A Culture of Readiness / TEAM-ARCNetUSA

Bud Proctor didn't stumble into emergency preparedness — he was forged by it. His career began in 1978 at Schlumberger Well Services in Evanston, Wyoming, one of the world's most demanding energy companies. As a Safety Engineer for Site Operations, he worked daily with core gun explosives and cobalt-60 radioactive elements — environments where a single lapse in protocol meant lives lost. That crucible taught him one irreversible truth: preparedness isn't a policy. It's the margin between survival and catastrophe.

For a decade beginning in 1980, Bud worked directly inside FEMA headquarters in Washington, D.C. — not as an outside contractor, but as a trusted collaborator alongside Dr. Ralph Swisher, Director of the Community & Family Preparedness Program. Together they built a visual communication network designed to sharpen first responder medical assessment in the chaos that follows a disaster. That work pulled in Homeland Security and state and county agencies, shaping escape, evade, and evacuate protocols that would go on to protect real communities in real emergencies.

Over two decades, Bud represented that work at the highest levels of emergency management, attending conferences that shaped national preparedness policy:

• National FEMA Conference, San Diego, CA — 1994
• FEMA Disaster Preparedness & Family Protection Program Conference, Emmitsburg, MD — 1995
• Florida Governor's Hurricane Conference, Tampa, FL — 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000
• Hurricane Expo, Port Charlotte, FL — 1996, 1997, 2000
• National Hurricane Conference, Houston, TX — 1996, 1997
• World FEMA Conference, Vancouver, British Columbia — 1997
• Florida Emergency Preparedness Association Conference — 1997, 2000

In 2006, Bud added a degree in Information Systems from Southern Utah University to a career already built on high-stakes execution. That combination caught the attention of PDI Inc. / American Express Health Care Division, who brought him in as Area Director of Sales for Southern California. He didn't just manage accounts — he built a team, trained them to win, and swept the division's top awards for account acquisition, sales performance, and customer service. When the 2008–2009 recession shuttered the division, the track record stayed.

In 2011, Bud founded ARCNetUSA on a conviction most people talk about and few act on: that ordinary Americans are the most underutilized resource in any disaster. ARCNetUSA is the answer he spent a career building toward — a platform that doesn't wait for first responders to arrive, but turns the people already in the room into the first line of defense.

Russell Leavitt is one of the most credentialed fire protection professionals in the United States — and a cornerstone of the ARCNetUSA advisory network. His connection to Telgian goes back to the company's founding: in 1990, he co-founded Fire Design Group, which merged with Tomes, Van. Rickley and Associates in 1991. Through a series of executive roles — TVA Fire and Life Safety President, Managing Member of Fire Materials Group, LLC, and CEO of Telgian — he helped build the company into a worldwide leader in fire, security, and life safety consulting.

Today, Leavitt serves as Executive Chairman and Board Member of Telgian Holdings, Inc., and Chairman of Telgian Corporation. Telgian partners with clients globally to reduce exposure to loss from fire and disasters — producing safe, compliant, and productive environments through innovative engineering and design.

His contributions to the fire protection industry have been recognized at the highest levels. In 2013, he received the AFSA Henry S. Parmelee Award for his dedication to the professional advancement of the fire sprinkler industry. In 2018, he received the NFPA Standards Council Special Achievement Award for his work on the 2019 edition of NFPA 13.

Leavitt serves on the Board of Directors of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) as 1st Vice Chair. He chairs the NFPA 13 Technical Committee for Fire Sprinkler System Discharge Criteria, serves as a Principal Member of the NFPA Technical Committee for Installation, and holds principal membership on NFPA 3, 4, and 25. He also represents NFPA 13 on the Technical Committees for NFPA 909 and 914 — codes protecting cultural resource properties and historic structures.

A prolific author and educator, Leavitt has written training guides including the AFSA Beginning Inspector Training Program and the AFSA Online Hydraulics Training Program, contributed to multiple NFPA Handbooks, and served as subject matter expert for NFPA live and online training programs. He regularly presents for the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE), NFPA, and AFSA.

Leavitt holds a Level IV NICET certification, is a Certified Fire Protection Specialist, and holds fire protection contracting licenses in 35 states. He earned his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Doug Ford is the connective tissue between ARCNetUSA's mission and the audiences it needs to reach. As Project Manager and Communications Consultant, he develops the messaging strategies that translate complex preparedness concepts into clear, compelling content for corporate partners, multidisciplinary agencies, and the public.

Doug coordinates publications and collateral across a wide range of client environments — administrative, clinical, research, and educational — ensuring that the "Everyone Is A First Responder" message lands with precision and purpose, regardless of the audience. His work is what turns a preparedness platform into a preparedness movement.