He is responsible for the support services functions of the department. These services include the administrative, training and maintenance divisions. The administrative functions include personnel issues, payroll, budget, records, policies and procedures, facilities construction/renovation, and special projects. The maintenance division is responsible for vehicle, equipment repair and maintenance. The training division is responsible for recruit training, firefighter apprenticeship programs, and all phases of continuing education in all skills areas. As coordinator for special projects, John has served since 1991 as Program Manager for the Department's FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Task Force. John manages the on going activities and development of the Task Force. He is also a Task Force Leader for NETF1. John coordinated the departments Hazardous Materials Program for over 10 years, he has coordinated public fire safety education projects and programs for the department. He has instructed in the Community College Fire Science program, and initiated the night time course offerings for the program. John is a member of the Fire Protection Advisory Committee at Southeast Community College.

John has been active in the community, serving as Vice President and President of the Yankee Hill Neighborhood association, and served as President of the Capitol Beach Community Association from 1997-2006. He has served as an elder and deacon in his church, and is a member of the church foundation board of directors. He is also currently a board member of Big Brothers Big Sisters. He has served two terms as a Board Member of the Lincoln United Way board of directors. John is a graduate of the Leadership Lincoln Program in class IV. He has served as a Treasurer and Executive Board Member of the Lincoln Firefighters Local 644, IAFF. He is a member of and former station representative of the Lincoln Firefighters Benefit Association. John represented the Department on the original EMS committee from 1991 to 1994. He represented the Department as a member of the Mayors EMS Task Force from 1993 to 1994. He provided EMS training support to the Lincoln Medical Education Foundation Program through the Southeast Community College. John has served as a Community Intern with the Lancaster County Medical Society.

John has contributed to both local and national publications including the Lincoln Journal, Fire Command, Fire Chief, and Fire House magazines and others. John has received numerous awards and citations from the department and the community in recognition of his contributions. John has been guest speaker for numerous groups, both locally and nationally.

John is a graduate of the Southeast Community College Fire Protection Program, the National Fire Academy - Executive Fire Officer Program and has attended numerous National Fire Academy, Emergency Management Institute and Federal Emergency Management Agency courses. John was a finalist in 1994 and 1995 for the John F. Kennedy School of Better Government Executive Leadership program at Harvard University, and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Public Administration from Doane College.

As coordinator for special projects, John is project manager for the Lincoln Fire & Rescue FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Task Force. As program manager, John manages the on going activities and development of the task force. He is also a task force leader for Ne-TF1. John coordinated the departments hazardous materials program for over ten years; he has coordinated public fire safety education projects and programs for the department. He has instructed in the community college fire science program, and initiated the night time course offerings for the program. John has been involved in the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Urban Search and Rescue Program (US&R) since its inception in 1991. John has assisted in the development and delivery of the Task Force Leaders and Incident Support team training programs and has served as an instructor and lead instructor for both.

John was part of the work group that developed the original Task Force Peer evaluation Process. He has conducted on site Inspections for FEMA in Albuquerque, NM, Beverly, MA, and Virginia Beach, VA. Salt Lake City UT, Lansing, MI, Dayton, OH, Memphis TN, Boon County MO, and College Station TX. He has provided disaster response to Richmond, VA for Hurricane Emily in 1993 as a member of the technical support team, the Murrah Federal Building Bombing in Oklahoma City in 1995 as relief for the Deputy Incident Support Team (IST) Leader where he spent five days managing the Incident Support Team, which was responsible for the US&R Task Forces. He was part of the Field Assessment Team for Hurricane Opal 1995, and conducted aerial over flight damage assessment for FEMA. He served a member of the IST for the 1996 FEMA deployment to a gas explosion and structural collapse in San Juan, Puerto Rico. John served as IST Leader for the 1998 Sedgwick County, KS NE-TF1 task force deployment. He served as the IST Leader for the largest FEMA IST ever deployed for Hurricane George in 1998, pre-positioned in Miami FL ahead of the hurricane's landfall. On Sept. 11, 2001 John was called to serve as the IST Leader for the FEMA Pentagon US&R response. After driving from Nebraska to the Pentagon (all aircraft were grounded) John arrived at the Pentagon less then 23 hours after the attack. He spent 10 days on scene working as part of the unified on scene command directing the search and rescue operations. In February 2002, John served as the RED IST Leader for the winter Olympics US&R Standby in Salt Lake City. John is a member of the FEMA IST work group, responsible for the Operations System Description for the IST. John was a member of the Joint Management Team (JMT) for the July 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. John also was deployed as part of the Rapid Needs Assessment team (RNA) for Hurricane Frances in September 2004. John was the IST leader for the Hurricane Katrina response to New Orleans in 2005 where he spent 14 days directing multiple US&R task forces. John was the Task Force Leader for the 2007 NETF1 response to Greensburg Kansas.

He is a member of the International Association of Fire Chiefs, the National Fire Protection Association, the local chapter of the National Management Association and other community and professional organizations. For more information visit the Support Services web site.

This page was last updated on: 06/06/2008