Zach Eisner, a junior in biomedical engineering in the McKelvey School, spent the past summer in Sierra Leone helping to expand emergency medical services (EMS) there. His organization, LFR International, works to provide basic trauma care around the globe.

Eisner founded LFR International in 2018 with fellow WashU alumnus, Peter Delaney. Prior to that, he trained and served as an emergency medical technician and instructor. Delaney had previous experience from a 2016 international EMS project he’d founded in Uganda.

These experiences, along with Eisner’s work in the nonprofit sector, allowed him and Delaney to found an organization that would work to prevent thousands of deaths each year in low- and middle-income settings in developing countries. LFR has expanded into four locations — Uganda, Chad, Guatemala and Sierra Leone — training more than 2,000 first responders and 50 trainers in emergency trauma care.