A healthcare leader's journey into fire, life safety, and security, driven by a mission to protect people and organizations through proactive, preventive strategies before emergencies occur.
Her Story
About Amanda
Amanda (Mandi) Lankford, MBA, RN, LSSBB, is the National Accounts Sales Manager at SecureNet LLC, where she partners with multi-location organizations to deliver comprehensive fire, life safety, and security solutions. She works closely with organizations across the country to develop customized strategies that enhance safety, regulatory compliance, and operational consistency while building lasting client relationships. Her diverse background in healthcare, quality management, and business leadership enables her to provide a well-versed approach that helps organizations protect their people, assets, and operations. Amanda began her career as a Registered Nurse, serving as a Director of Nursing in long-term care before advancing into her multiple unit hospital nursing leadership role, where she spent over a decade leading clinical teams, improving patient outcomes, and driving operational excellence. During this time, she earned her Master of Business Administration and was recognized as Nurse of the Year for her leadership and commitment to quality care. She later stepped into a role as System Director of Quality and experienced a near-miss active shooter incident; Amanda was inspired to expand her impact beyond healthcare by transitioning into business process improvement. As a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, she served several years leading quality improvement and risk management initiatives that strengthened organizational performance through data-driven decision-making, process optimization, and continuous improvement. She later broadened her executive management experience as Administrative Manager for a diversified organization spanning construction, dealership, and real estate before joining SecureNet. Throughout her career, Amanda has remained passionate about creating safer environments through strategic leadership, continuous improvement, and proactive risk management. She believes that sustainable success is built through collaboration, frontline engagement, and processes designed with the people performing the work every day and knowing their expectations. Today, she combines her clinical expertise, business acumen, and operational experience to help organizations implement effective fire, life safety, and security solutions that protect lives and support long-term organizational success. Known for her integrity, strategic mindset, and commitment to excellence, Amanda is dedicated to helping clients build stronger, safer, and more resilient organizations.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Amanda
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to the unwavering support of my family. Throughout my career, I have remained committed to continuous learning and professional growth, often returning to further my education and expand my expertise. My husband and children have consistently encouraged and supported those pursuits, providing the foundation that has enabled me to achieve both my personal and professional goals. Their belief in me has been instrumental in my journey and continues to inspire me to strive for excellence.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I have received is to develop a strong understanding of business, regardless of your profession. Gaining business knowledge has given me a broader perspective on leadership, organizational strategy, and decision-making, allowing me to better understand the bigger picture and create greater value in every role I have held.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
My advice to young women entering the industry is to find a career path that genuinely excites and inspires them, then embrace every opportunity to learn and grow. Don't be afraid to step outside your comfort zone, ask questions, and continue pursuing your goals with confidence. Remain committed to lifelong learning and invest in your professional development. Earning professional certifications can be an excellent way to expand your expertise, build credibility, and open the door to leadership and management opportunities as your career progresses. Growth rarely happens inside the boundaries of what feels familiar. Some of the most meaningful opportunities come when we are willing to step into a new industry, learn a new language, ask new questions, and trust that our past experiences still have value in a different space. For anyone considering a change, continuing their education, or wondering whether their experience can translate into a new field, I encourage you to keep learning and keep dreaming. Your background may be exactly what another industry needs. Your perspective may help solve problems others have accepted as normal and help ask questions others may not be thinking to ask. Your courage to step outside of your comfort zone may be the very thing that allows you to protect, lead, improve, and influence on a much larger scale.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
One of the biggest challenges in my field is the rising cost of equipment, which can make it difficult for organizations to invest proactively in fire, life safety, and security solutions. Too often, companies wait until an incident occurs before recognizing the value of those investments. At the same time, I see a tremendous opportunity to help shift that mindset by sharing my own career journey and experiences. Having witnessed firsthand the importance of preparedness and risk management, I am passionate about encouraging organizations to view safety as a proactive investment rather than a reactive expense. By fostering greater awareness and promoting a culture of prevention, we can help create safer workplaces and better protect people, property, and communities. To me, proactive safety is like health and wellness. In healthcare, we do not encourage people to wait until they are critically ill before taking care of their bodies. We promote prevention, early detection, healthy habits, and consistent follow-through because we know those actions reduce risk before a crisis occurs. Just like wellness is about protecting long-term health, safety strategy is about protecting people, property, operations, and business continuity. The goal is to build systems that reduce the likelihood of harm in the first place.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The values most important to me in both my professional and personal life are helping others, protecting people and assets, and upholding safety, honesty, and integrity in everything I do. I am deeply committed to making a meaningful impact by ensuring individuals and organizations operate in safe, secure, and well-supported environments. Safety is truly the foundation of who I am, and it guides my decision-making, leadership approach, and overall purpose. I also believe strongly in acting with integrity, building trust through transparency, and consistently prioritizing what is right in order to serve others with accountability and care.
Her Content Hub
Articles by Amanda
Protection Has No Industry Line: My Journey from Healthcare to Fire, Life Safety, and Security
From Healthcare Advocacy to Fire, Life Safety, and Security: Building Proactive Protection Across Industries
My career has taken me through industries that may look different from the outside, but at their core, they have always shared one common purpose: protecting people. What began in healthcare as advocacy for patients has grown into a broader mission in fire, life safety, and security—helping organizations protect their people, facilities, assets, and operations before an emergency happens.
Proactive Safety Is Like Health and Wellness
To me, proactive safety is like health and wellness. In healthcare, we do not encourage people to wait until they are critically ill before taking care of their bodies. We promote prevention, early detection, healthy habits, and consistent follow-through because we know those actions reduce risk before a crisis occurs.
The same principle applies to organizations. We should not wait until an emergency exposes vulnerabilities before investing in protection. Effective safety, like good health, is built through preparation, consistency, and prevention.
My Professional Journey
I began my professional journey as a Registered Nurse, where I learned firsthand the importance of communication, accountability, critical decision-making, and advocating for people during some of their most vulnerable moments. Earning my bachelor's degree in nursing gave me the clinical foundation to care for others, and as I grew into nursing leadership, I developed a passion for mentoring others and helping teams understand the value of safety, consistency, and advocacy in every decision.
Later, I pursued my master's degree in business administration to better understand operations, strategy, finance, and organizational leadership. That education gave me the foundation to move into healthcare quality and risk management, where I was able to connect patient safety, process improvement, regulatory readiness, and organizational performance.
That combination of healthcare and business shaped the way I see systems. It taught me that safety is not accidental. It is built through strong processes, consistent execution, clear communication, and continuous improvement. My training and certification in Lean Six Sigma further strengthened that mindset by focusing on reducing waste, improving workflows, creating consistency, and building sustainable systems that protect both people and organizations.
A Defining Moment
One of the most defining moments in my career was experiencing a near-miss active shooter event. That moment changed me. It expanded my understanding of what safety truly means and helped pivot my career toward a broader mission: helping organizations protect their people, facilities, and assets before something bad happens. It was the point where my healthcare background and my future in security began to connect in a very real way.
Just as wellness is about protecting long-term health, safety strategy is about protecting people, property, operations, and business continuity. The goal is to build systems that reduce the likelihood of harm in the first place.
Today, I can draw on my healthcare background and experience to better understand risk from a human perspective. My business education helps me understand operational needs and strategic decision-making, while my process improvement training enables me to identify gaps, improve consistency, and develop scalable solutions across multi-location organizations.
SecureNet
SecureNet has a business model that aligns deeply with what has driven me throughout my entire career: protection. Helping organizations manage fire alarms, inspections, service, security systems, access control, video surveillance, intrusion detection, and life safety with accountability and consistency across multiple locations reflects the same mission that has guided my work from the beginning.
For me, this work is not just about systems and equipment. It is about creating safer environments for employees, customers, patients, visitors, and the communities they serve.
Growth Rarely Happens Inside the Boundaries of What Feels Familiar
Growth rarely happens inside the boundaries of what feels familiar. Some of the most meaningful opportunities come when we are willing to step into a new industry, learn a new language, ask new questions, and trust that our past experiences still have value in a different space.
Changing industries was uncomfortable, but that discomfort is where my purpose began to expand. The skills I developed in one chapter of my life were not left behind when I moved into another. They became the foundation for a broader perspective, a stronger voice, and a greater ability to make an impact in ways I had never imagined.
For anyone considering a career change, continuing their education, or wondering whether their experience can translate into a new field, I encourage you to keep learning and keep dreaming. Your background may be exactly what another industry needs. Your perspective may help solve problems others have accepted as normal and inspire questions others have not thought to ask. Your willingness to step outside your comfort zone may be the very thing that enables you to protect, lead, improve, and influence on a much larger scale.
Never underestimate the impact you can have when you combine experience, education, purpose, and a willingness to grow.
Women in Leadership
As women in leadership, we often bring experiences that give us a unique ability to connect people, processes, and purpose. My journey from healthcare to business management and now into fire, life safety, and security has shown me that every step had meaning. Each chapter prepared me to advocate in a new way.
The goal has never changed.
- Protect people.
- Protect assets.
- Improve systems.
- Make a difference before the emergency happens.
That is the mission I carry forward, and it is why I am proud to be part of the work I do today.
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