Background Experience:

My background experience consists of a Bachelor’s degree in management studies and a Masters degree in general management. I have been a certified emergency manager for 11 years, first working at the North Carolina Division of Emergency Management as the assistant human services manager for two years and then as the emergency management planner for Auburn University since 2008.

Prior to becoming an emergency manager, I served as a United States Marine for 23 years, of which 15 years was as an explosive ordnance disposal technician. I retired from the Marine Corps as a Master Sergeant.

I have experience as a first responder, an incident commander, a logistics staging area commander and as a section leader in several emergency operations centers, where knowledge of Incident Command Systems, the National Incident Management System and the National Response Framework were mandatory for the job.

I have responded to several national and international incidents include airplane crashes, hurricanes, UXO incidents, IED incidents, possible biological contamination incidents and most recently, tornado response and recovery missions.  For these incidents, I served as a first responder all the way up to a multi-agency team member and operations chief.

Philosophy of Training in Emergency Preparedness:

I believe in training people for the reality and stress of real world incidents. Relevant training is a gift to men and women that encourages independence. Ensuring that I have contributed to them being able to care for themselves and others is what drives me.