Mike Clumpner, PhD, MBA, NREMT-P, SHRM-CP, CPP is a co-founder and President/Chief Executive Officer at Threat Suppression, Incorporated. Mike has a doctoral degree in homeland security leadership and policy from Northcentral University where he graduated with highest honors. Mike conducted his dissertation research on integrated active shooter response. Mike has lectured globally on numerous topics, personally training more than 150,000 responders on four continents. Multiple U.S. federal agencies and NATO allies have recognized Mike as an international expert on active shooter and counter-terrorism prevention, response, and recovery. Mike's training is directly credited with stopping 15 imminent active shooter events at schools, businesses, and houses of worship.

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He is a 32-year veteran of the fire service, with 30 years’ experience as a career firefighter and a paramedic. In 2025, Mike retired as a full-time fire battalion chief with the Charlotte Fire Department where he commanded one of the busiest of the nine battalions in the city (4th Battalion, East Charlotte). Before promotion to battalion chief in 2017, Mike served as a fire captain for nine years. During his time as a captain, he spent three years in the Special Operations Division assigned to a heavy rescue company, and five years on one of the department's busiest ladder companies (Ladder 27). Ladder 27 responded to nearly 4,000 calls each year. Mike served for 18 years as a member of North Carolina Urban Search and Rescue Taskforce 3 and has deployed to multiple disaster events. In 2018, Mike served as the Task Force Leader during a 17-day deployment of the US&R taskforce to Hurricane Florence. The deployment to Hurricane Florence was the largest deployment of local, state, and federal assets to a disaster in United States history. 

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From 2004-2012, Mike worked as a helicopter flight paramedic at Spartanburg Regional Medical Center, a Level I trauma center in South Carolina. As a flight paramedic, Mike responded to hundreds of critical medevac missions. Mike is also a distinguished faculty member with the University of Maryland, Baltimore County where he has taught critical care medicine since 2009. Mike is also adjunct faculty with New York University's Fire Research Group. Mike has served as an expert witness for numerous cases, including medical malpractice (involving ground/flight critical care transport providers, EMS providers, hospital providers, and nursing home providers), public safety employment cases (wrongful termination and workplace retaliation), fire service response, and law enforcement response. Mike has testified in both state and federal cases.

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Mike is a sworn law enforcement officer with South Carolina's largest law enforcement agency, where he has served since 2010 as a SWAT operator and senior tactical paramedic on a full-time SWAT team. From 2005-2008, Mike worked as a contract instructor for the United States Department of Justice in Quantico, Virginia, teaching numerous classes for federal law enforcement agencies. Mike also currently serves as the senior active shooter/hostile event subject matter expert for the Department of Defense. 

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Mike served as the co-chair of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Active Shooter Taskforce from 2012-2022. This group was responsible for creating a unified law enforcement/fire/EMS response plan for the 15th largest city in the United States. The unified plan and subsequent training was one of the largest public safety active shooter projects completed in the United States at that time, with more than 4,000 responders receiving training in 2013. Mike also created and led more than 50 large-scale active shooter exercises as part of the training.

 

Mike served as the co-chair of the North Carolina Active Assailant Workgroup, and he serves as an original principal expert on the National Fire Protection Association’s Code 3000 Active Shooter Hostile Event Technical Committee. This committee was responsible for creating the national standard for active shooter training, equipment, and response. Mike has assisted more than 1,000 agencies with developing active shooter response plans and training exercises. Mike has also designed, directed, or evaluated more than 75 large-scale active shooter exercises and 50 active shooter tabletop exercises, including several for ultra-high profile federal locations.

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During the 2012 Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Charlotte, North Carolina, Mike worked with the United States Secret Service as a member of the Health and Medical Committee, and served as Chief of the Joint Medical Operations Center (JMOC) during this National Special Security Event (NSSE). Mike had an integral part in the planning and response for multiple hospitals and EMS agencies, as well as numerous state and federal health and medical assets. In 2019, Mike was assigned to the planning committee for the 2020 Republican National Convention. During the Republican National Convention, Mike served as a tactical chief within the integrated police/fire response unit.

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Mike also served as a deputy incident commander for a reported active shooter event at a large mall occupied with 18,000 shoppers on Christmas Eve, 2015. One person was killed and 17 were injured fleeing in the event. In 2019, Mike served as a deputy incident commander at a university active shooter event in which two people were killed, four critically injured by gunfire, and multiple people injured fleeing. Mike was the first arriving Charlotte Fire unit to the 2024 United States Marshals shooting. Along with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, he commanded the rescues of the eight officers shot. Four officers were killed in this event. This was one of the top 10 deadliest attacks on law enforcement in United States history.

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Mike has undergraduate degrees in fire science, paramedicine, and business administration; a master’s degree in business administration from Elon University, and a PhD in homeland security policy with highest honors from Northcentral University. Mike’s dissertation research focused on integrated law enforcement/fire/EMS response to active shooter events. In 2015, Mike published the world's first doctoral dissertation on the subject of integrated active shooter response. Mike has spent more than 35,000 hours researching some of the world's most notorious mass killers, with a particular emphasis on active shooters, mass killers, and terrorist attackers. Mike has personally interviewed numerous responders and survivors from multiple active shooter and terrorism events. Mike's post-doctorate research focuses on mass casualty terrorism events, large-scale civil unrest, workplace violence, and toxic corporate culture. Mike is a board certified human resource manager (SHRM-CP) and board certified security practitioner (CPP).

 

Mike has provided expert commentary for ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, and NBC News. Mike has conducted numerous interviews with major media outlets, including USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the New York Times, Reuters, and the British Broadcasting Corporation. Mike has also provided expert advice for multiple local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies during the investigation and prosecution of potential active shooter and terrorist perpetrators.

 

Mike has published multiple articles in peer-reviewed journals throughout the world and he has authored/co-authored 10 textbooks on emergency medicine, critical care medicine, and homeland security. Mike has lectured extensively throughout North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, and the Caribbean, presenting at more than 400 major conferences. Mike has received 70 commendations and awards, including the International Flight Paramedic of the Year by Bell Helicopters, the Durham County Firefighter of the Year, the City of Durham Firefighter of the Year, and the City of Charlotte Firefighter of the Year. Mike has also received commendations from three state governors (2009, 2011, and 2016).

 

Mike was named the 2019 Northcentral University Alumnus of the Year. Mike was selected from more than 12,000 master's and doctoral graduates of the university. Mike was selected for his research and work in active shooter prevention and response that he continued since graduating in 2015. Mike gave one of the commencement speeches at the 2019 commencement ceremony in Phoenix, Arizona.  

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Mike actively serves 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.