Biography
Mark Engholm was appointed the State Fire Marshal by Governor Laura Kelly in October of 2023. He officially joined the OSFM on November 13, 2023, as acting State Fire Marshal and will serve as such until his Kansas Senate confirmation.
Mark comes to the OSFM from the Kansas Highway Patrol, as well as serving as a firefighter in Geary, Osage and Shawnee counties. He served at Topeka-Tecumseh Fire District (now the Shawnee Heights Fire District) outside Topeka as a training officer, public information officer, squad leader, and “retired” from the fire service as a Division Chief in 2018.
His firefighting experience led him into other avenues of service to the state, including as part of the Kansas All Hazards Incident Management Team, as Deputy Director of the Kansas Intelligence Fusion Center, and as a trooper for the Kansas Highway Patrol. Most recently, Engholm was part of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, having joined that team in 2014.
Engholm will serve as Kansas' 27th State Fire Marshal.