Don is originally from Rapid City, SD. He served in the United States Air Force as an Electronic Nuclear Weapon Specialist. He obtained the highest security clearance in the Air Force at that time which was CNWDI (Critical Nuclear Weapon Design Information). Don was honorably discharged from the Air Force in 1990. He then was a state police officer for 20 years and has a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. He had many duties including hand to hand combat instructor and active shooter instructor. He began working in schools in 1996 as part of a federal anti-school violence program which placed police officers in schools and was an SRO for 6 years. He completed the Law Enforcement Instruction Program at the FLETC (Federal Law Enforcement Training Center) in 1999 and conducted training for NYPD, Philadelphia PD, and New Orleans PD just to name a few. In 2003, he was recognized as the Law Enforcement Education Officer of the Year for the United States by the BATF for his work in combating school violence. He has been a certified instructor in more than 40 state, federal and National Safety Council programs. In total, he has taught more than 1,000 law enforcement courses and instructed over 50,000 people. Don has studied more than 100 school and workplace shootings, has responded to 3 active shooter events as a first responder. He has instructed nearly 300 Active Shooter courses in 24 states and conducted more than 200 emergency response threat assessments for the U.S. Government, private corporations, and school districts. Don has the CPTED Professional Designation from the National Institute of Crime Prevention as well as the CPTED (Crime Prevention through Environmental Design) school design certificate. In 2018, Don was one of 54 school safety experts to give testimony at the National School Safety Roundtable held in Washington DC by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.