Acadian Health Leadership

Benjamin Swig

Director

Benjamin Swig, MPH, MBA, NRP, serves as the Director of Acadian Health, a division of Acadian Companies. His ancillary roles include population health strategy for the employee health plan with 6500 members and managing strategic partnerships with organizations that improve patient safety, performance, reliability, and organizational efficiencies. 

Before joining Acadian, Benjamin cofounded Ready Responders, a mobile urgent care start-up, worked as a paramedic and administrator with New Orleans EMS, and was the Acting Director of Training in the US Surgeon General’s Office supporting the U.S. Public Health Service, directing medical readiness training in underserved communities throughout the US and public health and medical emergency response coordination.

He is a graduate of Tulane University School of Public Health, and the Tulane University Freeman School of Business, and is a nationally registered Paramedic.

Richard Belle

Operations Director

Richard Belle’s Acadian career began in 1996, when he started as an EMT-Basic while attending paramedic school at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, LA. After he graduated, he worked full-time as a paramedic, also serving as a new-hire and student preceptor. He also worked as a flight paramedic part-time for Acadian Air Med. Teaching AHA, PHTLS, and refresher courses led to his promotion as Acadian’s Bayou Region Education Coordinator. In this role, he was one of the founding faculty members of National EMS Academy in 2003. He has served as Education Coordinator, Continuing Education Coordinator, and Continuing Education Manager. His experience as an instructor also led to an opportunity to become part of author teams for 10 published works and be principal author of the 1st edition Advanced EMT: A Clinical Reasoning Approach textbook. Four years later, he published the 2nd edition, which remains in publication today. 

In 2013, Richard was a part of developing and implementing Acadian’s first Mobile Healthcare programs in Lafayette and New Orleans, LA. He currently serves as the Operations Director for Acadian Health, where he works to push Acadian Health forward to provide better healthcare to the communities we serve.

Chris Heller

Operations Supervisor

Chris Heller has been with Acadian Companies since 2011. He began as an EMT for Acadian Ambulance before advancing to a paramedic in the Greater New Orleans region. He has served as an adjunct National EMS Academy instructor and preceptor for students and new hires. He also represented his operations area on Acadian’s ESOP Committee.

Chris moved into the Mobile Healthcare field in 2014, and has worked to develop Acadian’s program over the years. When Acadian shifted their Mobile Healthcare operations to the Acadian Health brand, Chris moved into the Operations Supervisor role. He manages Acadian Health’s Louisiana and Texas operations and is working to expand the company’s footprint. He recently became a Certified Community Paramedic.

Chris is a native of New Orleans and a graduate of Holy Cross High School, the National EMS Academy, and Northwestern State University. He holds a degree in Allied Health Management.

Joe Weber

Program Manager