that moment that I said, ‘That's what I want to do when I grow up.’,” said Roberts.
Roberts calls her role as a senior flight nurse at STAR Flight a “dream job.” She said hoist rescues, which are typically done 100 feet off the ground, are especially memorable.
“It’s amazing to be able to take somebody that is in a life threatening situation and move them out of danger, and it's extremely rewarding,” she said.
If Roberts is not rescuing people, she is fighting fires or training new paramedics.
“There's just always something to be learning and training and I just I love that, I love the challenge,” Roberts said.
Roberts is one of STAR Flight’s four female crew members. The others are Rita Sears, Ashley Voss Liebig, and Holly Kareiva.
“We all are very, very unique and different. Rita is an amazing cross fit athlete. Ashley is an amazing speaker. Holly, she is an amazing runner,” Roberts said. “Everyone has their unique strengths and personalities.”
Officials with the Travis County air rescue operation say the four women among the few women in the country doing the kind of work ranging from medical care to firefighting to swift water rescues. Roberts said in her more than 10 years of experience, she noticed men more so have gravitated to the job, compared to women.
“I am happy to hopefully be a role model for other women, young women who are maybe considering a career in public safety, and might be a little bit intimidated and wants to be able to show them that hey, you can do anything you want to do. The boys don't have to have all the fun,” Roberts said.
Roberts, who plans to retire as a STAR Flight nurse, and the other flight crew members want to inspire women to pursue those jobs in public safety.
“There's no such thing as failure, just lesson learned and successes,” Roberts said. “You just need to get out there and give it a shot and not be afraid to work hard.”