Mike grew up and attended school in Spearfish, South Dakota. The Black Hills of South Dakota is where he found his love for the outdoors and firefighting. Mike started with the United States Forest Service as a wildland firefighter in the Summer, joined the volunteer fire department and worked at the local ski resort in the Winter. His passion for firefighting would lead him to pursue a career with the Rapid City, SD Fire Department in 1990, where he would work for the next 27 years. Mike held nearly every position within the organization and would spend the last 7 years as Fire Chief overseeing 165 employees, 7 fire stations and oversaw 18,000 emergency responses annually. His next venture would lead him to Bozeman, MT to lead the Operations Division of the Bozeman Fire Department for six years where he supervised 50 employees in the one of the fastest growing communities in the Country. Mike found his home in Driggs and has served as Fire Chief for Teton County since relocating in 2022.

Over his 35 year career, incident management and leadership has always been a strength and passion. That passion stems from a strong desire to serve the community that he resides while keeping firefighter safety at the forefront of his critical decision making process. With extensive experience in managing wildfires, structure fires, hazardous materials incidents and medical emergencies, Mike has remained committed to working hard to grow professionally while always remaining humble.

In his spare time Mike will be found balancing work and life by skiing and mountain biking in the Tetons, traveling the backcountry on his adventure motorcycle or camping in a remote location in the mountains.

Mike holds as Associates Degree in Fire Science from Casper College, a Bachelors Degree in Public Safety Administration from Grand Canyon University and is a graduate of the Executive Fire Officer Program from the National Fire Academy.