By drawing on the community of years of experience, we invite specialists in the many different aspects of emergency management to bring a different perspective and provide some additional concepts for us to consider.
Mark Booher of Barritus Defense
Mark is the Founder and Senior Instructor for Barritus Defense. A veteran of the U.S. Army, Mark spent almost 10 years conducting infantry, intelligence, and security operations. Mark has studied both the U.S. and British interrogation and debriefing methods and has deployed or trained with every branch of the US military and several multi-national forces.
Mark is a Certified Close Protection Specialist and has trained in Israel’s West Bank, with members of the Israeli Defense Force in counter-terrorism and security methods.
Following his military service, he studied law at the University of Arkansas and spent 6 years as a deputy district attorney. During that time, he prosecuted numerous cases involving homicide, shootings, assaults, and other crimes of violence.
Mark has trained military units at Fort Bragg, personnel from the Department of Justice, Fortune 500, and law enforcement officers from over 60 departments from around the country. He is also a contributor to The Counter Terrorist Magazine and has appeared on Fit’n Fire, the Ever Vigilant, Stand Firm, and other podcasts.
Check out more about Mark, and Barritus Defense at their site.
Joshua Cropper of HPR Working Dogs
Joshua Cropper is a dog trainer based in Wasilla, Alaska. He has been training animals for 10 years now. Currently, Joshua & his business partner, Kelsey Carroll, are the owners & operators of their training company, HPR Working Dogs, where their focus is centered on the working canine. Joshua is enthusiastic about all forms of motivation, canine nutrition, & mental stability, all in the quest of producing functional canines for any job. Josh’s professional career started in what is often called animal rescue but he quickly changed gears to training and working hunting dogs.
In 2012, Josh lost his best friend that he served within the United States Marines Corps to PTSD. Shortly afterward, Josh began training service dogs. He now trains service dogs for all disabilities other than blindness.
When training for clients in Alaska, Josh and Kelsey are most often contacted about aggression cases for behavior modification training. Josh’s approach in dealing with aggressive behavior in dogs is the same approach used with training working dogs: create motivation, capitalize on motivation, and increase motivation by using prey and social drives.
Check out more about Joshua and HPR Working Dogs at their site.
Anne Zink, MD, FACEP and Chief Medical Officer for the State of Alaska
Anne grew up in Colorado and moved through her training from College in Philadelphia to Medical School at Stanford and then Residency at University at Utah. As a mountaineering guide she had fallen in love with Alaska and after residency in Emergency Medicine became lucky enough to call Alaska home. Not only does she love people and the place, but also the medicine. Alaska is a small, isolated microcosm on the US health care where certain forces like the distance, lack of referral centers, and community involvement help create better systems of care that are directly related to bedside care. She quickly became involved in helping improve systems of care as the medical director of her group, then in her hospital and with state and federal legislation, including state legislation to improve care coordination, opioid addiction treatment option, integration between private systems and the VA, DOD, and IHS facilities and more. Dr. Zink had the honor of becoming the State of Alaska Chief Medical Officer in July 2019. In all the work she does, she strives to create work environments, policies, and practices that are data-driven, foster collaboration, and build system efficiencies that put patients first.