Gonzales grew up in Sonora and joined the military at a young age, he said. He served in the U.S. Army as a medic from 1992-1998 and in the Army National Guard from 1998-1999, according to previous Community Impact reporting.
Before joining WCEMS, he worked as a clinical manager with the Austin Diagnostic Clinic for five years.
Gonzales started at WCEMS as a field paramedic in 2005 and held a number of clinical practice positions prior to being named as director. Now, he works with a staff of 175 to keep the 50-year-old department running.
Community Impact sat down with Gonzales to discuss his new role and goals for keeping Williamson County safe.
You were announced as WCEMS Director on Feb. 25. What are some short-term and long-term goals you have?
The short term goal is to reach out to all the elected officials, all department heads, our leadership here in the field and eventually the rest of the officers in the system, to share my vision. ... Once I make all these rounds, we're going to start looking at different ways of innovating. ... How can we maximize our efficiency and get the biggest bang for our buck, if you will? ... Long term is [looking] at how we distribute ambulances, how we deploy them and making sure that we can get the right resources to the right patient at the right time and not inflate the budget more than we need to.
WilCo’s population has seen a nearly 18% increase between 2019 and 2023, and Precinct 4 Commissioner Russ Boles said in the next decade, Williamson County will be more populated than Travis County. How does your team keep up with the increased need for service that comes with this growing population?
We always start with data. ... There may be growth, but what is the call volume? Do we actually need an ambulance, or do we need a response Tahoe there instead? ... We look at future development, especially with Samsung coming out on the east side of the county, that's an area that's going to just explode. ... I approach it from a patient assessment standpoint. ... What is the pulse of the county right now? ... Are there new developments coming out? How many houses are they going to build? Are there schools coming up there? What resources do we have, and how close are they to those areas? ... The approach we're going to take is going to be a continuous assessment of what's going on.
As the new director, what's something you believe is important to remind your staff of?
It's a tough job. ... Paramedics see the worst that humanity has to offer sometimes. ... I always tell [staff], if you ever feel like you've lost your fire and you wake up in the morning dreading coming here, try to go back to what brought you here. And that's why I put this poster up here. 'Remember why you started.' It's a good reminder for me, too, when I walk through that door—remember why I started. And why I started is because of the people.
What skills did you carry into your EMS career after serving as a U.S. Army medic in the Army National Guard?
For me it was, it was the discipline. It's very regimented. ... People always look back and say ‘That was the most miserable time of my life.’ I actually enjoyed it. I made a lot of good friends that I'm still friends with today. I think the structure and the discipline really stuck with me.
What does a day in your life look like now?
I get here [at] about 7-7:15 a.m. The first thing I see when I walk in is this thing right here, 'Remember why I started.' I fire up my computer ... I look out the window, watch the sun rise over here and then I start answering emails. And as people come in, I chat with them on different things. We have a morning conference call with the commanders in the field. ... It's a little bit of everything ... and then the rest of the time is spent looking at how we can improve the system.
You’ve served with WCEMS for nearly 20 years. What has kept you with this team for so long?
Williamson County EMS was the only place that I wanted to work when I was in paramedic school. I'd heard so many good things about it. ... What's kept me here—it may sound cliche—but it's the people that are here. ... The staff are who make this organization what it is. ... Without them, this organization is nothing.
