Retired Assistant Fire Chief with the Willoughby Fire Department, Willoughby, Ohio. Positions held during my 31 year career include: Firefighter/Paramedic, Lieutenant, Captain, Chief Fire Investigator, Fire Service Instructor, Fire Inspector, Chief Communications Officer, Chief Airport Liaison Officer, Grants Administrator, and HIPAA Officer.

Author of General Aviation Firefighting for Structural Firefighters, Delmar/Thompson Publishers. Most recently published e-stories through Barnes & Noble: Helicopters and Horses; The Decision and The Puzzlement.I have also written articles seen in Firehouse Magazine, Emergency Magazine, Flight Training Magazine, Writer’s Open Forum, and the National Speleological Society Magazine.

As a public speaker since 1995, I have developed presentations for local, state, national, and international audiences including the Fire Department Instructors Conference, the Ohio Fire Chiefs Association, and the Second International Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting Conference in Las Vegas, NV.

I currently  teach courses that are part of the Fire Science and Emergency Management programs at Lakeland Community College. As a contract instructor for the National Fire Academy, I also travel across the country teaching National Incident Management System Incident Command for the Fire Service (NIMSICS-FS) and Introduction to Unified Command at Multi-Casualty Incidents (IUCMCI). In addition, I teach the Incident Command System series (ICS-100, 200, 300, 400) to law enforcement, firefighters, public officials, and health organizations.

As a Disaster Assitance Employee with FEMA for three years, I assisted in evaluating damages to local infrastructure located in disaster-declared areas and worked with government-related grant applicants such as police, fire, schools, public works, and qualified non-profit organizations to develop mitigation and federal reimbursement grant proposals.

I’m currently a Disaster Assistance Team member and Government Liaison with the Richland County chapter of the American Red Cross.

Fixed-wing, pilot with an Instrument rating.

Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), in Public Safety Management from Cleveland State University/Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs and an Associate of Applied Science (A.A.S) in Fire Science Technology from Lakeland Community College.