Experience Forged Into a Disciplined Approach to Risk

 

Salus Solutions brings together an exceptional concentration of experience from national security, intelligence, law enforcement, emergency management, aviation, military operations, critical infrastructure, cybersecurity, engineering, finance, behavioral science, crisis communications, investigations, executive protection, and international disaster response.

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Our people have led through terrorist attacks, natural disasters, aviation emergencies, complex investigations, major public events, humanitarian operations, infrastructure failures, organizational crises, and rapidly changing threat environments.

 

That experience shaped Salus.

 

We created SalCAPA™ and the Salus operating doctrine to help leaders understand the threats that matter, assess their actual capabilities, identify consequential gaps, prioritize action, coordinate people and resources, and strengthen readiness over time.

 

Technology supports this work. Experienced people, informed judgment, disciplined analysis, and trusted relationships drive it.

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Meet the Salus Team >

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Why Salus Exists

 

Organizations rarely suffer from a complete lack of plans, policies, technology, or capable people.

The greater problem is fragmentation.

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Important information may be divided among departments, locations, contractors, systems, and outside partners. Risks may be evaluated separately from operational capability. Plans may exist without being tested against realistic conditions. Leaders may receive large amounts of information without a clear understanding of what deserves attention first.

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When disruption occurs, these separations become consequential.

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Salus helps organizations connect:

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• What is happening

• What could happen

• What matters most

• What the organization can currently do

• Where meaningful gaps exist

• Who has the authority or capability to act

• What should happen next

• How decisions and improvements will be documented

 

The purpose is not to eliminate uncertainty. No organization can do that.

 

The purpose is to help leaders make better decisions before, during, and after consequential events.

 

One Doctrine, Four Connected Capabilities

 

SalCAPA™ provides the disciplined operating structure that connects SalINTEL, SalTHIRA, and SalOPS.

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SalCAPA™ — Collect. Analyze. Prioritize. Act.

SalCAPA establishes the continuing cycle through which information becomes understanding, priorities become assigned action, and action becomes measurable improvement.

 

It provides Protected Members with a secure environment for collaboration, accountability, documentation, and coordination. The process remains directed by authorized leaders and supported by experienced Salus professionals.

 

SalINTEL — Understand the Operating Environment

SalINTEL helps identify and interpret relevant changes in the threat environment.

 

It brings together observations, credible reporting, stakeholder knowledge, and other relevant information so that emerging concerns can be examined in context. Salus professionals help distinguish meaningful developments from background noise and unsupported speculation.

 

SalTHIRA — Understand Risk and Capability

SalTHIRA is the analytical center of the Salus doctrine.

 

It helps leaders identify the threats and hazards that matter, consider their possible consequences, establish realistic capability targets, evaluate present capabilities, identify consequential gaps, and prioritize improvements.

 

SalTHIRA turns a broad discussion about risk into a defensible basis for decision-making.

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SalOPS — Convert Priorities Into Readiness

SalOPS supports implementation.

 

Depending on the need, this may include preparedness, planning, exercises, protective operations, incident support, crisis coordination, recovery, sustainment, investigations, or specialized operational assistance.

 

SalOPS connects analysis with action so that identified gaps do not remain unresolved findings in a report.

 

Built by Practitioners

 

Salus was built by people who have carried responsibility in difficult environments.

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They have commanded personnel, managed emergencies, investigated complex threats, protected people and infrastructure, advised senior officials, coordinated across jurisdictions and national boundaries, and helped organizations recover from consequential events.

 

Their collective experience spans the strategic, operational, technical, financial, behavioral, and human dimensions of risk.

 

This multidisciplinary depth matters because no serious threat exists within only one department or professional discipline.

 

An aviation emergency may involve operations, law enforcement, fire and rescue, communications, medical services, regulatory compliance, logistics, executive decision-making, family assistance, business continuity, and public confidence.

 

A cyber incident may also become an operational, legal, financial, safety, communications, and reputational crisis.

 

Salus assembles the appropriate expertise around the actual problem rather than forcing the problem into a single professional category.

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The People Behind Salus

 

Executive Leadership and Doctrine

 

Marc Duncan — Chief Operating Officer

 

Marc Duncan brings more than three decades of experience in risk, preparedness, security, emergency management, resilience, aviation, counterterrorism, intelligence, executive protection, investigations, and disaster operations.

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He contributed to nationally significant preparedness doctrine, including FEMA’s Comprehensive Preparedness Guide 101 and the development of Comprehensive Preparedness Guide 201 for Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment. He has led National Academies of Science, FEMA air-operations planning, airport crisis-communications programs, international security assessments, disaster operations, and complex preparedness initiatives.

 

His experience connects the development of doctrine with its application under real operating conditions.

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Read Marc Duncan’s Biography >

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Bridget Lee-Young, CPA — Chief Executive Officer

 

Bridget Lee-Young brings more than three decades of financial, operational, governance, compliance, and corporate leadership experience.

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She has served in controller and chief financial officer positions, managed the financial and contractual affairs of more than 20 domestic and international companies, and advised organizations on internal controls, systems, governance, and compliance. In 2002, she became the 1,000th professional to earn the Certified Hospitality Accountant Executive credential.

 

At Salus, she connects preparedness and resilience with financial discipline, governance, resource allocation, contractual accountability, insurance, supply-chain considerations, and executive decision-making.

 

Read Bridget Lee-Young’s Biography >

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Homeland Security, Intelligence, Law Enforcement, and Protection

 

Scott Pickett, CFI — Senior Program Director

 

Scott Pickett brings nearly four decades of law-enforcement, homeland-security, investigative, aviation-security, and protective experience.

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His career includes senior service with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Federal Air Marshal Service. He led crime-gun analysis activities, served in federal aviation-security leadership, worked with international organizations and diplomatic missions, and supported the protection of senior government officials.

 

A Certified Forensic Interviewer and graduate of the Naval Postgraduate School’s homeland-security program, he helps Salus connect threat recognition, investigation, critical-infrastructure security, aviation, and protective operations.

 

Read Scott Pickett’s Biography >

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Matt Espenshade — Senior Program Director

 

Matt Espenshade brings more than 26 years of FBI and Salus experience in intelligence, counterterrorism, threat assessment, law enforcement, and complex investigations.

 

During 24 years with the FBI, he led the Nashville office and held senior leadership positions in the Memphis Division. As an FBI Legal Attaché in Budapest and Nairobi, he worked with ambassadors, foreign police, intelligence services, and international partners. His assignments included counterterrorism work in Afghanistan, the Westgate Mall terrorist attack, and the kidnapping of an American humanitarian worker in Somalia.

 

Earlier, he served as a primary investigator into the 1998 bombings of the United States embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. His career has been recognized through the FBI Director’s Award for

 

Excellence in International Operations and other intelligence-community honors.

 

Read Matt Espenshade’s Biography >

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J. Kirk Beauchamp — Senior Program Director

 

J. Kirk Beauchamp completed a 32-year law-enforcement career, including 20 years with the Department of Homeland Security.

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As a member of the federal Senior Executive Service and DHS Assistant Inspector General, he led 32 investigative field offices across the United States. His career also included service as Regional Special Agent in Charge and Special Agent in Charge in several major border and metropolitan jurisdictions.

 

He brings senior-level experience in federal investigations, intelligence, organizational oversight, stakeholder engagement, and coordination across geographically dispersed operations.

 

Read J. Kirk Beauchamp’s Biography >

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Bradley Amstutz — Senior Program Director

 

Bradley Amstutz brings more than 30 years of law-enforcement, special-operations, investigative, training, and critical-incident leadership.

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His responsibilities included command of SWAT, gang-suppression, investigative, patrol, field-training, and community-policing functions. He has directed protective activities for presidential and vice-presidential visits, national political events, professional sporting events, government facilities, transportation systems, schools, universities, and critical infrastructure.

 

He also helped conduct aviation-emergency research and develop national guidance and training for airport personnel.

 

Read Bradley Amstutz’s Biography >

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Wayne Black — Senior Program Director

 

Wayne Black brings more than 45 years of public- and private-sector security and investigative experience across the United States, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and South America.

 

Following September 11, he supervised red-team threat assessments of Special National Security Events as a Department of Homeland Security contractor. His experience also includes port-security assessments, public-corruption and organized-crime investigations, service on a Department of Justice interagency task force, and expert testimony in federal and state courts.

 

Read Wayne Black’s Biography >

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Cory Richardson — Senior Advisor

 

Cory Richardson has more than 25 years of experience leading complex investigations and risk-mitigation programs in government, corporate, and nonprofit environments.

 

His federal law-enforcement career included FBI responsibility for national-security, counterintelligence, cybercrime, and public-corruption initiatives in the United States and internationally. His subsequent work has included security strategy, fraud detection, policy development, cybersecurity investigations, crisis response, and investigations involving energy-sector theft and multimillion-dollar fraud.

 

Read Cory Richardson’s Biography >

 

Joe Waring, CPP — United States Station Manager

 

Joe Waring brings extensive law-enforcement, executive-protection, investigative, and crisis-response experience.

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His public-service career included supervisory law-enforcement responsibilities, hostage negotiation, crisis intervention, peer support, mental-health response, and management of critical incidents. He served on the board of the Texas Association of Hostage Negotiators and holds professional credentials in security, investigations, and protection.

 

At Salus, he supports protective operations, advance planning, investigations, incident response, liaison, logistics, and security coordination.

 

Read Joe Waring’s Biography >

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Emergency Management, International Response, and Public Safety

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Michael Schaff — Director of International Crisis Response

 

Michael Schaff brings more than 35 years of international crisis-response and emergency-management experience.

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He retired as a Battalion Chief in the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department’s Special Operations Division, where he managed USA-1, one of the world’s most frequently deployed disaster-response teams. As a member of the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination system, he helped lead responses to major disasters around the world.

 

He advises organizations on preparedness policy, mitigation, coordination, and real-time operational response.

 

Read Michael Schaff’s Biography >

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Greg Duncan — Senior Program Director

 

Greg Duncan brings more than 35 years of leadership in military operations, disaster response, evacuation, mass care, maritime security, law enforcement, humanitarian operations, counterterrorism, and critical-infrastructure protection.

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His assignments have included senior military responsibility in Haiti, future-operations work within United States Pacific Command, Coast Guard contingency planning, port security, counterterrorism doctrine, and National Special Security Event missions conducted with the United States Secret Service.

 

His experience connects strategy and policy with the realities of multinational, multiagency operations.

 

Read Greg Duncan’s Biography >

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Robert Duncan, Ph.D. — Senior Program Director

 

Dr. Robert Duncan is a 30-year veteran of the United States Intelligence Community, with service in the United States Air Force and Central Intelligence Agency as an analyst, instructor, and manager.

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He also brings two decades of university teaching and research in leadership, national and homeland security, foreign policy, terrorism, public policy, and emergency-management coordination. His work includes active-shooter and insider-threat detection and prevention programs.

 

He helps Salus connect intelligence analysis, research, education, and preparedness doctrine.

 

Read Robert Duncan’s Biography >

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Aviation, Transportation, and Operational Readiness

 

Kevin Murphy — Senior Program Director

 

Kevin Murphy brings more than three decades of airport law-enforcement, security, and emergency-management experience.

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During 27 years at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, he advanced from police officer to Police Chief, leading more than 100 sworn and civilian personnel, airport policing, security operations, emergency communications, and Airport Security Coordinator responsibilities.

 

He later served as the airport’s Emergency Operations Manager.

A former president and current executive director of the Airport Law Enforcement Agencies Network, he has testified before Congress on airport policing, active threats, public-area security, and coordination between airport law enforcement and federal agencies.

 

Read Kevin Murphy’s Biography >

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Valerie Steele — Senior Advisor

 

Valerie Steele has more than 20 years of experience managing operations at international and general-aviation airports.

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During nearly 15 years at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, she was responsible for aviation-security and safety compliance, emergency preparedness, and response and recovery activities affecting airside, terminal, cargo, and general-aviation operations.

 

She has planned and conducted discussion-based, tabletop, and full-scale exercises and managed responses involving aircraft accidents, bomb threats, security breaches, evacuations, severe operational disruptions, and law-enforcement emergencies.

 

Read Valerie Steele’s Biography >

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Mario “Marty” Reyes — Senior Program Director

 

Mario “Marty” Reyes brings more than 45 years of military and private-sector experience in aviation operations, logistics, maintenance, supply, contracting, and base support.

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A retired United States Air Force officer and graduate of the Air Command and Staff College, he served as a logistics officer, supply officer, flight commander, and Officer Training School instructor.

 

At Salus, he applies that experience to airport planning, resource management, operating procedures, supply chains, corrective action, maintenance, and the systems required to keep complex operations functioning.

 

Read Mario “Marty” Reyes’s Biography >

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Technology, Infrastructure, Behavioral Science, and Communication

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Don Cahoon — Chief Technology Officer

 

Don Cahoon brings more than three decades of experience in remote sensing, data analytics, software engineering, cybersecurity, and advanced technology.

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At NASA Langley Research Center, he used satellite observations to study wildland fires, burned areas, smoke, atmospheric effects, carbon emissions, and climate. His research included influential work mapping fire activity across Africa and Asia and creating long-term datasets from millions of satellite observations.

 

He also brings software and cybersecurity leadership experience from Symantec. At Salus, he helps transform complex data into understandable operational information while overseeing technology, integration, analytics, visualization, and cybersecurity.

 

Read Don Cahoon’s Biography >

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Simmons Duncan — Manager of Technology and Legal Integration

 

Simmons Duncan manages the intersection of technology implementation and legal compliance.

This role helps ensure that technology is applied in a manner consistent with governance responsibilities, contractual requirements, privacy considerations, and the authority of Protected Members.

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That combination is essential to Salus because information must be useful, protected, appropriately governed, and connected to accountable human decisions.

 

Read Simmons Duncan’s Biography >

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Richard Eschenbach — Director of Engineering and Maintenance

 

Richard Eschenbach brings 30 years of facilities-management experience involving operations, maintenance, repair, construction, utilities, energy, and government infrastructure.

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He developed an economical, open-protocol electric-metering system adopted nationwide by the United States Coast Guard and helped create and manage a renewable-energy center. His projects have ranged from operational maintenance to capital improvements exceeding $20 million.

 

His work has received Department of Homeland Security recognition, and in 2020 he received the Coast Guard Civilian Service Commendation Medal.

 

Read Richard Eschenbach’s Biography >

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Richard LaBrie, Psy.D. — Senior Advisor

 

Dr. Richard LaBrie is a clinical psychologist and subject-matter expert in individual trauma, mass trauma, behavioral and security concerns, and related research.

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He brings approximately 15 years in mental health as well as an earlier 35-year career in media. This unusual combination strengthens Salus’s understanding of human behavior, trauma, communications, and the way individuals and communities experience disruptive events.

 

Read Richard LaBrie’s Biography >

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Randy Hamilton — Senior Editor

 

Randy Hamilton brings more than 30 years of experience in corporate communications, technical writing, editing, and documentation.

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His career includes communications leadership at GlaxoSmithKline, where he managed internal communications and served as Interim Director of Global Pipeline Communications within global research and development.

 

At Salus, he works with subject-matter experts to make complex information from security, intelligence, emergency management, aviation, and resilience clear enough for leaders to understand and use.

 

Read Randy Hamilton’s Biography >

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Experience Is Valuable Only When It Can Be Applied

 

Credentials and accomplishments matter, but Salus is not a collection of résumés.

The value lies in bringing the right experience to the right problem.

 

Salus professionals work across disciplines to help Protected Members:

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• Understand changing threats and hazards

• Establish realistic capability requirements

• Identify operational and organizational gaps

• Test assumptions against real-world experience

• Prioritize limited resources

• Strengthen plans, policies, training, and exercises

• Coordinate people, departments, and external partners

• Support leaders during complex incidents

• Document decisions and corrective actions

• Build readiness that can be sustained over time

 

The appropriate professionals are brought into an engagement according to the organization, operating environment, risks, capabilities, and decisions involved.

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Human Judgment Remains Central

 

Salus uses technology to support collection, analysis, communication, documentation, and coordination.

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Technology does not replace leadership.

 

It does not replace local knowledge, professional judgment, human relationships, legal authority, or responsibility for consequential decisions.

 

Salus professionals help leaders interpret information, challenge assumptions, understand consequences, and decide what action is appropriate. Protected Members retain authority over their organizations, priorities, information, and decisions.

 

That human-centered principle is fundamental to Salus.

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A Living Approach to Readiness

 

Risk does not remain static.

 

Threats change. Organizations change. Personnel and leadership change. Facilities, operations, technologies, regulations, dependencies, and public expectations change.

 

For that reason, readiness cannot be treated as a report completed once and placed on a shelf.

 

SalCAPA creates a continuing process:

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• SalINTEL helps identify meaningful changes.

• SalTHIRA evaluates what those changes mean for risk and capability.

• SalOPS helps translate priorities into preparedness and action.

• Results, observations, and lessons inform the next cycle.

 

Over time, the organization develops a stronger and more defensible understanding of its risks, capabilities, priorities, responsibilities, and progress.

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From Experience to Action

 

Salus helps leaders see risk more clearly, understand what their organizations can actually do, and concentrate attention and resources where they matter most.

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The result is more than another assessment or plan.

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It is a disciplined, human-led way to strengthen readiness, support accountable decisions, and protect the people, operations, missions, and communities that depend on the organization.

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Begin a Conversation

 

Every organization has a different operating environment, responsibility, and risk profile.

We begin by listening.

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Contact Salus Solutions >

Meet the Salus Team >

Explore How Salus Works >