A man with tattoos on his right arm, wearing a gray T-shirt with the 'Team Rubicon' logo and a black cap, is pointing at a large digital map or display with a stylized map and markers. Another person, partially visible with a denim shirt, is nearby. The setting appears to be an indoor conference or office.

Hi, I’m Don.

I bring nearly 20 years of public service, focused on humanitarian aid, disaster response, and emergency management.

  • I work for federal and local governments, as well as nonprofit agencies.

  • I lead disaster response operations to provide relief in places like Haiti, Poland, Jamaica, Hawaii, LA, North Carolina.

  • I train humanitarian professionals on how to survive in hostile environments.

  • I educate local communities on survival in hostile environments, emergency readiness, and resilience.

  • I write about leadership, resilience, world observations, and lessons from the field.

Work with me

WORK WITH ME

Team Rubicon logo with stylized gray and red symbols and bold red text
Logo of Seattle Office of Emergency Management with a blue globe icon and black text
U.S. Air Force logo with stylized eagle wings and the text 'U.S. AIR FORCE' below.
Logo of The Kiwanis Club of Issaquah, featuring a large letter 'K' inside a blue circle with white text, surrounded by a rope border.
Silhouette of a person with a mustache and cap, with a dark background and a small portrait of the same face in black and white at the bottom left.
Snohomish County logo with three stylized trees in red, purple, and green above the text 'Snohomish County'.
Ignition Northwest logo with stylized flame design

I've spent nearly 20 years in service to my community, with the last decade being focused on humanitarian aid, pandemic response, medical relief, emergency planning, and everything that falls between. I've led large teams, managed risk in unpredictable environments, and built relationships across cultures and continents.

Today I'm focused on two things: leading through disaster and helping others learn to do the same.

Disaster Response
Leadership

I've led field operations from Haiti to the Poland-Ukraine border, making decisions when the stakes were high and the answers weren't clear. I work with organizations to build leaders and systems that hold up in the hard moments.

Community
Education

I write and lead workshops on leadership, resilience, and performance under pressure… helping teams apply field-tested principles to their own challenges.

[Get in touch] to discuss a workshop or collaboration.

Career Highlights

Some of the work I’m most proud of being a part of.

→At Team Rubicon, ran disaster operations and events across 16 states, coordinating 50,000 volunteers and a team of 15 to get help where it needed to go.

→When the Maui Wildfires hit, I designed the response from scratch: strategy, partnerships, staffing, and a $1.2M budget to long term recovery.

→Hostile Environment Awareness Training for Gaza | Designed and led a multi-day training program preparing a medical team for deployment into Gaza… covering threat assessment, situational awareness, and how to operate when the environment itself is working against you.

→Ukraine Medical Relief – Poland Advance Team | Before our medical team could cross into Ukraine, I was on the ground in Poland making sure they had what they needed… housing, documents, equipment, and a plan to stay safe.

→ When Hurricane Helene made landfall, I ran operations from the NOC during the chaotic first hours—coordinating response teams while the storm was still making landfall.

→ I helped stand up COVID response infrastructure across two counties, leading 50 staff, building community partnerships, and keeping sites running safely.

→ As a SERE Specialist in the airforce, I spent years training tens of thousands of people how to survive the worst-case scenarios, designing live exercises and preparing people for situations where there's no backup coming.

Featured

→ Leading Through Crisis: Five Lessons for Nonprofit Leaders | Nonprofit Leadership Field Guides
Article featuring five leadership lessons I learned in the field

→ Path of Purpose: Disaster Response with Team Rubicon | Oakley & Team Rubicon
Mini-doc about my journey into leadership; In partnership with Oakley and Team Rubicon.