Current Status: Alumni
Graduation Year: 1995
Toby Yurek was working toward a BA in Preaching from HIU when he realized that God had a completely different ministry planned for him. After graduating in 1995, he became a third generation police officer and joined the Henderson Police Department in southern Nevada. Over the course of his twenty year career, he was promoted to Lieutenant and served in a variety of roles – Community Policing, Criminalistics, Honor Guard, Bike Patrol, Off-Road Patrol, and his favorite, commander of the Tactical Response Bureau overseeing SWAT and K-9.
He continued his education, completing his Masters of Criminal Justice from Boston University in 2002, and his Juris Doctorate from the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 2008.
After retiring from the police department in 2015, Toby joined the law firm of Greenman, Goldberg, Raby and Martinez as a workers’ compensation attorney, specializing in helping his brothers and sisters in law enforcement who have been injured on the job.
HIU has had a powerful impact throughout the course of Toby’s life. His mission field has been law enforcement, and by allowing Jesus to live through him, he has impacted the lives of his fellow officers by being a light in an often challenging profession. “By living the life that God has called me to, God has allowed me to be a ‘light’ in a very dark profession plagued with broken homes, depression and destructive behavior… When I joined the police department, I fully expected to be witnessing to ‘bad guys’ and victims; what I have found over the years is that God’s real work is with the officers themselves. I have had the opportunity to join in God’s activity in the lives of fellow officers and watch them come to Christ, even having the honor of baptizing a few of them.”
Toby has served on the HIU Board of Trustees since 2010 and currently serves as Chairman of the Board. He also completed nine years of service on the Governance Board for Lake Mead Christian Ministries in Henderson, Nevada. Toby has a passion for Christian education and has worked for many years to bring Christian higher education opportunities to the Las Vegas valley. He has also been assisting Dr. Steve Edgington with the development of HIU’s Criminal Justice program.
Toby is married to Carrie (Belcher), also from the HIU class of 1995. They have three boys: TJ is a freshman at Biola University studying Computer Science, and 16-year-old twins Tyler and Trey who are juniors at Lake Mead Christian Academy.
