Faculty and former Respiratory Care Program Coordinator
El Centro College

Previously, Gary Peschka served as the coordinator of El Centro College’s Respiratory Care Program for 18 years. Today he still serves as program faculty, teaching Health Occupations core courses, and works part-time as a critical care therapist at St. Paul Medical Center of Dallas. Over his career, he has served as a staff respiratory therapist at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, as director of education for the American Association for Respiratory Care in Dallas, and as an instructor at Tarrant County College, the University of Oklahoma Health Science Center, the University of Louisville, Ky., Health Science Center and Baptist Memorial Hospital in Kansas City, Mo.

Gary holds an advanced certificate and a master’s degree in health occupations teacher education from the University of Illinois at Urbana and earned a bachelor’s degree in respiratory therapy from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He is a registered respiratory therapist (RRT) and respiratory care practitioner (RCP) — and since he earned his first respiratory certification in 1965, holds a registered RRT number below 1000. He was selected as a Minnie Stevens Piper Professor for excellence in teaching at El Centro College in 2002, and has chaired and served as a member of numerous subcommittees and task forces of the American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC). He belongs to the AARC and to the Texas Society for Respiratory Care.