2012 Forty Under 40: Charles M. Miramonti

Charles M. Miramonti

Where were you, and what were you doing in 1991?
A high school junior at Jesuit College Prep School in Dallas playing all the soccer and guitar in as many rock bands as I could find

When you graduated from high school, what did you think you wanted to be as an adult?
No idea.

Was there an event in the last 20 years that had a great impact on your aspirations and/or career path?
Failed out of mechanical engineering and discovered EMS in college.

Have you been mentored by (or had any significant interactions with) previous Forty Under 40 honorees?
Chad Priest, at Faegre Baker Daniels. Chad helped me establish MESH and then go on to assume the role of CEO in 2010. Chad embodies the values of resilience, accountability, and self-reliance. We all learn that growing up, but he is a daily reminder for me on how to be a better leader.

Where/what do you want to be 20 years from now?
To be retired. Maybe consulting on the side, but spending the majority of my time traveling the world with my wife, friends, kids and grandkids.

Chief, Indianapolis Emergency Medical Services
Age: 38

Charlie Miramonti used to be “the long-haired hippie kid who didn’t care about anything.” Then he found something that moved him, someplace he could make a difference: emergency medical services.

“I like that it’s an environment in which you can have a tremendous impact on not only patients’ lives but the way patient care is done,” he said.

In 2000, Miramonti moved from Texas, where he earned his doctor of medicine from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, to do his residency in emergency medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine. He met his wife, Julie, also a doctor, here and decided to stay. In 2003, he became the school’s first out-of-hospital care fellow.

After graduation, Miramonti took a job at Wishard Hospital as an emergency medicine physician. He was also deputy medical director for the Indianapolis Fire Department and Wishard Ambulance Service. In 2009, he led the effort to consolidate emergency medical services agencies on behalf of the city, the fire department and the School of Medicine.

A year later, when the decision was made to make EMS a separate agency from the fire department and hospital, Miramonti was named chief. He also works as a Wishard emergency medical physician and assistant professor of emergency medicine at the IU School of Medicine.

Miramonti said he wants to provide “the right care to every patient every time we’re out there, to have the business model up and running and to have created a lasting institution inside the city that impacts all of us that live here.”

At home, where he and Julie have two children, ages 5 and 3, he wants “to see my kids happy and challenged and productive in their lives.”

His goal, always, is “to leave things better than I found them.”•