Mike Clumpner, PhD, MBA, NREMT-P, SHRM-CP, CPP is co-founder and President/Chief Executive Officer of Threat Suppression, Incorporated. He holds a doctorate in homeland security leadership and policy from Northcentral University, where he graduated with highest honors. His dissertation research focused on integrated active shooter response, and in 2015 he published the world’s first doctoral dissertation on integrated active assailant response.​

 

Mike has trained more than 150,000 responders on four continents and lectured globally on active assailant response, counter-terrorism, and critical incident management. Multiple U.S. federal agencies and NATO allies have recognized him as an international expert in prevention, response, and recovery. His training has been directly credited with stopping 15 imminent active assailant attacks at schools, businesses, and houses of worship.

 

Mike is a 32-year veteran of the fire service and retired in 2025 as a battalion chief with the Charlotte Fire Department, where he commanded one of the city’s busiest battalions (Battalion 4, East Charlotte). Mike also served 18 years with North Carolina Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 3, including as Task Force Leader during the 17-day Hurricane Florence deployment. From 2004-2012, he worked as a helicopter flight paramedic at Spartanburg Regional Medical Center, responding to hundreds of critical medevac missions. Mike remains a distinguished faculty member with the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, teaching critical care medicine since 2009.

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Mike is also a sworn law enforcement officer and senior tactical paramedic on a full-time SWAT team with South Carolina’s largest law enforcement agency. He previously served as a contract instructor for the U.S. Department of Justice teaching at the FBI Academy, DEA academy, and numerous field offices. Since 2024, he has served as the senior active shooter/hostile event subject matter expert for the Department of Defense. He has provided command-level training at 45 major installations in North America, Europe, and Asia. 

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Mike co-chaired the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Active Shooter Taskforce for a decade, helping develop one of the nation’s largest integrated law enforcement/fire/EMS response programs. In 2013, this Taskforce trained 4,000 responders on active assailant, which was the largest municipal integrated active assailant training to date. Mike also served as co-chair of the North Carolina Active Assailant Workgroup and as an original principal expert on NFPA 3000, the national standard for active shooter and hostile event response. He has assisted more than 1,000 agencies with active assailant planning and training and has designed or evaluated more than 125 large-scale exercises.

 

Mike played key operational roles during multiple high-profile incidents, including serving as Chief of Joint Medical Operations Command at the 2012 Democratic National Convention and Tactical Operations Chief at the 2020 Republican National Convention. He served as a deputy incident commander at the 2015 Northlake Mall Christmas Eve shooting and deputy incident commander at the 2019 UNC Charlotte shooting. He served as fire department incident commander at the 2024 U.S. Marshals ambush attack in Charlotte, where along with CMPD, he commanded the rescue of eight wounded officers during one of the deadliest law enforcement attacks in U.S. history.

 

Mike holds undergraduate degrees in fire science, paramedicine, and business administration, along with an MBA from Elon University. His post-doctoral research focuses on mass casualty terrorism, civil unrest, workplace violence, and toxic organizational culture. Mike is a board-certified human resource manager (SHRM-CP) and board-certified security practitioner (CPP). He has authored or co-authored 10 textbooks and published extensively in emergency medicine, critical care, and homeland security.

 

Mike has provided expert commentary for major national and international media outlets including ABC News, CNN, Fox News, NBC News, Reuters, The New York Times, and the BBC. He also served as the lead subject matter expert for the official after-action report of the 2021 Oxford High School shooting.

 

Mike has presented throughout North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, and the Caribbean at more than 400 major conferences. Mike has received more than 70 commendations and awards, including Durham County Firefighter of the Year, City of Durham Firefighter of the Year, City of Charlotte Firefighter of the Year, Bell Helicopter’s International Flight Paramedic of the Year, the North Carolina Fire Service Medal of Valor, and the 2019 Northcentral University Alumnus of the Year award.​

 

Mike has served as an original principal member of NFPA 3000, the national active assailant code, since 2017. He continues to actively serve as a member of numerous local, state, federal, and international active assailant and counter-terrorism response work groups. Mike can be reached at mclumpner@ThreatSuppression.com.