Elected Officers
- Director – Jim Russell
- Assistant Director – Will Dotson
- Training Officer – Cath Bennion
- Secretary – Anna Novoa
- Treasurer – Rob Speiden
- VASARCO Reps – Brian Cohan and Melissa Weeks
Appointed Officers
- Dispatch Officer – Katy Hart
- Documentation Officer – Kevin Brewer
Tracking Specialists
Rob Speiden
Rob is a charter member of SARTI and has attended nearly every training since the first one in September 1998. He has been a volunteer searcher since 1993 and has assisted with over 200 SAR missions. He is certified as a Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM) Tracking Specialist and has been serving as the group Treasurer since 2000. Rob is also the lead instructor for the Virginia Department of Emergency Management SAR Tracking program, founder of the Natural Awareness Tracking School, LLC and author of the Search & Rescue tracking textbook Foundations for Awareness, Signcutting and Tracking, co-authored by SARTI founder Greg Fuller.
Cath Bennion
Cath is originally from the north of England and moved to Virginia in 2013. She has been actively responding to search and rescue missions in Virginia since 2017. She is Membership Officer for Piedmont Search & Rescue and is certified by VDEM as a Search Team Leader and Operational Tracker. Cath is an avid hiker who is happiest when in the woods looking for animal sign and learning about the natural environment.
Tracking Technicians
Jim Russell
Jim Russell was transplanted from New England to Virginia Beach, Virginia in 2001 and has been involved in the Virginia Search and Rescue program since 2014. He is an active member of the Search and Rescue Tracking Institute (SARTI) most recently as the group’s Director. Jim is also currently the Group Commander of Tidewater Search and Rescue (TSAR) as well as the group’s Virginia Search and Rescue Council (VASARCo) representative, dispatcher, and recruiter. He holds certifications as a Search Team Leader (STL), Management Team Member (MTM), and Tracking Technician (TT) from the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM). In 2019, Jim became a VDEM Adjunct Instructor for the Virginia Ground Search and Rescue (GSAR) Academy’s Foundations for Awareness, Signcutting, and Tracking (F.A.S.T.) class. Since attending comparative osteology workshops at Radford University and Western Carolina University, Jim has been researching and developing his own workshop for comparative osteology, comparing and identifying animal versus human bones that are found during cold case searches. He has also recently launched The Russell Bone Atlas, a comparative osteology website at https://www.russellboneatlas.com/ that searchers can use while in the field to help identify bones. When he’s not deployed at a search or away for training, Jim volunteers with the Boy Scouts as an Assistant Scoutmaster and a Search and Rescue merit badge counselor and often introduces scouts to the art of tracking. In addition to Search and Rescue, Jim spends much of his free time outdoors hiking, fishing, boating, and aimlessly wandering through the woods.
Padraic Hughes
Padraic Hughes is a certified Tracking Technician, Search Team Leader, Swift Water Rescue Technician and Emergency Medical Technician. He is an adjunct search and rescue instructor for the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, an active and past Board member of the Appalachian Search and Rescue Conference and Shenandoah Mountain Rescue Group’s, as well as, a Life member of the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad, Padraic is a Principal officer of The Outdoor Practice, an outdoor safety, training and response company, providing ground and water based search and rescue expertise to public and private service agencies and individuals, world-wide. He has been involved in search and rescue, and outdoor safety and leadership since 1983.
Kevin Brewer
Kevin Brewer started his SAR career in August 1995 with Tidewater Search and Rescue Group (TSAR) and continues this journey as a Search Mission Coordinator (SMC) and Search Team Leader (STL) with the group on behalf of the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM). His last posting was as the group’s training officer and held the office as the group’s commander for over 18 years prior. As a Charter member and still active member of the Search and Rescue Tracking Institute (SARTI) since August 1998, Kevin maintains a VDEM certified Technician Tracker for the group and currently holds the office of Documentation Unit Lead (DUL).
Having been a VDEM SAR Instructor for 20 years Kevin has taught many hundreds of SAR practitioners in nearly every aspect of Wilderness SAR to include Tracking, Management and Leadership.
Kevin is a Quality Assurance professional with over 30 years of experience in standards, process, procedures and instruction in manufacturing and engineering fields. Kevin and his wife live near Yorktown, Virginia and when not training or responding to a missing person incident Kevin enjoys exploring the rich history of Virginia’s woods and shorelines.
Gary Goodson
Gary W Goodson Jr. has been an active member with Angel Search and Rescue Inc. (ASAR) since 2000 and is the Director of the Search and Rescue Tracking Institute (SARTI). Prior he worked with the Pittsylvania County Sheriff’s office where he served in several capacities during his 25 year career in law enforcement as a field deputy, fire and arson Investigator, drug and fugitive investigator and 16 years as Major (Chief Deputy). He continues to maintain numerous certifications with Search and Rescue as a Tracking Technician (TT), Management Team Member (MTM), Management Team Leader (MTL), Management Team Instructor (MTI) and has been appointed as a Search Mission Coordinator (SMC) for the State of Virginia by VDEM. Gary has been an Adjunct Instructor for the Virginia Department of Emergency Management since 2014; teaching a variety of search and rescue courses throughout the State.
Rhett Orndorff
Rhett got involved with the Virginia Search and Rescue program in 2007. He took his first tracking class in 2009 and joined SARTI in 2010. Rhett is currently certified as a Search Team Leader and Operational Tracker through VDEM, and Apprentice Tracker through Joel Hardin Professional Tracking Services. He is also the training officer for Rockingham Augusta Search and Rescue.
Melissa Weeks
I teach middle and high school English. 2021 marks the end of my 30th year in that role. I have been an EMT-B for seven years.
My first foray into SAR came with Daniel Murray and our local Botetourt County EMS. Daniel and his brother Adam started a local SAR group, and I was there from the very first meeting in 2015. I stumbled naively into my first GSAR for STM at Hungry Mother, followed by the FAST Class, STL, and finally MTM. I am a member of Black Diamond and SARTI, have earned my Operational Tracker status and also (for fun) qualified as a Level II Cybertracker (animal tracks & sign). Along with our beloved Will and some others, I was slated to serve as a VDEM Instructor in our GSAR tracking course. I attended Instructor Training, and then COVID struck. This year, I began my tenure as Secretary for VASARCO. Overall, I count it a phenomenal privilege and tremendous honor to serve VDEM and our organizations as a Search and Rescue professional. Lord willing, may there me many years of service in my future.
Garrett McNamara
Garrett is a ground searcher with a specialization in tracking and cold cases. He is a VDEM Operational Tracker and Search Team Leader and has been trained in Advanced Human Tracking, TEEX Wide Area Search, CERT, Lost Person Behavior, Clandestine Graves, and Human Remains. When not responding to missions he serves as SARTI’s webmaster and a dispatcher. In Shenandoah Mountain Rescue Group, he is an Outdoor Skills and Team Safety Training Assistant and is a former Secretary. At home in the mountains he scouts for animals year-round.
Ralph Pyeatt
Ralph joined the Virginia Search and Rescue program in 2021 after relocating from California. His interest in SAR began in the US Navy as an Aviation Rescue Swimmer. He was assigned to helicopter squadrons HCS-4 and later to HCS-5, conducting Naval Special Warfare Support and Combat Search and Rescue. After more than 20 years in Federal Law Enforcement, Ralph retired from the US Border Patrol as a Supervisory Border Patrol Agent. He is currently certified by VDEM as a Search Team Leader, Tracking Technician and Management Team Member. He is an active member of SARTI and Piedmont Search and Rescue (PSAR). Ralph has completed the National Association for Search and Rescue (NASAR) Tracking Instructor Development course and is currently certified as an EMT-B by the state of Virginia.
Operational Trackers
Anna Novoa
A passion for the out of doors and interest in tracking opened the door for Anna in the SAR world after taking classes at Natural Awareness Tracking School in 2015 and learning that you could track and help people at the same time! Keeping this ancient art and skill alive is one of her many passions. She is now a member of and training officer for Angel Search And Rescue as well as a state certified Search Team Leader and an Operational Tracker with Search and Rescue Tracking Institute.
