From Mark's Desk

If you strip away every title I’ve ever held, every job, every investigation, every leadership role you’ll find one constant at the core of who I am: service. And that started in EMS.

After graduating from Bergman and completing my time in the military, I went straight into the medical field. I worked full-time in EMS, kept my college courses rolling, and climbed the ladder until I became a medic. Along the way, I stepped into additional roles phlebotomy, respiratory therapy, clinical training and I poured myself into each one. And I’ve said for years: medicine was my first love. EMS was the heartbeat of it all.

When I talk about that chapter of my life, it’s not nostalgia it’s foundation. I worked through emergencies, helped families in their worst moments, trained young medics coming up behind me, and built bonds with students who are still in the field today. We’ve stayed in touch, and we still look back at those long nights, the tough runs, and the lessons we learned shoulder-to-shoulder. Those years taught me something no textbook could. Service isn’t convenience, it’s sacrifice. Leadership isn’t authority, it’s responsibility. Communication isn’t paperwork, it’s survival.

In emergency work, you learn quickly that hesitation hurts people, ego gets in the way, and decisions have consequences down to the second. You learn how to read a room, calm chaos, and separate urgency from panic. And most of all, you learn to look someone in the eye and treat them like the human being they are in the middle of crisis. That shaped me more than anything I’ve done since.

It taught me humility, compassion, decision-making under pressure, teamwork, and the truth that you cannot pretend to serve people, you either do or you don’t. When you walk into emergency situations, there’s no room for pride or politics. You rely on training, communication, and the people around you.

Those same principles followed me into insurance, catastrophe management, leadership roles, investigations, business, and with your support and vote eventually public service. The medical field is where I learned to act decisively, see through confusion, and always remember the human being on the other side of the situation. I’ve carried that perspective into everything I’ve done since, and I’ve never forgotten where I started.

So when people ask why I approach leadership the way I do why communication matters so much, why accountability is non-negotiable, and why serving a community isn’t about titles or spotlight, I point back to EMS. It’s where I learned what service looks like when it’s real. It’s where I learned that people deserve honesty, clarity, and presence. And it’s why, no matter what roles I’ve stepped into since, that spirit hasn’t changed.

If you want to understand the way I think, why I lead the way I do, and why I’m so committed to the principles I talk about, start there.