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Cheryl Hardwick was a 15 year firefighter in the Province of Quebec, ending her career in the fire service as a Incident Safety Officer. Since 2014, she is a Professor in the Pre-Service Fire Program, and has served as a Professor in the Bachelor of Public Safety (Honours) program. She has a Masters of Science in Emergency Services Management, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy. She is an Alumnus of the Emergency Management graduate certificate program at Algonquin College. Her certifications include NFPA 1001 (I and II), NFPA 472 (Operations), NFPA 1041 Fire Instructor (I and II), NFPA 1521 Incident Safety Officer, Pump Operator (ENPQ), Auto Extrication (ENPQ), Basic Emergency Management (OFMEM), and IMS 100.

Cheryl was awarded the Changemaker Award for faculty in 2023, for her commitment to student success and engagement at the College.

Adam O’Rourke has served his community for 14-years as a Volunteer Fire fighter with Station 62 in the City of Ottawa. He joined Algonquin College in January of 2023 as one of the lead fitness instructors in the Pre-fire Service Program. Adam has a B.A. in Kinesiology from York University, a certificate in Holistic Nutrition and has worked in both Canada and the U.S. as a Personal Trainer and Fitness Manager for over 10 years. He is a Lieutenant, Medical instructor and Peer Fitness Trainer with Ottawa Fire Services, is certified in NFPA 1041 Fire Instructor I & Incident Management System 100 and 200 and is a fully trained Water Rescue Technician. Adam is an accomplished Ironman Triathlete who enjoys all endurance sports, the outdoors and spending time with his wife and two boys.

Nic started his fire career in 2012 as a Volunteer Firefighter with Rural Ottawa. He spent 3 summers working in Timmins as a Fire Ranger for the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, travelling across the country fighting forest fires. In 2021 he was hired as a Full-time Firefighter with the City of Ottawa and is currently at Station 51.

Nic began his teaching in 2014 as a Medical First Responder Instructor, he has since been certified to instructor Red Cross First Responder and Emergency Medical Responder.

He is certified in NFPA 1001 1&2, 1072, 1002, 1041, 1021, ITLS, IMS 100 and 200, SP 100 and SP 200.

Adam began firefighting in 2004 as a volunteer with the Sackville, NB volunteer fire department. He then attended pre fire service training at the Atlantic Police Academy in Summerside, PE in 2007. Adam then began a full time career with the National Defence Fire Service in Petawawa, ON in 2008 where he continues his career to this day as the Platoon Chief of Green Platoon. Adam has a keen interest in training and education in the Fire Service which he fosters both with his work at Algonquin College, where he’s been since 2018, and as the head of the NDFS Petawawa Rope Rescue Program. Adam holds several professional qualifications including, NFPA 1001 Firefighter level 1 and 2, NFPA 472 Hazardous Materials Technician, NFPA 1042 Fire Instructor 1, NFPA 1021 Fire Officer 1 and 2, NFPA 1521 Incident Safety Officer, NFPA 1002 Pump Operator and ARFF Driver Operator, NFPA 1003 Airport Rescue Firefighter, and NFPA 1006 Rope Rescue Technician.

Mike has been a full-time Firefighter with the City of Ottawa since 2004 and has recently been promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. He has been involved in Special Operations throughout his whole career, specializing in trench rescue, collapse rescue, and rope rescue. He has spent some time as an Acting Incident Safety Officer and currently holds a spot as a member on the Ottawa Urban Search and Rescue team, as well the Ottawa Police Public Order Unit. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences and most recently, a certificate in Occupational Health and Safety from Algonquin College. He also has certificates in Firefighter 1 and 2, Fire Services Instructor, and Incident Safety Officer.
Mike has been teaching for the Algonquin College Pre-Service Firefighter Education and Training program since 2016, and often travels throughout Canada instructing courses in Rope and Confined Space Rescue.

Ryan Holland is a full-time Firefighter with the Brockville Fire Department, where he was hired in 2021. He began his career in the fire service as a paid-on-call firefighter with Rideau Lakes Fire & Rescue in 2017, working as a suppression firefighter as well as a prevention/public education officer, and the training officer for the department.

Ryan has been trained and certified in several disciplines including public education, prevention, and suppression, as well as incident safety, technical rescue, emergency medical response, incident management, and emergency management.
Along with his role instructing at Algonquin College, he is an adjunct instructor with the Ontario Fire College, and delivers training at multiple other fire departments including Trauma Resiliency and Red Cross Emergency Medical Responder programs.

Michael has been a professional Firefighter with the Ottawa Fire Service since 2008 and joined the Faculty Team at Algonquin College in 2016, teaching Firefighter skills, HAZMAT and Medical Responder. He is certified in NFPA 1001 Firefighter I and II, NFPA 472 / 1072 HAZMAT Technician, NFPA 1021 Fire Officer 1, NFPA 1521 Safety Officer, NFPA 1041 Fire Instructor 1, OFM Pump Operator, IMS 100 and 200 and OEM Basic Emergency Management.

Mike is active in the service, specializing in HAZMAT and CBRNe, teaching nationally to First Responders in Ottawa and DRDC Suffield, and continues to support research as well internationally to DFAIT designated countries. Most recently he became an R2MR Instructor for mental health in emergency services.

Michael has been a career reservist with the Royal Highland Fusiliers of Canada as an Infantry Soldier from 1988 to 1993 and then
28 (O) FD AMB as a Med A, since 1999 to his retirement in 2021.

He is an Alumni of Humber College’s Pre-entry FIRE 1 and Pre-entry Fire 2 programs, as well as the Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy Assistant programs.

Prior to coming to Ottawa, Michael worked as a Physiotherapy / Occupational Therapy Assistant (PTA/OTA) at the Wellesley Hospital as a part of the Burn and HIV/General Medicine Rehabilitation teams.

While studying Mechanical Engineering after high school, Paul joined the local Fire Department as a Volunteer Civil Defence Firefighter. He served at this Fire Department, just South of Johannesburg in South Africa for eight years, during which time the area was under constant threat of terrorist attacks.

After immigrating to Canada Paul once again a volunteered as a firefighter. He attended completed his NFPA certification at the Fire School in Waverly Nova Scotia. He was subsequently promoted to Captain and received annual awards for being a Top Ten Responder. After transferring to Ottawa Paul joined a Volunteer Fire Station which is also a Water Rescue Unit, where he became their Medical Instructor. After a couple of years he started organizing Multiple Casualty Scenarios that eventually included units from Ottawa Paramedics and Ottawa Police. In 2012 Paul was awarded the Station 92 Fire Fighter of the Year Award and in 2013, received the District 9 Larry O’ Reilly award.

Paul has been teaching The EMR portion of the Pre Service Firefighter Education & Training program at Algonquin College since 2015. He also assists with training the new recruits The First Responder Level in the Rural Division of Ottawa Fire. In 2019 he became a Red Cross EMR Instructor Trainer, and is also International Trauma Life Support (Advanced) certified as well as a certified Swift Water Rescue Tech, Ice Rescue Tech and Swift Water Boat Rescue Tech.

Throughout his career as a volunteer and rural Firefighter, Paul has been trained by many firefighters, senior firefighters, officers and fire chiefs and looks forward to passing this knowledge on to new aspiring student Firefighters.

Karen Barsoski-Murdoch has been an Instructor with Algonquin College in the Pre-Service Firefighter Education and Training program since 2006. A full-time Firefighter with the Department of National Defence as an acting Deputy Platoon Chief and a Volunteer Captain and Fire Prevention Officer with the McNab Breaside Fire Department, Karen brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to our program.

Karen specializes in Auto Extrication and Heavy Rescue, along with Firefighter survival and self rescue. She is also NFPA certified as an Airport Firefighter, Wildland Firefighter and EMR Trainer Instructor.

Along with her professional accomplishments, she is very involved in her community and volunteers on a number of Executive Committees and was awarded the Queen’s Jubilee Medal in 2013 for Dedication to her trade and commitment to her community.