NIMO Incident Management Team 3

Jason Loomis - Incident Commander

Jason began his career in 1989 on the Deschutes National Forest, since then, he has worked on three National Forests, a National Park, Geographic Area Coordination Center and Park Service Region Office. Jason has worked on Incident Management Teams since 2005 as Division Supervisor, Fire Behavior Analyst, Operations Section Chief, and Incident Commander. Jason currently maintains qualifications as Incident Commander Complex, Operations Sections Chief Complex, Strategic Operational Planner, and Fire Behavior Analyst.

Jason’s diverse career experience has provided him exposure to multiple facets of wildland fire management. He has held positions as Region Fire Management Specialist - Operations & Preparedness, Region Fire Management Analyst, Fuels Specialist, Prescribed Fire Specialist, Fire Prevention Officer, Fire Management Officer, Engine Captain, Crew Captain, Hotshot Crew Member, and Initial Attack Crew Member.

He earned degrees in both Fire Science as well as Fire Prevention and Public Education. He completed the Technical Fire Management program in 2003. Jason currently serves on multiple cadres as evaluator, coach, or instructor.  He has been engaged in the Fire Analyst community since 2010; served as instructor, coach, and steering committee member for S-590 Advanced Fire Behavior Interpretation since 2012; and currently serves as coach at S-520 Advanced Incident Management.

Jason’s professional passion includes workforce development and mentoring, instructing, leadership principles, incident management, and fire behavior analysis.

In Jason’s free time, he enjoys spending time with his wife traveling around the country and abroad, being with family and friends in community, and is an avid baseball fan - notably his favorite team, the Atlanta Braves. jason.loomis@usda.gov

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Rob Poyner - Safety Officer 

Rob has over two decades of fire experience with diverse experience in leadership and program management skills as an Assistant Forest Fire Management Officer, Zone Fire Management Officer, and Hotshot Superintendent. Rob has a strong operational background with substantial suppression, pre-suppression, prescribed fire, and all risk experience. He has been lead Safety Officer on PNW 2 and has been at the forefront of implementing new concepts and approaches in Safety and Risk Management with Strategic Risk and Operations. robert.poyner@usda.gov

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Chris Barth - Public Information Officer

Chris started his career in wildland fire with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in 1992. He went on to help develop the wildland fire program in the City of Boulder (CO), while simultaneously volunteering with a local fire department and continuing to build his operational skillsets. He worked seasonally as a firefighter with the Forest Service while pursuing an advanced degree. After working for Jane Goodall in Tanzania for a few years, he returned to work with federal, county, and municipal wildland fire programs. Chris returned to the BLM in 2009, working as a Fire Mitigation Specialist in both Colorado and Montana, before being selected as one of the National Incident Management Organization (NIMO) Public Information Officers in 2024. 

He has more than three decades of fire experience with diverse experience in strategic communications. As a Public Information Officer (PIO), Chris’ communication style is shaped by his operational, professional, and research experiences. He was the lead PIO on Pacific Northwest Team 2 prior to joining NIMO. He has also been on incident management teams as a PIO and Liaison Officer in Alaska, Rocky Mountains, and the Southwest - including assignments in nearly every state in the American West and Australia. Chris contributes to the development of the PIO role in complex incident management as a coach and subject matter expert for S-520, and as the chair of National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) PIO Subcommittee.

In addition to his communications experience, Chris has been committed to the application of science and new and emerging technologies to inform best practices for creating fire adapted communities. He has received several national awards for his work to reduce community wildfire risk. He is a founding member and subject matter expert for the Wildfire Research (WiRē) Team. His research interests include homeowners’ attitudes towards wildfire mitigation and public perception of wildfire risk. He has co-authored peer-reviewed and professional/technical papers on homeowners’ attitudes towards wildfire mitigation and public perception of wildfire risk. He has also presented at national and international conferences related to his work in this field.

Chris holds Bachelor’s Degrees in both Biology and Environmental Conservation from the University of Colorado at Boulder, as well as a Master’s Degree in Environmental Education from the University of Montana.

In his free time, Chris enjoys mountain biking, hiking, traveling, and spending time with his wife, daughter, and dogs. christopher.barth@usda.gov
 

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Brian Watts - Planning Section Chief

Brian graduated from Oregon State University in 1992 with a Bachelor of Science degree. While attending college he worked as a temporary employee on the Ochoco National Forest in Oregon. It was during his years as a temporary employee (1987-1992) that he became interested in fire management. Brian actively participated in wildland fire and prescribed fire projects throughout his time as a temporary employee.

Brian began his permanent career with the Forest Service as a Rangeland Management Specialist on the Leadore Ranger District of the Salmon National Forest in Idaho in 1992. In 1995 he accepted a lateral position to the Austin Ranger District of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest in Nevada. He transferred to the Bureau of Land Management’s Farmington District in New Mexico in 1999. While in these positions he continued to be engaged in fire management activities.

While in Farmington, Brian moved into a Fuels Management Specialist position in 2001. This opportunity provided him with numerous opportunities to improve his operational and command fire qualifications. In 2003, he transferred to the Vale District BLM in Oregon as the District Fire Ecologist. This position provided him with the opportunity to mix his natural resource and fire management knowledge and skills to plan and implement fuels management, fire management, and emergency stabilization and rehabilitation projects.

In 2005, Brian joined the Blue Mountain Interagency Incident Management Team (Type 2), based in northeast Oregon, as a trainee Situation Unit Leader and continued to pursue additional planning section qualifications and became the Planning Section Chief for the team in 2008 and served in that position until 2011. He became a qualified Type 1 Planning Section Chief in 2011 while working with the Pacific Northwest National Incident Management Teams.

In 2012, Brian became the Incident Commander for Oregon Interagency Incident Management Team 4 (Type 2). While assigned to the 2012 Barry Point Fire (Lakeview, Ore.) he and his team had the opportunity to work with the Portland NIMO team. This experience was a valuable training and learning opportunity for him and the team. After his experience with NIMO, Brian decided to make working for NIMO a career objective which was achieved in 2015 when he was hired as Planning Section Chief for NIMO Team 3 (Phoenix).

Brian acquired his Incident Commander Type 1 qualification in 2019 and served as fill-in Incident Commander for NIMO Team 2 (Boise) February through September 2022.  Brian also detailed as the Incident Commander for NIMO Team 3 in 2023.

Brian lives in Payette, Idaho. In his free time, he enjoys running, golfing, riding his mountain and road bikes, and traveling around the US to watch the Atlanta Braves. brian.watts@usda.gov

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Jon Teutrine - Operations Section Chief

Jon is a graduate of Northland College in Ashland, Wis. where he earned a Bachelor’s of Science Degree. While attending school, he got his first taste of fire as one of the founding members of the Northland Fire Crew. He also filled in on WI DNR engine crews and helped with prescribed burns on the Chequamegon National Forest. 

After college, Jon moved to Oregon and worked intermittently in fire and as a wildlife tech. He got his first permanent appointment with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in central California as an Engine Captain during the National Fire Plan build-up. While in California, he also worked as a Squad Boss, Assistant Superintendent and a district Fuels Officer for the Mendocino National Forest. 

Jon relocated to the Shawnee National Forest in Region 9 after the birth of his son where he served as a District AFMO, District FMO and eventually the Forest Fire Staff. While in Region 9, he became involved in the geographic areas Training Working Team serving as the vice chair. He also worked for the Forest Service’s International Programs teaching Incident Command System in Indonesia, Vanuatu and Timor Leste.

Jon started working on Incident Management Teams as a Division Supervisor on California Incident Management Team 2. He has also worked on the Sothern Area Red Team as a Branch Director and the Eastern Area’s Type 2 Team as the primary Operations Section Chief. Before joining NIMO, he was a Primary Operations Section Chief for the Rocky Mountain Type 1 Team. jon.teutrine@usda.gov

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Susan "Sue" Zahn - Logistics Section Chief

Sue currently works for the U.S. Forest Service, Washington Office, Fire and Aviation Management assigned to the National Incident Management Organization (NIMO).

Within NIMO Sue is assigned to Team 3 as Logistics Section Chief (LSC) and a member of the Landscapes and Partnerships Workgroup. In addition, she serves as a member on NWCG Incident Logistics Section Chief Subcommittee, the Greening Fire Team, and as a Contract Officer’s Representative (COR III) for the WO SPF Urban and Community Forestry program area. She has been a cadre member on the R5 logistics workshop since 2003, as an instructor and recently as one of the course coordinators. Sue has been involved with S-520 as a SIM team member, Coach/Evaluator and SME since 2013. 

Sue started with the US Forest Service in Region 5 in 1986. From 1986 to 2003, she worked on each of the Southern California Forests in a variety of positions that included Fire Fighter, Wilderness Manager, Prevention Officer and Fuels Battalion Chief. 

In 2003, She joined the National Technology and Development Program as a Fuels Management Specialist. While at San Dimas, Sue valued supporting the field directly with her fuels related work and through her publications on completed projects. 

In 2008, Sue returned to where she started her career, the San Bernardino National Forest as a Fuels Battalion Chief overseeing district mechanical fuels projects. She then accepted the position of Supervisory Forest Vegetation Manager, overseeing all the forest’s hazardous fuels work, timber and restoration programs and The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) grant administration.

In 2012, Sue was assigned to Region 5 Fire and Aviation Management as the Fire Operations Contracting Program Manager, managing the Region’s “VIPR” fire incident equipment agreements.

Sue has served as an Incident Management team member for both Type I and II teams along with Area Command as an LSC. Additional IQCS qualifications she holds are Incident Business Advisor (INBA) and Incident Contract Project Inspector (ICPI).

Sue has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Public Administration from the University of La Verne and a certificate of study in Wildland Fire Management from Humboldt State University. susan.zahn@usda.gov

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Jaci Tonkin - Finance Section Chief

Jaci was born in Seattle, WA and grew up in Juneau, AK. She started her Forest Service career straight out of high school as a clerk typist on the Region 10 Regional Office’s Fiscal and Public Safety/Personnel and Civil Rights staff. She continued to work herself up through the ranks and eventually became the Region 10 Lead Computer Specialist, responsible for the management and maintenance of the R10 Regional Office mainframe computers. 

In 2005, the Forest Service completed a realignment which involved centralization of the Information Technology program into the Chief Information Office (CIO). Jaci was then placed in the Computer Specialist position with collateral duties which included being the Alternate Information System Security Officer (ISSO) for the Forest Service Computer Base – Legacy Data Center. During this time, she helped the Forest Service improve their security audit finding from “Material Weakness” to “Significant Deficiency.” After five years in this position, in 2010, she received a promotion to the lead ISSO which involved a transfer to Kansas City to work from the National Data Center.

Jaci began her fire career in 1996 with her first assignment on the Miller Reach fire outside of Anchorage, AK, working as an Equipment Time Recorder (EQTR). That was enough to completely hook her to the world of incident management assignments. She has worked her way through all the Finance positions and is a qualified Finance Section Chief (FSC) and Incident Business Advisor (INBA) who has had assignments in every Region.

Jaci currently lives in Redding, CA. There she has a beautiful home with her husband, Jeff, and 2 dogs and 3 cats. She loves doing home improvement projects and is always keeping herself busy when she is not traveling for work or pleasure. jaclyn.tonkin@usda.gov

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