Heather Gray is the owner and principal of TAMA Inc., Threat Assessment and Management Associates Inc., a workplace violence and threat assessment consulting company, now headquartered in Edmonton Alberta Canada. As well as a professional speaker and trainer, Heather Gray is also a former police officer, with 20 years of experience in a high-crime urban center.

Heather had many firsts to her credit throughout her career. Heather was the first and, at that time, the only female police officer in her home town. After relocating early in her career to a larger urban center, Heather went on to become the first female Hostage Negotiator [now known as Crisis Negotiators]. Heather served as a Detective in CID [Criminal Investigation Division], Child Abuse Unit and earned a number of commendations in her policing career including, in 1991 cited for calm under pressure, 1993 cited for bravery and 1999 cited for dedicated research, writing and presentation skills.

After leaving policing in 2001 to launch her own company, Heather trained in Los Angeles with Gavin de Becker, considered one of the world’s foremost authorities on predicting violent behavior and threat assessment [www.gavindebecker.com]. Heather has been invited to serve as a faculty member with Gavin de Becker at the Advanced Threat Assessment and Management Academy in California.

As an expert in her field, Heather does a great deal of speaking on the topics related to her specialty and is a sought-after conference presenter and keynote speaker. She is a Professional member of the CAPS network [Canadian Association of Professional Speakers; www.canadianspeakers.org], the International Federation of Professional Speakers and affiliated with the NSA [National Speakers Association, USA; www.nsaspeaker.org].

Heather is an active member of ATAP [Association of Threat Assessment Professionals, USA] and was a presenter at the 2003 International ATAP Conference, held in Anaheim CA. Heather is also an active member of ASIS International [American Society of Industrial Security] and has presented to ASIS on the subject of threat assessment protocol development. Heather is a member of the HRMAE (Human Resource Management Association of Edmonton) and has presented on the topics of workplace violence and workplace bullying to various HR groups.

Heather is a contributing writer to Blue Line Magazine [Canada’s National Law Enforcement Magazine] and her writings have been published in many other periodicals, journals, e-zines and newsletters. Heather is also a distance learning instructor for the Police Leadership Certificate Program at Dalhousie University, Halifax NS Canada.