IEFPA
Convergence Guest Speakers
Meet Our Guest Speakers
Julie Callahan is a retired police officer, detective, and district attorney investigator with a law enforcement career spanning four decades. She worked as a police officer and detective with the San Jose Police Department (CA) for nearly 30 years and then as a district attorney investigator with the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office for almost ten years. Most of her career was spent working on high profile criminal investigations.
Julie transitioned genders while working at the San Jose Police Department in 2001; twenty years into her career. In the scheme of things, her transition went better than most and she attributes this to a combination of support from the Chief of Police, strong management techniques in setting expectations, and developing a strategic transition plan before she notified the agency of her intention to transition.
Julie was part of a research study in the late 1990’s along with about two dozen other transgender law enforcement officers from the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and the United States. The study included those officers that identified as transsexual or crossdressers. When the study was completed, the participants were afforded the opportunity to contact one another via an email chain. The members of that group were the founding members of the Yahoo Group called TCOPS which stands for the Transgender Community of Police & Sheriffs. The group focused on peer-support, education, and advocacy. TCOPS changed platforms in 2010 and became a Facebook group and updating our name to TCOPS International to reflect the 36 countries that are represented within our membership. We also broadened our membership criteria to include LEOs and LESPs that identify as transgender, crossdressers, gender non-binary, gender-fluid, genderqueer, gender non-conforming, gender questioning individuals, or any LEO or LESP that has had to deal with gender identity issues.
Today, we are aware of over 6,000 transgender LEOs and LESPs. TCOPS International continues to support our members through our stand-alone secure social media platform, www.TCOPS-International.org. We provide peer-support, transition planning workshops and other services for any LEO, LESP, or law enforcement organization asking for help planning a transition or better understanding transgender issues. Our peer-support and related groups are FREE of change. Lastly, we do consult with public safety organizations, departments, and agencies and ask them to cover expenses and not our time.
Greg Miraglia is an LGBT activist, college professor of LGBT studies and criminal justice, author, radio host and producer, and professional speaker. He has a master’s degree in Education, a bachelor’s degree in Business, and is a graduate of the California Commission On Peace Officer Standards and Training Master Instructor Development Program. Mr. Miraglia is a Dean Emeritus at Napa Valley College and currently serves as the program coordinator for Criminal Justice Education and Training and LGBT Studies. He is also a part time member of the faculty at City College of San Francisco and Santa Rosa Junior College. Mr. Miraglia serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the Matthew Shepard Foundation and is also a radio program host and producer on Outbeat Radio, a weekly LGBT program on KRCB Radio.
Mr. Miraglia is the Founder and CEO of Out To Protect. Out To Protect provides education and support for law enforcement professionals. Learn more about Out To Protect on their website at www.outtoprotect.org
Mr. Miraglia is the author of the Coming Out From Behind The Badge book series.
Bobbie Scopa started her career as a seasonal firefighter in Region 3 in 1974, where she worked summers until her graduation from Arizona State University in 1977 with a degree in Natural Resource Management. She was hired by Arizona State Forestry and worked in fire and range conservation for several years before being hired fulltime as a county fire department firefighter. In 1992, she resigned her position with the fire department and completed a Master’s Degree in Forestry from North Carolina State University.
Since then, Bobbie has worked for two more fire departments, the Bureau of Land Management and the USDA Forest Service holding positions of FMO/Division Chief, Forest FMO/Chief 2, Forest Fire Staff/Chief 1, Assistant Regional Fire Director for Operations and 6 months as acting National Deputy Fire Director for Operations in Washington DC.
Since retiring, Bobbie has established a website titled, BobbieOnFire.com where she shares spoken word stories centered on firefighting, leadership and the complexities of human dynamics in our work environment. The stories are delivered through humorous, sometimes serious and entertaining narratives.
Bobbie has recently completed a book chronicling her life’s adventures and complications due to the realities of being transgender.
She is currently living on her boat in Puget Sound during the summer and in Arizona in the winter.
- Podcast Creator, www.BobbieOnFire.com
Entertaining stories with a leadership message. - Author, Both Sides Of The Fire Line
(Chicago Review Press, 2022) - Keynote Speaker, Leadership and Diversity
- Columnist, Wildland Firefighter Magazine
Christy Warren is a retired fire captain from the Berkeley Fire Department in California. She has twenty-five years of service as a professional paramedic and eighteen years as a professional firefighter/paramedic. After being diagnosed with PTSD in 2014, she retired from the fire service; since then, she has become a triathlete, completed the Escape from Alcatraz swim five times, and earned a bachelor’s degree in business from Washington State University. She is a volunteer Peer at the West Coast Post-trauma Retreat and hosts the podcast The Firefighter Deconstructed. She lives in Pleasant Hill with her wife, Lisa, and dog, Harriet.
Christy’s first book, Flash Point: A Firefighter’s Journey through PTSD, is available at www.christyewarren.com