Leadership Under Fire

Our guest in this episode is Battalion Chief Thomas Smith from CAL FIRE Nevada Yuba Placer Unit and the Placer County Fire Department. Smith started his career in 2005 as a Firefighter with the North Tahoe Fire Protection District. In 2006, he was hired with CAL FIRE NEU as a Firefighter I and promoted through the ranks of FFII and Engineer working in Battalions 12, 17, and 18 as well as the Grass Valley Air Attack Base. In 2014, Smith promoted to Fire Captain B in the Lassen-Modoc Unit and was assigned as a Fire Crew Captain running Inmate Hand Crews at both Intermountain and Antelope Camps. In 2018, he promoted to Battalion Chief in the San Benito-Monterey Unit assigned as a Field Battalion Chief in the Bear Valley Battalion. He then transferred back to the Nevada Yuba Placer Unit in his current position as a field Battalion Chief in the cooperative fire agreement with Placer County Fire. Chief Smith is a qualified Air Operations Branch Director and is currently assigned to Incident Management Team 1. He has served on numerous Regional and Statewide teaching cadres including S-212, C-234, Air Tanker Base Manager and AOBD/ASGS. Smith graduated from California State University, Chico, with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Liberal Studies and holds an Associate of Science degree from Sierra College in Fire Technology. Smith is a resident of Truckee, California, where he lives with his wife and two children.

Gabe Angemi is a second-generation member of the Camden NJ Fire Department. He presently serves as a Captain and is assigned to Squad Company 7. Gabe has spent many years serving in Camden’s Special Operations companies and is a member of NJ-TF1 FEMA USAR since 2008. He completed undergraduate study in Public Safety Administration from Neumann University and holds a master’s degree in Emergency & Disaster Management from Georgetown University. Gabe serves as a tactical leadership advisor for Leadership Under Fire. 

Journalist Joe Flood is the founder of n2 Communications and the author of the book The Fires, which examines New York City’s 1970s fire epidemic and fiscal crisis. In The Fires, Flood provides an X-ray of the inner workings of NYC during the ‘70s using the dramatic story of a pair of mayors, an ambitious Fire Commissioner, and an even more ambitious think tank to illuminate the patterns and formulas that are now inextricably woven into the very fabric of the modern urban experience. Joe won the Bronx Recognizes Its Own award from the Bronx Council on the Arts for this work. 

Rachel Balkovec is making history this 2021 season as the first woman hired by a major league baseball team to work as a full-time hitting coach. Balkovec currently serves as a minor league hitting coach for the New York Yankees and has worked in professional baseball for seven years. Breaking through in 2014, she was hired as the minor league strength and conditioning coordinator for the St. Louis Cardinals—the first woman to hold that position in professional baseball. A year later she became the Latin American strength and conditioning coordinator for the Houston Astros. Balkovec is a former NCAA Division 1 softball catcher who earned two master’s degrees in sports performance and human movement and has completed five baseball internships.

Josh Wiener is a Lieutenant in the FDNY and is currently assigned to the Rescue Battalion. His previous assignments were to Division 7 as a covering Lieutenant, Squad 252 and Ladder 133 as a firefighter. Josh also spent 20 years in the United States Marine Corps as an Infantry Unit Leader and retired at the rank of Master Sergeant. He is a combat veteran of the war in Iraq. Josh serves as a leadership and human performance advisor for Leadership Under Fire and is a LUF plank owner.

On March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory in New York City burned, tragically killing 146 workers. It is remembered as one of the most infamous incidents in American industrial history. The tragedy brought widespread attention to the dangerous sweatshop conditions of factories, spurred the creation of the FDNY’s Bureau of Fire Prevention, and led to the development of a series of laws and regulations that better protected the safety of workers. But what has been curiously absent or understated from the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire narrative is a closer examination of firefighting efforts that took place that day, lessons regarding rescue of people who were trapped, a more detailed understanding of the leadership demonstrated in the wake of the event and the legacy of the fire today—just to name a few topics. In this episode of the Leadership Under Fire Optimizing Human Performance Podcast, we hope to contribute more broadly to the historical narrative of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. The depth of this conversation is made possible by the extensive research efforts employed by our guest in this episode, FDNY Lieutenant Matt Connor. 

This episode features Lindsay Dare Shoop. Lindsay is a lifelong athlete turned coach, author, and speaker. She is an Olympic gold medalist, a three-time World Champion, and a National Rowing Hall of Fame inductee. With a focus on performance optimization and longevity throughout sport and life, Lindsay coaches and hosts clinics and workshops for coaches, athletes, and teams of all ages and skill levels. She is a speaker for events at major universities and corporations, presents on various topics across the spectrum of her expertise as an elite athlete, coach, exercise physiologist, and author, and is a commentator for USRowing. Lindsay lives in Florida, where she seeks to motivate and mentor to improve the lives of others by sharing her journey of self-discovery from ultimate defeat, to Olympic gold.

Dan Saalfrank is our guest in this episode of the Leadership Under Fire Optimizing Human Performance Podcast. Dan is a FDNY Lieutenant assigned to Ladder Co. 4 in Midtown Manhattan. He previously served with Ladder Companies 169 and 176, both in the borough of Brooklyn. Within the FDNY, Dan is a Battalion Delegate for the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, a member of the FDNY Pipes and Drums and serves as a Performance Leader for the FDNY’s Mental Performance Initiative (MPI). Dan served as a Crash/Rescue Firefighter with the 111th Fighter Wing of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard. He has a Master of Public Administration from John Jay College in New York City. Dan also serves as a Tactical Leadership Advisor for Leadership Under Fire. 

Jon Matthews was a police officer in Greensboro, North Carolina, for more than a decade, from 2008 to 2019, before leaving the policing profession to enter ministry with a local church. After a year and a half in ministry, he returned to police work during one of the most challenging times in his department's history in late 2020. He is currently assigned to a Community Resource Team, which is a street-level crimes team tasked with reducing gun violence in the city. During his first run with policing, he spent five years as a detective with the department's Violent Criminal Apprehension Team, a team that utilizes partnerships with local and federal agencies to locate and arrest violent fugitives. During this time, he was also assigned as a Task Force Agent with the Secret Service for three years. In 2017, Jon was promoted to corporal, where he was then assigned to the patrol division before serving as a Corporal Detective on the Family Victims Unit, a team that investigates child victim and sexual assault investigations, among others. In addition to these roles, Jon was also assigned to his department's Special Response Team for seven years, a call-out based team that performs high risk search warrants, as well as responds to barricaded subjects and hostage situations. He is a graduate of the University of South Carolina, is married to his high-school sweetheart, and keeps busy in his off-time by coaching and raising his nine year old twins and one year old daughter.

Pat Maloney is a retired 39-year member of the Chicago Fire Department, who rose through the ranks to become the Chief of Special Operations. Pat entered the ranks of the Chicago Fire Department in 1981. Prior to his promotion to Battalion Chief, Pat served as the Captain of Squad 2 for eleven years. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Fire Science Management from Southern Illinois University. Pat served as a Staff Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps and is a veteran of the Persian Gulf War. Pat also serves as a Tactical Leadership Advisor for Leadership Under Fire.