Pete Reed (aid worker)

Pete Reed (9 July 1989 – 2 February 2023) was an American aid worker known for co-founding the medical humanitarian aid organization Global Response Medicine.

Pete Reed
Reed in 2021
Born	July 9, 1989 Bordentown, New Jersey
Died	February 2, 2023(2023-02-02) (aged 33) Bakhmut, Ukraine
Spouse	Alex Kay Potter

This article is about the American aid worker. For the British Olympic rower, see Pete Reed.

Raised in Bordentown, New Jersey,^[1] Reed attended Bordentown Regional High School.^[2]

Reed served as an infantryman in the Marine Corps from 2007 through 2011, doing two tours in Afghanistan.^[3] He began working as a paramedic after Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012 and briefly worked as a ski instructor in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.^[1][4] He graduated from paramedic school in June 2022.

He was profiled along with Derek Coleman on PBS NewsHour in 2016 for his work volunteering offering medical aid in Mosul, Iraq.^[5] Global Response Medicine was founded by Reed and Coleman in early 2017. In 2023 Pete stepped away from GRM to work with Global Outreach Doctors where he was the Ukraine country director.^[3][6]

Reed was killed while rendering aid helping to evacuate wounded civilians in Bakhmut, Ukraine on February 2, 2023.^[7][8] The New York Times stated that he was killed by "a targeted strike by a guided missile almost certainly fired by Russian troops."^[9]

Reed was married to photojournalist Alex Kay Potter.^[10] They met in Mosul in 2016 and were married in 2022.^[6][11]

References

1. "Gov. Phil Murphy remembers New Jersey native Pete Reed, who was killed while helping with evacuations in Ukraine". CBS News. 2023-02-04. Retrieved 2023-06-04.
2. Brooks, Bob. "Family remembers Bordentown, NJ native killed in Ukraine", WPVI-TV, February 6, 2023. Accessed June 11, 2023. "Pete Reed, a graduate of Bordentown Regional High School, was killed this past Thursday in Ukraine while on a humanitarian mission."
3. Tabachnick, Cara (February 3, 2023). "American aid worker Pete Reed killed in Ukraine while helping civilians under fire, groups say". CBS News. Retrieved 4 June 2023.
4. Cullen, Kevin (February 7, 2023). "Whenever a war-weary world needed a hero, Pete Reed showed up". Boston Globe. Retrieved 4 June 2023.
5. "These medical volunteers risk their lives to save Mosul's injured". PBS NewsHour. Dec 1, 2016. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
6. "American volunteer aid worker killed in Bakhmut while helping Ukrainian civilians". WPSD Local 6. 2023-02-04. Retrieved 2023-06-03.
7. "GRM Mourns Loss of Founder, Pete Reed". Global Response Medicine. 2023-02-04. Retrieved 2023-06-03.
8. "American volunteer Pete Reed killed in the Ukrainian war". NBC News Digital. NBC News. February 4, 2023. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
9. Gibbons-Neff, Thomas; Browne, Malachy (February 14, 2023). "Guided Missile Killed U.S. Aid Worker in Ukraine, Video Shows". New York Times. Retrieved 4 June 2023.
10. Lawrence, Quil. "Remembering 33-year-old Pete Reed, a frontline humanitarian medic killed in Ukraine". All Things Considered. NPR. Retrieved 4 June 2023.
11. Potter, Alex Kay (March 3, 2020). "I Went to Iraq to Take Photographs. I Stayed On as a Medic". New York Times Magazine. Retrieved 4 June 2023.