When You Can't Not Go

This article was contributed by Amber Dempsey '13 in the spring issue of The Magazine of Gordon College. 

The heat hit him first. Todd Denison ’91 had just touched down in West Africa as a 20-year-old college student who had never left the United States. “I remember getting slammed in the face with heat that was a living entity,” he recalls.

It was 1989, and through Gordon College’s summer internship program, Todd had signed up for a solo deployment in Liberia, leaving campus the day after his sophomore final exams. It was during this trip, says Denison, that “God planted a seed to work in contexts of significant need and international capacity.”

And decades later, that seed has grown into a life dedicated to service in the world’s most urgent places—disaster zones, war-torn regions, remote villages—and a calling that has shaped not only his career, but also his faith, leadership, and personal investment in others.

From New York to the North Shore 

Todd arrived on campus from Upstate New York in 1987, planning to study pre-med. But during his freshman year, he pivoted to scientific research and pursued becoming an emergency medical technician (EMT).

As part of that work, he joined an Emergency Medical Service (EMS) company covering 9-1-1 contracts across the North Shore. “I guess you could say I developed a different view of what collegiate life versus what real life was,” Todd says. “I spent a lot of time responding and caring for patients in Beverly, Lynn, Revere, Malden, and Chelsea. That really helped keep me grounded.”

But it was his summer in Liberia that defined everything that came next. Todd was stationed at ELWA Hospital in Monrovia. “The mission hospital usually took medical residents or fourth-year medical students. They didn’t know what to do with an EMT,” Todd laughs. “So, they were like, ‘We’ll just treat you like a fourth-year medical student.’”

Over the course of that summer, Todd grew both spiritually and in clinical experience—tending to men, women, and children in the emergency department, patient ward, and the operating room. After that, he “couldn’t imagine not doing international work in some capacity.”

The Urgency of Emergency Response

Following graduation in 1991, Todd pursued paramedic training and began what would become an extensive career in emergency medicine. In 1993, he was offered the opportunity to join Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT), a part of the United States Health and Human Services response division. 

Focused on providing immediate medical care and supplementing local resources, the team responds during disasters, disease outbreaks, and national security events. Like the National Guard, members can be deployed for weeks at a time. When the call comes, they go.  

“COVID changed that model a bit, and we ended up doing what was called hospital augmentation missions,” he explains. “We would go into a hospital that was overwhelmed with COVID and augment either their ER staff or the ICU staff.”

Todd was deployed four times during the pandemic to places like Lake Charles, Louisiana; Southern California; Michigan; and Bethel, Alaska.

“God does have a sense of humor, though,” he shares. “I hate being hot, and so he puts my heart into places where it’s hot and humid all the time. Even when I was in Alaska, it wasn’t cold then. That’s funny!”

One of Boston MedFlight's seven helicopters.

Safety in the Skies

In 1998, Todd signed up as a critical care flight paramedic with Boston MedFlight—an organization he still serves today as Senior Critical Care Transport Paramedic and Director of Safety.

Boston MedFlight brings the resources of a hospital ICU directly to patients—wherever and whenever needed. Over nearly three decades, Todd has grown alongside the nonprofit as it expanded its reach across New England. With just two helicopters, one truck, and two bases at Todd’s start, Boston MedFlight now operates seven helicopters, 10 critical care ambulances, and five bases in Bedford, Lawrence, Mansfield, Plymouth, and Manchester, New Hampshire. 

As the Director of Safety, Todd oversees risk mitigation, emergency preparedness, and operational safety—ensuring their teams can do high-risk work with the highest level of care. “Nothing we do is unsafe,” he explains. “But all of the things have inherent risk.” 

“We take care of everything from premature babies to complex medical and trauma patients by helicopter,” explains Andy Farkas, Chief Operating Officer at Boston MedFlight. “Todd has always been a very strong clinical advocate for good patient care and safety.”

Most of the leadership team at Boston MedFlight continues to work in the field and manage transports. “I don’t want to give up the clinical medicine,” explains Todd. “And from a leadership standpoint, none of the staff can ever say, ‘Well, you don’t know what it’s like because you don’t do it.’ I think that’s important.”

“Our team takes care of a lot of difficult situations—some are the worst of the worst situations you could think of from a healthcare perspective,” Andy shares. “Todd’s very compassionate and really makes sure we have all the resources in place to care for our own employees. He’s just somebody that’s a huge asset—not only to us—but to the organizations he impacts, too.”

Boston MedFlight is supportive of their employees using their skills and taking “humanitarian leave.” After someone has been with the organization for five years, they receive one week of humanitarian leave in addition to their annual leave time. Anyone there for more than 20 years receives a second week—offering Todd an opportunity to continually pursue his call to international aid.

Todd and the Samaritan Purse team in the full field hospital they constructed.

Opportunity Demands Responsibility 

For more than 30 years, Todd has served with disaster response and humanitarian organizations across the globe—from Africa to the Middle East, from storm-devastated islands to active conflict zones.

Over the past decade, he has traveled regularly to Togo with Clinics of Hope—an organization that specializes in establishing high-quality, sustainable medical clinics in remote West African villages. In 2018, he joined the disaster response team of Samaritan’s Purse, a ready-state international team specializing in providing emergency medical care, WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene), and NFI (non-food item) distributions to those in need globally. 

His deployments have taken him to places like Saipan after a devastating typhoon and Jamaica, where he worked in a fully deployed field hospital after the region’s primary facility was destroyed in a hurricane.

In August 2025, that work brought him to Gaza, where he served on a medical task force team providing trauma care at daily food distribution sites.

“I had a lot of friends and family who were concerned I was going into a war zone, but I had one friend who said, ‘Well, you have to go.’ And he was right. It’s this idea that I can’t not go. It’s just a desire that God has given me, and I have the skill set . . . To me, opportunity demands responsibility.”

A Rhode Trip group in Colorado.

Road Trips and Mentorship

Mentorship, he says, is one of the most important threads in his life.

“I’ve always taken to the Barnabas Multiplication Principle. Barnabas poured into Paul. Paul poured into Timothy. Timothy into others,” he says. “I had men who poured into me, so I’ve always felt I needed to do the same.”

In 2005, Todd was invited by Todd Blount and Lyle Richardson ’93 to join Rhode Trip—a Rhode Island based, Christian outdoor leadership program for young men. 

“I played soccer at Gordon and seemed to be injured more often than not,” shares Lyle. “Todd was around helping the trainer, and he was clearly next level—skilled, efficient, overqualified. That stuck with me early on. I’ve always appreciated having him around.” 

The program spans six years, walking boys from middle school into high school and guiding them through increasingly challenging expeditions. But the goal is not simply adventure—it’s formation.

“From the beginning, Rhode Trip was meant to be more than just a trip,” explains Lyle. “These trips can be physically, mentally, and spiritually demanding, and leadership matters. I knew we needed leaders who could bring both real-world competence and deep character. Todd immediately was all in!”

Early “Rhode Trips” bring students to New Hampshire and Baxter State Park in Maine—all expenses included. Rhode Trip V brings groups backpacking in Colorado. By the final year, Rhode Trip VI participants are raising their own support and traveling internationally to places like Haiti and Guatemala—putting into practice what they’ve learned and serving communities in need. 

“Generations now are so visually desensitized. They can see a picture, they can see a video of suffering, and it doesn’t quite click,” Todd shares. “But a missionary doctor I worked with in Liberia said, ‘You don’t experience poverty until you smell it.’ Out of the senses, our smell is the one that creates the most vivid memories.”

Lyle has appreciated Todd’s rare ability to mentor young men. “Todd has been one of the most consistent and impactful leaders in Rhode Trip. He meets them where they are, building trust, and then challenging them to grow,” Lyle says. “Todd doesn’t force it, and he doesn’t perform—it’s authentic. His faith is real, and it shows up consistently in how he leads, how he serves, and how he cares for the people around him.”

Hundreds of young men, shaped through years of mentorship, now carry forward their experiences—some even return to lead the program themselves. “By taking [these young men] to places like this,” shares Todd. “I hope seeds are planted just like mine.”

Todd Denison '91 in Togo with Clinics of Health

Interruptions Welcomed

Todd often returns to a verse that has guided him for decades: Proverbs 20:24, “The Lord directs our steps, so why try to understand everything along the way.” That truth has become his guidepost, shaping the way he approaches both his work and his life. “It takes the pressure off,” he says. “I don’t need to be in control. I just need to be moving.”

He has also taken to heart the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “We must allow ourselves to be interrupted by God.” Together, these ideas have shaped a life marked not by certainty, but by a willingness to respond—again, and again, and again.

Even now, after nearly 30 years with Boston MedFlight, Todd sees his future not as winding down, but as opening up. “People say, ‘You should be thinking about retirement,’” he says with a smile. “No, that’s just a change in jobs.” 

There are still places to go, still needs to meet, and still ways to serve. For Todd, it all began with a summer in Liberia—and he’s been answering the call ever since.

Jack Good Community Service Award

For outstanding, faithful, and dedicated service in areas beyond personal vocation and modeling Christian servanthood to the community, Todd Denison ’91 is recipient of the 2026 Jack Good Community Service Award. Join us at Homecoming and Family Weekend to hear more about Todd’s lived experience.