Driver's Education
The driver’s education course is a program consisting of 30 classroom hours, six hours of in-car instruction (outside of classroom hours) and six hours of observation as set forth by the Wyoming State Department of Education. The course meets the basic requirements of the Wyoming Department of Transportation.
REQUIREMENTS:
- one parent must attend the first ½ hour to hour of the first class (for those students under 18);
- student must have their driving permit prior to registration;
- student must provide their own licensed and insured vehicle for the one-on-one driving portion of the class and;
- attendance is required at each class for the certificate to be issued. Students who do not successfully complete the course may be eligible for additional instructional time for a fee.
Meet the Driver's Education Instructors
Driver's Education Classroom Instructor/Coordinator
During Dave’s 38-year career, he has been extensively involved in the oversight, development, and implementation of law enforcement training in Wyoming and South Dakota. He began his career in law enforcement in 1982 serving in Evansville, WY. He then joined the Natrona County Sheriff’s Office in 1983 as a Detention Officer, later moving into the patrol division, investigations and the crime prevention unit. In 1991, he accepted a position with the Wyoming Law Enforcement Academy. Retiring in 2018, after 27 years of service with the Academy, 12 of which serving as its Director, In 2018 he joined South Dakota’s Law Enforcement Training Center as a Training Coordinator.
He was happy to be able to return to Wyoming in 2020 and has been teaching Driver’s Education at LCCC since August of 2022. When asked about what he likes about working with Driver’s Education students he says, “I enjoy my time spent with them as they learn (in an engaging & interactive classroom environment) the basic principles of driving and how important it is to continually work at becoming the best drivers they can. My goals for Driver’s Education are to enhance the student's knowledge in the basic principles as it relates to driver responsibilities, knowing the legal obligations in operating a vehicle, developing driver skills and situational awareness while working with a great cache of LCCC Driving Instructors.”
Dave is married to his wife of 31 years and is most proud of their two grown boys; his oldest who is serving in the Navy, stationed in Jacksonville, Florida and youngest, a Chemical Engineer in Wyoming.
In-Car Driving Instructor
Dan is a life-long Cheyenne resident and is currently working as a third-grade teacher for Laramie County School District #1. In addition to teaching, Dan has enjoyed coaching elementary school flag football, boys’ and girls’ basketball, volleyball and track. Before his teaching career, he drove professionally for twenty-plus years, most recently for a parcel delivery company, logging more than 100,000 hours of drive time in company vehicles.
Dan teaches utilizing the five habits of safe driving, he teaches the framework for lifelong habits that ensure drivers, passengers, and others sharing the road enjoy a mishap-free driving career.
In his free time, Dan enjoys the outdoors and spending time with his family.
In-Car Driving Instructor
During Ben’s 19 year career with the Laramie County Sherriff’s department he has had the opportunity to serve in a variety of capacities including 10 years instructing Emergency Vehicle Operations to deputies on how to handle patrol vehicles safely and with due regard for the safety of others on the road in emergency situations and 5 years working as the deputy assigned to county schools within Laramie County. In addition to working as a Sherriff’s Deputy, Ben spent 10 years working with young people in the VOA sponsored Camp POSTCARD, which is a week-long team building and leadership camp. When asked what he likes about working as an in-car instructor he says “I like the fact that young people are still open to different alternatives about how to approach a problem and solve it. Their decision making isn't generally set in stone and they can generally look at finding a solution in different ways.” The most important advice he can give to new drivers is ”remember, of all of the factors in driving a motor vehicle, there is only one that you have complete control over. That’s you!”
In his free time, Ben enjoys watching his sons play football and watching college football on TV. He is a certified UAV pilot and enjoys recreational and commercial drone flying. He also enjoys NASCAR, baseball, hockey, bird hunting, and spending time with his family.
In-Car Driving Instructor
Brian Kozak retired as the longest serving chief of police for the City of Cheyenne, where he instituted many innovative best practices in policing. He is best known for his commitment to traffic safety, starting the first DUI taskforce in Wyoming and launching High Visible Enforcement, which reduced crashes by 30 percent.
He served on the Highway Safety Committee for the International Association of Chiefs of Police; the committee advises police departments across the County on best practices in traffic safety. Brian served as a police officer for 35 years; he spent 12 years as a motorcycle officer with the police department in Mesa, AZ,. As a motor officer he conducted over 10,000 DUI/vehicular homicide investigations and issued over 50,000 traffic citations. Brian is certified as an expert in the signs of drug impairment as it relates to driving and has conducted over 500 drug evaluations on suspects.
He has a bachelor’s degree in business and a master’s degree in secondary education. Brian also serves as an adjunct professor of criminal justice for Laramie County Community College.
In-Car Driving Instructor
Kevin is a current police officer and a prior teacher. With this background he brings
knowledge of safe driving habits and statutes along with a learner focused approached
to driver's education. Kevin is currently the Public Information Officer for the Cheyenne
Police Department where he focuses on public education, with driver's safety being
a high priority.
Prior to becoming a police officer with the Cheyenne Police Department in 2013, Kevin was the assistant coordinator of GEAR-UP at LCCC, helping to make Jr. High and High School students college ready. Kevin also taught English for two years in Armenia through the US Peace Corps.
As an in-car driving instructor at LCCC, Kevin wants to ensure that students learn to drive safely and carry forward the lessons of driver's education into a lifetime of safe driving habits.
In-Car Driving Instructor
In my 25-year career working in law enforcement, I have had the opportunities to work
in many capacities. One of those areas was with the traffic division investigating
major crashes. The importance of safe driving impacts all of us. My goal with my students
is to instill confidence in each student so they know they can learn to be safe and
proficient drivers. In my free time, I enjoy spending time with my daughters and my
dog Bailey. I also hike, hunt, fish and ride motorcycles. I look forward to working
with each student to do my part in teaching the next generation of safe drivers.
In-Car Driving Instructor
Larry has spent over 20 years in the transportation industry as a commercial driver, manager, and owner. During that time, Larry was a trainer for employees who desired to obtain a class A license, instructed new employees on commercial truck inspections, and DOT requirements. Larry has logged over one million miles in class A, B, C vehicles and operates oversize and overweight loads.
He left the transportation industry and was employed by the Cheyenne Police Department for six years as a police officer. He received significant training and certifications in vehicle enforcement and crash investigation. Larry was assigned to the traffic unit for four years and is well versed in Wyoming state statutes and enforcement.
Currently, Larry is a Deputy with the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office. He is part of the patrol division and continues to perform traffic enforcement and crash Investigations.
Larry’s approach to in-car driving instructor is one of calm verbal instruction, with the ability to think outside the box to achieve basic principles, practical knowledge, great habits while assuring every student has a fun experience, and be the best Wyoming driver as possible.
In-Car Driving Instructor
Rob has been an in-car instructor with the LCCC Driver's Education program since 2014.
When working with students, his goal is to instill mental and physical driving skills
to help make students safe drivers and to mitigate risk using situational awareness
techniques in everyday driving situations. Rob strives to create a fun, high-challenge,
low-threat learning environment for students when driving, regardless of the student's
experience level, using positive reinforcement. He feels honored knowing the lessons
learned in our program can prevent accidents and save lives, which is the ultimate
goal.
Rob was raised in Cheyenne and graduated from Central High School in 1988 and joined the Air Force soon afterward. Following his initial enlistment, Rob attended Cheyenne Airmotive School of Aviation in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and obtained an Airframe and Power plant certification and went on to earn his Associate's Degree from Westwood College in Denver, CO. In addition to teaching driver's education, Rob is also a certified motorcycle Basic Rider Coach through the Motorcycle Safety Foundation and has been coaching Moto classes since 2008. He enjoys outdoor recreational activities, fitness, riding his motorcycle, and spending quality time with his family and pets.
In-Car Driving Instructor
Mark is a retired law enforcement professional with over twenty five years of experience.
He was involved in many different specialties during his career as well as being an
instructor of several topics. He also was a Field Training Officer and then later
ran the FTO program after promoting to the rank of Lieutenant. As a patrol deputy
Mark was highly involved in traffic and DUI enforcement earning several Governor's
awards for his efforts in DUI enforcement. One of the things Mark enjoyed the most
during his career was instructing where he was able to pass along vital information
to the next generation of law enforcement officers preparing them for their careers.
Mark enjoys the outdoors; hunting, fishing and hiking with his wife and their dogs.
Mark and his wife are also motorcycle enthusiasts who travel all over the county on
their motorcycles. Mark's goal is to provide the students of LCCC Driver's Education
program the knowledge, skills and abilities to become safe, competent and confident
members of the motoring public."
In-car Driving Instructor
Mike grew up in Texas and began his law enforcement career in 2009. He worked as a
patrol officer for three years before being assigned as a School Resource Officer
at Central High School. In 2018, he went back to patrol and worked as a Field Training
Officer teaching police recruits. Mike currently serves as a Property Crime Detective
for the Cheyenne Police Department. In addition to Mike’s law enforcement career,
he served in the US Air Force and Wyoming Air National Guard for 25 years. He became
a certified instructor and evaluator providing training to airman in his career field.
He retired from the military in 2021. Mike’s goal instructing new drivers is to pass
on the knowledge he has gained investigating traffic crashes to produce safe drivers
and reduce future accidents. During his free time, Mike enjoys watching sports and
spending time with his family.