I am a 21-year Veteran of the U.S. Army, where I served in a variety of roles within the Military Intelligence Corps, retiring with the rank o Sergeant First-Class, and having served as the SGM for the Ground Component Command’s Combined Analysis Control Center (GCC-CACC) working side-by-side with our Republic of Korea partners to defend South Korea.

I have over 15 years of experience in the Fire Service, having begun my career in the Fire Service as a Volunteer Firefighter while serving as an active duty Soldier. Following my retirement from the Army, I became a career Firefighter/EMT in Chatham County, Georgia, and gained valuable experience in Savannah in both fire suppression and emergency medical response. During this time, I also owned my own chimney sweep/Inspection business.

Following my wife’s retirement from the Army, we move to Colorado, where we have family. At that time, I made the transition form fire suppression to prevention when I took a job with the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control (DFPC). I’ve been with DFPC for over six years and have served in a variety of roles: Certified Fire/Building Inspector and Plans Reviewer, Unit Chief and Program Manager for Fire Suppression Program, Public School Fire Inspection Program, and the Fireworks and Proximity Pyrotechnics Program, while continuing to serve as a Certified Life Safety Surveyor for Healthcare and Long term care facilities.

Today, I lead DFPC’s Professional Development Unit, serving as the Training Officer for over 500 Certified Fire and Building Inspectors across the State of Colorado. I am also the de facto Community Risk Reduction Coordinator for DFPC, leading our CRR program “Fire Safe Colorado.”

One of the lessons from the COVID19 pandemic is that distancing learning and virtual delivery of training to our Fire Prevention and Life Safety, and Building Code, professionals is a real force-multiplier, and that being the case, I and my team are learning the art of filmmaking in order to provide more on-demand training for our workforce.