Where are you from? I was born in Hong Kong and I moved to Canada when I was nine so that’s where I’m technically from. Then I moved to the US for college and never moved home and we lived in Seattle for 10 years before we moved here. My wife was born here and so she’s a full blown local: her parents moved here in the 70s and built a little cabin in Wilson. That’s still their family home. We had finished grad school and we started working and bought a home, and then decided we wanted to kind of change things up. I was able to move out here for work at the time and then my wife was able to switch her school psychology job from Seattle School District to Teton County School District. So, it made sense to move because in her case it was moving home and in my case it was moving to a ski town which I’d always wanted to do.

While we’re on the topic of family, how do you strike that balance with your family of having a pager on all the time and responding to calls at all hours of the day? The benefit, I suppose, is that I work remotely from my house so I am quite available. That’s why four plus years ago I decided that I wanted to try this out, because I felt like I had a bunch of time to give that wasn’t going to be incredibly detrimental to the home life. My wife’s job is pretty cut and dry. I think we just find a balance. I mean, there’s definitely times where I’m definitely not oging to be able to respond, typically between like three and six in the evenings because of pcking up kids and after school stuff…we just kind of make it work however we can. It’s a work life balance on steroids.

What is your role in the department? I am a volunteer out of Station 7.

How long have you been a part of JH Fire/EMS? A little over four years ago. I officially started in the spring of 2019. 

What made you want to join JH Fire/EMS? I joined because Fire Service had always been something I was interested in and when I realized I could serve the community, meet a host of great people, and balance my day job with a life in the Fire Service, it became a no brainer.

What are your current certs? I’m a Fire Officer course currently, I have Fire 2 and EMT and then all the basic certs as well. 

What are your future goals in the department? To continue to play as active a role as I can. Depending on the trajectory of how things shift, I want to make sure my time is spent as effectively as possible, whether on EMS or on the fireground side. I just want to be able to continue to invest time here.

What do you do for work? I work in consulting for a digital and e-commerce agency based out of Seattle; I am one of the executive leaders of that business. 

What do you do in your free time? Lots of kid stuff. That’s actually one of the things I enjoy most is having my late afternoon/evening time with my family and actually being there instead of just dropping them off. I spend a ton of time running, lots of skiing, and we enjoy camping as a family. I certainly enjoy traveling back to the PNW or southern California as well. Overall, I am the biggest fake hardcore person ever. 

What is your favorite part of volunteering? Fundamentally helping someone, or the community as a whole. 

What about the most challenging? I think it probably dovetails to the reason I love it. Because I have an inherent competitive trait, I don’t like feeling like I’m falling behind. Keeping up with all the training and knowledge can be challenging. Also, the notion of off/on can be really challenging here and it’s tough to leave the department with the department when you go home. Maybe that’s more of an internal challenge, but I find that when I’m done with a certification or done with a shift, it’s a challenge to remain connected and feel like you’re equally a part of both worlds.

What advice would you give new recruits? Come in with a total open book approach: you’re going to get out of it what you put in. It’s good that a lot of people don’t truly understand the level of commitment coming in, because it’s definitely a lot, but anyone that is destined to quit probably will do so early on. Just be prepared to be a sponge and recognize that you’ll get out what you put in. 

What is the most valuable trait for someone to have? I have a very opinionated view on this question because I think there is deliberately no answer to that. I think the biggest asset that the department should be leveraging is diversity. I’ve seen the more traditional skills that lend themselves to firefighting not mesh well with the person that has them, and I think for that reason there is no single skill set. It is the responsibility of the department to leverage those skills and to make sure they’re being utilized as best as possible.

What do you think you bring to the department? I feel like I have a really good history in my professional life of working with people, whether in a management capacity or a peer capacity. I think I have a relatively easy time connecting with people and realizing what makes them tick. I like to think I handle myself well in stressful situations so hopefully I’ve earned the trust of the people I’m working with. 

Who is your mentor in the department? Captain Sullivan: she has helped me through immense things. Chief Coe as well. I feel like both have made themselves available to me. I think there’s a good understanding of the volunteer and career sides of the department from both of them and they’re the people I look up to and trust the most.