Steve Turner
...is a 21-year fire service veteran with the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District and was promoted through the ranks, serving as an academy instructor, arson investigator, hazardous materials captain, public information officer, community services division manager and most recently as a loaned executive to the Governor's Office of Homeland Security (OHS).
Captain Turner has provided thousands of interviews for live breaking news, traditional broadcast programs, press conferences and print media. He has prepared hundreds of spokespersons as well as his agency principals in dealing with crisis focused and sensitive interviews. Steve has served in numerous leadership positions in local and state joint information centers (JIC) supporting incident management for fires, floods, homeland security incidents and the H1N1 outbreak.
While at the OHS, Captain Turner was the Public Affairs Manager and agency spokesman. He facilitated working relationships among cities, counties, community organizations and elected officials throughout the state to strengthen their ability to communicate in emergency situations. He led the merging of the OHS Public Affairs Exercise program with the Office of Emergency Services JIC Training program, resulting in the State's well received JIC Workshop. This shared program strengthened the public information and warning abilities of hundreds of local, state and federal public information officers across California. Captain Turner was a co-developer of the OHS Public Officials Executive Workshop on Emergency Management and Crisis Communications. He also developed, delivered and evaluated dozens of JIC training and exercise programs using federal grants designated to improve California's public information and emergency warning systems. In 2008, Captain Turner was named as the Public Information Officer of the Year by the State Information Officers Council for his outstanding achievement in public information service to the state of California and the Governor's Office of Homeland Security.
Steve Turner has more than 10 years of law enforcement experience as a state police officer and on-call deputy sheriff. His assignments have included special operations, marine safety officer, academy instructor, tactical bike team member, and the Sacramento International Airport Division. He is a California POST instructor for incident command, hazardous materials, explosives and counter-terrorism.
Steve Turner is a California State Certified Chief Officer and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in management from Saint Mary's College. He is active in his local community as a 20 year volunteer with the American Red Cross and currently serves as the Chairman of the Board for the Sacramento Sierra Chapter.