H.O.P.E Beyond The Badge

Seamus Shanley is a prominent Firefighter in Worcester Ma, digital creator, and Marine Corps Veteran - He has dedicated 25 years to the Fire Service. Beyond his career as a first responder, Seamus is a highly active advocate for mental health and addiction recovery, particularly within the public safety community.

In this episode Seamus shares his own story of hardship, service, struggle, recovery, healing, perseverance, and helping...

Kelly Chiulli joins us on the podcast and discusses her years of service - Military service, service as a Law Enforcement Officer, and service to other first responders navigating their own struggles. While Kelly talks about her many years of service, she also explains how the stress of the job can impact those who serve, she discusses some of the calls that stayed with her, and shares openly about significant loss that she has exp...

Chris Fields joins Linda and Jay to discuss his long career in the fire service and the work he's doing now to educate the next generation of first responders that it okay to not be okay - and its okay to talk about that.

Chris shares openly about his mindset as a new recruit & how that changed over time. He describes the impact of loosing co-workers, provides a vivid description of the of the Oklahoma city bombing scene, talks ...

In this episode we interview Jared Buchanan and DanielHerzog.

Jared is a suicide loss survivor, and Daniel is afilmmaker.  Together they produced adocumentary that explores grief, PTSD, suicide prevention, and resilience through telling Jared’s story on the 10th anniversary of his father’s death by suicide. 

Jared’s father – Paul Buchanan – a police officer in EastHartford Connecticut died by ...

Elizabeth Bartholomew joins us on the podcast.

Liz worked as a police records clerk in Batavia Illinois  where she met Joe Bartholomew, a paid on-call firefighter, they married in 1980.  Joe was hired as a full time Firefighter in 1986.  While their daughters were young Liz was able to be a stay at home mom.  Later she drove a school bus part-time in Naperville, Illinois, became Band Booster President and was on...

Lieutenant Sean M. Carroll (Ret.) spent 23 years with the Providence Police Department, retiring as a Lieutenant and Commanding Officer, after serving in the United StatesMarine Corps.

Today he is Founder and CEO of A.I.O. Leadership, LLC, where he trains supervisors on the leadership decisions that determine whether officers stay whole or burn out. 

He is the author of A.I.O. Leadership for Law Enforcement, a Police1 columnist,...

Kemmi Sadler is a best-selling author, speaker, retired U.S. Diplomat, and former Supervisory Special Agent with the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service. Over a 26-year career as a sworn law enforcement officer and federal agent, she served in high-threat assignments around the world, including Iraq and Afghanistan. She began her law enforcement career as a police officer in St. Augustine, Florida.

Her ...

Retired Fire Chief David Rhodes joins us on the podcast.

David is a 39 year veteran of the fire service retired from the Atlanta Gorgia fire dept. He currently works for Clarion events as the Vice President of Education for Clarion Fire Rescue Brands, he is the Editor in Chief for Fire Engineering Magazine, and the educational director for the Fire Department Instructors Conference (FDIC). He is a Chief Elder for the Gorgia Smoke Di...

Our guest on todays podcast is Marchelle Farmer

In September of 2023, at the age of 57, Marchelle met the love of her life, Scott Farmer. They both knew right away that what they had was special, and were married in February of 2024- on Scott's 57th birthday.

By May of 2025 Marchelle was making funeral arrangements.

Her husband, retired K-9 Sergeant Scott Farmer, after 25 years of service and 3 years of retirement  - lost his i...

Charlie's work in Critical Incident Stress Management began around the time of its inception, he then started on the Boston fire metro team in 1998, he has provided CISM and peer support throughout the northeast united states, and he is currently a working Clinician at On-Site Academy, and the co-coordinator of the statewide peer support network here in the commonwealth. 

In this episode - Charlie speaks openly about mistakes h...

Andrea Tarrant joined us on the podcast. Andrea - a cops daughter turned first responder herself - discusses the personal and professional trauma(s) she has been exposed to throughout her life, she shares about her experiences with grief, loss, critical incidents, and life transition. Andrea got her start dispatching in Plymouth Ma, she then began working in Weymouth Ma, the community her father had spent a career policing, and cur...

On this episode we're joined by Alicia Kelly & Chuck Looney, who own and operate Stretch N Motion, an assisted stretch and massage studio where they aim to maximize mobility, decrease pain, and help their clients feel better. Alicia & Chuck brought 2 of those clients with them, Brian Mingolelli (Quincy FD) & Chris Huling (Wildland FF), who share their own experiences about how this program has helped to improve their ph...

Chief Hanrahan joined the Watertown Police Department in 1997 after serving in the military and as a police officer in New Hampshire. After spending some time in the Patrol and Traffic Divisions, Chief Hanrahan was promoted to Sergeant in 2000 and later promoted to Lieutenant in 2002 where he oversaw the departments training, policy development, and community policing activities. After serving as a Lieutenant for 21 years, Chief Ha...

Sean Peterson is a SGT with the Taunton Police Dept., a licensed mental health clinician, and director of the South Eastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Councils Critical Incident Stress Management Team. Sean is also a former gym owner, a proven strength coach, and published author who has been an outspoken advocate for the mental health of the law enforcement community.

In this episode Sean talks about his pathway into policing, h...

Elizabeth Bartholomew joins us on the podcast.

Liz worked as a police records clerk in Batavia Illinois  where she met Joe Bartholomew, a paid on-call firefighter, they married in 1980.  Joe was hired as a full time Firefighter in 1986.  While their daughters were young Liz was able to be a stay at home mom.  Later she drove a school bus part-time in Naperville, Illinois, became Band Booster President and was on...

When Vickie first heard the words, “You have stage-four cancer,” she knew she would need to be strong—for Mitch and for their family. Over the next twenty-six months, she balanced her career and home life while navigating an exhausting and unfamiliar world of medical decisions, treatment options, departmental benefits, workers’ compensation challenges, and legal complexities.

Amid uncertainty, emotional strai...

Rusty has spent a lifetime in law enforcement, He is also acommitted husband and a proud father. 

As he enters the latter years of his career, his goal is tofacilitate change so that law enforcement leaders can learn, grow, and be better than the ones he experienced as a young officer. One of the concepts Rusty believes leaders must address is that some of the problems related to officer wellness stem from how they have been l...

Sergeant Ayman Kafel joins us on the podcast - Ayman is a law enforcement supervisor, military veteran, educator, and writer whose work focuses on leadership, resilience, human behavior, and performance under pressure. With more than two decades of combined experience in law enforcement,tactical operations, and military service, he has built a reputation for calm leadership, disciplined thinking, and the ability to operat...