a thoughtful journey
Inspiration: It was a dark and stormy afternoon in rural southwest Minnesota. I vividly remember the constant flashes of lightning and the roar of thunder. Looking to the west out of one of the living room windows, I saw my first tornado in the distance, backlit by lightning which was quickly followed by a rush to the basement. As I grew older, I was glued to TV weather, watching Meteorologists Vince Condella and Bart Adrian on FOX 6, relaying their storm updates to family to let them know what weather was coming their way.
Ham Radio, Search and Rescue
A good friend and active amateur radio operator introduced me to the world and power of ham radio. I learned he was also a SKYWARN weather spotter. After joining him for one field session, I was hooked and joined the Allegan County Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Services (RACES) group, who also led the SKYWARN program. Through this amazingly talented team, I also joined the volunteer Search and Rescue and Community Emergency Response Teams, deploying to floods, tornadoes, grassfires and missing persons missions.
Emergency Management & Event Support
I worked closely with our county emergency manager Scott Corbin, who graciously took me under his wing and introduced me to the world of emergency management, and special event operations and planning. Under his guidance, I provided planning, logistics and liaison support for the county fair and for B93 Birthday Bash, an outdoor country music festival that can draw 20-40 thousand attendees per day. On-site weather decision support was key as evacuating or sheltering 40,000 people in an outdoor venue required as much lead time and coordination as possible. During severe weather events, I relayed storm reports to our SKYWARN net control and conducted post-storm damage surveys with affected local public safety entities.
Michigan Ski Patrolling: During undergrad, I joined the volunteer ski patrols at Bittersweet and Caberfae Peaks. One of the field trainings changed my path forever. I took Mountain Travel and Rescue in Sleeping Bear Dunes (the closest to mountains we have in the lower peninsula) and around the campfire, someone mentioned avalanches and mountain weather. I began to think to myself, ‘wait, I could get paid to ski and throw explosives and make snow slide?!?’ This was the turning point for me to pursue a path toward mountain weather which would combine my love for skiing and weather.
National Weather Service
In my final summer at Central Michigan University, I volunteered at the NWS office in Grand Rapids, MI. The staff there provided me every opportunity to get involved from working the communications desk on the floor and operating WX8GRR Skywarn net control during high impact events, conducting storm damage surveys, and assisting county emergency managers in incorporating weather trigger points into their incident action plans & tabletop exercises.
Wisconsin Ski Patrolling - During my graduate studies, I ski patrolled at Tyrol Basin. Located just west of Madison, WI, I spent many week days as one of two patrollers on staff for the mountain. During state and regional ski races, I was dedicated to the course, working closely with event organizers to ensure safety measures were in place. I also trained staff on radio procedures & assisted in maintaining our radio cache.
National Disaster Preparedness Training Center
At an Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society, I took my passion for education to heart and through strategic, dedicated networking, met Owen Shieh who was the Weather and Climate Program Manager for FEMA’s National Disaster Preparedness Training Center. After I delivered an impassioned talk at the inagurial Weather Ready Nation Town Hall, he invited me to join his instructor cadre. Thus began my foray into into professional adult education and training at the National level.
I’ve grown to lead courses on winter and convective weather hazards, social media engagement & tools/techniques, climate adaptation planning, community resilience and planning for disaster recovery.
In addition to teaching, I led the revision and recertification of AWR-331 Winter Weather Hazards and assisted in the revision and recertification of PER-343 Social Media Engagement Strategies (twice!) and PER-344 Social Media Tools and Techniques.
Epicenter Innovation & Deployment Support
Through NDPTC, I was introduced to Christopher Tarantino, CEO of Epicenter Innovation. At the time, Chris was building out Epicenter’s Deployment Support Unit and enlisted me as one of the first Weather Decision Support and Digital Media Specialists in the cadre.
With the Epicenter team, I developed custom training & emergency plans for government and institutions of higher education, and deployed both remotely and on site to support planned events and emerging incidents.
National Outdoor Leadership School and Wilderness Emergency Medicine
After graduating from UW-Madison, I turned my sights to the mountains of Colorado. On my way to Aspen, I stopped in Lander, Wyoming for a 1-month resident program to obtain my Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician. While living at the Wyss campus south of town, my classmates and I learned from a former US Air Force Pararescueman (PJ), a firefighter/paramedic, a wilderness guide and an EMT how to lead the care of an injured individual in from backcountry to side country. In just one month, we earned our Wilderness First Responder (WFR) and Emergency Medical Technician certifications!
Ski Patrolling in Aspen
I quickly settled into Aspen as a member of Buttermilk Ski Patrol, intending to gain field experience and hone my mountain weather and avalanche skills, in addition to applying my new WEMT knowledge & skills. In my second season, I was promoted to both Winter X Games, and Lift Evacuation and Technical Rescue Coordinator, with the Patrol Director citing my past experience on search and rescue, and special event emergency management. What an incredible way to be recognized and to come full circle!
As Winter X Games Coordinator, I led ski patrol medical planning, operations and logistics for the 2nd largest internationally-televised winter sports event in the world. The challenge of coordinating across Disney/ESPN, private sector medical entities, and public safety agencies is formidable but the reward of standing at the top of world-class venues like the Superpipe on live, prime-time television watching some of the most talented athletes in the world drop in made all the long days and nights worth it!
Additionally, as a Mountain Weather Forecaster I work both at Buttermilk and with the other three mountains in Aspen Skiing Company to assist with their weather station program, and perform avalanche mitigation work including ski cutting and throwing hand charges to make unstable snow slide intentionally. There’s nothing like the smell of a pentolite booster charge in the morning, or the rush of feeling snow slide away from under you and skiing out of it while your partner watches over you from above!
911 Dispatch and Incident Support
Through leading the Ski Patrol team at Winter X Games and interacting with public safety agencies at all levels of government, I found my way back to radios and public service in the public sector. I joined the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office as 911 Dispatcher. The Pitkin County Regional Emergency Dispatch Center is a combination center that calltakes and dispatches law, fire, EMS and Rescue agencies for our county and the surrounding fire districts. I served our center as a Communications Unit Leader (COML), coordinating radio resources, training staff on the incident command system, and deploying for on site and remote incident dispatch in support of planned events and emerging incidents. I also served as an Exercise Evaluator, specializing in operational communications evaluations in support of local & state agencies.
Incident Management Teams
Through my growing roles and successes with Winter X Games and Dispatch, I was recruited to the Pitkin County and Northwest Colorado Type 3 Incident Management Teams as a Planning Section Chief and Situation Unit Leader. These were a natural fit.
I’ve supported Winter X Games, a 4-day city-wide natural gas outage in Aspen during Christmas week, COVID-19 response & vaccine clinics, and multiple Lake Christine Fire burn scar flash-flooding events. In these roles, I continue to find connections and ways to apply my meteorology knowledge, and passion for education & public outreach.
Communications Project Engineer and Radio Systems Technician
Getting back to my roots in amateur radio and public safety communications was a no-brainer next step for me as I sought to delve deeper into all the '“behind the scenes” gear and technology that moves voice and data throughout our county and world. Pitkin County Telecommunications sought me out for a Project Engineer position and welcomed me to their ranks where my duties quickly evolved and grew.
From wireless and fiberoptic broadband installs, maintaining mountain top communication sites & equipment, TV and FM radio translator upkeep, programming portable and mobile radios, designing a new department website and more, every day is a new challenge.
I stay connected to my public safety and emergency management roots by developing and delivering radio console training for dispatch, and radio user training for all our public safety and non-public safety agencies. I also serve as lead radio programmer for 1800+ subscriber units, and provide expert consultation to the Pitkin County Public Safety Radio User Group, Communications Board and Public Safety Council.