2008 40 Under 40 Honoree: Ryan Nicholls

As director of the Springfield-Greene Country Office of Emergency Management, Nicholls is on the radio or TV giving updates and assessments. He’d been on the job 10 months when the record-breaking ice storm of January 2007 hit.

“We had always planned for something like that,” Nicholls says. “I always thought I had a little more time to prepare.”

He calls the historic event a “positive stretch.”

“That helped me move the staff to a whole (different) level,” he says. “We weren’t prepared at the time, but we got there. … It was definitely a career event.”

For all the devotion to his job, one might think Nicholls planned to be where he is. He didn’t.

Nicholls has both an associate’s and bachelor’s degree in nursing and spent several years working in intensive-care neurotrauma. He planned on a master’s degree to become either a nurse anesthetist or nurse practitioner.

Then he discovered disaster management.

“It’s just one of those internal things, I guess. It felt really good,” he says. “It just fit right when I learned about it.”

Nicholls enrolled in the distance program at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Okla., to earn a master’s degree in fire and emergency management. Emergency management programs are growing, Nicholls said, and he’s doing his part. He has helped design and institute the first emergency management class at Ozarks Technical Community College.

Want a public speaker? Nicholls is the man for the job. “I enjoy giving presentations to any civic organization,” he says. “Such opportunities allow me to meet with various members of the community, answering questions and influencing everyone to change lifestyles and habits that are more conducive to the principles of emergency preparedness.”

Nicholls takes his training outside the region, too. He spent six weeks as a Federal Emergency Management Agency employee on the Mississippi coast following Hurricane Katrina.

And when he gets home, Nicholls has four children, ages 2 through 8, with another on the way, to greet him.“She manages four disasters,” Nicholls says of his wife. “I just manage one at a time.”

Double Play

Birth date: June 17, 1976

Family: Wife Angie and four kids, Rebekah, Daniel, David and Rachel, and one on the way. It keeps us happy and busy.

Philosophy to live/work by: Managers do the things right. Leaders do the right things.

In a fantasy world, which sport would you play? Cycling. It requires continual stamina, control, aggression and strategy.

Information accurate at the time of the honor.