Steven has been involved in EMS for over 2 ½ decades, starting his EMS career in Hearne, Texas.  He left just before the RCESD was formed, to pursue his fiancé completing her EMT/ Fire training in North Texas.  During his time away he worked as a paramedic for the City of Arlington.  After he and Tricia married, they decided to return to Robertson County, both serving as providers.  Needing to provide for his family during Tricia’s pregnancy with their first of what would be three children; he co-worked with RCEMS and the emergency provider of our neighboring county.  During this time, he took advantage of expanding his career path.  Becoming a field supervisor for a Level 1 trauma hospital-based EMS system for Milam County, then promoted to Shift Captain for the City of Temple and most of Bell County.  He completed his critical care training for long distance and immediate critical care transport.  He was presented with an opportunity to develop a new set of skills and left EMS for 2 years to be an offshore Safety Representative.  This position involved all aspects of safety for offshore oil installations and managing a 3-bed hospital with online/telemedicine medical direction.  Due to their family expanding, he returned home to the same service he previously left as a supervisor.  With a lack of available supervisor positions available he decided to take a field paramedic position and was quickly promoted to Clinical Manager, managing all clinical aspects for 17 ALS, 3 critical care supervisors, EMD dispatch system and 2 critical care units.  Due to time requirements with his family, he took a sabbatical from management to obtain a position as a Flight Paramedic with PHI Air Medical.  His initial base was in Killeen, but he transferred to Air Med 12 in Bryan as soon as position opened at the base.  During this time, he maintained full-time flight status and completed his Baccalaureate in Nursing.  He completed his time requirements at St. Joseph Regional Hospital Intensive Care Unit to achieve Flight Nurse status on the helicopter.  Mr. Von Gonten became our Director in December 2021 and is looking forward to the future of our service.  He maintains the belief that the employees come first and that they are the stronghold of our service.  He believes in work/life balance and promotes those concepts to our employees.  He can often be heard telling others that he is back “home” and he works for the best services in the State. 
 
“Robertson County EMS has always been my home.  I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to return and pass along all the information/ training I have experienced throughout my career.  We are in exciting times, and I cannot wait to see where we can take this service as a team, OUR TEAM.”- SVG