Ross Holloway

emsi ross holloway
Ross Holloway

A career veteran of incident management in the structural and wildland fire services, Ross spent over 29 years working for the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) in a variety of field and staff positions. He retired in 2007 as District Forester for ODF in Tillamook, Oregon

Spending 10 years as a volunteer firefighter, officer, and Board member with Oceanside Rural Fire Protection District in Tillamook County, Ross brings a wealth of local incident response knowledge and experience to the EMSI cadre. In successfully serving over 20 years on ODF Incident Management Teams to a myriad of responses, Ross served as Resources Unit Leader, Planning Section Chief, and Incident Commander. During that time, he also held positions as Training Officer, Assistant Chief, and Chief, as well as serving on the County Fire Defense Board for Tillamook County, Oregon.

Indicative of his vast training acumen, Ross has been involved in incident management training since 1990, participating on various training cadres developing, coordinating, and instructing a diverse selection of courses, to include Resources Unit Leader, Situation Unit Leader, Planning Section Chief, Operations Section Chief, ICS-300 and 400, Incident Commander, Safety Officer, Liaison Officer, Logistics Section Chief, and ICS-320 and S-420 (Command and General Staff). He additionally participated in training cadres for local training committees, the Northwest Interagency Regional Training Center, and the National Interagency Fire Center.

Since retiring from ODF in 2007, Ross has continued to work in the emergency management community providing strategic planning, meeting management and facilitation, and incident management training services to a variety of federal, state, and local government clients, as well as private industry. While working for EMSI in 2010 as part of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill response effort, Ross served as an ICS Technical Specialist and Advisor to the various Incident Command Posts (ICPs) and integrated government and private industry Incident Management Teams. Ross worked at the ICPs in LaFourche Parish (Port Fourchon), LA, and Jefferson Parish (Grand Isle), LA. These ICPs were responsible for managing resource complements that ranged from approximately 800 personnel at Port Fourchon to over 3,000 in Grand Isle. As part of these ICPs, he was critical in helping the Unified Commands set overall strategic direction and guiding the IMTs through complex incident management situations and processes. Ross continues to play an active role with incident management teams in Oregon and Washington, serving as a Planning Section Chief, Incident Commander, Agency Representative, and Agency Administrator on multiple incidents from 2013 to 2018.

Ross is a 1978 graduate of Oregon State University with a Bachelors Degree in Forest Management. His ICS qualifications include Incident Commander, Planning Section Chief, Situation Unit Leader, Resources Unit Leader, and Agency Representative.