Click the links for a summary of Monty’s background, education, and work history. For more details, note the links to my C.V. and to LinkedIn at the bottom.
Early Background and Education
International Emergency Management
Early Background and Education
Early Background and Education
My early background and education is in the area of agriculture and food security. I grew up on a small family dairy in rural South Carolina. My undergraduate was in Agricultural Education from Clemson University and, as an indication of the lack of emphasis on agriculture in today’s world, the degree is no longer offered! I taught high school for two years, before returning to graduate school. My Masters was in Agricultural Mechanization, under the Agricultural Engineering Department at Texas A&M. I concentrated in irrigation systems, and included an internship near Omaha, Nebraska with Valmont Industries, which produces Valley Irrigation Systems. My research was within the Water Application Engineering Department, and I field-tested sprinkler systems on large farms in the San Joaquin Valley of southern California. (Many mechanical irrigation systems are too large to test in the laboratory!) Seeing square miles of onions, carrots, broccoli, or asparagus was an eye-opener for a country boy from rural South Carolina. We sometimes used binoculars to see from one end of an irrigation system to the other end.
Overseas Exposure
Between teaching and graduate school I spent a year in south Florida. My housemate’s father was a pastor and passing on his way to helping construct a small church in a rural village in Haiti With an adventurous spirit, I said ‘yes!’….and then looked on a map to see exactly where Haiti was. I scraped up the $50 for the short flight on a DC-3 from West Palm Beach into Port-au-Prince.
In Haiti, I was shocked at the level of poverty compared to neighboring Florida and the rest of the USA. I met a Canadian couple, who lived very isolated on a farm where they were demonstrating improved agricultural techniques to Haitians. I returned three times for weeks or months in the early 1980s as a volunteer on their farm with their faith-based agency. This was eye-opening, and piqued my interest in overseas work.
With an agricultural background, I gravitated to rural development and agriculture, since the livelihood of most citizens in underdeveloped countries is agrarian. As a volunteer, the opportunities were numerous. I spent four months in Bolivia, teaching agriculture in a small public village school. I spent one year in Israel, both as a volunteer on a farm/school established for orphans after the Six Days War. I also spent time on two kibbutzim, where I witnessed progressive agricultural practices. I also took a course at the Israeli National Agricultural Research Center, and volunteered at an irrigation assembly factory. My Israeli experience was profound, with memories of experiences with many Palestinian and Jewish acquaintances. I remain saddened at the civil strife between beautiful cultures that continues in the Middle East.
My first time in Africa was traveling from Israel directly to Ethiopia, serving with World Vision during the 1984-85 famine in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps. The time was sad and intense. I was directly involved in some of the most severely affected regions when the famine impact was at its peak. Ethiopia was an intense period of seeing the effects of food insecurity, caused both naturally (drought) and human-induced (civil strife, adverse agricultural policies). This was the first of several “complex emergencies” in which I would be involved.
Further Education
I grew increasingly curious as to the reasons Africa and Latin America were so underdeveloped compared to my native US. The plentiful resources on these continents did not parallel the reduced level of development. Billions of dollars had not resulted in development, in “knowledge transfer” to increase the level of food, human, and economic security for the majority. This prompted me to return to school, where I received a Masters in Intercultural Studies. My study was at a seminary, where most of the professors were either from underdeveloped countries, or had multiple decades of living in them. This MA opened my eyes to the cultural “grid” through which various “people groups” view the world, and emphasized the inherent validity of long-standing practices within other cultures. This Masters taught me to the value of discovering other cultures, being slow to judge other, embracing other ethnicities, and being aware of gender, structural, political, and other underlying issues.
International Emergency Management
International Emergency Management
The wishful glow of a peaceful world after the USSR breakup in 1991 was never realized, and humanitarian disasters followed numerous ethnic and political conflicts — and continue to do so. Additionally, climate change seemed to increase the number and frequency of natural disasters. After my MA, I began a journey overseas with various NGOs, USAID, the FAO, etc., almost entirely in emergency management dealing with complex emergencies. I have been fortunate to work on five continents, in various program and project capacities, in settings such as Ethiopia, D.R.Congo, Burundi, Somalia, Malawi, Rwanda, Kosovo, Sumatra, and Sri Lanka. I have worked in all phases of disaster management – mitigation, preparation, response, and recovery.
My passion overseas is in Disaster Risk Reduction – the mitigation (disaster prevention or impact reduction) or preparedness training. With DRR, I was a Canadian Red Cross delegate in Haiti following the earthquake, and performing DRR trainings in Myanmar following Cyclone Nargis with the NGO, World Concern. I continue to desire involvement in short international opportunities in DRR or emergency management.
Domestic Career Focus
I reside in Victoria, British Columbia. I have two older teenagers – a daughter and a son – that keep me based in Canada during their formidable years. Because of extensive work in disaster management, I focused in 2007-08 on honing some skills and completed two-year distance Associate of Applied Sciences Degree in Emergency Management through the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) at Fredrick College outside of Washington, DC. This was my fourth, and final(!) degree, although I am a gluten for punishment and often take “professional development” courses.
Domestically, I have tried to combine my interest in both emergency management and food security. Living on Vancouver Island has its unique challenges of being cut off from resources in case of a major event, such as a sizeable earthquake. Food security would become a challenge within a few days. I have done Business (or Service) Continuity Planning for NGOs based in Victoria. I enjoy working in preparation that intersects between agriculture and emergency preparation. This might include the impact of wildlife predation on livestock, animal diseases (i.e. Foot and Mouth Disease) on the economy of BC, the public health risk of H1N1 Avian Influenza entering the human population (i.e. zoonotic); or the threat of agro-terrorism. Most of my domestic work in this area increases animal disaster planning or informs policy decisions by municipalities, BC ministries, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, or the BC Climate Action Initiative.
My other passion domestically is to increase home and business emergency preparedness. After returning from numerous disasters overseas, I have become aware of the general complacency in our Western culture that “Oh, that will never happen here.” With this false sense of security comes unpreparedness. Another myth is that we are set up for emergencies, and the rescue crews will save me, or provide for me. Nothing could be further from the truth. Quite honestly, you and your family will be ‘on your own’ for days, perhaps weeks or months. A purpose of this website is to provide a tool for those who recognize that “Yes, this can happen here” and are willing to act now, to prepare, and to become self-reliant.
I invite you to look at my complete c.v. or check out my LinkedIn page for more detail. I will attempt to keep both current.
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