Mike Ullom joined the Florida Polytechnic University Police Department in 2019. He was born and raised in Winter Haven, is a lifelong resident of Polk County, and attended Auburndale High School from 1985–87. While in high school he met Laurie Bostelman; they were married in 1993 and are still married today. While attending classes at Polk Community College, he held primarily warehousing and transportation jobs at Ingersoll Rand, Sherwin Williams, and Pepsi until he attended the Kenneth C. Thompson police academy at Polk Community College in 1995.
In 1996 he began his law enforcement career at the Auburndale Police Department. He served as a patrol officer, field training officer, general instructor, firearms instructor, high liability instructor, narcotics detective, special enforcement unit (SEU) member, agency armorer, FTO coordinator, K9 coordinator, training coordinator, SRO coordinator, communications supervisor, support division commander, and patrol division commander. During his service he received numerous awards, citations, and commendations from within and outside the agency.
In 1999 he was assigned the rank of corporal where he became a squad leader and a primary FTO responsible for training new recruits in addition to his patrol duties. He also attended advanced and specialized classes, certifying as a general instructor, firearms instructor and high liability instructor. In 2006 he was selected as one of the first four SEU members to make the 10-man team; which was responsible for serving high-risk search warrants and making building entries.
In 2008 he was promoted to the rank of sergeant and was responsible for the day-to-day duties of running a patrol squad in addition to overseeing annual high liability training for the agency. In 2010 he was assigned as the SEU commander.
In 2014 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, first serving as the support division commander and then as the patrol division commander. After more than 22 years of service, he retired in February 2019 and joined the Florida Polytechnic University Police Department.
This session will demonstrate that practical risk management is for everyone, regardless of a formal program. Attendees will learn actionable and simple strategies that are easy to implement, enabling them to start immediately by focusing on their top risks to build greater operational resilience and ensure the sustained success of their auxiliary enterprises.
Michelle Powell serves as the pioneering Risk Manager at Florida Polytechnic University, the state’s sole 100% STEM-dedicated institution. Having been with the university for nearly 11 years, Michelle transitioned from a leadership role in Admissions in October 2023 to establish and evolve the risk management function from the ground up. In this solo capacity, Michelle builds robust frameworks for our dynamic, young university, overseeing our insurance portfolio, consulting on third-party and event risks, and developing critical campus-wide training programs. Michelle has obtained the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO) Enterprise Risk Management certificate and the Associate in Risk Management (ARM) and Construction Risk and Insurance Specialist (CRIS) designations. Her distinct background in mathematics and engineering, combined with extensive higher education leadership, brings an analytical and strategic approach enhancing the institution’s resilience.
