NWSA National Meeting Schedule

Deputy National Fire Director for the U.S. Forest Service Fire and Aviation Management Program

Director, U.S. Wildland Fire Service

Assistant Director, Partnerships & Business Management USFS

Branch Chief, National Contracts Program Management, USFS FAM

Jeff Gardner

Branch Chief, Equipment & Services Branch, IPO

Branch Chief, At-Incident Management Support Branch (AIMS), IPO

Program Manager

Jill grew up on a cattle ranch in Southern Idaho.  She spent much of her growing-up years outside, enjoying the many uses of our public lands.  In 1997, she started her career on a fire crew with the Bureau of Land Management in Shoshone, Idaho.  She spent 13 years working for the BLM before moving to Boise in 2010 as the Boise Interagency Dispatch Center Manager.  Managing the Boise Dispatch Center was both rewarding and challenging, but allowed her the opportunity to experience complex incidents in a very fast-paced environment.  Jill spent 13 years in that role before moving into her current role with the Washington Office, Fire and Aviation Management, Incident Business Branch, as a Program Manager. Jill’s current portfolio includes the Incident Blanket Purchase Agreements as well as the National Emergency Rental Vehicle Program.

Deputy Director/Chief Deputy Oregon State Fire Marshall

Mariah Rawlins is currently serving as the Assistant Chief Deputy overseeing the Emergency Response Services Division within the Oregon Department of State Fire Marshal (OSFM). Mariah’s responsibilities include the oversight of the Oregon Fire Mutual Aid System, OSFM’s three all-hazard Incident Management Teams, 12 Regional Hazardous Materials Response Teams, High-Hazard Rail Program, Engine Program, and the agency’s external safety and training programs. Mariah has been with OSFM since January, 2011.

Kyle Williams started as the Oregon Department of Forestry’s Deputy Director of Fire Operations in April 2024. In his role, Kyle works to ensure the necessary funding and policies are in place for safe and effective wildfire response on more than 16 million acres of forestland in Oregon. He also directs fire suppression and prevention efforts, leads field operations with ODF’s Area Directors, and represents ODF in local, regional and national discussions on wildfire.

Kyle started with ODF as a seasonal firefighter in 2002. He moved through the ranks, becoming a Stewardship Forester, Wildland Fire Supervisor, Unit Forester, and assistant to the Eastern Oregon Area Director. He went on to work with Plum Creek Timber and Weyerhaeuser before serving as the Director of Forest Protection at the Oregon Forest Industries Council.

Beyond his professional accomplishments, Kyle and his wife, Amy, are parents to three active boys. Kyle is an avid outdoorsman, often fishing or exploring Oregon's natural landscapes.

Tim Sampson began his wildland fire career in 1992 with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, working seasonally in fire suppression while pursuing a degree in Forestry at Ely, Minnesota. After earning his degree in 1994, he joined the U.S. Forest Service on a fire crew with the Powell Ranger District of the Clearwater National Forest. Over the course of his federal career, Tim served in three regions and on four national forests, gaining broad experience on both engine and hand crews. He later spent seven years as the Forest Fire and Aviation Staff Officer on the Colville National Forest. Before joining the Washington DNR, Tim retired from the USDA Forest Service as the Risk Management and Safety Officer for the National Incident Management Organization (NIMO) in the Washington, D.C. Office.

Since 2003, Tim has held a wide range of assignments as a Safety Officer and has become deeply involved in coaching and training within the field of risk management. He has served as a lead instructor for S-404 and as a coach and instructor for S-520, M-582, and M-581. Tim was one of the original subject matter experts who helped develop the Incident Strategic Alignment Process (ISAP) in collaboration with Incident Management Teams and Agency Administrators.

Mike began his wildland fire career in 2003 with a private company in Sandy, Oregon.

He attended Mt. Hood Community College earning an A.A.S in Forest Resources and Central Oregon Community College earning an A.A.S in Wildland Fire & Fuels Management. While attending college, Mike started working for the U.S. Forest Service in 2004 working his way through college as a seasonal employee. Over the course of his federal career, he served in three regions on 6 national forests and two BLM districts, gaining valuable experience on engine, helitack, hand crews, and dispatch. He later switched agencies to come and work for the Washington Department of Natural Resources as an AFMO and worked his way up to his current position as a Fire Operations Specialis

Mike has been a part of building our Critical Incident Stress Management program, Hospital Liaison program and promoting mental health wellness and resiliency courses for the agency.

California Assemblyman (District 3)

Elected to the California State Assembly in 2014, Assemblyman James Gallagher is honored to represent the residents of the 3^rdAssembly District. The district includes Butte, Glenn, Placer, Sutter, Tehama, and Yuba Counties. Throughout his legislative career, he has been instrumental in the passage of over 50 bills, including key measures supporting Paradise’s recovery from the 2018 Camp Fire. Serving as Assembly Republican Leader from 2022 to 2025, he led the Republican Caucus in advocating for good governance reforms, enhanced public safety measures, wildfire prevention, and solutions to lower the cost of living for working families.

James has an extensive resume of public service prior to his election to the State Assembly. For six years, he proudly served his community as a member of the Sutter County Board of Supervisors. His leadership and outside-the-box thinking helped in streamlining public services and fees, and heading the effort to improve our levees and protect citizens from devastating floods.  

James earned his Bachelor of Arts Degree at UC Berkeley, where he was Editor-in-Chief of The Patriot, a nationally recognized conservative news magazine, and was elected to the student senate. Upon graduation, he served in the prestigious Assembly Fellowship Program in Sacramento.  During the program, he gained experience in state government and worked on issues ranging from increasing timber harvest to improving our community college system. Upon completion of the fellowship, he obtained his law degree from UC Davis, graduating at the top of his class. Gallagher is a partner in his family’s farming business as well as a practicing attorney, focusing on agricultural law. 

 James is married to his high school sweetheart, Janna, and together they have five children. He is the sixth generation of an Irish immigrant farming family that first settled in Sutter County in the late 1800s. James and Janna make their home in Sutter County, where they are raising the seventh generation of Gallagher’s with nearly three decades of experience in private wildland fire operations and executive leadership.

Deputy Chief of Staff to California Lt. Governor Eleni Kounalakis

With nearly three decades of experience in private wildland fire operations as an experienced policy maker and executive, Jim Houston has been at the forefront of natural resource and climate policy in California for over 20 years.  In 2000, Jim went to work for Assemblymember Simon Salinas (who represented the Salinas Valley) and began working with the farmers in that area, learning about the challenge famers in California face and the critical role they play in providing the necessary nutritional and economic foundation for a thriving society   He then went on to be a Committee Consultant for the Senate Committee on Ag and Water before being asked to help represent agricultural clients, such as the California Seed Association, the California Agricultural Commissioners and Sealers Association, and Bio.  When Governor Jerry Brown was elected, Mr. Houston was asked to serve as the Deputy Secretary for Legislation at the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), where he was eventually made Undersecretary.   While at the Department, Mr. Houston helped negotiate the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), establish the Office of Farm to Fork, the Office of Farming and Innovation (OEFI), the Statewide Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program (SWEEP), the Dairy Digester Research and Development Program (DDRDP), the Alternative Manure Management Program (AMMP), and the Quota-Implementation Plan (QIP).   

After 7 years at the CDFA, Mr. Houston was then asked to help run the California Farm Bureau, first as its Governmental Affairs Director and General Counsel and then as its Administrator. In 2018, he helped negotiate SB 901, which dramatically improved California’s approach to addressing wildfires in the state and helped secure over $1 Billion in wildfire assistance funding and Farm Bureau was instrumental in changing the FAIR plan to cover farms and ranches. In 2022, Mr. Houston created a new California Bountiful Foundation, a 501(c)3 subsidiary of the Farm Bureau.  California Bountiful sought to harness the collective power of farms throughout the state to help implement Climate Smart Ag, create a mentor-mentee network, and conduct research to assist in the utilization of technology on farms. 

In 2024, the Lieutenant Governor of California, Eleni Kounalakis, appointed him to be her Deputy Chief of Staff, where he handles agricultural, housing, and wildfire issues.  Mr. Houston is an active member of the California Bar, received his juris doctorate, with high honors, from the McGeorge School of Law, and has a B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

NWSA President

With nearly three decades of experience in private wildland fire operations and executive leadership, Jess Wills brings a comprehensive understanding of the private wildfire suppression industry to his role as President of the National Wildfire Suppression Association (NWSA). He began his career in wildland fire in 1997, advancing through operational leadership roles including Crew Boss and Engine Boss before transitioning into executive management.

Darron Williams

NWSA Training Coordinator

Dan Jimenez

Research Engineer, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire, Fuels & Smoke Science Program

Dan has been an employee at the Missoula Fire Science Lab since 1998. His primary research focuses are on wildland firefighter safety and safety zone size, shape, and location; fuel break effectiveness on fire spread in wildland fuels and the wildland urban interface (WUI); and fundamental mechanisms associated with radiant and convective heat transfer and fluid flow in wildland fire. He earned an undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from Rutgers University; a master’s degree in Civil & Environmental Engineering from Washington State University; and his doctorate in Forest Remote Sensing from the University of Montana.

Connect with Dan at: daniel.jimenez@usda.gov

Gary Bennett

NWSA Meteorologist

Gary D. Bennett began his career with the National Weather Service in May of 1971 as a Meteorological Tech. He worked at Weather offices including Great Falls, MT; Seattle, WA; Medford, OR; Boise, ID; Yakima, WA; and Wenatchee, WA. While working at these offices, he continued his education to become a professional Meteorologist in 1981, at the University of New York at Albany. Bennett’s fire weather career began in 1982. He successfully completed a facilitator's course. Gary Bennett transferred to the fire weather office in Boise, ID in 1992-1994. During this time, Bennett developed, wrote, and facilitated many lesson plans dealing with fire weather and fire behavior. He moved back to Wenatchee in 1995 as Meteorologist in Charge. Bennett transferred to Spokane, WA in 1997 and continued to help coordinate and instruct S-290 and S-390 courses and developed a 2-3 hour weather lesson for S-390. In retirement, Bennett continues to instruct S-290 courses. During the summer months, Bennett prepared daily Smoke Management Forecasts for the Idaho DEQ and the Nez Perce and Coeur d’ Alene Tribes. Occasionally he is called to work for the Washington State Dept. of Ecology with Smoke Management Issues.