National Ceremony Planned for May in Washington, D.C.

Merrillville – Gary McKay was presented the 2019 Director’s Community Leadership Award at a ceremony in Merrillville February 12 by FBI Indianapolis Assistant Special Agent in Charge Danny Youmara.

Since 1990, the FBI has recognized the achievements of individuals and organizations that make extraordinary contributions in their communities. Each year, the special agent in charge of each FBI field office selects one individual or organization to receive the Director’s Community Leadership Award in order to publicly acknowledge their major contributions in crime prevention and education within the community.

McKay developed active-shooter defense training to prepare local citizens and businesses in the event an active shooter incident would occur in their work setting or in the community. He and his partner, Lori Postma, have delivered approximately 1,000 free trainings to hospitals, schools, offices, factories, and community centers across Indiana and in Ohio. 

Additionally, McKay developed training for law enforcement officers called Save a Cop. It is an eight-hour class offered free to Indiana police officers that teaches them how to save their own life and the lives of their partners—including how to apply tourniquets to control life-threatening bleeding, and how to extricate victims from a tactical or hostile environment. The program has provided training to several hundred officers in Indiana. 

McKay currently is the Manager of Emergency Preparedness for Community Hospital in Munster, Indiana, and serves on the Northwest Indiana Information Sharing and Security Alliance (NIISSA) as a volunteer. NIISSA is an organization consisting of members from public and private entities that collaborate on regional security strategies and information/resource sharing. He is a retired police officer, having served with the Kokomo (Indiana) Police Department for 24 years.

McKay will be honored at a national ceremony May 1, 2020, with FBI Director Christopher Wray at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. He will be among 55 recipients recognized by Director Wray.

Past FBI Indianapolis Division Director’s Community Leadership Award recipients include:

• Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northeast Indiana
• Ascent 121
• Indianapolis Ten Point Coalition
• Raio Krishnayya, Center for Victim and Human Rights
• Lisette Guillen, Latin Media
• K.P. Singh – The International Center of Indianapolis