Leadership

John Messina is a trusted leader with over 30 years of experience in emergency management, fire protection, disaster response, and community resilience. As CAL FIRE’s former Assistant Region Chief, he provided strategic oversight of the Department’s Northern Region fire protection operations, resource management, and leadership across six operational units, while advising department executives on critical policy and operational priorities. Previously, he served as Unit Chief and Fire Chief for Butte County, the Town of Paradise, and the Cities of Oroville, Gridley, and Biggs, each presenting unique governance structures, service demands, and operational complexities.

As a Type 1 Incident Commander, John led some of California’s most high-profile and challenging disaster responses, including the Camp Fire, the Oroville spillway failure, and the statewide COVID-19 response. He holds a bachelor’s degree from California State University, Chico. As a senior liaison with Ladris, John helps public agencies implement practical, experience-driven solutions across all phases of emergency management mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.

Mike Bradley is a California-based fire-management and emergency-response leader with more than three decades of experience spanning forestry, wildfire operations, and all-hazards emergency management. He began his career in 1991 in the California timber industry. He joined CAL FIRE in 2001, rising through the ranks to become Northern Region Chief, where he directed one of the state’s two geographic regions and oversaw some of the largest firefighting resource deployments in California history. As Region Chief, Mike held the highest-ranking civil service position within CAL FIRE, regularly providing technical guidance and executive-level expertise to department heads across state agencies and senior officials within the Governor’s Office.

Since retiring from state service in 2021, Mike has served internationally as an Emergency Management Specialist with the U.S. Forest Service International Programs, delivering training and technical assistance in Albania, Armenia, Timor-Leste, and Moldova. As a Senior Forward Deployed Liaison with Ladris, he advises public and private clients on wildfire threat mitigation and all-hazard readiness.

Bradley holds a Bachelor of Science in Forestry from Humboldt State University and maintains extensive Incident Command System qualifications ranging from Agency Administrator to Division Supervisor. Known for strategic vision, collaborative leadership, and program-level policy expertise, he continues to advance fire-protection and emergency-management capacity at local, state, and international levels.

Robert “Bob” Womack is a 30+ year career first responder with leadership experience throughout emergency management, law enforcement, and the fire service. After spending many years in law enforcement and hazardous materials positions, Bob transitioned to a full-time emergency management position where he built out a completely new emergency management program from the ground up for a community in California.  Bob has been involved in numerous large-scale events in several leadership roles, both in the field and from the EOC, including wildfire response, winter weather, and other natural and human caused disasters.  Bob also has extensive experience in special event planning including multi-community bike and running events, triathlons, World Cup events, and other large events.

Bob is a certified EOC Manager/Coordinator in the State of California, a Liaison Officer, and a Safety Officer.  Bob has deployed for mutual aid in wildfires as an EOC member where he was deployed to incident command posts as an EOC liaison and in winter weather responses as an EOC Manager.  He has extensive experience in evacuation modeling and alert and warning systems. Bob spent many years researching and using different evacuation platforms before coming to Ladris, using the power of AI to assist and drive decision making during planning and actual events. He has a Master’s degree in Emergency Management from CSU Long Beach and has numerous certifications in the Incident Command System and Emergency Operations. He is also a FEMA and CSTI certified instructor in the ICS and EOC platforms, also instructing in the FEMA Basic Academy and All- Hazards Type III cadre.

Ron began his fire service career in 1985 as a firefighter with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection in Butte County.  After completing his bachelor’s degree from California State University Chico, he accepted a position as a Fire Apparatus Engineer. Over the course of his career with CAL FIRE, Ron has held the positions of Firefighter, Engineer, Fire Captain, Battalion Chief, Division Chief, and interim Unit Chief. Ron has a wide breadth of experience ranging from all risk firefighting, emergency dispatch operations, Hand crew supervision, prevention, and a sworn Peace Officer.  

He has over twenty years of Incident Management Team experience. Ron was a qualified Type I Incident Commander and held qualifications in Operations, Plans, Liaison, Logistics, Information Officer, and Agency Representative.  He was the Incident Commander of CAL FIRE Incident Management Team 5 until he retired from CAL FIRE in 2018. Ron has been a member of the national Complex Incident Management Course cadre for over a decade.

After retiring from CAL FIRE, Ron accepted a position as Deputy Chief with North County Fire Authority (NCFA) in San Mateo County. Ron was responsible for the supervision of the operations bureau, which consisted of eight fire companies, training, and special operations. NCFA provides fire service to the cities of Pacifica, Daly City and Brisbane.

In the fall of 2020 Ron retired from the fires service.  With over thirty years of public safety experience and leadership, Ron has demonstrated the ability to work collaboratively with Community, City, State and Federal organizations on emergency incidents as well as non-emergency projects. With experience working through complex community dynamics, applying fire behavior analysis, to arson investigation, Ron possesses a diverse background of knowledge and experience he looks to share and apply.

Don began his fire service career in 1986 as a firefighter with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection in Santa Clara County. After completing his Associate Degree in Fire Protection Technology at the College of San Mateo, he accepted a position as a firefighter with the Woodside Fire Protection District (WFPD). Over his 35-year career there, Don has held the positions of firefighter, engineer, fire inspector, fire investigator, deputy fire marshal, and battalion chief. Don has a wide range of experience including all-risk firefighting, emergency management operations, fire prevention/community risk reduction, fire investigations, hand crew supervision, and defensible space/fuel mitigation operations.

As a deputy fire marshal, Don assisted in administering and managing the code enforcement and fire prevention programs for his district. His areas of responsibility included reviewing plans for compliance, inspecting property and buildings, assisting with public education activities, leading fire prevention mitigation activities, and investigating fires.

As a fire marshal, Don was responsible for supervising, planning, organizing, and directing all activities within the fire prevention division. He enforced all laws, ordinances, and regulations for the protection of lives and property from fire and led public fire prevention education.

Throughout his time with the WFPD, Don’s essential duties included providing code enforcement for the district and, as a technical liaison, conducting plan checks for new construction. Don conferred with town and county department heads to determine compliance with fire and life safety codes. Communication with other members of the public, such as developers, property owners, architects, engineers, and contractors, was a large part of Don’s daily tasks. Field inspecting, testing, and writing reports were essential to Don’s duties.

Active management of the fire district fuel mitigation program was required. Don managed the residential defensible space inspection programs and developed additional public education and outreach programs to promote community involvement and awareness of responsibilities in pre-fire mitigation efforts.

With wildland fire being one of the greatest threats to the WFPD, Don took the initiative to seek out and obtain specialized training, which has given him vital knowledge, skills, and abilities that can be directly applied toward land use planning, the CEQA process, emergency preparedness and evacuation planning, and defensible space and fuel mitigation programs to reduce the risks of wildland fire to communities.

Bill holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of California at Davis in Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning, with an area of specialization in City/Regional Planning and Post Graduate work in Hazardous Materials Management. He began his professional career as an Environmental Consultant focusing on the review and development of Environmental Impact Reports and Phase I and II Site Assessments.

His firefighting career began with the CALFIRE/Butte County Fire Department in 1994. In 1995, Bill was hired by the City of Chico Fire Department as a firefighter and quickly moved through the ranks: he was the first firefighter to promote through the ranks to Fire Chief in the City of Chico in over fifty years. In August of 2017, Bill was hired as Fire Chief to lead the City of Rocklin and Lincoln Fire Departments under a Cooperative Service Agreement. Bill believes in developing a pro-active, forward-looking fire and disaster response service delivery model based on Community Risk Reduction and Mission Tasked Rapid Response Teams. A focus on data- driven and evidence- based decisions is imperative, and any successful model must be based upon sound public service delivery principles: customer focus, sustainability, equity, efficiency, effectiveness, fiscal responsibility, accountability, and transparency.

Bill is certified by the State of California and other national organizations as a Chief Officer, Executive Chief Officer, Incident Commander, Liaison Officer, and Hazardous Materials Specialist. He has been assigned to and held leadership positions in several large State-wide incidents including the Oroville Damn incident (2017), Weed Fire (2014), King Fire (2014), and Humboldt Fires (2008). He served as the Area II North Director of the California Fire Chiefs Association, a member of League of California Cities Fire Chiefs and International Association of Fire Chiefs, and a board member of the American Cancer Society Northern California Leadership Council. He is also the past President of the Butte County Fire Chiefs Association and the Butte County Training Officers Association; the California State Training Education Advisory Committee – Hazardous Materials Section, and the Butte Community College Advisory Board.

Throughout his Fire Service Career, Bill continued Consulting focusing on training, land use planning, and Fire Code interpretation and implementation. Clients included but are not limited to: United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), California State University at Chico, Butte College, and local developers.

After retiring from the Fire Service, Bill took a position as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Rescue 42 Incorporated. They were developing and bringing to market a product that would transform the landscape for emergency communications: the CRD™ for FirstNet® is an AT&T FirstNet deployable cell tower that generates an area of FirstNet Cellular and Wi-Fi coverage, anytime and anywhere. Bill utilized his experience with collaboration and change management to lead a fast-growing team that increased production by over 1,000% and increased sales 4x in one fiscal year.

Dennis began his career in 1977 with the California Division of Forestry and Fire Protection. In 1980 he transferred to the Stanislaus County Fire Department, and in 1985 he took a position with Pleasanton Fire Department, which merged with Livermore in 1987. Dennis retired from Livermore/Pleasanton Fire Department in 2018.

Dennis earned an Associate of Science in Fire Science from Modesto Junior College and a Bachelor of Science in Fire Management from CSU Sacramento.

Dennis has served on national Type 1 Incident Management Teams as a Fire Behavior Analyst since 2000. He chairs the S-590 (Advanced Fire Behavior Interpretation) Steering Committee and is a member of the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) Fire Weather Sub Committee and the NWCG Fire Behavior Curriculum Unit.

In 1983, Eric became a volunteer firefighter at the Lakeshore Fire Department in Lake County. He became a full-time fire engineer with the Marin County Fire Department in 1994. His interest in GIS began when he was selected to serve on a CAL FIRE incident management team in 2007. He served with the team until he retired in 2019. He earned a GIS certificate from Chico State University in 2018.