Instructor
Benjamin Vernon
Emergency Incident Management & Leadership
Bio
Captain-Paramedic Benjamin Vernon has dedicated nineteen years of service to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department. He holds a State of California Fire Officer certification, is a certified State Instructor, and earned an Associate of Science Degree in Fire Officer. He has a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from UC San Diego and is currently working on his master’s degree in higher education from Point Loma Nazarene University.Captain Vernon joined SDFD in 2006, joining the hazmat team in 2008. He worked full time on the hazmat team while starting his teaching career with the CERT program; teaching civilians basic safety skills ignited his passion for teaching. After moving to the technical rescue team, he became a State Fire Marshall instructor in many of the technical rescue classes. Captain Vernon began teaching hazmat classes in the 75th fire academy and has been an assistant academy instructor in over 25 SDFD fire academies to date. He joined the staff at Miramar community college in 2010 and was a primary EMT instructor for ten years. Captain Vernon left the EMT program so he could focus more of his time as a primary instructor for the SDFD paramedic program. He has taught in every paramedic class since its inception in 2016. He has been awarded the San Diego Fire-Rescue Paramedic Program’s teacher-of-the-year three times.
Furthermore, Captain Vernon teaches fire science classes at Miramar, Southwestern and UC San Diego. He is a state instructor in 18 topics including confined space technician, fire control 3, and fire and emergency services instructor 1 and 2. He recently attended the Office of State Fire Marshall cadre for the Behavioral Health and Cancer Awareness curriculum committee where he represented the southern region of California. Additionally, Captain Vernon has created several lecture series curricula which he has delivered all over the world.
Through these experiences, he has honed his teaching style and learned the administrative skills needed for SDFD’s Paramedic Program Coordinator position. Captain Vernon will assume his new position in June 2026.