About Us

What these five incredible women all have in common is their consistent excellent performance, and their commitment and dedication to their work. Read on to find out more about our Council of Ambulance Authorities 2022 Women In Ambulance award winners.

 
Kimberley Beban - Intensive Care Paramedic
Kim completed her Bachelor of Health Science in paramedicine in 2010. During this time, she started working for Wellington Free Ambulance, beginning as an intern and, with hard work she achieved her Intensive Care Paramedic right of practice in 2015. 

Kim has been fortunate to have had some incredible mentors throughout her career, and this has inspired and fuelled her own passion for mentoring, ongoing education and training. 

Kim was recognised at the 2022 CAA Woman in Ambulance Awards for her enthusiastic and committed devotion to the coaching and mentoring of graduate paramedics and Intensive Care Paramedic students. 

Melanie Cotterill - Systems Accountant
Melanie joined Wellington Free Ambulance in 2007 and has worn many hats since then: she originally joined us as a Management Accountant, and then went on to be the Finance Manager for ten years, heading the Finance Team.

She now works as a Systems Accountant, and enjoys working for Wellington Free Ambulance because of its contribution to the community.

Melanie was recognized in this year’s Women In Ambulance awards partly because of her extensive work with the Logistics and stores function to modernize inventory, starting with having live PPE stock levels. This has been critical in our COVID-19 response.

Abby Perry - Extended Care Paramedic
The fast-paced nature of Abby’s job has constantly kept her on her toes, and is always pushing her to think outside the box. With medicine continually evolving, she has developed a strong passion for ongoing learning, mentoring, and teaching.

She was recognised in this year’s awards for her commitment to sharing her enormous wealth of knowledge within paramedicine, and all the unofficial work she puts in like debriefs, study days, and whiteboard sessions.

Lucy Lloyd-Bain - Facilities Manager
Lucy is our Facilities Manager, a role that is critical to the smooth operation of the Wellington Free Ambulance service to the people of Greater Wellington and Wairarapa. 

Lucy is passionate about supporting the people of WFA and finds that paying attention to the smallest of details across the facilities can have a significant impact in creating the optimal environment for frontline staff. 

Lucy is passionate about people, kindness and going the extra mile for those around her. It is this, as well as setting up new processes and being thrown into the deep end during the COVID-19 Emergency Operations Centre set-up, that led to Lucy being recognised at this year’s Women In Ambulance awards.

Heidi Little - Clinical Educator, Extended Care Paramedic, Clinical Paramedic Advisor
When Heidi was 13, she was selected to compete at the national first aid competitions, where her passion for becoming a paramedic started. Since then, she has dedicated most of her life to this pursuit and has been fiercely passionate about her ambulance career.

Over the last nine years, Heidi has worn many hats at Wellington Free Ambulance, and is currently working as a Clinical Educator, which is both challenging and immensely rewarding.

One of Heidi’s career highlights to date was seeing a cadet she had mentored since he was aged 13 begin his career with WFA as a Graduate Paramedic this year. Heidi is also the co-writer and singer for the ‘We Are The Ones’ charity song that WFA released in 2018.

Heidi is a role model to all and always lives to the values of our organisation. She is a huge asset not only to us but to New Zealand ambulance in general.

Join the team at Wellington Free Ambulance
If you are inspired by these incredible women and would like to join the team at Wellington Free Ambulance, please click here to see our current vacancies. We have roles to suit all skills and experience, ranging from Emergency Medical Call Takers to Paramedics, Patient Transfer Officers, Event Medics and Head Office staff. All of our people are dedicated to making a difference to people’s lives, every day.