Everyday Brave: Podcasts for Emergency Responders

Abigail Manning is an innovative voice in preventing unhealthy behaviors and proactively building prosperous cultures. As a culture expert, she offers workshops and keynotes on how to transform toxic and abusive behaviors and prevent Adverse Spiral outcomes of depression, addictions, cycles of abuse, PTS and thoughts of suicide. Her passion for teaching comes from rising above her first-hand experience of childhood abuse and domestic violence. She authentically connects and cares about others and building cultures where we all can thrive.

Ben O’Brien is a Firefighter, Peer Advisor, and Peer Support Training Coordinator for South Metro Fire Rescue. He has led the development of the Responder Strong Resilience Standards, which teaches and trains emergency responders on skills of resilience, concepts of stress Injuries and the Stress Continuum model of health, and how to use our values the retire gracefully with confidence.

Captain Halaba began her career with the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office in 1999, She has served in detentions, patrol, as a school resource officer, and on a drug task force team. She moved through the ranks, breaking the glass ceiling to become the first female captain in the agency in 2014. Currently, she is one of two captains assigned to the Arapahoe County detention facility, overseeing courthouse security operations and the mental health and medical section inside the facility for inmates. She is also the peer support/employee wellness coordinator for the Sheriff’s office. In that role, her passion to support employee wellness and resiliency has expanded agency wide.

Officer Emily Hitchings is in her 15th year at the Aurora Police Department and her third year as the Employee Support and Wellness Unit officer. Prior to her current assignment, she was an investigator in both, the Narcotics and Fugitive Units where she spent more than eight years in an undercover capacity. Sergeant Mike Pitrusu is in his 20th year with the Aurora Police Department and his third year as the Executive Officer to the Chief of Police. Prior to his current assignment, he spent time as the Employee Support and Wellness Sergeant and 14 years on the full-time SWAT Team as an officer, team leader, and a Sergeant.

Chris Macklin worn many hats in his career. Firefighter. Paramedic. Engineer. Training engineer. And now, wellness manager for South Metro Fire Rescue. His passion to support Emergency Responders began after responding to the Columbine shooting in 1998. In the years since, he has worked tirelessly to support the responder community and currently leads the wellness initiatives at South Metro Fire.

Jolene Conway is the Manager of Community Development at SonderMind and a licensed mental health therapist. In her role at SonderMind, Jolene builds partnerships to align community efforts, as well as oversees the expansion of the therapist network. In her private practice, Jolene continues to work with individual clients, connecting her background in mental health as well as integrative nutrition to address obstacles leading to whole person health and vitality.

Jonathan Dickerson is the community engagement manager for The Center for Relationship Education. He has an impressive and well-rounded history as a sales executive, speaker, and expert on communication and interpersonal relationships. In his role, Jonathan works to improve the health and quality of our relationships through workshops, trainings, and speaking engagements.CRE’s thoughtful approach marries evidenced based programming that adds value to communities they serve. More recently CRE has developed programs to support the Emergency Responder community.

Emily Lauck is the Manager of Performance Improvement for the City & County of Denver Department of Public Safety. In her role, Emily has created comprehensive, employee-driven initiatives such as the Safety WellBeing Initiative to proactively address the quality of life and professional culture of emergency responders and the public safety industry. She has implemented programs like a groundbreaking collaboration of law enforcement, fire services, and other City agencies to provide in-house yoga, mindfulness training and physical therapy to address the root causes and traumatic impacts of public safety work.

Nick is a nationally renowned Exercise Physiologist and has built multiple programs and centers for wide ranges of populations that are currently running in sites across the U.S. For over 13 years Nick has worked with athletes, general wellness, and patient populations directing exercise physiology laboratories and strength programs. In his career he has worked with 6 professional sports teams/organizations from NHL to NFL, 8 different Men’s and Women’s Division I NCAA Teams, 5 Division I national tournament level teams, 4 conference champion teams, 5 podium Olympians, and 5 World Champions. Nick himself was also a collegiate and professional athlete as well.

Rhonda leads ResponderStrong, which is an organization focused on developing better mental health supports for responders and their families. Over the past several years, suicide has been recognized as the leading occupational killer of law enforcement, fire and EMS. Her work is responder-driven and works across branches, connecting groups that had previously been siloed.