Our Team
Past and present instructors
Mark Rand
Lieutenant IMPD
Mark Rand is a Lieutenant for the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD) currently assigned as the late shift Lieutenant on IMPD's East District. Lt. Rand has been with IMPD for 25 years with assignments as an Field Training Officer, Canine Handler, Indiana Law Enforcement Academy Instructor (General/Physical Tactics/Firearms), and SWAT Team member (Entry/Gas-Less Lethal/Sniper). Sgt. Rand is also the owner of Pyramid Combatives, LLC., which offers training and consulting options to government agencies in the areas of use of force, report writing/court testimony, firearms, and tactical operations. During his 21 year career Lt. Rand has been an active police officer directly involved in multiple deadly force encounters. Lt. Rand has taken his experiences from these incidents and uses them to teach other officers/tactical team members what to expect and how to survive these events. As a police officer, Lt. Rand has been recognized several times as Special Services Officer of the Year for the IMPD, and in 2013 he was selected by the Police, Fire, & Deputy Sheriff Awards committee as the Officer of the Year for all of the IMPD.
Major Andrew Fisher
Resident Physician
Major Andrew Fisher. While working as a paramedic at Wishard, Andrew started the Marion County Sheriff Department's Tactical EMS program, he went onto serve as a physician assistant with the 75th Ranger regiment, graduated medical school from Texas A&M and now is now in his second year of his surgical residency at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine (at UNH). Major Fisher serves as voting member on Committee on Tactical Combat Causality Care and continues to be an influence for both civilian and military tactical medicine . He was 2010 US Army PA of the Year, the 2018 EMS Today keynote speaker, 2018 recipient of the Hero of Military Medicine award, 2018 Frank K. Bulter, Jr TCCC award, he has been deployed eight times to Iraq and Afghanistan and awarded the Bronze Star Medal with Valor Device and Purple Heart.
Dr Danniel O'Donnell
EM Physician / Chief of Indianapolis EMS
Dr. O’Donnell currently serves as Associate Clinical Professor of Emergency
Medicine at IU Department of Emergency Medicine. He serves as the Chief for Indianapolis Emergency Medical Services. He is also an active TEMS medic with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police S.W.A.T. team. Dr.
O’Donnell received his B.S. from the University of Michigan and attended medical
school at Wayne State University School of Medicine. Dr. O’Donnell completed
his Emergency Medicine Residency at Indiana University School of Medicine and
then went on to complete his Emergency Medical Services Fellowship. In
addition to his clinical duties, Dr. O’Donnell serves as the program Director for
the IUSOM EMS fellowship.
Shane Hardwick
IEMS TEMS/ Community Paramedic
Mr Hardwick started his TACMED career with the Marion Co. Sheriff SWAT team. He now serves as a tactical medic and medic training coordinator with the Indianapolis EMS/ Indianapolis Fire Department's TEMS unit . Formerly, Mr. Hardwick was an EMS operations officer and ultimately EMS director of the Wayne Township Fire Department in Indianapolis IN. Shane is currently assigned to the Shalom Project on the near east side of Indianapolis. Shalom is a partnership of community paramedic and police officer, who identify quality of life issues and remove barriers for those who need primary health care.
Jermey Steward
SWAT IMPD
Officer Steward is a sixteen-year veteran of the Indianapolis Metropolitan
Police Department, a ten-year member of SWAT, and is currently assigned as a
canine handler. Throughout his career, Jeremy has traveled the country instructing officers and civilians on principals of defensive tactics, conflict resolution, structure clearing, active shooter response, various less-lethal munitions, vehicle stops, physical
training, and firearms proficiency. Jeremy has also served as a use-of-force expert defending officers in courtroom and disciplinary hearings. He is certified by the state of Indiana as a general instructor, firearms instructor, and
emergency vehicle operations instructor.
Jeremy also is the owner and founder of Steward Security Services. SSS specializes in executive
protection, firearms instruction, tactical training for
law enforcement officers, and various other consulting services.
Lecture Title: Target Discrimination and CQB
Lecture Synopsis: Understanding the fundamentals of Close Quarter Battle (CQB) will allow for
cohesion between tactical operators and medical personal. It is of vital importance
we as first-responders have a conditioned response to various critical incidents. This course will give
participants the essentials for success when faced with active threats. It will further establish groundwork for future
training.
Our Team
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Kevin Hunt
Prepared Medical Response
Kevin Hunt is a National Registered Paramedic with over 20 years of pre-hospital experience. Kevin is a Firefighter/ Paramedic with the City of Germantown, TN and owner of Prepared Medical Response, LLC. His company provides medical training to tactical teams, law enforcement, military and civilian EMS, fire departments, and emergency management agencies. He holds several technical rescue certifications and affiliate faculty with the National Association of EMTs (NAEMT). Kevin is a graduate of Indiana University and is native to Indianapolis.
Lecture: Blast injuries.
Specifically the threats to First responders from IED's and initial care for traumatic injuries due to blasts/ explosions
Dr. Mark Liao
EM Physician / Medical Director Indianapolis EMS
Mark Liao, MD, NRP is a team physician with Indiana US&R Task Force 1 and has been deployed to Hurricane Florence. He completed his Emergency Medicine residency and EMS Fellowship at Indiana University. He is a captain in the Indiana Army National Guard and is a trained Army Flight Surgeon. His areas of interest include mass casualty preparedness and cardiac arrest management.
Deranged Physiology for the US&R Medic: Doc, can’t I just cut it off?
From suspension trauma to a patient’s limb trapped in a collapsed building, the US&R Medic faces challenges beyond patient access: deranged physiology starts to develop and worsens with each passing minute. What can be done medically to optimize your patient before, during and after extrication? And in the worst-case scenario – what does the medic need to know before a field amputation is considered? This presentation will review core medical considerations that every US&R medic needs to be familiar with.
Our Team
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Dr Rami Ahmed
Professor of Emergency Medicine
Chief, Division of Simulation
Simulation Fellowship Director
Department of Emergency Medicine
Indiana University School of Medicine
Dr. Rami Ahmed is Professor of Emergency Medicine and serves as the Simulation Division Chief and Simulation Fellowship Director at the Indiana University School of Medicine. He completed an Academic Fellowship in Medical Simulation at the Gilbert Program in Medical Simulation at Harvard Medical School and is a Harvard Macy Education Scholar. He completed a Master’s in Health Professions Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He was awarded the Donald O’Hara Faculty Prize for Excellence in Teaching at Harvard Medical School, the National Faculty Teaching Award from the American College of Emergency Physicians and the SAEM Simulation Academy "Distinguished Educator" award in 2020. He is a former US Army Combat Medic and SWAT Team physician for the Akron, OH Police Department. Dr. Ahmed is passionate about training emergency medicine residents into highly effective team leaders.
Troy Wymer
Battalion Chief, Wayne Township Fire Department
Chief Troy Wymer is a 30-year veteran of Emergency Services in Indianapolis, serving in EMS (1991-
1998) and the Professional Fire Service (1998 to present). Troy is a FEMA All Hazards Qualified Planning
Section Chief, Operations Section Chief, and Incident Commander. He has served as a company officer
on both a Ladder and Engine company on the Cities Westside working in busy urban neighborhoods and
is a member of the FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Team based in Indianapolis. Troy has been a
reservist member of a Health and Human Services IMT based in San Antonio, Texas since 2018. Chief
Wymer is the author of his agencies guidelines on Responding to Incidents of Violence and Civil Unrest,
Bomb Threats and Suspicious Packages, and their NIMS Compliant Incident Management System, along
with being the lead instructor for their Ballistic Protection Roll Out in 2019.
Our Team
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Holly McCalip
Lab Coordinator/ Veterinary Instructional Technologist
Veterinary Nursing Program
College of Veterinary Medicine
Purdue University
With over 25 years of veterinary experience, Holly promotes the education of the human/ animal working partnership. Over the span of her career she has covered emergency veterinary medicine, surgical and internal medicine. She is currently a lab coordinator and Veterinary Instructional Technologist for the College of Veterinary Medicine at Purdue University. In addition to her work with animals, she has also worked as an EMT and 911 dispatcher. Holly sits on several veterinary committees that advance and educate the public concerning veterinary medicine. She has instructed tactical medics on K9 medical procedures in the past and looks forward to meeting you.
Our Team
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TERRY L CHOATE JR.
Co-Founder/CEO/President Blue-U Defense
Terry has all of the training and experience that is normally associated with those who consult on acts-of-violence, safety and security. He was a law enforcement officer and SWAT Team Commander for 15 years. Terry believes that training and experience in law enforcement and/or the military does not automatically equal qualification to successfully consult businesses and schools in violence prevention and survival. He also has a 20-year executive -level corporate career behind him that he voluntarily ended prior to becoming a law enforcement professional. As a result, he has extensive experience in business. Why is this critical? Because keeping schools and businesses safe is impacted by far more than just training people and tactics. The things that we do to keep people, businesses, and schools safe impact policy and procedure. He now travels the world training organizations on how to prevent and surviv incidents of violence.
Our Team
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JOSEPH B HILEMAN
Co-Founder Blue-U Defense
Mr. Hileman served as the Assistant Team Commander of the Monadnock Regional Special Response (SWAT) Team and for 15 years as a Detective/Police Officer with the Jaffrey (NH) Police Department. Prior to his career in Law Enforcement, he served as Security Supervisor at the corporate management level of a Fortune 500 company.
Mr. Hileman holds two A.A. degrees in Criminal Justice – Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Corrections, Probation, and Parole. His extensive tactical training includes:
SWAT 1 and 2 Certification, Tactical Officers and
LEADS Consulting
Active Shooter Instructor
Threat Assessment Team/ManagementSWAT Team Leader/Commander
Use of Force policy
Our Team
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Kip Benbow
Firefighter/Paramedic Carmel Fire Department
TEMS Carmel Police Department
Kip Benbow is a 17-year veteran of the Carmel Fire Department. He has been a Paramedic for 11 years and a Tactical Medic assigned to the CPD SWAT team for 9 years. In his time at CFD, he has served several roles in the department: Rescue Task Force Instructor, EMS Preceptor, EMS Duty Officer, EMS QA Review, Primary Instructor in the CFD’s EMT Class for the CFD Recruit Fire Academy and a Background Investigator.
Kip attended the Northern Illinois Public Safety Academy for their Rescue Task Force Trainer Course in 2015. Since then he has been integral in working with his department in creating the RTF concept, general orders and training. Kip Benbow and fellow instructor Tim Fagin are constantly striving to keep their department up to speed on all ideas and concepts in relation to the Rescue Task Force Model. Their primary focus in RTF Training is to present “a way” of doing it, not “THE way”.
Before joining public safety, Kip served 13 years in the US Marine Corps and Army National Guard as an Infantryman, with deployments to Bosnia, Albania, Zaire and Afghanistan. He also obtained his BA in History from Butler University in 2001.
Our Team
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Tim Fagin
Firefighter/Paramedic Carmel Fire Department
TEMS Carmel Police Department
Tim Fagin is a 17-year veteran of the Carmel Fire Department. He has been a Paramedic for 14 years and a Tactical Medic assigned to the CPD SWAT team for 9 years. In his time at CFD, he has served several roles in the department: Rescue Task Force Instructor, EMS Training Captain, EMS Preceptor, Shift Fire Training Officer and Background Investigator.
Tim attended the Northern Illinois Public Safety Academy for their Rescue Task Force Trainer Course in 2015. Since then he has been integral in working with his department in creating the RTF concept, general orders and training. He contributed a great deal of time in researching and developing the PPE requirements for the current load out for RTF response kits. Tim Fagin and fellow instructor Kip Benbow are constantly striving to keep their department up to speed on all ideas and concepts in relation to the Rescue Task Force Model. Their primary focus in RTF Training is to present “a way” of doing it, not “THE way”.
Before joining public safety, Tim obtained his BS in Legal Studies/Public Affairs from Indiana University in 2002.
Our Team
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Nicholas Hensel
Firefighter/Paramedic City of Lawrence Fire Department
TEMS Lawrence Police Department
Engine 39-A/Lieutenant
Career Highlights: Mr. Hensel joined the US Navy in 2005 and became a Fleet Marine Force
Corpsman and was assigned/deployed with USMC Infantry Companies as a front line Corpsman
to both Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr. Hensel is a graduate of TCCC and TCCC instructor through
the US Navy. He is also a graduate of the Combat Trauma Management course from the US
Navy, which was formally known as Operational Emergency Medicine. After his honorable
discharge from active duty in the US Navy, Mr. Hensel became a FF/Paramedic with the
Lawrence Township Fire Dept., upon their merger with IFD in 2010, Mr. Hensel became a
FF/Paramedic with the City of Lawrence Fire Dept. where he currently holds the rank of
Lieutenant. Mr. Hensel became a SWAT Paramedic for the City of Lawrence Police Department
in 2013, and has been the senior SWAT Paramedic leading the team of TEMS since 2019. Mr.
Hensel was one of the SWAT Medics called to Assist IMPD TEMS with TEMS/EMS operations
in the Hot Zone during the riots of 2020 in downtown Indianapolis. Mr. Hensel is also a Rescue
Task Force Instructor and is the RTF Coordinator for his department, he also sits on the County
planning committee established to bring the Rescue Task Force program operational in
Indianapolis/Marion County.
Our Team
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David Rice
Program Manager:
North American Rescue
David Rice is a retired Missouri State Trooper and SWAT Medic. He has been a Paramedic since 1993 and actively involved in Tactical Combat Casualty Care since the early 2000s. David worked for Tyr Tactical, a premier body armor manufacturer, before moving to North American Rescue where he runs the ballistic line of products for first responders.
Our Team
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Brett Bousema
Sargent IMPD SWAT
Sgt. Bousema worked as a patrol officer on the North District of IMPD after graduation of the academy. During his time there he worked on several different shifts and was a Field Training Officer. Sgt. Bousema is a graduate of the IMPD Leadership Academy and is currently an assistant team leader on SWAT. Sgt. Bousema was promoted in 2019 and works on the full time IMPD SWAT QRF. Sgt. Bousema developed the IMPD SWAT drone program and also assists the IMPD Aviation unit by flying outdoors when assisting detectives, looking for missing people, or suspects