NIMO Incident Management Team 1

Nickie Johnny - Incident Commander

 

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Dave Updike - Safety Officer

harold.updike@usda.gov

Bio to come

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Judith Downing - Public Information Officer

Judith L. Downing is the Public Information Officer for the Atlanta National Incident Management Team (NIMO). She has served as a Type I information officer on Type I incident management teams since 1988. She developed and applied improved methods to engage communities-at-risk during wildfires using existing interpersonal and social networks. She developed community action teams to monitor changing community information needs and to provide information stakeholders need to cope with fire threats to their safety, property and other interests and to recover quickly after the fire. In fire prevention, she pioneered collaborative, interagency, community-based wildfire education, mitigation, and preparedness methods grounded in social sciences and integrated with fuels and natural resources management at the community landscape scale. She was awarded the GEICO Fire Prevention and Safety Award for her community-based work in fire prevention and fire education. She continues to promote application of fire social science in fire management, working closely with scientists in the U.S. Forest Service Research Stations.

Judith earned a BA in Parks and Natural Resource Management from California State University, Chico where she also completed graduate courses in Human Communication. She started her career with the Forest Service as a wildland firefighter and later she worked in recreation management on the Olympic National Forest. Her next assignment was as a Fire Prevention Technician on the Plumas National Forest and then on the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. There she also worked as a Public Affairs Specialist and Forest Fire Prevention and Information Officer. In 2000 she moved to Colorado where she worked in State and Private Forestry as the Interagency Wildland Urban Interface Fire and Education Specialist for the Forest Service Rocky Mountain Region. The position was interagency with the Bureau of Land Management, Colorado State Office and Colorado State Forest Service. She returned to California in 2004 as Assistant Director, Cooperative Fire Liaison for the Pacific Southwest Region. She joined the Atlanta NIMO team in 2010.  judith.downing@usda.gov

 

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Janan Hay Sharp - Planning Section Chief  

Janan’s fire career began as a seasonal employee on the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.  She was hooked after her first slash disposal burn and a wildfire that consisted of one (yes, only one) lightning struck tree.  Upon graduation from the University of Michigan in 1988, she began working for Forest Health Protection in West Virginia. After a year, she transferred and began her full time Forest Service career working on the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri as a Forester Trainee, eventually serving in the district NEPA Coordinator position.  In 2000, she transferred to the Cherokee National Forest in Tennessee as a Zone NEPA Coordinator. 

Janan spent most of her career leading interdisciplinary teams, performing environmental analysis and publishing Environmental Assessments for forest management projects, but her heart for fire management was evident.  She continued to support the forest as a militia wildland firefighter assigned to fire suppression activities as needed and assisted with the implementation of prescribed fire to meet natural resource goals.  She continued in these roles until 2019 when she accepted the position of Planning Section Chief with the Atlanta NIMO team. 

Janan became active on incident management teams in 1998 and has participated in a variety of incidents including wildfire, hurricane recovery, large national gatherings of the Rainbow Family, and recovery after the Columbia Shuttle Disaster.   She has been a member of the Eastern Region T1 Team and both Southern Area T1 Incident Management Teams.  Janan is an instructor for several courses including Resources Unit Leader and E-Isuite; and took her skills abroad when she assisted with teaching the All Hazards IMT and Planning Process courses in Indonesia. janan.hay@usda.gov

 

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 Eric Zanotto- Operations Section Chief

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James (Jimmy) Grimes- Logistics Section Chief

James started his career in August 1997 as a firefighter EMT with the Northwest fire district in Tucson Arizona. He was heavily involved in their wildland division, working on a type 2 Initial Attack (IA) crew and engines. That crew eventually became the Ironwood hotshots in 2008.

He began his career in logistics working on a Southwest area Incident Management Team (SWIMT 2) from 2008 to 2020, building his qualifications in Supply and Facilities. He achieved his Logistics Section Chief Type 1 qualification in 2018 and became the Team's primary Logistics chief. 

In the structure firefighting world, he progressed from a firefighter to a paramedic, and eventually an Engine Captain in 2012. He retired from the Northwest fire district in May 2021 and began his career with a USDA Forest Service. Grimes currently lives in Tucson and has two amazing children (son Caide who is 19, and daughter Kylie who is 17). james.grimes@usda.gov

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