Assistant Chief Chris Lombard has been active in the fire service for >30 years, primarily with the Seattle Fire Department. He has responded to multiple significant incidents including New York City on 9/11, major landslides, hurricanes throughout the Atlantic/Gulf of Mexico/Pacific, etc. – supporting incident communications and information management. Besides working assignments in SFD’s Operations Division and 9-1-1 center, he manages a several on-going projects, including communications coordination for the department’s specialty teams and as liaison for the department’s interoperability with other jurisdictions.

He most recently served as the Interim Director of one of the largest 911 centers in the Pacific Northwest. Seattle’s primary 911 center employs ~150 people and answers close to a million calls a year.

Nationally, he is Chair of the US Department of Commerce’s FirstNet Public Safety Advisory Committee (PSAC), Vice Chair of DHS’s public safety advisory group, SAFECOM, Chair of the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) Communications Committee, and more.

He helped lead the coordination of efforts to standardize training and certification for those responsible for managing emergency incident communications throughout the Nation (e.g. COML, COMT, ITSL programs). He helped with development of national documents including the US National Emergency Communications Plan (NECP), the IAFF/IAFC/FEMA Communications Best Practices guide, the evaluation of statewide communications interoperability plans (SCIPs), and others.

He has a B.S. in Geography from Oregon State University, has lectured and taught Emergency Response classes at Dartmouth College and at Texas A&M University. He has testified before Congress on national, first-responder, communications-related needs/issues.

Presenting:

• SAFECOM, NCSWIC - Partners in Adopting New Emergency Communications Technology