Women in PSD | ucidiver

Women of Public Safety Diving

This page is dedicated to all the hardcore "LEGENDARY" women in Public Safety Diving. Those listed on this page is by no means even scratching the surface of those out there who train, sacrifice and give their all for others using their talent and search and recovery and rescue skills to help others. If you have a kick butt woman on your team and you would like to put her on this page to shine the spotlight on her dedication, email an image along with a little information to ucidiver@hotmail.com and we will post her on this page. You do not have to be a UCI Diver to be recognized on this page. This page is the first of its kind and is dedicated to all women of PSD. Here's to them!

I'll start it off with UCI's own Denise Cable. Denise is a highly trained and experienced UCI Diver and P.O.S.T certified law enforcement officer, serving as the Operations Sergeant for the San Diego County Sheriff Department’s 20-person dive unit, responsible for 4,500+ square miles of geography.

Keep in mind UCI currently only has 6 instructors in the world (others in the making) who have the qualification and experience to meet our standards and one of them is Denise. In addition to her role as a UCI Instructor, she is a PADI Course Director, Emergency First Response Instructor Trainer and holds over 60 Specialty Instructor Ratings, 28 of which are for instructor-level training. Talking about kick butt!

This is Trooper Kara Pegram of the Virginia State Police Search and Recovery Team. What many do not know is Kara is the first woman to qualify and join the Department's Tactical Team, meaning she is a badass! Kara is a Master Underwater Criminal Investigator and has years of experience finding everything from bodies, vehicles and every type of evidence imaginable. She is also a Swiftwater Rescue Technician, Land Search and Rescue Technician, Rope Rescue Technician and Emergency Medical Technician.

This is Trooper Makellah Mann who is a proud member of the Virginia State Police Search and Recovery Team. She has not been on the team very long but of course is a certified Underwater Criminal Investigator, PADI Master Scuba Diver and can't get enough of recovering evidence. She, like the rest of my team is certified as a Swiftwater Rescue Technician, Land Search and Rescue Technician, Rope Rescue Technician and soon to be an Emergency Medical Technician. Makellah has already recovered every category of recovery diving (Body, Vehicle and Evidence) and tries to be the first one in the water.

Meet Officer Sarah Carroll of the New Jersey Transit Police Department. Sarah is a member of their Emergency Service Unit and kicks butt serving her department and community. She holds certifications as a firefighter, Rope Rescue and Hazmat Technician, Urban Search and Rescue, Swiftwater Rescue, Confined Space/Tunnel Rescue, SWAT as well as other specialties. She is a certified trained Public Safety Diver and volunteers using all these skills for the Mahwah and Parsippany Dive Teams.

OK, are you ready? This is Linda Farkas. Linda is a proud member of the Ringwood Underwater Search and Recovery Team in NJ. In fact, she is the Assistant Chief of their dive team. She is also a dedicated member of the North Jersey Regional Scuba Task Force. Linda is a certified: ERDi Dive Supervisor, UCI Public Safety Dive Commander, Master Underwater Criminal Investigator, which means she is certified as an Underwater Criminal Investigator, Body Recovery Specialist, Vehicle Recovery Specialist, Evidence Recovery Specialist, Crime Scene Metal Detector Specialist as well as a Master UCI Diver. She is also certified as a Thin Ice Diver, Surface Supplied Air Diver, in Hull Inspection and a Contaminated Water Diver. Wow!