Mike McHargue joins DHSEM on July 1 as the South Central Regional Field Manager. McHargue comes to DHSEM after spending nine years as the Director of Lake County Office of Emergency Management. He is a state certified incident command system (ICS) instructor. He received his undergraduate degree from the United States Military Academy, West Point, in 1983, his M.Ed. from the University of Georgia in 1991, and his M.S. in Business Administration from Long Island University in 1995.
After retiring from the United States Army as a Lieutenant Colonel (O5), in 2007 Mike began serving as a volunteer member of the Lake County Search and Rescue team where he has held duty positions of Incident Commander, Operations Section Chief, trainer, team leader and operator. Additionally, he has served as the Chairman of the Lake County E911 Board, Chairman of the Lake County Emergency Services Council, Chairman of the Lake Local Emergency Planning Commission, Chairman of the Colorado South Central All-Hazards Region Executive Board, and is a Wildfire Public Information Officer (trainee). He is an International Association of Emergency Managers certified emergency manager (CEM).