Russ Tate believes that as a retired elementary school teacher of 34 years, he has experienced the “Turning Chaos into Calm” motto of Emergency Management many times. After retirement in 2008, he began volunteering with the Jackson County Emergency Services and Disaster Agency. In the fall of 2014, he and his family moved to Creal Spring, Illinois area and was accepted as a volunteer with the Williamson County Emergency Management Agency. His interest and training in the Incident Command System lies in the field of Planning Section, which is tasked with the collection of and sharing incident information. Currently, Russ is learning the tasks of functioning in another role as a Situational Awareness Section Leader in the Williamson County Emergency Operations Center.