NEWS |
135-00: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE , October 5, 2000
Capt. Mazza - a registered operating room nurse whose accomplishments include launching the Port Authority's award-winning portable heart defibrillator program - assumed a new post this week as the second-ranking officer at JFK. She replaces Capt. John Torres, who retired. Capt. Mazza, a Farmingdale, L.I. resident, will report to Inspector Anthony Infante, JFK's commanding officer for the Port Authority Police Department.
"This is the opportunity of a lifetime," Capt. Mazza said. "I look forward to assisting the millions of travelers who come through this world-famous airport each year."
Capt. Mazza has made good use of her unusual mix of medical and police skills. She reorganized the Port Authority's pre-hospital care initiatives and supervises the agency's First Aid programs, as well as cardiopulmonary resuscitation, certified first responder and emergency medical technician training. In 1997, she launched the agency's defibrillator program, which has been credited with saving 13 lives. She has also taught emergency medical service programs at the Port Authority's Police Academy.
In 1999, the Regional Emergency Medical Services Council of New York City, Inc., named Capt. Mazza as its Basic Life Support Provider of the Year. The council cited Capt. Mazza for promoting the use of portable heart defibrillators throughout the agency's Police Department. The Council also honored the Port Authority Police Department with its Emergency Medical Services Agency of the Year Award.
Capt. Mazza's interest in emergency medicine grew out of her prior career as a registered operating room nurse.
After graduating from Nassau Community College in the mid-1970s with a nursing degree, Capt. Mazza was employed as an operating room nurse at Long Island Jewish Hospital in Queens for five years and at St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn, L.I., for five years.
Capt. Mazza decided to change careers in 1987 and joined the Port Authority's Police Department. She was assigned to JFK airport for one year, then to the agency's central police pool for one year, before returning to JFK for six years.
In 1994, Capt. Mazza was promoted to sergeant and assigned to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan for two years. She was then assigned to the agency's Police Academy for three years, and was promoted to lieutenant in December 1998 while at the academy.
Capt. Mazza was promoted to her current rank in April 2000 and was most recently assigned to the Staten Island Bridges/New Jersey Marine Terminals command.
Capt. Mazza, a native of Massapequa, L.I., is married to Christopher Delosh, a New York City police officer.