International Association of Wildland Fire WORKFORCE RESILIENCE IGNITE TALK SERIES
Join us for a discussion with Bea Day, Sara Sweeney, and Stu Rodeffer on April 12th at 1:00 pm MDT. Register in Advance.
Bea Day – Incident Commander Bea has worked for the Forest Service since 1985. She began her career on the Sawtooth NF in Idaho as a seasonal, working in Timber and in Fire as a Hotshot crew member. Bea received her permanent appointment in 1990 on the Tonto National Forest and over the next 20 years worked in a variety of jobs as an Engine Captain, District Assistant Fire Management Officer, and Forest Assistant Fire Management Officer. She moved to the Cibola National Forest and National Grasslands and was the Forest Fire Management Officer from 2008 through 2016 when she moved into the Risk Management Officer for Fire Operations job in the Southwestern Regional Office. During her time in the Southwest, she had tenures as Incident Commander of a Type 2 Incident Management Team and as IC for the Southwest Type 1 IMT. In 2019, she moved into her current role as the Incident Commander for the Portland National Incident Management Organization (NIMO).
Sara Sweeney – Superintendent, Mormon Lake Hotshots Sara started her fire career with a rural fire department in tiny Pownal, VT in 1998 where the only rule for responding to a “brush fire” was that you probably didn’t want to wear a sleeveless shirt. In 2000, she was hired onto the BD crew for the Manchester Ranger District where she spent two years thinning and burning and acquiring the “fire bug” after going west on throw-together Type 2 crews. She was hired for the first full operational season of the Midewin Hotshots in 2002, then spent three years rappelling in R6 for the Wenatchee Rappellers. In 2006, Sara returned to the IHC community as a senior with the Rogue River Hotshots based in Prospect, OR. In 2007, she migrated to the Baker River Hotshots in NW Washington, where she spent several years as a squadleader. In 2012, she made the jump to R2 when she detailed into and then accepted the Assistant Superintendent position with the Craig Hotshots in NW Colorado, and spent three years working for the BLM. At the end of the 2014 season, she returned to the Inland Northwest in R1 and accepted a position as the Assistant Superintendent for the Bitterroot Hotshots based in Darby, MT. In 2018, she was offered and accepted her current position as the Superintendent of the Mormon Lake Hotshots, where she continues to be passionate about learning, fitness, and passing on the fundamentals of fire and leadership to the next generation. In her “spare” time, she is enjoying finding new playgrounds in the Southwest by skiing, biking, and training for and competing in ultramarathons. Additional pastimes that keep her gainfully busy involve travel adventures with her husband, cooking healthy food, sporadic attempts to master Russian, and trying to coax vegetables from the recalcitrant northern Arizona soil.
Stuart (Stu) Rodeffer – Logistics Section Chief Portland NIMO Team Stu joined the Forest Service Nov, 2019 coming from Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management where he was the Safety Officer. He retired after a 22 year career as a firefighter/paramedic (Battalion Chief) for the Northwest Fire District in Tucson, AZ. Stu, has an eclectic history of all-hazard and NWCG assignment, he describes himself as a life long learner and wants to make a difference.