Instructor Biography's

FR & Military Peer Support Trainers, MA Clinical Psych, Army Beh. Health Officer, Ret. LE

Mary Cablk, Ph.D. trains, fields, and studies detection canines in SAR and LE disciplines. She has been a handler with California’s Wilderness Finders Search Dog Teams (WOOF) for 25 years, is the current president of WOOF, the Chair of the Cal OES Specialized HRD (SHRD) Committee and a founding SHRD handler, and a member of the Cal OES HRD Guidelines Revision Committee. She developed the canine component of Cal OES’s Search Methods in a Burned Environment and co-teaches with Chico State Forensic Anthropologists and Cal OES. Dr. Cablk is an adjunct professor at the University of Tennessee Knoxville in forensic anthropology where she is currently researching residual odor of intact decedents using canine teams and analytical chemistry. She is a member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and sits on multiple working groups developing national standards in multiple canine detection disciplines. Mary has trained, certified and deployed four of her own canines, one cross trained in area, avalanche, and cadaver and three single purpose HRD and water. She currently works a Belgian Malinois in water and HRD, which is her greatest joy. 

Dr. Stewart is a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in child and family psychology. She is the founder and Executive Director of the Orion Academy, a college preparatory high school specializing in the education of high school students on the Autism Spectrum where her trademarked Dog Class is a required course for graduation.  She has been a dog trainer and K9 handler for over 15 years and a member of North American Police Work Dog Association, California Rescue Dog Association and Sacramento County Search and Rescue.  She is a founding member of the Cal-OES Specialized Human Remains Detection (SHRD) committee and current K9 handler for SHRD.  She is the Training Group Leader of Greater Bay Area K9, GBAK9, a training group within CARDA and has trained and certified numerous teams for Area, Cadaver, and water deployment.  She currently works two K9s; a German Shephard certified in HRD and water and a Dutch Shepherd/Malinois cross, recently certified in HRD for CARDA and SHRD.

Kris Black has volunteered in Search and Rescue since the year 2000 and currently is the Assistant Director for Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Team.  She is Certified by the California Rescue Dog Association (CARDA) with her canine Aria, in Trailing. Annie has her SHRD HRD certification for criminal nexus cases. She is currently the Assistant Chair of the Cal OES Specialized HRD (SHRD) Committee and Chair of the Cal OES HRD Guidelines revision committee.  Her experience has taken her and her canines both throughout California and internationally. 

Skinner started her Search and Rescue career with CARDA (California Rescue Dog Association) in 2017 certifying her first Area search K9 in 2019.  She began her service with the Napa County SAR team in 2019 and the Marin County SAR team in 2023.  Since becoming certified Skinner has served on more than 120 deployments both as a K9 Handler and Ground Searcher on searches as far north as Del Norte County and as far south as Los Angeles County.  With CARDA, she serves as the Coastal Region Representative, Chairperson of the Policy and Standards Committee, member of the VP’s Administration committee, a Primary Evaluator for CARDA certification tests, and member of additional ad hoc committees.  Skinner joined the Napa County SAR Board of Directors in 2022 as their Training Coordinator and is currently the K9 Manager for the Marin and Napa County SAR teams.  

Margo Machen DVM, PhD has been a veterinarian for 34 years graduating from Michigan State University in 1990 with her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and 1995 receiving her PhD in Molecular Genetics from the same institution.  She started her Search and Rescue career 19 years ago; working for Adventure Racing Production companies helping to rescue lost racing teams.   After retiring from Adventure Racing in 2010 she became a volunteer search and rescue member for the San Bernardino County Sheriff Department holding dual member status on West Valley Search and Rescue (WVSAR) and the San Bernardino Search, Rescue and Trailing (SBSTAR) Dog Team.  WVSAR is a member of the Mountain Rescue Association (MRA) and Dr. Machen has been a technical rescuer on the team for the past 14 years.  The team averages 30 to 40 searches and rescues a year, in very challenging technical terrain, in the Angeles and San Bernardino National Forest. Dr. Machen has trained and handled a total of 3 English Labrador Retrievers as trailing dogs all of which have been dual certified in a detection discipline.  In addition to training her own canines she has assisted in training a number of other canines for a variety of law enforcement departments throughout the greater Los Angeles area. Currently, she is a member of the SBSTAR Dog Team and is a sworn civilian canine handler with Pomona Police Department.  Dr. Machen has deployed numerous times with her trailing canines and has contributed to the positive outcome of a number of searches.  Dr. Machen’s canines also have been credited with a number of evidentiary article and gun finds in criminal cases; in which she has testified in court. The combination of both a technically trained search and rescuer and canine handler gives her a broad basis of experience to draw upon when deployed and to share with the SAR community.

"Susan Jensen is a Lieutenant with the Yuba County Sheriff's Department where she serves as the Search and Rescue Coordinator.  Susan began her career in Law Enforcement in April 2002 as a Cadet with Yuba City Police Department, and joined the Yuba County Sheriff's Department in November 2004.  Susan has been a member of the Technical Rescue Team (Dive Team) since August 2012; and assumed the role of team lead in December 2019. Susan is the Sheriff's Posse liaison and has been a Search and Rescue K9 handler since 2015.  Susan was appointed as the Search and Rescue Coordinator for Yuba County Sheriff's Department in December 2019, and she is responsible for overseeing the volunteer SAR team as well as the Dive and Technical Rescue Team.  Susan has over 12 years of combined field and management search and rescue experience.  

Susan has responded to and lead numerous search and rescue missions and is a part of the Emergency Operation Center (EOC) during disasters such as fires.  Susan has worked hard over the past year to integrate CalTopo into the Sheriff's Department response.  Susan frequently trains SAR team members in Search Management Techniques, Rope Rescue skills, Swiftwater Rescue skills, Public Safety Diver skills, Navigation, and general SAR and survival skills.  

Susan is a graduate of the following OES courses: Direction and Control of the Search Function, Winter Operations SAR Management, Advance Direction and Control, and Mass Fatality Training.  Susan is a graduate of the National Search and Rescue Academy, and has attended Managing the Lost Person Incident Course.  

Susan continues to train members of the department and members of the SAR team in CalTopo.  Susan conducts monthly training with her SAR Incident Management Team, in which she trains them in CalTopo, as well as trains them for SAR Management Incident Response.  "

"Wayne started in search and rescue with the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) in 1972 and joined the Bay Area Mountain Rescue Unit (BAMRU) in 1986. Wayne became a member of the California Rescue Dog Association (CARDA) in 1991 (yes over 30 years).

He has certified 4 dogs through CARDA with certifications in wilderness, human remains detection 1, 2 & 3, avalanche and basic urban disaster dog (BUDD). 

Currently a member of CARDA, BAMRU, and Yosemite's K-9 SAR team YODOGs. Wayne resides in San Mateo County with his wife, Kim and his dog, Scout."

Aurora has been in search and rescue since 2010 and is currently working as a search and recovery handler with her certified cadaver dog Roo.  Aurora has been a member of the California Rescue Dog Association since 2010 working an area dog, Kodiak who is retired now and a member of the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Team since 2012. She is an associate with the Specialized Search Team (CSST), a resource to the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, since 2018. She has experience with searches as an area dog handler, cadaver dog handler and as a ground team member. In addition, Aurora is an associate with the Institute for Canine Forensics and is certified with her dog Roo in historic human remains detection.

Steve Carstens, D.O., MS, FACEP (Fellow the American Academy of Emergency Medicine), FAWM (Fellow of the Academy of Wilderness Medicine)

Kern Medical Center, Emergency Medicine (1996)

Emergency Medicine Faculty at Kaweah Health (retired)

Instructor, Kaweah Health Wilderness Medicine course

Adjunct Faculty – California Health Sciences University

Instructor WLS:MP (formerly AWLS)

Volunteer, Tulare County Sheriff Office, Search and Rescue

Dr. Kris Kordana is an internal medicine physician who lives in Davis where he practices with Kaiser Permanente. He's a member of the Yolo County SAR team. He's also active in the Wilderness Medical Society. He's a fellow in the Academy of Wilderness Medicine he's working on a Diploma in Mountain Medicine. 

"Michael St. John joined the Marin County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Team in 1979 and has served as the Unit Leader since 1989. The Marin County Sheriff’s SAR Unit has 120 members and responded to over 50 missions last year throughout California. Michael played an integral role in leading the team to become a certified Mountain Rescue Team. Michael’s Fire Service career started in 1985 as a Seasonal Firefighter and currently works as a Battalion Chief with the Southern Marin Fire Department. Michael currently serves in the Planning Section of the North Bay Incident Management Team. 

Michael has played an integral role in the development of the abduction search strategy curriculum, which has been published in “Managing Missing Persons in the Urban environment”. He is a nationally recognized instructor in searching for victims of predator abductions and was recognized by the National Association of Search and Rescue in 2003 with the “State” award for his work. Michael teaches courses in abduction search operations and Advanced Search Management for the California State OES Law Enforcement Branch. 

Through his diverse professional experiences in emergency services, Michael has significant experience and expertise in a broad spectrum of emergency management fields, including major fire incidents, Hazardous Materials Operations, and large-scale protracted search and rescue missions. 

Adam Zimbardo is a licensed marriage and family therapist in private practice in Davis, California. He has been seeing patients for over twenty years, and has extensive experience working with post-traumatic stress disorder. Before moving to Davis, he worked in San Francisco’s public health system at Haight-Ashbury Psychological Services, New Leaf Community Services, and UCSF’s AIDS Health Project. In addition to his clinical work, he volunteered for many years with the Black Rock Rangers, providing on-scene support to participants at Burning Man. He currently volunteers with Yolo County Search and Rescue. 

As of 2023: Kristi Mayhew is a fourteen-year veteran with El Dorado County Search and Rescue. During her thirteen years, she proudly served eight years on the Technical Rope Rescue Team. Kristi was the Finance Chair for the 2012 State SAREX and the Incident Commander for the 2018 State SAREX in Lake Tahoe. After completing two deployments to the Camp Fire in 2018, Kristi noticed the lack of qualified personnel to help SAR teams deal with the Critical Incident Stress they experienced due to that traumatic incident. While still working with SAR, Kristi became an Ordained Chaplain working specifically with Law Enforcement. She is Ordained with the International Federation of Chaplains (IFOC) and a member of the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation (ICISF). Kristi currently serves with Sierra Law Enforcement Chaplaincy and is an Ambassador for K-Love Crisis Response Care team.

Shawn Mayhew is a thirteen-year veteran with El Dorado County Search and Rescue. During his twelve years, he served eight years on the Technical Rope Rescue Team. He has also served on the OHV team in various roles as Team Captain, Training officer and Asset officer over 13 years. Shawn was deployed to the Camp Fire, Caldor Fire and many out of county searches.

As of 2023: Kevin Jessee, SELPA Compliance Officer for the Tulare County Office of Education. More than 20 years in Special Education serving students with disabilities ages preschool through 22. He served 7 years as the Director of Special Education for Porterville Unified School District and over 10 years as a School Psychologist, college adjunct professor, and speaker and trainer for contracted school districts and the Association of California School Administrators. 

As of 2023: Dr. Colleen Milligan, D-ABFA, Professor and Chair of Anthropology/Co-Director of the Human Idenfitication Laboratory. Dr. Milligan teaches and conducts research in biological anthropology, human osteology, forensic anthropology, forensic science, and statistics at Chico State. Shew is a Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Anthropology (#135). She is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. Dr. Milligan has assisted California sheriff-coroner's offices, state agencies, and federal agencies for the past 12 years. She previously served as a Fellow with the Department of Homeland Security working on Mass Fatality Management in the US. In addition, she has taught for the California Peach Officer Standards and Training Program (POST) since 2014.

As of 2023: Dr Eric Bartelink is a Professor of Biological and Forensic Anthropology at California State University-Chico. He serves as the co-Director of the Human Identification Laboratory and Director of the Stable Isotope Preparation Laboratory. He provides forensic anthropology and isotopic services to law enforcement in California. He is a past President of the American Board of Forensic Anthropology and currently co-chairs the Forensic Anthropology Subcommittee for the Organization of Scientific Area Committees, which works on the development of forensic standards. 

As of 2023: Dr. Ashley Kendell is an Aisstant Professor and Coorinator of the Certificate in Forensic Science at California State University, Chico. Dr. Kendell is also a certified POST instrctor, teaching homicide investigation courses to regional and state law enforcement. Prior to beginning her position at Chico State, she was a visiting professor at the University of Montana and the forensic anthropologist for the state of Montana. While completing her doctorate at Michigan State University she also worked as a Medicolegal Death investigator and was a Registry Diplomate of the American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators for five years. 

As of 2023: For more than 35 years, Fernando Moreira has trained trackers from Search & Rescue Teams, law enforcement officers, military personnel and outdoor enthusiasts across the United States as well as in several foreign countries.

He initially became interested in the art of man-tracking while serving in the Portuguese army in Angola. He has utilized his skill in tracking on a nearly daily basis since then.

Fernando has also assisted law enforcement officers in finding crucial evidence in many high-profile missing persons and homicide cases across the United States including Alaska and Hawaii. 

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We’re proud to have produced years of happy clients and students and look forward to continuing our work for years to come! Our love for tracking and helping others drives who we are and what we do. Every. Single. Day.

As of 2023: Jim Kuthy is an Industrial and Organizational Psychologist who spent 20 years training people in the art of conducting fair and valid interviews. He has been member of the El Dorado County Incident Support Team for the past nine years. He has also served as the Captain/Vice-President of Lake Tahoe Search & Rescue, Inc. (Douglas County, NV), as well as serving as a Sheriff’s Detective. 

As of 2023: Experiential Education Coordinator with over 20 years’ experience in the education industry, possessing expertise in program development resource and logistics management in collegiate outdoor education programing. Certified as a Wilderness First Responder since 1998, Have taught at Princeton University, Florida State University, as well as currently teaching at Reedley College. 

As of 2023: Christopher (Chris) S. Young has been active in Search and Rescue since 1981, managed searches since 1986, is the past reserve Captain for the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Team and serves as chairman of the Bay Area Search and Rescue Council, Inc. (BASARC). Chris is a retired Instructor for the POST “Direction and Control of the Search Function Course” for the State of California Office of Emergency Service for 25 years, is currently an Instructor Trainer for the “Managing the Lost Person Incident” and “Urban Search Management” (developed by Chris) for the National Association for Search and Rescue (NASAR), he is also an Instructor Trainer in Emergency Medical Response and first aid for the American Red Cross since 1972, as well as specialized topics in Search Management, including Search Management in the Urban Environment, and Investigation and Interviewing in SAR. Chris has also written, published and presented search management papers at the National Association for Search and Rescue conferences, the Canadian National Search and Rescue Secretariat SARSCENE conferences, the William Syrotuck Symposiums on Search Theory and Practice, the Canadian Coast Guard College, the Provincial Sûreté Du Québec Police, the Ontario Provincial Police, the New Zealand National SAR Conference, the Icelandic International Search and Rescue Conference, Norwegian Frivillige Organisasjoners Redningsfaglige Forum (FORF) Seminar and several State Search and Rescue conferences. He is also co-author of the book “Urban Search – Managing Missing Person Searches in the Urban Environment”, published 2007 by dbS Publications, author of the book “Intelligent Search – Managing the Intelligence Process in the Search for Missing Persons”, published 2022 by dbS Publications, as well as a contributing author on several other books for search and rescue. Additionally, Chris is a Level 1 law enforcement reserve deputy with the Sheriff’s Dept and the City of Danville and is an EMT 1 Instructor. Chris holds a Master of Science Degree in Construction Management and is retired from working for a large general contractor based in San Francisco as a Senior Project Manager and was responsible for overall management of multi-million dollar ground up commercial, high rise, hospital, educational and hotel projects. He is currently a Ph.D Candidate at the University of Portsmouth, UK in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Centre for Missing Persons (expected graduation in September 2022). He has been married for 46 years, with three children and four grandchildren.

As of 2023: Celeste began her Law Enforcement career as a Police Officer in Springfield, MO in January of 2000. There, she was involved in various units: patrol, bicycle unit, PAR/COP unit, field-training officer and was a defensive tactics instructor. In 2008 she moved to Siskiyou County and joined the Sheriff’s Office. In 2010, she became the SAR coordinator.  Celeste not only was involved in SAR in CA, but also in Oregon. Siskiyou County is a part of California Oregon Regional Search and Rescue (CORSAR).  SAR has been one of the most fulfilling duties of her career. In 2015 she promoted to a Detective in the Major Crimes Unit.  In 2017 she became a member of the SWAT Team and later that year was promoted to Sergeant.  In October of 2018 she moved to Sacramento and became an Assistant Chief (AC) with Cal-OES Law Enforcement Branch (LEB).  Her career with Cal OES LEB consists of the following: Law Enforcement Operation Center (LEOC) AC, Region IV AC, Region III AC, Search and Rescue (SAR) AC and K9 AC. 

As of 2023: John recently retired after 47 years with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's, Montrose Search and Rescue Team. The Team is a member of the Mountain Rescue Association (MRA) and responds to incidents ranging from car-overs to searches for overdue hikers, hunters, and skiers to rescuing stranded or

fallen climbers. Montrose' prime response area is approximately 500 square miles of the Angeles National Forest including Big Tujunga Canyon, most of the Angeles Crest and Angeles Forest Highways and includes two small ski areas, several organization camps, and public campgrounds.  The team is also one of two Mine Rescue teams in California and has responded to underground emergencies throughout the state. He held the rank of Reserve Commander with the Sheriff's Department and hopes that he can pass on some of the things he learned from over 2400 callouts to you. He has taught SAR Management for OES since 1988. He served on the Board of Directors of the National Association for Search and Rescue (NASAR) and was the Treasurer of that Association for four years. Active in the development of Search and Rescue standards since its inception in 1989, John served 6 years as the Chairman of ASTM Committee F-32 on Search and Rescue and authored several standards documents. He also served on three NFPA standards development committees and contributed to several of the OES SAR Guidelines. John recently retired as the School Director for CMC Rescue. He continues as an instructor for CMC where he teaches Rope Rescue, Confined Space Rescue, Tower Rescue and other specialized rescue training classes.

As of 2023: Steve has been a member of El Dorado Search and Rescue since 2007. In the past, he has served as: * Team Leader - Ground Team * Asst. Team Leader - Swiftwater Rescue Team * Training Officer - Incident Support Team * Asst. Team Leader - Incident Support Team * Incident Commander 2012 & 2018 State SAREX * Current Team Leader - Swiftwater & Flood Rescue Team He has completed the POST Certified Mantracking Class and has taught the EDSAR Academy Mantracking & Clue Awareness class since 2012. He has completed the NASAR Managing the Lost Person Incident Class and has taught the EDSAR Academy Intro to SAR Basics & Theory Class since 2020 and serves as a Search Manager and Plans Section Chief. He has been awarded the EDSAR 2011 Coordinators Award and the 2012 and 2018 Volunteer of the Year Award. 

As of 2023: Matt is a Retired Deputy Chief with the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) - Law Enforcement Branch where he served as the California State Search and Rescue Coordinator. Matt retired during his 20th year of service to the State and was headquartered out of the Region V office, located in Fresno, and supervised the "Special Operations" Division of CalOES Law Enforcement Branch. Matt is a recognized expert in the field of Search and Rescue. Prior to Cal OES Matt spent almost 20 years with the Mariposa County Sheriff’s Department Search and Rescue Team, beginning as a volunteer and his last 13 years there as a full time Deputy and Sergeant and Search and Rescue Unit Coordinator. Matt has over 40 years of combined field and management search and rescue experience. He has coordinated literally hundreds of searches, rescues, and large and small-scale disasters. A previous college instructor for search and rescue topics of: Search Management and Tactics, Technical Rope Rescue, Swiftwater Rescue, Man Tracking, and Law Enforcement Incident Command Systems along with other Law Enforcement topics. Matt was a member of the California POST Missing Persons specialist committee, and he was also a member of the Federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS)/Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), National Incident Management Systems (NIMS) Working Group for Search and Rescue as well as FEMA's NIMS working group of Emergency Management. Matt also served as the Vice Chairman of the National Association for Search and Rescue's State Search and Rescue Coordinator's Council. He was the lead instructor for the CalOES Search and Rescue Instruction Program, instructing the "Direction and Control of the Search Function Course" and the "Winter Operations SAR Management Course" and was responsible for all State of California SAR programs. Matt's 33- year law enforcement career has earned him California's Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) certificates of Advanced, Supervisory, and Management".

Upon Retirement, Matt continues in his lifelong quest at saving lives as he returns to Cal OES as a contract Search and rescue Management Instructor, in both Direction and Control of the Search Function and Winter Search and Rescue Management curriculums. He also travels the United States teaching specialized Rope Rescue courses for CMC Rescue out of Santa Barbara California and he travels the world conducting Mass Fatality Operations for Kenyon International based in Houston Texas.

Kate Davern is a 2nd generation SAR handler & professional dog trainer for Urban and Wilderness search, duck and upland gundog training as well as competitive obedience and behavioral rehab with Traditional Chinese Medicine. 

Kate started competing in AKC obedience at the age of 12 with her 7 month old Golden Retriever and went high in trial their first time in the ring. She has trained and titled client dogs since 1984 in Obedience, Rally and Hunt Tests as well as coaching owners who want to compete with their own dogs.

Kate trained live find dogs and handlers for over 12 years for the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation as well as their 1st HRD teams. She has been a member of Monterey Bay Search Dogs for 10 years and she and her home bred black lab Ace are certified C1.