Developer Profile
Teresa MacPherson
Ms. Teresa MacPherson has a long history of Search and Rescue
experience, specializing in Canine Search and Search Management
since 1989. Disciplines include wilderness search, wide-area search,
Human Remains detection, water search 
and disaster response.
Teresa has responded to numerous missions on a local, State, Federal
and International level. These deployments include the OKC bombing
of the Murrah building, Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Ike, the Bam,
Iran earthquake, the school collapse in Haiti, as well as responses to
call-outs by the FBI, CIA, NCIS and local law enforcement agencies.
In addition to responding to search missions, Teresa instructs and
evaluates on a local, State, Federal and International level. She is a
rostered Lead Instructor for FEMA, an adjunct Instructor with the Texas
engineering Extension Service (TEEX), Public Safety & Security (PS&S)
Division, as well as a rostered Lead Evaluator for FEMA and a Virginia
State Evaluator. She has instructed and evaluated across the United
States and has traveled to Istanbul, Turkey, Sao Paulo, Brazil and the
United Kingdom to assist in the education and evaluation of their search
resources.
Teresa is currently the Chair of the FEMA Canine Sub-Group, which
oversees the federal US&R canine program. She is a member of the
FEMA Search Working Group. She also sits on the NIMS SAR Working
Group. Her affiliation with several other search-related groups enable
her to maintain a broad awareness of SAR on many different levels.
Teresa currently resides in Virginia with her husband, Jack, and her three Labrador Retrievers. Most of
her time is spent with Search and Rescue, but she maintains a hands-on relationship with the real estate
title insurance company that she co-founded in 1984. In her “spare” time, Teresa enjoys recreational
scuba-diving.