About Captain Jim Olsen
Emergency Manager for the City of Littleton/Littleton Fire Rescue
"School Shootings - What Have We Learned?"  by Captain Jim Olsen 

Picture​Captain Jim Olsen

​Captain Jim Olsen has over forty years of experience in emergency response. He is currently a Paramedic Captain and Emergency Manager for Littleton Fire Rescue and the City of Littleton, Colorado. He was the Paramedic Captain on the ‘first in’ engine company at Columbine High School in 1999 and also responded to the school shooting at Arapahoe High School, where he assisted with the ICS/EOC interface.

​Following Columbine High School, Captain Olsen presented the Columbine Lessons Learned in over 20 cities nationwide. He has participated in 5 DHS Lessons Learned-Information Sharing (LLIS) working groups. He designed a Pre-Incident Plan System (PIPS) digital tour program/CD-ROM for FEMA Region VIII that was distributed to all school districts in Region VIII.
Captain Olsen is a subject matter expert in hazardous materials response with over 30 years as a Hazardous Materials Technician. He served 7 years as the Operations Committee of the two-county Arapahoe-Douglas Hazardous Materials Response Team and 18 years as the HazMat Team coordinator for Littleton Fire. As the Operations Chair, he helped to coordinate a large-scale chemical cleanup of the chemistry labs in the public and private schools in Arapahoe and Douglas Counties, Colorado.

​He has trained law enforcement officers from numerous states as a Clandestine Drug Lab instructor for the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. Captain Olsen is a HazMat Manager with CO-TF1, Colorado’s FEMA Urban Search And Rescue (USAR) team. As such, he responded to Hurricane Rita and to Lyons, Colorado during the 2013 flash floods. He is a HazMat alternate on the FEMA national USAR Incident Support Team (IST).
"School Shootings - What Have We Learned?"  by Captain Jim Olsen 
PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION:             
  • BA degree in Social Science with economics emphasis, Colorado State University
  • Completion of FEMA Professional Development Series and all requirements for FEMA Advanced Professional Development Series.
  • Colorado Emergency Manager Academy
EXPERIENCE:
  • Littleton Fire Rescue, (1978-Present)
  • Vail Fire Department (1972-1978)
  • Paramedic Captain (1991-Present)         
  • Emergency Manager for the City of Littleton – (2011- Present)
  •  Paramedic since 1979
  • Colorado Information Analysis Center – TLO (Terrorism Liaison Officer)
  • Founding member of Vail Mountain Rescue Group (1974-1978)
AWARDS/HONORS:                 
  • Littleton Fire Rescue Medal of Valor, 2015
  • Littleton Fire Rescue Medal of Distinction, 1999, for Columbine HS
  • Littleton Fire Rescue FireFighter of the Year, 2002
  • Littleton Fire Rescue Paramedic Lifetime Achievement Award
  • 7 Littleton Fire Rescue Unit Citations
  •  Littleton Fire Rescue Award of Excellence – High School chemical cleanup program
Safe to Learn Advisory  Council
Safe to Learn Advisory Council | Chate Asvanonda | Dr. Nancy Degnan | Renee Domingo | Kim Colella | Dr. Tom Horton | Kay Karr | Avagene Moore | 
Sgt. Tracy Moore | Cpt. Jim Olsen | Barbara Thurman | Safe to Learn Advisory Council |​