Thank you for for visiting Situational Awareness Matter! I’m Rich Gasaway and I and the Founder and Editor-in-Chief. I have been a provider of fire and EMS for my entire adult life. I stated as a volunteer for the Weirton Heights Volunteer Fire Department in Weirton, West Virginia in 1979. As I tell my kids now… it was so far back the Internet wasn’t even invented yet. For some reason they find that much more entertaining than I do. Anyhow, soon after joining the fire department I joined the Weirton Area Ambulance and Rescue Squad and became an EMT.
In the fall of 1979 I started on my educational journey at West Virginia University as a business administration major. While I was in Morgantown, I joined two emergency services organizations: Monongalia County Emergency Medical Services and the Star City Volunteer Fire Department.
Yes, I was serving on four departments at one time. Two agencies while in school during the week and two agencies while home on the weekends, holidays and summer break. I loved it! 
What can I say. I was consumed by the opportunity to learn, the excitement and the action that came with being a first responder. I had no idea how those experiences would shape my life, my family and my future.
After graduating from West Virginia University in 1983 with a Bachelors degree in Finance and Economics I returned to my home town and went to work in banking. After a very short stint at a local hometown bank, I landed a job as a Management Associate for Bank One.
This was an awesome experience and I had great bosses who taught me a lot about how to run a business and deal with people. In my short six-year tenure with Bank One I was promoted three times and ended up in Columbus, Ohio. While working for Bank One I went to night school and earned my Masters in Business Administration from the University of Dayton. After completing my MBA I realized that banking wasn’t for me and I was being called back into public service.
In 1990 I was hired as a career fire chief in Springfield Township, Ohio. The elected officials in Springfield had just completed a management needs assessment of the fire department and determined that new leadership was in order.
I knew the department presented many opportunities to try new and innovative things. As a candidate for the position, my credentials included 10 years of solid fire/rescue/EMS experience, an MBA, six years in banking, and I was… 28 years old. Uftah! Looking back, I’d say I might have been a little ambitious to take on an organization that had those challenges.
But, nonetheless, I ensured and we did make many wonderful improvements in the department’s service delivery to the community. The credit goes to the very talented and motivated men and women who were serving Springfield Township Fire Department.
I don’t think I was always on their list of favorite bosses, but I always respected them for their candor and passion. In their hearts I believed that most of them were there for the right reasons and it was a pleasure to lead them for 10 years.
In 1999, I was contacted by a long-time friend who had moved to Minnesota and was working for the state’s Fire-EMS-Safety Center. He told that Roseville was looking to hire their first full-time fire chief and I should consider applying. I didn’t know anything about Roseville, or Minnesota for that matter.
And I wasn’t looking for a new job. But I applied on his urging. I told my wife I was “testing my marketability.” I felt more qualified and prepared to lead this department, coming off 10 years of leading an organization through some challenging changes.
I got the job and I assumed my role as the first full-time fire chief in Roseville, Minnesota in July 1999. It was a very enjoyable opportunity to lead some great service providers. While the job was fun, the politics were brutal as we became known throughout the Metro as this city with the dysfunctional city council. This contributed to me doing some soul searching about my future as a public employee.
In addition to serving as a firefighter, paramedic and a fire chief for 25 years, I had been also been an instructor since the mid 1980s and really enjoyed teaching first responders, especially on leadership and safety topics. I really feel accomplished when I am sharing my knowledge with others. But I knew to achieve everything I wanted as an instructor, speaker and consultant I would need to go back to school.
So I enrolled in a Doctor of Philosophy program at Capella University. That was a long, five-year journey. Because my research topic was fireground command decision making I studied a lot of ‘B.S.’ (Brain Science). It was an epiphany for me to learn that decision making in high stress environments was more a neuroscience topic than a leadership topic.
The time commitment it took for me to earn a PhD was beyond all my comprehension. It’s not something I would recommend for everyone unless you’re willing to set aside a significant portion of your life. But I endured and in 2008 I become Dr. Gasaway. It was a very proud time for me.
Then, on the completion of my 10th year as the fire chief in Roseville, I left and embarked on my new journey to expand my efforts with the Gasaway Consulting Group. I also launched the Center for the Advancement of Situational Awareness and Decision making, and created the Public Safety Laboratory. Most recently, I launched this site, Situational Awareness Matters!
I honestly think there were some people who thought I was crazy for leaving my job as a fire chief. I’m convinced the move caught some of them off-guard. Those who were surprised hadn’t spent much time in close proximity to me and knew little of my life’s ambitions and passions.
In my capacity as a instructor, keynote presenter, facilitator and researcher I have presented programs to more than 35,000 first responders throughout the world. It feels good… really good… to give back all that I have learned over my three decades of public safety service and through my educational endeavors.
Please let me know what I can do to help you and your organization find success in improving safety or leadership.
Thank you.
Fire Chief (ret.) Richard B. Gasaway, PhD
Email: Support@RichGasaway.com
Phone: 612-548-4424
Personal website: www.RichGasaway.com
Facebook Fan Page: www.facebook.com/SAMatters
LinkedIn: Rich Gasaway
Twitter: @RichGasaway
Twitter: @SAMatters
YouTube: SAMattersTV
iTunes: SAMatters
I’d like to see you speak more about training and teamwork, as it pertains directly to leadership. More specificly, how demoralizing behavior towards member(s) has an adverse effect on the entire organization.
How individual issues can burn and fester eventually causing a fracture or demise of the entire group. Joking by members of leadership should be minimal at best. In our case we are 30 volunteers who come together to form one unit to provide a service to the citizens.
Officers are elected and should serve without prejudice towards anyone as you never know who’s gonna be in back. Training should include everyon. Officers who train side by side with membership gain insight and respect. Everyone in the organization brings something to the table.
All should be treated respectfully and everyone should be given the chance to improve. Leadership must realise that a failure to know and understand how some aspect of the event is done is a failure of training and not a failure of the individual.
Mike,
Thanks for posting your comment. Indeed I do speak on that very topic in a class I offer called “The Leader’s Toolbox.” The class focuses on the skills needed to be a leader of people. The problem is… if the boss doesn’t see the problem… and doesn’t attend the class… then things are not likely to change. ~ Rich