H.O.P.E Beyond The Badge

Autumn Clifford joins us on the podcast and shares about her lifelong journey with martial arts, her career in law enforcement, the pain and isolation she experienced after suffering a career ending back injury 6 years into that career, and how an intervention from her mom helped her rediscover herself and pick herself back up during her most difficult time.

Since then, Autumn has built a professional coaching practice, coaching hu...

Heather Colangelo joins us on the podcast & shares her experience as a law enforcement officer, how she felt she had to prove herself in a predominantly male profession, and how her promising career was ended prematurely; the result of an on-duty injury.

However, Heather continues to serve.

Today, she has a private practice in Hanover called Crosswinds Counseling, where she works with first responders and other front line work...

Keith Hanks joins us on the podcast and shares openly about the purpose he found early on in his career in the fire service, the trauma(s) that shaped his life, & the impact that declining mental health had on his state of well-being.

Keith discusses duty trauma, trauma in his personal life, substance abuse, loss, grief, suicidality, a diagnosis of complex PTSD, & how through it all he was able to find hope & begin to ...

Kelsey Gunther joins us on the podcast this week. Kelsey shares her story of childhood trauma, how she has felt like a helper going all the back to when she was a child on the soccer field, what it was like to join the EMS community as a senior in high school & how some of the calls quickly began to effect her. Kelsey eventually became a dispatcher as well, she discusses what that was like & what she does to cope with the s...

Cindy Chesna - Widow of Weymouth Police Sgt Michael Chesna (EOW 7.15.2018) joins us on the podcast.

Cindy shares with us who Mike was in life, what it was like for her to lose the love of her life, to grieve that loss publicly, while guiding and mothering her children through the loss of their father.

Cindy also shares how she was able to get through that time, how she was able to begin healing, and how she has begun using her ex...

Carolyn Forde joins us on the podcast to share about her long career in EMS, which began right after high school. She openly discusses how over time the calls she was responding to began to add up and how that affected her. Carolyn also shares about using alcohol to cope with those duty traumas, how losing a close friend and co-worker to suicide caused her to reevaluate her circumstances and behaviors, how she eventually sought hel...

Chaplin J.D Hebert joins us to share about his career in first response, beginning with working for ski patrol & earning his EMT, followed by decades working various roles in EMS & the fire service. He also shares with us how he was called to serve through Chaplaincy, CISM, & how he provides compassionate care to first responders during their own time of need.

Currently, Chaplain Hebert is an Advanced Emergency Medical...

Doug & Karen Monda join us to talk about Survive First - Where there mission is to reduce first responder suicide through quality education, peer support, and mental health and wellness resources while fostering a greater sense of community and awareness amongst first responders and their supporters.

Doug - President, Founder, and Chairman at Survive First - discusses his time as a professional athlete, shares with us about his...

Debbie joins us on the podcast to discuss her time in the military & career in law enforcement as a 911 dispatcher. She shares with us about responding to the LA riots, some of the more difficult calls she's had as a dispatcher & how those calls impacted her, including an incident where officers were ambushed & one of them was killed. Debbie also shares with us how a 26 plus year career of service culminated in post...

Cassie Sexton joins us and shares her story of going from a grocery store into a life of law enforcement. She talks about working parking enforcement, in the city jail, as a dispatcher, and responding to a mass shooting incident early in her career. As the years went on Cassie would also have to deal with the loss of co-workers, including co-worker suicide, all while she was quietly considering suicide as a way of ending her own pa...

Dan shares with us about his career in law in law enforcement which began in 1992. He has worked for departments in Rhode Island & Florida. Dans experience includes working as a patrol officer, in detentions, street crimes, auto theft, domestic violence, homicide, sex crimes, burglary, and he currently works as a civilian background investigator.

Dan shares openly with us about those difficult calls that have stuck with him, t...

Prior to joining Boulder Crest Foundation’s First Responder Initiative as the Director for New England, Robert spent 35 years as a Police Officer in Massachusetts. During his Law Enforcement career Robert was a key participant in the creation of the SEMLEC Peer Support / Critical Incident Stress Management Team. Robert served as the team’s Director / Commander since the team’s inception and led a team of officers who support a cons...

Donna Brown began her career in Law Enforcement working the streets answering calls for service. She discovered a passion training new recruits and began teaching department wide, at the academy, and to community groups. Donna also worked in criminal investigations for 15 years, ten of those years were spent supervising the homicide unit. When she retired, Donna recognized her own struggle, reached out for help, and began a healing...

John Tamoosh is an Assistant Deputy Superintendent for the Plymouth County Sherriff's office, an agency he has served with since 1994. While working as a corrections officer John developed an interest in Crisis Negotiations & began serving as a negotiator in 2006.

He was appointed as the commander of the METROLEC Crisis Negotiations Team & currently serves as a negotiator for the SEMLEC Crisis Negotiations Team.

John r...