Jon Walters Co-Founder & President

Jon is the Founder of Public Safety Testing, Inc, a firm that specializes in professional recruitment, pre-employment screening, investigations, and promotional testing. For the past 20 years, PST has helped connect thousands of candidates with hundreds of public safety departments through a streamlined and simplified hiring system. After serving in the US Army, Jon’s decades-long policing career includes serving 7 years as a police chief in the Pacific Northwest. He also served as the Executive Director of a USDOJ Regional Community Policing Institute that operated in a five-state region. In this position, he was responsible for managing programs designed to enhance police-community relations, trust, and partnerships to address crime, fear of crime, and quality of life issues at the local level.

Jon is a graduate of the 171^st session of the FBI National Academy, a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, the Washington Association of Fire Chiefs, Association of Washington Cities and the FBI National Academy Associates. He has earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Law and Justice and a Master of Science degree in Organization Development. In his free time, Jon enjoys golf, camping, travel, and boating.

Jim Nelson Director of Promotional Testing Services

Jim Nelson has 30 years of diverse and progressively responsible law enforcement experience serving the City of Lynnwood to PST. His law enforcement career began as a patrol officer and culminated with his service as the police chief. Jim is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, and he holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Washington State University, a Master’s in Public Administration degree from the University of Nebraska, and is a graduate of the 245th Session of the FBI National Academy.

Jim spent 17 years in investigations including assignments as background investigator, internal affairs investigator, lead detective on major crimes, supervisor of a multi-agency narcotics task force and as the Investigations Division commander. He also served as the Detention Division commander, managing the Lynnwood City Jail, where he implemented first level supervisory positions, a jail medical program and formed partnerships with local public health entities to improve the jail environment. This work led to the development and construction of a new community justice facility and his partnership with a WA state legislator to build the region’s first crisis stabilization center set to be completed in 2024.

Jim has the unique experience of being promoted through all the department’s ranks, which included a variety of promotional testing processes. As a commander and deputy chief he served as the agency point of contact for PST promotional processes and as the Chief, he was the recipient of test outcomes and candidate feedback from PST promotional processes for his agency. In addition to those experiences, he has significant experience serving as a rater for other agencies’ promotional tests for positions ranging from sergeant through management. Being able to see, participate and evaluate promotional processes from these very different perspectives enforced his understanding of how important these processes are for your agency’s candidates, managers, the agency head making promotional decisions and the communities that they serve. He looks forward to using this career’s worth of experience to ensure your agency’s promotional processes meets or exceeds your needs and expectations.

Colleen Wilson Promotional Testing Project Manager

Colleen develops and delivers PST’s promotional testing and executive services. After serving 40 years in uniform (23 years as a police chief), Colleen retired as the Port of Seattle police chief where she served for 9 years. She also served as the Chief of Police for the cities of Monroe and Sumner. Colleen was appointed the first female police chief in the State of Washington, the first female president of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC) and chaired the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission. Appointed by three governors and a Supreme Court Justice as the law enforcement representative to various task forces, Colleen has helped make legislative and policy changes for Washington state, most recently in the area of ethical response by police officers.

Colleen attended Gonzaga University, the University of Washington’s Cascade Program for Executive Excellence, and the FBI’s National Academy and Executive Leadership programs. Colleen’s experience, reputation and talent brings great value to PST and to those we serve.

Nick & Julie Seibert Promotional Testing Developer & Administrator

Nick has been involved in public safety for more than 36 years with a background in law enforcement as a deputy sheriff, police officer and the last 7 years in police administration. During the last five years of his career, Nick was the hiring manager for a midsize city and participated in many hiring and promotional processes. Nick is a graduate of Northwestern University’s the School of Police Staff and Command.

Julie serves as the Test Administrator on test day and during Assessment Centers. She works with the candidates in the candidate room, provides the briefing, keeps the process on schedule and ensures that all the candidates are on the same level playing field in terms of preparatory information.

Nick and Julie have worked for Public Safety Testing since 2016. To date, Nick and Julie have worked with nearly 80 public safety agencies, to build and deliver over 100 promotional processes.

Ryan Fox Fire Tactical Simulations Developer & Administrator

Battalion Chief Ryan Fox is a 26 year veteran of Lacey Fire District 3. He enjoys outdoor activities, family time, and music. Battalion Chief Fox spent two years in SPSCC's Fire Science Program before onboarding with Fire District 3 in 1995 and has further education in areas of interest such as Psychology, Sociology, and fundamentals of organizational behavior. Chief Fox was one of the initial arrivers to the Amtrak 501 train derailment in 2017 and had the opportunity to work as the Incident Commander in the unified command post that resulted in 90 patients being triaged, treated, and transported in 95 minutes. As a result of that incident, he has presented at Fire Rescue International, State Chiefs, and various training engagements and conferences around the state speaking on incident command, strategy and tactics, and all things leadership. Chief Fox is passionate about internal and external customer service and believes that healthy culture inside an organization spills out to the streets benefiting those we serve.

Pat Walters Co-Founder & Vice President

As Vice President, Pat directs the day to day operations of Public Safety Testing assisting with test scheduling, test proctoring, admin support, recruitment, promotional exam development and more. An Edmonds native, Pat graduated from Edmonds High School and attended Seattle Pacific University.

Greg Wilson Director of Investigations

Greg Wilson serves as the Director of Investigations and brings to PST more than 32-years of diverse and progressive public safety experience serving three different municipalities in the Puget Sound region.

Greg began his public safety career in 1986, with the Renton Police Department and was one of the founding members of the Federal Way Police Department. Greg retired in 2019, after serving more than ten years as the Chief of Police for the City of Mountlake Terrace. Greg has a proven track record and considerable experience in conducting and managing criminal, background, internal affairs, and workplace misconduct investigations.

Greg received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Washington State University; is a graduate of the 219th Session of the FBI National Academy and the 67th Session of the FBI’s Law Enforcement Executive Development Seminar. Greg is a Lifetime Member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and a recipient of the Patriotic Employer Award from the United States Department of Defense. Greg is a certified Leadership/Ethics Instructor for the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission and has conducted leadership, ethics, and management courses across the nation to federal, state, and local public safety agencies.

Stephanie Benjamin Director of Business Operations

Stephanie Benjamin is the Director of Business Operations at PST. She started at PST in 2017 as a Test Proctor and has held various roles and responsibilities within PST since then. She oversees the daily company operations, focusing on ensuring efficient processes for our customers and robust pre-employment testing services. Stephanie began her career in public service as an officer in the United States Navy, where she has served for more than ten years. She has vast experience on Active Duty and in the Reserves in Third and Seventh Fleet areas of responsibility, recently serving as a command executive officer in Everett, WA. She is currently a Lieutenant Commander in the US Navy Reserves, specializing as a Warfare Tactics Instructor for Anti-Surface and Antisubmarine Warfare.

Stephanie holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Washington, a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from UW's Foster School of Business, and a Master of Arts in National Security Studies from the Naval War College.

Matthew Walters Interim Director of Pre-Employment Testing Services

Matthew currently serves as the Interim-Director of Pre-Employment Testing Services. He is responsible for scheduling and staffing our pre-employment testing events, including in-person, virtual, and remote written examinations and physical ability tests. He is also involved in business development and supporting a wide range of PST’s business functions, including finance, marketing, and agency outreach.

Matthew grew up in Mukilteo, WA and began working at PST at a young age from the “ground up” before moving to Spokane for college. He graduated from Gonzaga University with a degree in Business Administration, concentrating in Finance and Marketing. After college, he moved to Scottsdale, AZ to work at Vanguard, an investment institution. After two years there, he returned to the Northwest and to PST.

Rick Laycock CPAT Operations Lead

Rick (Rico) began his career with Public Safety Testing in 2010 as a CPAT proctor and, for the past 10 years, has been the CPAT Operations Lead at PST's CPAT testing facility in Tukwila, WA. As the CPAT Lead, he oversees 20+ CPAT proctors with current fire department experience and retired firefighters with 30+ years in the profession.

As of June 2023, Rico retired as a Fire Lieutenant from Renton Regional Fire Authority after 31 years of service. He holds a B.A. in Business Administration with an emphasis in finance and economics from the University of Puget Sound and an A.A. in Fire Science from Bellevue College. Rico has been a certified Peer Fitness Trainer from A.C.E and the International Association of Firefighters for 15 years and a certified CrossFit level 1 instructor for 5 years.

Rico would like to emphasize that our Public Safety Testing proctors enjoy paying it forward by working with candidates pursuing careers as professional firefighters.

Cindy Walters Promotional Testing Developer

Cindy began her career at Spokane County Fire District 8 where she worked her way up to EMS Division Chief. She served as the Program Director of the Fire Science Technology program at Spokane Community College where she trained students who were interested in becoming career firefighters and coordinated the Fire Officer degree program for first-line supervisors. She taught all aspects of the fire service including classroom and practical skills training. She spent summers serving on incident management teams as a Resource Unit Leader and a Type 2 Planning Section Chief. She has taught FEMA All-Hazard Planning Section courses. She recently retired from Spokane Community College. Cindy received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Eastern Washington University. She also served as the Civil Service Examiner for Spokane Valley Fire Department for 13 years.

Currently Cindy works for Public Safety Testing as a test developer for written promotional exams and she participates as a Test Administrator in the delivery of assessment centers. She also recently served as the Lead Proctor for entry level police, fire and dispatch exams in the Spokane area.

Diana Culver Bookkeeping, Payroll & Accounting

Diana has worked for PST since 2004 and currently provides administrative and accounting support. She has over 20 years of customer service experience and is often the first point of contact for applicants and agency representatives. Diana has been responsible for many aspects of PST, including website management, test administrator, bookkeeping, payroll, and accounting.

Diana has earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Washington.