Dave Winnacker

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  Dave Winnacker

  Veteran Fellow

  Short Bio

  Dave Winnacker has served in the US Marine Corps since 1997 in active-duty and reserve capacities. He received his bachelor’s degree in history from the University of California–Santa Barbara and spent twenty-one years in the fire service, including as fire chief of the Moraga-Orinda Fire Protection District in California.

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  Fire Chief (ret.) Dave Winnacker is a Hoover Institution veteran fellow working at the intersection of wildfire and property insurance. He spent twenty-one years in the fire service with Fresno City Fire, Alameda County Fire, and, as fire chief from 2017 to 2024, the Moraga-Orinda Fire District (all in California). He is the former California director of the Western Fire Chiefs Association and led the California Fire Chiefs Association Wildland Urban Interface Task Force. He served on the California Wildfire Risk Modeling Advisory Workgroup and the California Wildfire Mitigation Advisory Committee.

  Prior to joining the fire service, he served on active duty as a Marine Corps Infantry officer (1997–2003) and, as a member of the Marine Corps Reserve, served as the commanding officer, Fourth Force Reconnaissance Company (2014–16); deputy commander, 23rd Marine Regiment (2019–22); and chief of staff, Marine Innovation Unit (2022–24). He currently serves as the commanding general, Force Headquarters Group, Marine Forces Reserve.

  In the private sector he was the cofounding advisor to ZoneHaven, an evacuation software tool in use throughout California, and is a cofounder of XyloPlan Risk, a wildfire risk assessment and visualization company.

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  To view, the complete bio visit https://www.hoover.org/profiles/dave-winnacker.