Welcome to Assuming Command ™

About Bob

Chief Bob Horton has worked in public safety for over 22 years, with a third of that time in an executive leadership role. He currently serves as the Interim Deputy Director of the Western Fire Chefs Association where he provides leadership and guidance over several of the Western's initiatives and programs. prior to serving in this position, he was the CEO/Fire Chief for a special district in southern Oregon, serving a population of 54,000 residents dispersed over 167 square miles in the beautiful Rogue Valley. Chief Horton was appointed Fire Chief in 2017 and had previously served as the Assistant Fire Chief for Las Vegas Fire & Rescue where he started as a Firefighter in October of 2000. His leadership and direction have led to advancements in community risk reduction, EMS service delivery, technology integration in field operations, as well as numerous employee health and wellness programs.

In addition to his role as Fire Chief, Bob served as a Board Director for the Oregon Fire Chiefs Association where he served as Chair of the OFCA’s Legislative Committee. Bob was elected as the Oregon Representative and later as Vice-President of the Western Fire Chiefs Association, serving on the Finance, Public Safety Technology, Wildfire Policy (past Co-Chair) and Legislative Committees. Chief Horton was appointed by Governor Kate Brown to serve on the Oregon Governor’s Fire Service Policy Council where he currently serves as Council Chair.

Bob is a scholar-practitioner conducting applied research at the intersection of behavioral economics, public policy, and community risk management. His focus is on the use of evidence to evaluate program impact/effectiveness and to examine policy-relevant questions. Bob is a doctoral researcher-in-training in public policy at Old Dominion University and is a research affiliate with Oregon State University’s Policy Analysis Laboratory. He has an MPA from the University of Oklahoma, an MPP from Oregon State University, and an Executive Certificate in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School. He is a Certified Public Manager and has the Chief Fire Officer designation. Bob is a conference speaker on topics related to impact evaluation, executive decision-making, and negotiations and is the host of the popular podcast Assuming Command ™, where he interviews thought leaders, innovators, and influencers in public service.

In his spare time, Bob and his wife Jennie like to travel, hike, obstacle race, golf, and relax by taking in the local wineries and music scene. They live in Eagle Point, Oregon with their two dogs Stanley and Bruce.

Episodes

S3E3: Racing Against Rising Demand with Daniel Haight

This month, Bob spoke with Daniel Haight from Darkhorse Emergency, a data visualization and analytics company focused on software to aid fire and ambulance operations. They discuss the importance of the availability of ground-truth, trusted data that can be used to aid in decision-making for fire chiefs, especially in the face of competing priorities (if you haven’t listened to S3E2 on Managing Expectations, go back and catch it). They also discuss the important, but often unrecognized and unmeasured, work of risk reduction.

You can find Daniel on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/danhaight/.

For more information on Darkhorse Emergency, visit their website: https://darkhorseemergency.com/.

Read Daniels article, Racing Against Rising Demand by Prioritizing Prevention, to learn more about how data can be used and accessed.

Thank you for listening and let us know what you thought of this episode or what you'd like to hear in the future at impact@upstreamabi.com.

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S3E2: Managing Expectations with Bob Horton

S3E3: Racing Against Rising Demand with Daniel Haight

Expectations for a Fire Chief come from numerous sources and stakeholders, and the Fire Chief must assess those expectations, determine which are reasonable and feasible, and act on them accordingly. This month’s episode is focused on Bob’s take on the Fire Chief’s challenge of managing competing expectations.

Thank you for listening and let us know what you thought of this episode or what you'd like to hear in the future at ⁠impact@upstreamabi.com⁠.

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S3E1: 2024 Kickoff

S3E3: Racing Against Rising Demand with Daniel Haight

S2E8: Receiving Fire and Smoke with Kate Lighthall

Welcome to the kickoff of Season 3. We're starting this season by playing the year in review episode of ⁠Fire Headlines⁠, a Western Fire Chiefs Association podcast co-hosted by Bob. We hope you enjoy the episode and look forward to getting back into the swing in 2024.

Thank you for listening and let us know what you thought of this episode or what you'd like to hear in the future at ⁠impact@upstreamabi.com⁠.

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S2E8: Receiving Fire and Smoke with Kate Lighthall

With the West entering wildfire season, we’re continuing the discussion this month with Kate Lighthall, the Western Region Coordinator for the Wildland Fire Leadership Council. The Council leads the implementation of the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy.

Kate has extensive experience as a structure and wildland firefighter and fire inspector, as well as working towards mitigation, resiliency, and community education. She dives into community level considerations around receiving, responding to, and recovering from wildfire. There’s a wealth of good information in this episode and we hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did.

You can connect with Kate at ⁠coordinator@wildfireinthewest.org⁠or 541-408-3048. To learn more about the work being done by the Wildland Fire Leadership Council, visit them at ⁠www.wildfireinthewest.org⁠.

Thank you for listening and let us know what you thought of this episode or what you'd like to hear in the future at ⁠impact@upstreamabi.com⁠.

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S2E7: Scientific Communication with Eden McCall

S2E8: Receiving Fire and Smoke with Kate Lighthall

S2E7: Scientific Communication with Eden McCall

As we enter wildfire season here in the west, we’re continuing our series on wildfire and wildfire preparedness. Eden McCall is a journalism and spatial data science student at the University of Oregon. Bob got connected with Eden as a result of the 2020 Almeda fire in southern Oregon. Eden had been working on the Fire Story podcast with the university and reached out to Bob to discuss causes and potential solutions for situations like the Almeda fire, which was an urban wildfire. Join Bob and Eden as they discuss risk communications and how journalism can be used differently than it is now to promote risk mitigation related to wildfires.

You can listen to the Fire Story Season 2 at https://scr.uoregon.edu/education-and-engagement/the-fire-story-season-2/. Connect with Eden through her website, https://edenimccall.com/, or email her directly at edenmccall@gmail.com

Thank you for listening and let us know what you thought of this episode or what you'd like to hear in the future at impact@upstreamabi.com.

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S2E6: The Analytical Moose

S2E8: Receiving Fire and Smoke with Kate Lighthall

S2E7: Scientific Communication with Eden McCall

Here at Assuming Command we love a good trailblazer and this month’s guest fits that description. Rachael Brady is the founder of The Analytical Moose and developer of the Wildfire AwareTM app, which will launch in May 2023. Rachael has a background working at CalFire and was awarded the USGIF Government Achievement Award for her GIS work on wildfire mapping and investigations into serial arson cases. Through The Moose and Wildfire AwareTM, she is working to bring wildfire notifications to the public faster and to streamline post-fire damage assessments across the US.

You can find Rachael on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachaelbradygisp/. Check out the links below for more information on The Moose and Wildfire AwareTM.

Thank you for listening and let us know what you thought of this episode or what you'd like to hear in the future at impact@upstreamabi.com.

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S2E5: Replay - Mental Wellness with Elissa Denton

S2E4: The Value of Organizational Psychology with Dr. Andrew Holter

Thank you for joining us for our March episode. This month, we decided to replay an episode from 2020 on mental wellness with Elissa Denton. Recently, two firefighters in southern Nevada were tragically lost to suicide and Bob wanted to take the opportunity to promote the importance of mental wellness and provide some resources for starting a journey towards improved mental wellness, both personally and agency wide.

If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide or self-harm, the National Suicide Hotline is available 24 hours a day by calling 988 or by texting HOME to 741741.

Thank you for listening and let us know what you thought of this episode or what you'd like to hear in the future at impact@upstreamabi.com.

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S2E4: The Value of Organizational Psychology with Dr. Andrew Holter

Happy February and we hope your 2023 is off to a smooth start. This month’s guest on Assuming Command™ is Dr. Andrew Holter. Andrew is an organizational psychologist serving the Wilmington Fire Department in North Carolina as their Administrative Services Manager. He has been in emergency services for nearly 20 years and is the founder of FR Strategies, a public safety consulting group. Andrew’s PhD dissertation was on whether self-efficacy, grit, and job satisfaction predict turnover intention amongst new nurses. You can connect with Andrew on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewholter1/or go to www.FR-strategies.com.

Bob and Andrew’s conversation fits right in with a favorite Assuming Command™ theme; looking to the future and trying to make choices today that will serve the future fire service. A big part of the discussion is around preparing for recruitment and how to create an effective interview process so you can choose the best candidates to move your agency forward.

If you have any questions, comments, or topic suggestions, you can email us at impact@upstreamabi.com or click on the link for the show website and leave a voice message.

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S2E3: Not What I Signed Up For

S2E4: The Value of Organizational Psychology with Dr. Andrew Holter

S2E2: Disaster Resilience Using Renewable Energy with Richard Birt

Welcome back and thanks for hanging in there with Assuming Command ™ while we had a little hiatus in 2022. We're back with an exciting new schedule of discussions. To kick off the comeback, Bob is talking a little about what he's been up to and we're revisiting his guest interview on Side Alpha in 2021 to discuss his article for FireRescue1, "Not What I Signed Up For". If you haven't read the article, you can find it on the FireRescue1 website and Facebook page.

You can read the original article on the FireRescue1 website: https://www.firerescue1.com/career-1/articles/this-is-not-what-i-signed-up-for-why-some-firefighters-simply-dont-understand-the-job-2SvkNuqSohff1tYG/

You can peruse the comments on the FireRescue1 Facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/firerescue1/posts/10158466570967939

Editor-in-Chief Janelle Foskett posted a follow up article on the FireRescue1 website: https://www.firerescue1.com/fire-careers/articles/not-what-i-signed-up-for-fr1-readers-leaders-react-to-discussion-about-firefighter-expectations-hXATw4gKozrQezkx/

If you have any questions, comments, or topic suggestions, you can email us at impact@upstreamabi.com or click on the link for the show website and leave a voice message.

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S2E2: Disaster Resilience Using Renewable Energy with Richard Birt

Is anyone else feeling the Halloween sugar hang-over today? While you recover from the weekend festivities, we hope you enjoy the latest episode of Assuming Command ™. This month Bob talked to Richard Birt, a Las Vegas Fire and Rescue retiree. Richard has continued to be engaged in emergency response through his education organization SAFE which stands for Solar and Fire Education. SAFE provided free training to firefighters on how to address solar panel and battery systems during a structure fire. Richard has also been highly involved in disaster response, traveling to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria to set up microgrids that allowed emergency responders to work more safely and effectively. Richard has big plans on creating power grid resiliency through small solar installations that could feed power back into the grid during times of crisis. We have no doubt Richard will be successful in impacting the way solar is used for resiliency both during disaster situations and everyday operations. If you would like to reach out to Richard for SAFE training or if you have any other questions for him, you can reach him at solarandfireeducation@gmail.com.

SAFE Article - https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/the-fire-captain-teaching-solar-and-battery-literacy-for-first-responders
Fire Rescue 1 article by Richard - https://www.firerescue1.com/electric-fire/articles/6-steps-to-safe-effective-solar-panel-ess-fire-attack-JtqmGDpotCQQrBfP/
Solar Responders - https://www.solarresponders.org/

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S2E1: Inspiring a Better Future with Bob Horton

S2E2: Disaster Resilience Using Renewable Energy with Richard Birt

S2E1: Inspiring a Better Future with Bob Horton

We made it through season 1 of Assuming Command and, as promised, turned the mic on Bob for season 2’s opener. I’ll (Jennie) apologize up front for my volume, I need a little more practice at this hosting thing. During this episode you’ll get to hear some of my favorite stories from Bob’s journey to and in the fire service. We also talk about some of Bob’s work and research interests and goals, as well as his advice for current and aspiring leaders. I don’t want to give too much away, so enjoy the episode.

Don’t tell him I shared this, but the secret to Bob’s signature Moscow Mule is vanilla vodka and Bundaberg ginger beer. Cheers!

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