Valerie

Vernet / SARII

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Training Coordinator/Trailing

K9 Gracie

AMPWDA Level 2

Trailing

Valerie joined SCSAR in 2019 after several years with SC Foothills SAR.  Valerie and her trailing dog Gracie recently achieved Level 2 Trailing Certification with AMPWDA and Valerie recently obtained SARTECH II certification through NASAR.  Valerie also holds a Part 107 UAS Pilot’s License and is active on the drone unit.

Valerie has a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering (Go Gators!), and has a career in Gas Turbine Development.  She spent many years doing data analysis and control software for aviation Gas Turbine testing and is now writing modeling software for Power Plant turbines. 

Valerie enjoys a hobby farm with her husband, and visits with her daughter, son-in-law, and two grandchildren.  In addition to SAR, she loves back-country hiking and kayaking.

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Kay

McDonald

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Cadaver/HRD Handler

K9 Poppy

IPWDA 

HRD Land & Crime Scene

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Allison Scott joined SCSAR in 2019 and recently completed SARTECH II certification. Her focus lies in SAR K9 and she is training her Border Collie/Catahoula, Muggy, in trailing work and her Catahoula puppy, Dusty, in Air Scent/Area Search. 

Allison is an Arizona native who moved to the Upstate at the end of 2017. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in English Literature from Arizona State University and an MBA/Management from WIU. Her current occupation is stay-at-home mom to two girls and two boys. When she's not on mom-duty, she enjoys riding her horses and spending time with her husband, fellow SCSAR member Carl Scott.  Carl is also working with both Dusty and Muggy with aspirations of both Allison and Carl certfying with both K9's.

David Hartman joined SCSAR in 2021. His focus is on K9 handling. He and his wife Mary have a Czech German Shepherd, Ada, who has been training as a trailing dog. Ada earned her Level 1 through Georgia K9, and will be certifying with other agencies in the near future. David is also a Part 107 drone pilot and works with the drone team and ground teams. 

David has a Bachelor’s Degree in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech, and a Master’s in Business. Mary and David both spent careers in Computer Science, specializing in cloud computing software. David is an active light aircraft pilot and also volunteers as a SAR mission pilot. 

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Marty was born and raised in Memphis, TN and has lived in South Carolina since 2007.  He and his wife have been married for 29 years, have a son, have daughter and have one grandson.  He grew up in the outdoors, having had many hunting dogs over the years, but never a working dog.  Gunner is his first working dog, he is a very high energy Golden Retriever.  His favorite activity is fetching, followed by swimming and hiking.  According to Marty (thank you for the kind words), he has learned more about dogs in the last few months by working with the K9 Team than he had during the first 53 years of his life. 

Tyra Seymour joined SCSAR in 2013 and quickly became SAR II Certified by the Summer of 2013.  Since that time, Tyra has taken numerous classes, participated in numerous searches, and has become a proven leader on this team. 

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During Tyra's SAR career, his interest in SAR K9's grew and beginning in 2018, Tyra began training his first trailing dog, Cricket.  Since then, Tyra adopted the infamous trailing dog Roscoe in February 2019, one of Mark Webb's well known SAR dogs (Coastal Carolina).  Now, Tyra the ground searcher is Tyra the K9 Handler/ground searcher.

When Tyra isn't "Tyra: K9 Handler/Ground Searcher", Tyra is a loving husband and proud father of two children.  In addition to his 2 children, Trya also has 4 fur babies and 1 cat.  When Tyra's isn't wide open at home, he's wide open at work.  Tyra is the owner of Eastlight Home Services where he specializes in home repairs and/or renovations.