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About Us

What are applied behavioral insights?

In layman’s terms, our choices are influenced every day by advertising, our friends and family, and our own preconceived notions that color how we see the world. Our brains are tricky and use subconscious processes to jump to conclusions, only see and process information that agrees with things we already believe, and make decisions in an imperfect manner. Through applied behavioral science, we are better able to understand the multiple factors that subconsciously influence how people react to change and how they make decisions. With this information, you are better able to deliver messages to your target market, create and roll out new policies in a manner that reduces negative perceptions, and communicate more effectively with customers, employees, and stakeholders.

Bob Horton

Chief Bob Horton has worked in public safety for over 22 years with a third of that time in an executive leadership role. He currently serves as the Interim Deputy Director of the Western Fire Chiefs Association where he provides leadership and guidance over several initiatives and

programs of the Western. Prior to serving in this position, he was the CEO/Fire Chief for a special district in Southern Oregon, serving a population of 54,000 residents dispersed over 167 square miles the beautiful Rogue Valley. Chief Horton was appointed Fire Chief in 2017 and had previously served as the Assistant Fire Chief for Las Vegas Fire & Rescue where he started as a Firefighter in October of 2000. His leadership and direction have led to advancements in community risk reduction, EMS service delivery, technology integration in field operations, as well as numerous employee health and wellness programs.

In addition to his role as Fire Chief, Bob served as a Board Director for the Oregon Fire Chiefs Association where he served as Chair of the OFCA’s Legislative Committee. Bob was elected as the Oregon Representative and later as Vice-President of the Western Fire Chiefs Association, serving on the Finance, Public Safety Technology, Wildfire Policy (past Co-Chair) and Legislative Committees. Chief Horton was appointed by Governor Kate Brown to serve on the Oregon Governor’s Fire Service Policy Council where he currently serves as Council Chair. Bob is a scholar-practitioner conducting applied research at the intersection of behavioral economics, public policy, and community risk management.

His focus is on the use of evidence to evaluate program impact/effectiveness and to examine policy-relevant questions. Bob is a

doctoral researcher-in-training in public policy at Old Dominion University and is a research affiliate with Oregon State University’s Policy Analysis Laboratory. He has an MPA from the University of Oklahoma, an MPP from Oregon State University, and an Executive Certificate in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School. He is a Certified Public Manager and has the Chief Fire Officer designation. Bob is a conference speaker on topics related to impact evaluation, executive decision-making, and negotiations and is the host of the popular podcast Assuming Command ™, where he interviews thought leaders, innovators, and influencers in public service.

Jennie Horton

Jennie has a love of the outdoors that grows from her youth, spent on her family’s cattle ranch in northern Wyoming. She has experience in the public and private sectors and has worked extensively on biological surveys and monitoring, brownfields assessment and redevelopment, hazardous waste regulation, and stormwater management. She is also actively engaged in wildfire smoke response from an air quality and community preparedness perspective.

Jennie is interested in the application of behavioral science to community environmental problems such as water quality, energy consumption, and residential wildfire preparedness and prevention through fuels mitigation and Firewise homes.

Jennie has a Bachelor’s in Environmental & Resource Science from Nevada State College and is completing a Master’s in Environmental Management and Policy at the University of Denver.

Assuming Command Podcast

Listen to Assuming Command wherever you get your podcasts, or use the Listen Now! button.

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S3E3: Racing Against Rising Demand with Daniel Haight

This month, Bob spoke with Daniel Haight from Darkhorse Emergency, a data visualization and analytics company focused on software to aid fire and ambulance operations. They discuss the importance of the availability of ground-truth, trusted data that can be used to aid in decision-making for fire chiefs, especially in the face of competing priorities (if you haven’t listened to S3E2 on Managing Expectations, go back and catch it). They also discuss the important, but often unrecognized and unmeasured, work of risk reduction.

You can find Daniel on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/danhaight/.

For more information on Darkhorse Emergency, visit their website: https://darkhorseemergency.com/.

Read Daniels article, Racing Against Rising Demand by Prioritizing Prevention, to learn more about how data can be used and accessed.

Thank you for listening and let us know what you thought of this episode or what you'd like to hear in the future at impact@upstreamabi.com.

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S3E2: Managing Expectations with Bob Horton

Expectations for a Fire Chief come from numerous sources and stakeholders, and the Fire Chief must assess those expectations, determine which are reasonable and feasible, and act on them accordingly. This month’s episode is focused on Bob’s take on the Fire Chief’s challenge of managing competing expectations.

Thank you for listening and let us know what you thought of this episode or what you'd like to hear in the future at ⁠impact@upstreamabi.com⁠.

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S3E1: 2024 Kickoff

Welcome to the kickoff of Season 3. We're starting this season by playing the year in review episode of ⁠Fire Headlines⁠, a Western Fire Chiefs Association podcast co-hosted by Bob. We hope you enjoy the episode and look forward to getting back into the swing in 2024.

Thank you for listening and let us know what you thought of this episode or what you'd like to hear in the future at ⁠impact@upstreamabi.com⁠.

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