Biography

Rick Mecom, an instructor with the Emergency and Security Studies program at SoPA, is a District Fire Chief with over 25 years of experience in the fire service. He has an extensive background as an incident management response specialist in support of natural and manmade disasters in developing incident objectives and managing incident operations.

Mr. Mecom is a subject matter expert within the National Incident Management System, Incident Command System, Weapons of Mass Destruction, Terrorism Response, and Command and Control of Emergency Service Operations. He also serves as a United States Navy Information Dominance Warfare Intelligence Officer, providing technical support in the collection, analysis and dissemination of information that directly supports the intelligence requirements for the Department of Defense. He is highly skilled with operating advanced systems usage and analysis techniques used to locate, identify, analyze and disseminate real-time intelligence information.

Mr. Mecom holds an M.A. in Emergency and Disaster Management from American Military University.
 
What's the first career you dreamed of having as a child?
As a child I dreamed of being a Wildlife and Fisheries Agent. That did not become a reality as I got older because I realized Agents were always busy working while others were having fun hunting and fishing.
 
What is your favorite app and why?
My favorite app is Google Maps. It provides a wonderful source of direction and helps with finding the back roads were the true scenery, people, eateries, and points of interest are in America.
 
What is the best advice you've ever received?
Work isn't life, it’s just a job.