“I was born and raised in a small, rural town in the Dominican Republic. My mother moved to the US when I was 14 and then brought me here when I was 17. We lived in New York City and I started school with no English. I was introduced to law enforcement and public safety with a summer job at LaGuardia airport. Then, during my senior year of high school, I worked as a door security guard at a department store. Within nine months, I was promoted to store detective and then soon after was promoted to night supervisor.
In my early career, I worked as a police officer at the University of New Mexico and as a field officer/investigator for the Vera Institute of Justice, and then as the Senior Training Manager for the NYU Department of Public Safety. I moved to the Upper Valley in 2007 and now work as the Director of the Department of Safety and Security at Dartmouth.
I find a sense of pride from doing the right thing and am glad that I’ve found a career where the right thing is the only thing to be done. There are many challenges within this field of work, but the most challenging thing for me is translating people’s fears and their paralyzing sense of urgency into calmness and the ability to act and resolve matters.
One motto I have lived by is: I am not afraid of change, if the prospect of better exists. This has gotten me through one of the toughest periods of my life which was moving from a small, underdeveloped town to New York City. However, I knew America had great opportunities. Without this leap of faith, I might not have discovered some of my passions.
Throughout my life, I have found life in poetry, dancing, designing and building. I do these things to live, as they give meaning to my existence, both in tangible and intangible ways. I’ve built a life-sized hobbit house in my backyard, a medium-sized bridge, and a Torii (a traditional Japanese gate). Some may describe me as a Renaissance Man, but I just believe that staying static is being stubborn.”
– Keysi Montás, Lebanon, NH
