Mark Howell | SpeakerHub

Personal Details

Bio

Mark is a former full-time Federal Wildland Fire Professional and Leader, and graduate of the first cohort of the US Forest Service's Field Command School. He's organized and lead responses to large and unusual events such as the Rainbow Family of Living Light National Gathering, and the 2017 Great American Eclipse in Northeast Oregon.

On a regular basis he was responsible for coordinating complex and/or large scale prescribed burning operations in the spring/fall and wildfire suppression operations during the summer.

Current position (2)

Director

Grounded Truths LLC

Chair

Missouri Prescribed Fire Council

Achievements (2)

Wildland Firefighter Specialist (WFS)

4000-hour full-time Apprenticeship in all aspects of Wildland Fire Management and Leadership including Suppression, Prescribed Fire, Dispatch, Prevention, and Aviation

Field Command School

1 month live-in Incident Management Team Academy for large/complex national-level incidents, taught by the National Incident Management Organization (NIMO). NIMO is THE top-tier of teams for running wildfires as well as natural disasters and national tragedy (e.g. space shuttle crash).

Degrees (2)

Wildland Fire Science

Bakersfield College

2008 to 2009

Administration of Justice

West Hills College

1997 to 1999

Presentations

Presentations (2)

Lessons from the Fireline

A brief overview of leadership lessons gained from nearly 20 years of wildland fire operations and prescribed burning experience.
How to:
-"Lead Up"
-Listen Down
-Make SMART Objectives
-Rapidly analyze changing conditions and synthesize decisions under conditions of danger and uncertainty

The "Monday U"

Named not for the day of the week but Beale Monday, an Operations Section Chief in the National Incident Management Organization that I had the pleasure of working with.

For those familiar with the "Planning P", The "Monday U" takes that standard planning cycle and flips it on its head: bringing together important stakeholders for meetings and decisions early on to Plan, Decide, and Prepare, followed by the Acting to implement the plan. Later, we then bring those same stakeholders back together to evaluate the evolving situation and progress being made, and adjust course if necessary.