I’m Bryan Strawser. I help organizations survive their worst day.
I’m the founder and CEO of Bryghtpath, a crisis management and resilience consulting firm. I’ve spent thirty years in and around crises: leading response from corporate headquarters, advising boards and executive teams, studying how disruption breaks organizations, and lately, working the front line of emergencies as a paramedic.
This site is where all of it comes together. I write here about crisis leadership, resilience, what I’m learning in my research, and what the back of an ambulance teaches you that a boardroom can’t.
The Story
I started my career in law enforcement with a county sheriff’s department in Indiana. Then I spent twenty-one years at Target Corporation, where I built and led the company’s global crisis management, business continuity, and intelligence programs, eventually serving as Senior Director of Global Crisis Management, Business Continuity & Intelligence.
Along the way, I helped lead the company through Hurricane Katrina, the H1N1 pandemic, and more disruptions than I can count.
After Target, I served as Chief Security Officer at the University of Phoenix, overseeing enterprise risk and global security for one of the largest educational institutions in the country.
In 2014, I founded Bryghtpath to bring what I’d learned building these programs at scale to organizations that needed it. Since then, we’ve guided Fortune 500 companies, health systems, financial institutions, government agencies, and nonprofits through crisis planning, exercises, and the real thing.
What I Do Now
Bryghtpath. I lead our consulting practice in crisis management, business continuity, and IT disaster recovery. If your organization needs help getting ready for its worst day, that conversation starts at bryghtpath.com.
Books. I’m the co-author of The Continuity Code: Mastering Business Resilience and From Panic to Poise: Crisis Management in the Modern World. Both are field guides drawn from three decades of practice, not theory. I have two other books in development.
Podcast. I host Managing Uncertainty, a podcast on crisis management, resilience, and leading when things fall apart.
Speaking. I speak at conferences and to leadership teams on crisis leadership, resilience, and decision-making under pressure. Details and booking on the Speaking page.
The Research
I’m a doctoral candidate at Hamline University, researching how political narratives and disinformation shape public discourse. Before that, I earned an MA in International Relations & Contemporary War from the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, where my dissertation examined how the American alt-right constructed its own narrative of truth.
The through line from my professional work is direct: crises are won and lost on information, and I want to understand what happens when the information environment itself is the crisis.
The Paramedic Thing
After thirty years of leading crisis response from headquarters, I went to paramedic school to work the front line of emergencies myself in late 2025. I’m a nationally registered Paramedic, I’ve volunteered and worked on ambulances, and I completed paramedic training in 2026.
People ask why.
The honest answer: I’d spent a career making decisions about emergencies from conference rooms, and I wanted to be the one who shows up.
That view changes you. I write about it here.
Credentials, Briefly
Education: MBA, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. MA, War Studies, King’s College London. Harvard NPLI executive program. Doctoral candidate, Hamline University.
Certifications include Master Business Continuity Professional (MBCP), CISSP, Minnesota Certified Emergency Manager, and Nationally Registered Paramedic (NRP).
I’m a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a member of Chatham House, and former chair of the Private Sector Committee at the National Emergency Management Association.
Get in Touch
Email is the best way to reach me: bryan.strawser@bryghtpath.com. For consulting inquiries, start at bryghtpath.com.
For everything else, the Contact page has the details.