Description:

Heidi Hajek
Instructor/ Evaluator/Director of Operations, INBTI
Team Leader/Treasurer, Long Island K9 SAR

Languages
• English
• German, (some)

Education / Professional Courses and Certifications
• Red Rock Community College , Arvada CO  - Emergency Management & Planning AAS, May 2015
• Emergency Management Institute -
 IS 100,200,300,700,800,809
 Professional Development Series
• Texas A & M Engineering Extension Service
MGT314 Enhanced All-Hazards Incident Management/Unified Command
Wide Area Search Class
Canine Emergency Medical Care
NEW WMD Incident Management/Unified Command Concept
• National Association of Search and Rescue
 Search and Rescue Technician II
 Sar Tech II Evaluator
Initial Actions Course
Managing the Lost Person Incident
• Department of Environmental Conservation
 DEC Search and Rescue Basic
            DEC Crew Boss

Volunteer Experience
Long Island K-9 Search and Rescue, Inc.
• Team Leader – (October 2016 – Present)
• Treasurer/K9 Handler  – (February 2009 – Present)
• Team Manager – (November 2010 – September 2016)

InterNational Bloodhound Training Institute
• Director of Operations (June 2016 – present)
• Evaluator – (November 2013 – present)
• Instructor – (October 2012 – present)
• Assistant Instructor – (May 2011 – September 2012)
States that I instructed in: NY,NJ, CT, ME, PA, VA, WV, NE,UT
Countries that I instructed in: Germany, Italy, Hungary, Eswatini-Africa,Mexico
Search and Rescue Council of New Jersey  
• Secretary – (January 2016 – present)
New York State Federation of Search and Rescue Teams
• Secretary – (November 2012 – November 2013)
West Babylon Fire Department _ Truck Company 4
• Fire Fighter – (October 1995 - August 1999)

Work Experience
International Switch Co, Inc.
• Office Manager/Purchasing/Sales/Shipping/Production/Bookkeeper  (June 1992 – Present)
• Developed website & Business continuity plan.  

Instructor Testimonial
10 years ago this Bigger than life man, Kevin Kocher and his daughter Opal came into Ed’s and my life and changed it forever.
We had a giant bloodhound puppy Baxter who was about 1 and half years old.... Both Ed and I were running him and working with him. Baxter being Baxter had his own set of rules for Ed than me. I was at the edge of completely quitting having team mates voice their opinion of what I was doing wrong, Ed telling me what I was doing wrong and me not understanding what this dog was doing and why he was not following the trail...
I needed to find a solution. I needed something that made sense. I read the book on Negative indications that Kevin wrote. That made sense. I saw some of those "negatives" in Baxter but why does my dog have trouble at intersections or making turns?
The organization had information about Kevin on the site and how NBTI which it was called at that time can help teams. I called up and Kevin called me back... After about 6 months we finally got to meet him.
Can you imagine, he and his daughter were willing to volunteer their time to come up North to help our team out? My search and rescue team had no money at that time to pay them for their time. We were still working on getting our exempt status and had less than $500 in the bank. Kevin and Opal did not care and were OK staying in our tiny little house. Opal slept on the couch and we just had to cover their roundtrip gas to get to us.
They spent the entire weekend teaching us. We ate sandwiches and pizza to keep the costs low. Even when the heat was getting to Kevin, he went on. His good friend was killed that weekend in a very unfortunate accident and it did not stop him and Opal. He did all this because of his dedication to teaching us what he knew.... He wanted us to understand how simple this is. He taught us TKM, but he taught us more. He taught us to have integrity in what we do. He taught us to always be humble. He taught us how to train the dogs to listen to us and learn the rules of the game. He also taught us how to be kind and listen to the dogs and learn with them. These are life lessons that of course applied to man trailing but also applied to other areas of our life.
Never did Ed or I think that today we would be instructors and evaluators for INBTI. This experience has changed our life forever. We have been blessed to have probably 20 opportunities to do seminars with Kevin and Opal and continue to learn from them. We have taken Kevin's message to heart and try to always give that message to our students. To us it is important that every one of our students always get the same lessons and information that Kevin and Opal gave to us.
We will never forget the gift of time and selflessness that Kevin and Opal have given us over the years. Their friendship and teachings means the world to us and always will... We love you both.