H.O.P.E Beyond The Badge

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...

This episode is dedicated in memory of Chief Joseph Davis, a man of honor, integrity, and service.

(May 11, 1948 - May 21, 2026).

In this episode we have a conversation with retired Police Chief Russell Jenkins, retired Fire Chief Joe Davis, and retired Police Captain Joe Comperchio. This panel of retired first responders share about their early days on the job, duty trauma, some of the calls that stuck with them, how these careers ...

Mike Peterson returns to the podcast - He is a Veteran, a federal LEO, and a mindfulness expert who also works in the First Responder Mental Health Field. Mike shares his story with raw, unflinching, honesty – he speaks about his own pathway into service, his military deployments, thehardship and loss he and his fellow soldiers endured – how he reacted to those difficult stressors in real time, and the impact those even...

Erin Lynch is a Suicide Loss Survivor. She lost her father Eddie Lynch, a 35 year Boston Firefighter to Suicide in 2014. Erin shares what it was like being raised by a firefighter, she discusses the dynamics of her family, speaks openly about the day that her father passed, the days, weeks, months, and years that followed.

She talks about the initial shock and turmoil, she describes the weight of her grief and how she was impacted b...

Brianna McCarty joins us on the podcast and shares how she was inspired by a family legacy in law enforcement, which led her to pursuing a career in policing where she gained firsthand experience in the realities and challenges of the profession.Brianna not only talks about her career in law enforcement, she talks about the calls she responded to that stayed with her, the ones that impacted her, and caused disruption in her li...

Chief Michael Assad joins the podcast and shares with us about his career in law enforcement and some of the mental health challenges he has faced himself throughout that career. He talks about the importance of prioritizing family, not just for himself but for his officers as well. Chief Assad also explains the specific steps he has taken to implement a culture of wellness within his department, how he incentivizes exercise and fi...

Scott & Lorena Bergan return to the podcast and join us for a follow up. They share a story about Compassion, Love, the Desire to Help others - Family and Loss. They describe their daughter Kaitlin and how she lived, the passion she had for life, her motivated and enthusiastic approach to entering the fire service, her love of the job, along with the grief they experienced when she died by suicide. The Bergan's also update us a...

Barb Bigalke joins us on the podcast.

Barb is the founder of the Center for Suicide Awareness, a 501 c3 non-profit where they create the kind of mental health support that doesn't wait for someone to hit rock bottom. No red tape, no judgment, just real, early intervention. Barb talks about working for the department of justice delivering death notifications, and how those duties led her to an awareness about the impacts of death by ...

Sean Kilbreth joins us on the podcast and shares about his experiences in law enforcement, his path to wellness and continued service.

Sean has been a police officer for 26 years, he joins Linda and Jay to discuss his career - including his experience in an officer involved shooting. Sean shares how the job impacted his mental health, his family relationships, how stigma played a role in his life, how mindfulness and other recovery ...

Kammie Juzwin, PsyD is a clinical psychologist and holds professional certification as a Police Psychologist.  She is an embedded Psychologist Consultant for Bartlett Illinois Police Department, where her primary role is officer wellness and support.  She provides wellness and officer-involved critical incident consultation to individual officers or to departments, participates actively as a volunteer on several cris...

Brian shares with us how and why he chose to serve in the Marine Corps, his transition into a career in law enforcement following his military service, the many roles he held as a cop, and his pride in service.

Brian talks openly about the challenges he faced, the struggles he endured, how he had been coping, and how a new friendship that blossomed into a mentorship gave way to a new pathway of healing, of coming to understand his ...