Incident Management Training

INSTRUCTOR PROFILES
(partial listing)

Chief William Sager

Chief Sager is Citygate’s Training Project Manager. He instructs S-346 Situation Unit Leader, S-358 Communications Unit Leader, S-440 Planning Section Chief, S-420 Command and General Staff, and other subordinate planning and logistics section courses. He is a Fire Services Specialist with more than 35 years in the fire service. With Citygate, he has worked on over fifteen master plan and training projects. Chief Sager’s last assignment with CAL FIRE was as the Butte Unit Chief, and the Butte County Fire Chief. Chief Sager is a nationally recognized course developer and instructor in leadership, organizational development, and management courses. He retired from a 32-year career with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) in 2003. He was a CAL FIRE team incident commander, planning section chief on a National Interagency Incident Management Team, the Butte Unit Chief, and the Butte County Fire Chief. He is a retired Peace Officer and holds a California P.O.S.T. Advanced Officer Certificate. He is a designated Chief Fire Officer (CFO), a state Certified Fire Chief, and a graduate of the National Fire Academy (NFA) Executive Fire Officer Program. Chief Sager has taught for the NFA, National Interagency Fire Center, the U.S. Coast Guard, the CAL FIRE Academy, and community colleges in California. A retired Naval Officer, he graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1966.

Division Chief Rod Collins

Division Chief Rod Collins instructs S-430 Operations Section Chief, Command and General Staff S-420, and subordinate operations section courses. During a 34-year fire service career, Chief Collins rose through the ranks from Volunteer Firefighter to Chief Officer. During his tenure as Division Chief, Chief Collins supervised numerous divisions at North Tahoe Fire including: Paramedic EMS, the Fire Prevention Bureau, Training, Fleet & Maintenance, and Operations. Chief Collins joined the Sierra Front Wildfire Cooperators Incident Management Team in the late 1980s and continues to serve as a Type 2 Operations Section Chief with the Sierra Front IMT and other Great Basin Regional Type 2 IMTs. During his career, Chief Collins participated in incidents that included major wildfires in eight western states, floods, sewage spills, hurricane support and recovery and the reestablishment of local government in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. Chief Collins’ experience includes IMT interaction and coordination with National, State and Local government as well as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, FEMA, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Transportation, and U.S. Air Force. Chief Collins is a 2005 graduate of S-520, Advanced Incident Management. In June of 2006, Chief Collins completed a three-year training assignment and task book as a National Type 1 Incident Commander.

Battalion Chief August C. “Gus” Johnson

Battalion Chief August C. “Gus” Johnson instructs S-355 Ground Support Unit Leader, S-450 Logistics Section Chief and subordinate logistics section courses. He is a 35-year career firefighter, the last 18 years as a Battalion Chief. Chief Johnson has served in several capacities on incident command teams in California. Chief Johnson has served for seven years as a logistics section chief, five years as an operations section chief, and three years as an air operations branch director as well as relief assignments on federal incident management teams. Chief Johnson has been a member of instructor cadres for supply unit leader, logistics section chief, management development series, and national aerial firefighter academy, air tactics group supervisor, and air tactics group supervisor currency training.

Battalion Chief Darrell Wolf

Battalion Chief Darrell Wolf instructs S-360 Finance/Administration Unit Leader, S-460 Finance/Administration Section Chief, S-420 Command and General Staff, and subordinate finance/administration section courses. He is a 27-year veteran of California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Chief Wolf’s current assignment is at the Santa Clara Unit supervising the Alma Battalion/Helitack and is the Unit Safety Officer. He has been a California Department of Forestry Incident Command Team Member for 7 years; the last three years as the Finance Section Chief of CAL FIRE Command Team 2. Chief Wolf is also involved with statewide finance training that includes Compensation/Claims and Agency Representative cadres. He is well versed in the FEMA billing process. Chief Wolf is a graduate of Butte Community College Fire and Law Enforcement Academies and is a Former Colusa County Deputy Sheriff.

Battalion Chief Lennie Orr

Battalion Chief Orr instructs S-348 Resources Unit Leader and is part of the instructor cadre for the ICS 420 classes. Lennie worked for 29 years with the Castro Valley and Alameda County Fire Departments. He was the Battalion Chief in charge of the Training Division for 8 years, Battalion Chief in charge of EMS for 3 years, and a line Battalion Chief for 4 years. His Battalion covered approx. 430 square miles and consisted of industrial, residential, wildland, and wildland interface. Lennie has a Bachelor's degree in Management, is a certified Chief Officer, and a Master Instructor. He served as resources unit leader for over 5 years for CDF teams 3 and 6. He also served as situation unit leader for FEMA Incident Support team Blue where he was dispatched to numerous incidents including the Pentagon and New York for 911. He served as the Planning Section Chief for Alameda County ICT 2. He is certified as a RESL, DIVS, STEN, IOF3. He was also a Task Force Leader for California Task Force 4. Lennie served as the disaster response representative for Alameda County Fire and was the department representative for all county EOC activations and exercises. He also served as the department representative to the State OES Regional Operations Center during the El Nino floods. He currently teaches RESL, ICS 200,300, 400, 420, Command 2A, Command 2E, Command 1B, Command 1A, Instructor 1A, 1B, 1C, and 2A.

Lieutenant Kyle Merkins, San Francisco Fire Department

Lieutenant Kyle Merkins instructs S-346 Situation Unit Leader and S-430 Operations Section Chief. Kyle has 22 years of experience in public safety with fire/EMS background. He has four years with the USCG specializing in Search and Rescue, Law Enforcement, and Marine Safety. Kyle has been with San Francisco Fire Department for 12 years, where he started as a Firefighter/Paramedic. For the last four years, he has been working as a Lieutenant in the Division of Homeland Security, and currently oversees and coordinates all grant funded logistics, training, and exercises for the department and acts as a liaison for the SFFD to local, regional, state and federal agencies.

Dr. John F. Muldown, JD
F.ACFEI, D.ABFE, D.ABLEE, CHS-V, CMI-V

John Muldown instructs S-360 Finance/Administration Unit Leader and S-460 Finance/Administration Section Chief. He has over 28 years as a California Peace Officer with an Advanced P.O.S.T. Certificate, 25 years as a Deputy Sheriff/Coroner, 16 years as a Police Service Canine Handler, and 10+ years as a Shift Supervisor. He is also a California State Certified Canine Team Evaluator, a Certified Crime Scene Investigator, Drug Recognition and Under the Influence Expert, and has Speed-Skid and Traffic Investigation Advanced Training. Muldown was a panelist at the ACFEI National Homeland Security Conference in Washington, DC, in May of 2004. He was a Panelist and Lectured on “Interoperability: Management and Communications at Major Incidents” at the National Homeland Security Conference in Chicago, in October, 2004. John has an AA Degree in Administration of Justice, attended CSU- Chico and continued with postgraduate work, receiving his Juris Doctor in 1996. John has instructed in-service First responder professionals and also initiated, developed and taught a “Liability for Patrol Staff” course for the Nevada Police Corps through Nevada P.O.S.T. (Peace Officer Standards and Training).

Lisa Angell, Watsonville Community Hospital

Ms. Angell instructs S-356 Supply Unit Leader. Lisa has been a registered nurse for 30 years and has spent most of her professional career in the ER. She presently works in a hybrid role as Paramedic Base Station Coordinator and Staff Nurse IV in the ER at Watsonville Community Hospital. In 1989, as she was planning a disaster drill with a local Fire training coordinator at the Watsonville Hospital, the 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake rocked the Santa Cruz area. The Hospital sustained heavy damages to the facility and had to be completely re-built. In the days following the quake and before a formal ICS even existed for hospitals, the response team at Watsonville Hospital worked to meet the community needs for care. Lisa has worked since then to bring lessons learned from the quake “to life”. She has also been a member of EMSA’s Disaster Interest Group (DIG) for many years, was a member of the HEICS III revision task force as well as the HICS IV Secondary National Workgroup. Lisa served in the Air Force Reserves as a Flight Nurse, Captain and was deployed in 1990 to Desert Storm. Most recently, Lisa has participated in California Hospital Association’s HICS trainings across California in 2007 and 2008. Lisa was a member CDPH’s Surge Capacity project, in the Alternate Care Sites workgroup and attends the SUASI Mass Care and Shelter workgroup on behalf of Santa Cruz County. Lisa is acknowledged as an operations expert and is an active member of many groups working on issues of incident command, emergency management and response.

Deputy Chief Don Will

Deputy Chief Will instructs Operations Section Chief S-430. He has more than 30 years experience in wildland fire and all-risk emergency incident management response and training. Don Will worked for the United States Forest Service from 1973-2008 and retired as a Deputy Chief. Don gained extensive knowledge and experience with specialized fireline tactics, complex firing operations and all-risk emergency responses including experience with the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and FIRESCOPE Incident Command System (ICS). He is a qualified Type 1 Operations Section Chief and has served on four Incident Management Teams. Don is a qualified National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) instructor and is registered as a Primary Instructor with the California State Fire Marshal-State Fire Training. He is currently involved in NIMS/ICS training and course delivery for various NWCG suppression and basic leadership courses and sand table based Tactical Decision Games. Don is a member of the S-430, Operations Section Chief cadre at the Cal Fire Academy and has delivered training courses overseas to fire department personnel on Guam and Saipan. Don has an Associate of Science degree in Park Management, successfully completed a two-year graduate level course of study through the University of Colorado in Technical Fire Management and completed Advanced Incident Management, S-520 at the National Advanced Fire and Resource Institute in Tucson, Arizona.

Division Chief Frank Cardinale, San Francisco Fire Department

Division Chief Cardinale is a lead instructor for the Command and General Staff Functions for Incident Management Teams. Frank has been a member of the San Francisco Fire Department for the past 34 years. The last 15 years have been as a Chief Officer. He currently is serving as a Division Chief, overseeing half the suppression forces in the City. Frank, as part of a task force, has revised the high rise section of FIRESCOPE. He, with a colleague from Chicago, has also revised the National Fire Academy Incident Command For High Rise Operations course. Frank is currently working with a group on the High Rise Operations manual for IFSTA. Frank teaches many classes throughout the country including Incident Command, High Rise, Command and Control, and Fire Protection Systems. Frank has an A.A. in Fire Science from City College of San Francisco, and B.S. in Occupational Studies from Cal State Long Beach.

Janet Upton, Deputy Director, CAL FIRE

Ms. Upton instructs Information Officer S-403 and is an assistant instructor for many of the command and control courses. Janet began her fire service career as a firefighter in 1986 in Sonoma County then transferred to Butte County in 1988 to attend college. After assignments that included municipal and wildland firefighting, dive rescue, emergency command center operations and fire prevention/education, she was assigned as the public information officer (PIO) for Butte County Fire/CAL FIRE Butte Unit in 1998. She worked as the lead PIO on CAL FIRE's Type I Major Incident Command Team 5 from 1998 until 2008. Janet has been assigned as PIO on some of California's most complex incidents including the Cedar fire, the Esperanza fire, Exotic Newcastle Disease outbreak, 9/11 aftermath, October, 2007 Fire Siege, June, 2008 Lightning Siege and all three of the Bush administration's presidential visits to the state. In July, 2008, Janet was appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as Deputy Director of Communications for CAL FIRE where she oversees the public information and education programs for the largest fire department in the state. Janet holds a B.A. degree in education and a teaching credential from CSU, Chico.

Deputy Chief George Morris Jr., CAL FIRE

Deputy Chief George Morris Jr. instructs Information Officer S-403, and Command and General Staff S-420. He has over 30 years experience in the fire service. He began his career as a firefighter in 1973 and promoted through many diverse assignments—such as emergency-command-center fire captain to peace officer in a fire prevention bureau. He is currently the deputy chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection/Butte County Fire Department. In 1999, Chief Morris became an Incident Command System Type I Information Officer and was responsible for overseeing the department’s public information section. Appointed as the Operations Section Chief for California’s Major Incident Command Team 5 in 2003, a year in which Team 5 commanded some of the state’s largest and most complex emergencies; Chief Morris subsequently became the Team 5 Deputy Incident Commander in 2004, a position he still holds.

Communications Specialist Kody Kerwin

Communications Specialist Kody Kerwin instructs Communications Unit Leader S-358. Mr. Kerwin has over 23 years in the Fire Service and public safety communications field. He is currently Telecommunications Specialist with the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District. His assignments in the Fire Service have ranged from firefighter/EMT to company officer to positions in support services/logistics. Mr. Kerwin has been a NWCG-qualified Communications Unit Leader (COML) since 1992, as well as an Incident Communications Technician and Incident Communications Center Manager. He maintains ICS 300/400 certification and currently serves as COML on a Type 1 National Incident Management Team. Closer to home, he is a member of a Regional All-Hazard Type 3 Incident Management Team in the San Francisco Bay Area. Mr. Kerwin’s past assignments include hurricane recovery missions in Mississippi, Florida and Texas, the enormous Day Fire in Southern California, and numerous other wildland-urban interface fires throughout the country that required mobilization of resources on a nationwide basis. He has instructed numerous classes including a contract assignment to the Department of Homeland Security teaching incident communications theory to members of the New Orleans Police, Fire and EMS departments following Hurricane Katrina. Mr. Kerwin is a member of the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials, International and is the elected secretary of the FIRESCOPE Communications Specialist Group..

Communications Chief Chris Suter

Communications Chief Chris Suter instructs Communications Unit Leader S-358. Mr. Suter has over 34 years in the Fire Service and public safety communications field. He is currently Communications Chief for the San Ramon Valley Fire District. Prior to this he served in all ranks up to and including the Deputy Fire Chief of the San Ramon Valley Fire District. His duties encompassed operational and support responsibilities, which included the telecommunications systems and infrastructure, the communications center and a Type 1 Mobile Command Post. Chris Suter has been a NWCG-qualified Communications Unit Leader (COML) since 2000, as well as an Incident Communications Technician and Incident Communications Center Manager. He maintains ICS 300/400 certification and currently serves as COML (Type 1). He is also a member of a Regional All-Hazard Type 3 Incident Management Team in the San Francisco Bay Area. Chris Suter’s past assignments include hurricane recovery missions in Mississippi, serving as the East Bay Team Incident Commander, and numerous other all hazard incidents. Suter is also a qualified Logistics, Plans and Operations Chief, serving in these roles on a number of larger incidents. Mr. Suter is a Certified Chief Officer, member of the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials and several other professional organizations.

Deputy Chief Steve Heil

Deputy Chief Steve Heil instructs Liaison Officer S-402 and Incident Commander S-400. He retired as an Assistant Fire Chief, assigned as a Deputy Chief – Operations for CAL FIRE / San Luis Obispo County Fire Department overseeing three field divisions, after 34-year years with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Chief Heil was an Incident Commander (ICS Type 1) and CAL FIRE’s primary Agency Representative on major disasters in Central and Southern California. His most recent major assignment was as Unified Incident Commander with CAL FIRE Incident Command Team 7 on the Topanga Incident in LA and Ventura Counties in 2005. During the 2003 fire siege, he was a CAL FIRE Unified Incident Area Commander for the San Bernardino Complex (Old Fire and Grand Prix Fire). Chief Heil’s ICS instructional background includes serving as lead instructor for California’s S-400 Incident Commander course for Federal, State, and Local Government for the past nine years. He also taught I 400 Advanced ICS, coordinated CAL FIRE’s Agency Representative training for CAL FIRE’s Chief Officers, plus assisted with numerous other ICS courses. Steve was also the CAL FIRE representative on the OES Region 1 CICCS Qualification Committee.

Fire Chief James Broshears

Fire Chief James Broshears instructs Safety Officer S-404. He started his fire service career in 1971 with the California Division of Forestry (soon to become the California Department of Forestry). He also served with the Cascade Fire Department and worked on the Mercy Medical Center Life Support Unit in the early 1970s. Chief Broshears joined the Paradise Fire Department in 1974, working his way through the ranks to serve as Assistant Chief in 1985 and in 1995 he received the appointment as the Town’s Fire Chief. Chief Broshears has had an interest in safety throughout his career taking his first Safety Officer course from the Fire Department Safety Officer Association in 1986. He became an instructor for the National Fire Academy’s “Incident Safety Officer” course in 1992 and the National Wildfire Coordinating Group “I-401, Incident Safety Officer” in 1994. He was the first instructor in California to teach the revised “S-404, Incident Safety Officer”, integrating elements of the NFA and FDSOA courses to provide a truly “All-Risk” course. Chief Broshears has served as an interim member of CAL FIRE Command Teams and has held Command and Operations positions on numerous major incidents, including Safety Officer assignments on wildland and structure fires, floods, technical rescues and major storms.

Fire Chief Steve Sunderland

Fire Chief Steve Sunderland instructs Command and General Staff Functions in ICS R-317 and Command and General Staff S-420. He began his fire service career in Visalia in 1970 as a Seasonal Fire Fighter with the California Department Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE). In 1974, Chief Sunderland received a degree in Fire Science. He is a Peace Officer and holds a California P.O.S.T. Advanced Officer Certificate. Over the last thirty-six years, Chief Sunderland has held many fire service assignments from firefighter through fire chief. Chief Sunderland retired from the CAL FIRE in January 2006 as the Unit Chief in the Tulare County CAL FIRE Unit. In late February, Chief Sunderland returned to work as the first Fire Chief the County of Tulare has ever employed. As the County Fire Chief, Chief Sunderland is engaged in developing the new County Fire Department policies, best practices, SOP’s and position descriptions for fire department staff. Chief Sunderland has served on California’s Major Incident Command Teams as an Incident Commander for five years and as an Operations Section Chief. Chief Sunderland is a nationally recognized fire service instructor at the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, Md. and is a California Office of the State Fire Marshal certified Chief Officer and Fire Instructor. In addition, Steve holds national accreditation as a Chief Fire Officer Designee (CFO).

Battalion Chief Ranger Dorn

Battalion Chief Ranger Dorn instructs Incident Commanders S-400. Chief Dorn has over 31 years experience in the fire service. He is currently a Battalion Chief for the Ventura County Fire Department, serving the Malibu coast, the City and Port of Hueneme and the unincorporated areas of the Santa Clara Valley. His assignments in the fire service have included: Helitack fire crew member, Firefighter, Fire Engineer, HazMat Technician, Fire Captain and Battalion Chief. He has achieved ICS qualifications up to the levels of Incident Commander Type II as Deputy IC and then IC of the US Forest Service, Los Padres Incident Management Team, and Operations Section Chief, where he currently serves on a Type 1 National Incident Management Team. Assignments include: the 2004 and 2005 Hurricanes, the 2006: Day Fire, Bar Complex, Devil’s Den Fire in Utah, Esperanza Fire Support and Memorial and the 2003 Piru Fire. Chief Dorn currently instructs a number of ICS courses, including S-400 Incident Commander and is a member of the Course Cadre for California. He serves as an ICS Subject Matter Expert for the National Sheriffs Association (NSA) and has developed as well as delivered courses for the NSA and the Office of Domestic Programs (ODP). Chief Dorn has a Bachelors Degree in Fire Protection Administration from Cal State Los Angeles and a Masters Degree in Public Administration from Cal State Northridge.

Chief Kevin Twohey, County of Napa

Kevin Twohey started his career in the fire service with the St. Helena Fire Department in 1988. He was promoted from Training Chief to Chief in 1994 and served as Chief of the Department for fifteen years. He retired in January 2010. Kevin was then hired as the Emergency Services Coordinator for the County of Napa. He continues to serve as an Incident Safety Officer on CAL FIRE Team 5. He is a volunteer with Napa County Fire Department serving as the Napa County Operational Area Fire/Rescue Coordinator, Chairman of the CICCS 300 Peer Review Committee for the Napa County Operational Area, and also serves on the Cal EMA CICCS 400 Level Peer Review Committee for Region 2..

Paul R. Broyles

Paul Broyles began his career in fire management with the USDA-Forest Service in 1970, with four seasons on the Kaibab and Coconino National Forests in the Southwest Region (smokechaser, engine operator and foreman, and helitack crewman and foreman). He began his career with the National Park Service in 1973, in fire ecology research at Grand Canyon National Park. Subsequent assignments took him to Point Reyes National Seashore, California, as an assistant Fire Management Officer (AFMO), 1975-77; Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado, as a Resource Management Specialist/FMO, 1977-82 (initiated an interagency helitack program with the NPS, BIA, and BLM in 1979); Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota, as assistant Chief Ranger/FMO, 1982-86; and Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida, as FMO, 1986-88. In 1988, he transferred to the National Interagency Fire Center as the NPS national training specialist. From 1997 to his retirement, he was the National Fire Operations Program Leader, with national oversight responsibilities for the suppression, preparedness, safety, prevention, burned area rehabilitation and training and qualifications programs. Since 1980, he has served on Type I and II Incident Management Teams (IMT) in command, operations, safety, air support, and training capacities. He recently completed his 3 yr. term as the Incident Commander on a Great Basin National Type I team, and is currently the Deputy IC on the same IMT1. He served on the National Wildfire Coordinating Group’s Training, Safety & Health, and Incident Operations Standards Working Teams over the last 20+ years. He retired from the National Park Service December 31, 2008, after more than 36 years.

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