Officers & Board of Directors
IMPORTANT: This is the only official website for Bedford-Stuyvesant Volunteer Ambulance Corps (BSVAC). The Directors and Officers listed on this website are the only Directors and Officers of the organization.
Officers
President
Antoine Robinson
Secretary
Vernice Robinson
Vice President and Treasurer
Tamsin Wolf
Board Members
Born and raised in Brooklyn, Antoine Robinson has been working to help save lives since childhood. He is a son of James (“Rocky”) Robinson, founder of the Bedford-Stuyvesant Volunteer Ambulance Corps (BSVAC), and Vernice Robinson, Pastor and Overseer of Parson Temple Fellowship Church. Performing CPR, Antoine saved a life for the first time when he was 15. While still in high school, he became a Certified First Responder and he began teaching CPR and first aid to other students and teachers; he eventually provided life-saving CPR instruction to his entire high school.
Although he was only 16 and attending a high school class at the time, Antoine responded to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in downtown Manhattan on the morning of September 11, 2001; he helped save several lives, including a man suffering a heart attack and several individuals with life-threatening injuries. For two weeks following the attacks, Antoine continued to assist with the recovery efforts at the site.
Not long afterwards, Antoine completed the Emergency Medical Technician program at Olivachi EMT Training Center in Queens and became a NYS certified EMT. After graduating from Brooklyn Academy High School, Antoine continued his volunteer service at BSVAC and pursued paramedic training. He completed the Methodist Paramedic Training Program in Brooklyn and became a NYS certified Paramedic. His work as a Paramedic included advanced medical transport with Citywide Mobile Response and then with Senior Care EMS, as well as emergency medical standby at the Barclay Center and Mets stadium with First Response Ambulance. In 2016, Antione joined the Fire Department of the City of New York as a Paramedic, where he continues to serve our city, responding to 911 calls and providing emergency medical care, including advanced life support, to New Yorkers in critical medical situations and other emergencies.
Throughout his career in emergency medical services, Antoine has continued to devote himself in his spare time to BSVAC. Antoine’s volunteer service with BSVAC has spanned decades and has included serving as an EMT Course Instructor and as Chief of Staff. Following the devastating earthquake in 2010 that killed tens of thousands in Haiti, Antoine was chosen by his father, Commander Robinson, to lead a contingent of healthcare providers sent by BSVAC to provide medical services to those in the Port-au-Prince area who had not yet received any aid. Antoine, already a Paramedic at the time, helped to save lives and treated many patients, including the entire population of children at an orphanage who were in danger of losing their sight from a highly contagious eye disease that Antoine was able to successfully treat using a remedy he needed to improvise because no standard medicines were available in Haiti following the earthquake.
Following the passing of Commander James Robinson in September 2019, Antoine became Commanding Officer of BSVAC; he also serves as President of BSVAC and as a member of its Board of Directors.
Vernice Robinson is the widow of James (“Rocky”) Robinson, founder of the Bedford-Stuyvesant Volunteer Ambulance Corps (BSVAC). She is the mother of seven children. She was employed at the United States Postal Service, as Manager of Customer Services, and retired in 2010 after 32 years of service. Her education included study at several theological seminaries and she earned doctorate degrees from Jacksonville Theological Seminary and the International Seminary of California.
While working at the Postal Service, Vernice went to school to become an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) to help serve the community as part of BSVAC’s ambulance service. In addition to serving as an EMT, Vernice has provided countless hours of volunteer administrative assistance to BSVAC. Since 2019 she has also served as Secretary of BSVAC and as a member of its Board of Directors.
Vernice is an ordained minister and is the Pastor and Overseer of Parson Temple Fellowship Church of the Apostolic Faith. She serves on the Board of Directors of Adonijah Fellowship Bible School and Seminary, as well as the Ecumenical Leaders Fellowship. She is also the founder and President of the Parson Temple Theological Seminary.
Born and raised in upstate New York, Tamsin Wolf first came to New York City to attend the Manhattan School of Music, a conservatory where she studied flute. After graduating, Tamsin played in the Colorado Philharmonic Orchestra, then returned to New York where she worked as a free lance musician, performing a wide range of classical, popular and contemporary music.
In addition to music, Tamsin was actively involved in volunteer work from an early age; as a teenager she served as counselor at a camp for developmentally delayed children. In New York City she served as a victim counselor with the St. Luke’s/ Roosevelt Hospital Rape Crisis Center and helped to establish the New York Center for Law and the Deaf. Her work with the Center led her to attend law school. More recently, Tamsin helped to set up a school for children with cerebral palsy and other motor-neuron disorders.
After graduating from Harvard Law School, Tamsin returned to New York City and began working at a Park Avenue law firm as a tax lawyer. She also earned an LL.M. in Taxation from NYU School of Law. After specializing in equipment leasing tax shelters for several years, Tamsin changed direction and went in-house, serving as Vice President at Merrill Lynch and then as Assistant General Counsel at Time Warner.
Starting in 1988 Tamsin helped incorporate and secure tax-exemption for the Bedford-Stuyvesant Volunteer Ambulance Corps (BSVAC). Since then she has served on the BSVAC Board of Directors and as Vice President and Treasurer. Tamsin also previously served as Secretary, and as volunteer General Counsel. For her work with BSVAC, Tamsin was recognized with an Andrew Heiskell Community Service Award.
Former Board Member
Walter Maffei, an architect educated at the Pratt Institute, owns a multi-faceted boutique architectural firm in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. For more than 20 years, he has provided a wide array of architectural and consulting services, including architectural planning, design, consulting, historic preservation, feasibility assessment, expert testimony and reports. He has worked extensively throughout all five boroughs of New York and has worked on projects ranging from custom one-family homes to homeless shelters, sidewalk cafes and restaurants.
Walter is actively involved with environmental and community initiatives, including land use and design and planning of public spaces. As architect for business owner John Black, Walter helped develop the design for a public plaza in Ridgewood.
Walter has served as a member of the BSVAC Board of Directors since 2007. Walter provided the volunteer professional architectural services that enabled BSVAC to secure a new trailer for its training academy.
In addition to his involvement with community initiatives, Walter is a member of numerous professional organizations, including The American Institute of Architects, AIA New York/Center for Architecture, AIA Westchester/Hudson Valley, Architecture for Humanity, Entrepreneurs United Worldwide, U.S. Green Building Council and Women in Architecture Committee.
After relocating to South Carolina, Walter formally stepped down from BSVAC’s Board of Directors in July 2021.