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Resiliency in Times of Disaster ConferenceHosted by the Center of Excellence for Homeland Security and the Washington State Centers of Excellence, in partnership with the Washington State Emergency Management Division, PNWER Center for Regional Disaster Resilience and Public Health - Seattle and King County.
When: May 25th - All Day Event Registration deadline is closed. Event Presenters(toggle name to expand bio) Dr. Martin E. Best became the Emergency Management Manager for Mason County, Washington, effective December 1, 2006, and begun an extensive review, training, and education process to upgrade the County’s emergency management program. During the last 18 1/2 years Dr. Best has participated in and responded to 26 presidential disaster declarations around the state and nation. These have included the major flooding disasters in the state of Washington in 1990, 1995, 1996 and 1997, the mid-west floods of 1993, the Aldercrest Landslide Disaster in 1998, the Nisqually Earthquake of 2001, Hurricane Katria in 2005 and the windstorm in December of 2006 and major flooding and landslides in December 2007. Prior to accepting his position with Mason County, Dr. Best was the State Hazard Mitigation Programs Manager with the state of Washington’s Emergency Management Division (EMD) where he was responsible for the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, state-wide local hazard mitigation planning process. Additionally he was responsible for the Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) program, Pre-Disaster Mitigation competitive (PDMc), the Mitigation Assistance Program (MAP), the Repetitive Flood Claims (FRC) and Severe Repetitive Loss (SRL) flood mitigation programs. During his tenure with the state of Washington, he developed the process, plans and contracts necessary to move from post-disaster to the development of mitigation projects that will help reduce or prevent the impacts of future natural disasters. During his 15 years with EMD, he processed applications from 20 Presidential Disaster Declarations providing funding of over $105 million for approximately 200 mitigation grants around the state. Prior to his position with the state of Washington, Marty served as a Radio Communications/Cryptanalyst for the USAF's Electronic Security Command. During this time he was responsible for providing timely analysis and reporting of sensitive communications issues of national significance to National Command Authorities. Marty's standards of excellence were recognized by numerous special awards and citations from the commander’s of the Pacific Air Force (PACAF), Strategic Air Command (SAC), 8th Air Force, and the Electronic Security Command. He received his Doctor of Philosophy degree in Political Science in December of 2003 from Sherwood University, a Master of Public Administration degree from the Evergreen State College in June 1996 and his Bachelor of Science (Business Administration) in 1980 from the University of Maryland. He also holds Associates of Applied Science Degrees from the Community College of the Air Force in Communications Processing Management as well as Logistics Management. In his spare time, Marty assists his wife as business manager for their two child care facilities, and he is an ordained Minster and president of their non-profit corporation Whirlwind Ministries, Inc. He has traveled to Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Kenya, the Netherlands, most of the 50 United States, and all of the Counties of the state of Washington. (toggle name to expand bio) President, Grays Harbor College since 2004. (toggle name to expand bio) Mike Campbell serves as the Director for Washington Center of Excellence for Homeland Security hosted by Pierce College. Previously, Mike was a faculty member at Pierce College in the Criminal Justice program; he is a past Director of Public Safety for the Town of Steilacoom with responsibilities in Police, Fire, Emergency Medical Services, and Disaster Emergency Management. He served as a special projects officer for the State Homeland Security Region 5 and coordinated the 2003 Office for Domestic Preparedness Homeland Strategy and Security Assessment. As a senior evaluator Mike assisted in the assessment of the Pierce County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) management capabilities. In addition, Mike has served as a senior evaluator on Emergency Management exercises for school districts and has conducted over sixty vulnerability and risk assessments for Community and Technical Colleges throughout the state. Mike served as past-president for the Pierce County Police and Sheriffs Association, Mediator for the Pierce County Dispute Resolution Center, and as the Intelligence and Security Assistant Director for the 1989 Presidential Inaugural. He has been active in other police and fire service boards and committees. Mike retired from the Army as the Provost Marshal of Ft. Lewis at the rank of Colonel, and has over 40 years of combined law enforcement, fire and emergency management experience. His training includes FEMA emergency management courses, Washington State Patrol Incident Command classes to include HASMAT, and numerous national and state-sponsored fire command courses. Mike received a B.S. in Police Administration and Psychology and his M.S. in Criminal Justice Education from Eastern Kentucky University. He is a graduate of the National War College in Washington D.C. (toggle name to expand bio) Download Pam's Powerpoint presentation here. For 31 years, Pam has served in a variety of technical and leadership positions in the Defense, Commercial and Services divisions of The Boeing Company. In her current assignment, she reports to the Chief Security Officer for The Boeing Company as the Program Manager for Business Continuity. Primary responsibilities include risk management, leading cultural change, establishing governance, building standards, tools and controls to help business leaders recover in the event of a significant disruption. Pam also chairs the Business Continuity Integration Leadership Team chartered to leverage synergies and best practices between Emergency Preparedness, IT Preparedness and Business Preparedness programs ensuring seamless transitions throughout the entire Incident Management Lifecycle. (toggle name to expand bio) Dr. Terry joined the Emergency Management Division (EMD) of the Washington Military Department In April 1997. He is currently the Manager of the Planning, Exercise and Training Unit where he has the lead for development of logistics capabilities including mutual aid strategies for Washington State. Terry is a past-Chair of the nation's mutual aid system, the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) and was the first Chair of the Pacific Northwest Emergency Management Arrangement (PNEMA) Executive Task Force. He was also the principal investigator for a NASA research grant for integration of remotely sensed data into emergency management operations where he spearheaded the enhancement of EMD's Geo-spatial Information System capabilities. Terry has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science, a Master of Arts in Public Administration, and a Doctorate in Adult Education. (toggle name to expand bio) Download Wendy's Powerpoint presentation here. Wendy Freitag is a Microsoft & Washington Mutual Bank alum, having worked at each Washington state headquartered company for 4+ years in various positions with management oversight for International security, crisis management and business continuity programs. Wendy departed Microsoft in Feb. 2007 and in June 2007 joined the Washington Emergency Management Division (EMD) to launch the state’s first dedicated business relations program. On June 1 she will assume a newly created management position at EMD overseeing the External Affairs section which combines Public Education, Media Affairs, and Business outreach into one department. Prior to working in the private sector, Wendy served for several years on disaster operations throughout the U.S. as a Lead Public Affairs Officer for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and also served as a reservist for a short time with the American Red Cross. During her tenure with FEMA, she served on the elite FEMA national advance team deploying to areas prior to the arrival of disasters such as hurricanes. During her private sector years, Wendy acquired first hand response experience managing a diverse set of emergency events that included the 1999 Seattle World Trade Organization protests, the 2001 Seattle Nisqually earthquake, 9/11, the SE Asia Tsunami 2004 and the Lebanon-Israel conflict of 2006to name a few. Wendy serves on two academic institution Advisory Boards one at the University of Washington for the Master’s program in Strategic Planning and Critical Infrastructure the other for the Institute for Global and Community Resilience at Western Washington University. Wendy is a frequent speaker at international, national, and regional industry and local business community conferences. She is married to Bob Freitag. They enjoy a “restless (not sleepless) in Seattle” lifestyle on a floating home in Seattle. (toggle name to expand bio) Download Michael's Powerpoint presentation here. Michael J. Gaffney is the Associate Director of the Division of Governmental Studies and Services (DGSS) at Washington State University. DGSS is a joint outreach effort of the College of Liberal Arts and WSU Extension which provides applied research, consultation, and training for governmental agencies throughout the Northwest. Mike is also Director of WSU’s Washington State Institute for Criminal Justice, a partnership with the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs and other public safety agencies to advance applied research and innovative public safety practices. Mike has been with WSU for twelve years, having previously been an attorney in both private practice and the U.S. Air Force. Mike received a BS in Political Science and Economics and a Juris Doctor from the University of Idaho. Mike’s research interests include Emergency Response, Social Capital, Volunteerism, Crime Prevention, Disaster Preparedness, Research Methodology, Ethics, Biased Policing and Profiling, Democratization, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Community Oriented Policing, Hazard Mitigation Planning, Alternative Dispute Resolution, facilitation, and Citizen-Government relations. (toggle name to expand bio) Download Brandon's Powerpoint Presentation here. Brandon Hardenbrook, Deputy Director of the Pacific Northwest Economic Region (PNWER), serves as the Chief Operating Officer of the cross-border US-Canada non-profit formed in statute in 1991 by the states of Alaska, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Oregon, and the western Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, the Yukon and Northwest Territories. PNWER fosters cooperation between public and private enterprise on issues affecting the security, economy and environment of the Pacific Northwest. Brandon is the past Chair of the King County Critical Infrastructure Protection Working Group. He also serves as the lead on the Northwest Warning Alert and Response Network (NWWARN) which is the primary communications tool used by the Fusion Center to communicate with critical infrastructure. Before joining PNWER, Brandon was an Army Air Defense Artillery Officer and was assigned to an experimental missile defense project called Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD). Brandon holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Seattle University and a Bachelor of Science from Pacific Lutheran University. (toggle name to expand bio) Eric Holdeman joined the Port of Tacoma as Director of Security in March 2009. In this position he is responsible for port security, emergency management and risk management for all port activities. This includes the administration of grants associated with port security. Prior to joining the Port of Tacoma he worked for ICF International, consulting in the areas of emergency management and homeland security. Before going to ICF he was a local emergency management director for King County Washington which is the metropolitan Seattle area. In this position he established the King County Office of Emergency Management as a national leader in many areas of emergency management and homeland security. In 2005 King County was given a national award by the National Association of Counties (NACo) for establishing a “Regional Approach to Homeland Security.” Additionally, the 9/11 Commission recognized the King County Regional Disaster Response Plan as a “Best Practice” for integrating the private business sector into community-wide disaster planning. In March 2007 he was recognized by Government Technology Magazine as one of the Top 25 people in the nation who, “Challenge convention, confront entrenched bureaucracy and promote innovation.” Immediately prior to assuming his position in King County he worked for the Washington State Division of Emergency Management for five years. While with Washington State Eric served in a number of increasingly responsible supervisory positions in the areas of operations, training, public education, disaster exercises, and plans. Previously Eric completed a 20-year career in the US Army as an Infantry Officer. He has authored numerous articles for professional journals and opinion pieces for local, regional and national newspapers. He is a writer for Emergency Management Magazine where he contributes feature articles and also has a regular column, “Eric’s Corner.” An experienced and accomplished public speaker he is sought after to present at national and regional conferences. Eric also blogs on emergency management and homeland security topics at www.disaster-zone.com (toggle name to expand bio) Download Kelly's Powerpoint Presentation here. Kelly Kasper currently holds the position of Workplace Preparedness Manager with the American Red Cross Serving King and Kitsap Counties. In this position, she works with businesses to assist in their efforts to prevent, prepare, respond and recover from disasters and unthinkable events. She has over 15 years of training development, delivery and consultation in workplace health and safety prevention strategies. Ms. Kasper holds a Master of Arts Degree from Western Washington University. In addition to her Red Cross duties, she serves as a consultant to both General and Construction Industries on effective hearing loss prevention and site specific safety plans. (toggle name to expand bio) Download Michael's Powerpoint presentation here. Michael Loehr has served as the Director of Preparedness for Public Health Seattle & King County since 2002. Prior to joining Public Health, he served as the Operations Chief for the King County Office of Emergency Management. Before coming to Washington, he served for six years as the Response Section Administrator with the Florida Division of Emergency Management. Mr. Loehr has over 15 years experience in disaster preparedness and response. He has managed local and state emergency operations centers, and has provided training and technical assistance on disaster response at the national and international levels. His responsibilities as the Public Health Preparedness Director in Seattle King County include:
Mr. Loehr is a graduate of the University of North Carolina with a Masters Degree in Regional Planning. (toggle name to expand bio) William Lokey has been active in emergency management and search and rescue for over 40 years. He began as a Mountain Rescue volunteer and a survival and search & rescue instructor for the US Antarctic Program in the late 1960’s, spending three winter-overs in Antarctica. He went to work for the Washington State Department of Emergency Management in 1977, working on development of the State Disaster Plan, earthquake preparedness and search and rescue. In 1981, he was appointed Assistant Director for Operations, responsible for disaster response, warning, communications, search and rescue, hazardous materials planning and recovery efforts and Restricted Zone management for Mt. Saint Helens. In 1986, he became the Director of Emergency Management for Pierce County. He served as the Pierce County Fire Marshal in 1991 and 1992. The Department’s responsibilities included disaster preparedness, the Fire Prevention Bureau, radio communications, the Emergency Medical Services and E9-1-1 Administration. He responded with the Washington Urban Search and Rescue Task Force to the Northridge Earthquake and the Oklahoma City Bombing. He worked on the requirements of Title III of the Superfund Amendments and Re-Authorization Act of 1986 and the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. In October of 1997, Bill became Assistant Chief for Special Operations for the California Office of Emergency Services. Responsibilities included administration of California’s eight US&R Task Forces and the development of Regional Special Rescue Training. Bill became a Federal Coordinating Officer (FCO) for FEMA in April of 1999. He served as FCO for 24 declared disasters including for Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana. He has also worked on a variety of assignments, including two weeks at Ground Zero in New York and in Pensacola, Florida in the response to Hurricane Ivan. From April 05 through May 2006, he was Operations Branch Chief of the Response Division at FEMA Headquarters. In February, 2007, Bill left FEMA and joined Witt Associates as a Program Director and attached to their Sacramento Office. He works with private and public sector clients on plan development, training and disaster recovery. (toggle name to expand bio) Download Patrick's Powerpoint presentation here. Mr. Massey currently serves as the Federal Preparedness Coordinator and Director, National Preparedness Division in FEMA Region 10 in Seattle where he is responsible for managing a range of preparedness programs to include planning and assessments, NIMS and NRF coordination, training and exercise planning, continuity programs, community preparedness, chemical and radiological preparedness and others. Prior to this position, he served as the Program Coordination Branch Chief and the Technological Hazards Branch Chief in the National Preparedness Division, and concurrently served as the Chair of the multi-Federal agency Regional Radiological Assistance Committee advisory group. While at FEMA, Mr. Massey has also served as the Floodplain Management Coordinator for the states of Washington, Idaho and Alaska, and served as a Hazard Mitigation Officer during a number of Federally-declared disasters throughout the country. Prior to joining FEMA, he served with the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, and as a Flood Recovery Planner for a Regional Planning Commission in southwestern Illinois. Mr. Massey trained as a Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Officer in the United States Army, serving in various leadership and staff officer positions in armor (tank) and forward support units in Germany and Southwest Asia. Mr. Massey has attained professional certification as a Certified Floodplain Manager (CFM) and a Certified Emergency Manager (CEM). Mr. Massey holds a B.S. in Advanced Technical Studies-Electrical Engineering Technology, and an M.A. in Environmental Planning from Southern Illinois University, and an M.A. in Security Studies Homeland Security and Defense from the Naval Postgraduate School.(toggle name to expand bio) David Matthews, CISSP, CISM, is the Deputy CISO for the City of Seattle. He is co-chair of the NW Alliance for Cyber Security and an active member of ISSA, ISACA, InfraGuard and ISC2, the DHS Regional CIP subcommittee, the Agora, the Pacific CISO forum, the ABA Science and Tech committee, and NW Warn. He has presented at many emergency management and information security conferences. (toggle name to expand bio) Hillman Mitchell the City of Tukwila Director of Emergency Management. Previously, Hillman worked for the American Red Cross as the Government Liaison where he worked with Local, State and Federal government agencies and Community Based Organizations in the preparedness and response to disasters. Hillman is also a long time Red Cross volunteer in several areas. Hillman has responded to local, regional and national disasters at City, County, State and Federal emergency operations centers to coordinate disaster relief operations. Hillman has over 21 years of experience in Consulting, Project Management, Program Management, Software Engineering and Development, in an international environment, during his career with Microsoft Consulting Services, DuPont Research and his own software development company. Hillman holds a Bachelor of Science in Management Science and Computer Systems from Oklahoma State University. (toggle name to expand bio) Jason B. Moulton was raised on a cattle/sheep ranch near Heber City, Utah. Following High School he spent two years in England and then graduated in 1971 from Brigham Young University BS in Law Enforcement. In 1981, he earned a MPA from John F. Kennedy University. He began his career with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in January 1970 as a support employee in the Salt Lake City Field Office. In 1971, he took military leave to serve as an officer in the United States Army Military Police Corp attached to the 1st Infantry Division. In 1974, he returned to the FBI as a Special Agent where he was assigned to San Francisco to work fugitive, bank robbery, extortion, kidnapping, labor racketeering, public corruption and white-collar crime matters. His most famous arrest was that of Patricia Campbell Hearst in 1975. In 1980, he was promoted to Supervisory Special Agent in the Oakland, California Resident Agency. In 1985, he was reassigned to FBI Headquarters Criminal Investigative Division. In 1988, he was transferred to the Seattle Field Office as the White Collar Crimes Program Coordinator. In 1999, he was promoted to Assistant Special Agent In Charge, Seattle Field Office, with responsibility for the management of the white-collar crime, violent crime/major offenders, applicant/civil rights, and national infrastructure protection and computer intrusion programs. He retired from the FBI in 2000 and began a new career in retail as the Loss Prevention Director for Safeway Inc. Seattle Division. In his new position he is responsible for Safeway’s Loss Prevention efforts in 210 stores and facilities in Washington, Idaho, Montana and Alaska. (toggle name to expand bio) Download Barbara's Powerpoint presentation here. Barbara has been working with Pierce County Department of Emergency Management for eight years as a public education specialist and trainer with the award-winning Pierce County Neighborhood Emergency Teams (PC-NET) program. She also has adapted the PC-NET program for faith based and small businesses in the county. Barbara is the liaison between the Dept. of Emergency Management and Citizen Corps Council of Pierce County and is a board member. In that capacity, she works to coordinate the response and recovery efforts of the different nongovernmental and faith based agencies with Emergency Management and other governmental agencies helping victims of disasters. Prior to coming to Pierce County, Barbara worked in the Federal Way School District for 13 years and served on the district’s disaster planning advisory committee. She has a degree in Broadcast Journalism from the University of Florida with minors in education and political science. (toggle name to expand bio) Mary has been with Puget Sound Energy for 37 years and has worked in various positions including Investor Services, Human Resources and Operations. Her current responsibilities include corporate emergency response and operations continuity planning, and infrastructure security compliance. Mary is actively involved in a number of National, State and Regional committees and workgroups including:
She volunteers her time in the community by serving on the Boards for the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center, Washington Information Network (WIN) 211, and the Northwest Ladies Golf Association. She also chairs an annual Golf Fore Red tournament to benefit the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women campaign. (toggle name to expand bio) Paula Scalingi is Director of the Pacific Northwest Center for Regional Disaster Resilience (CRDR), which develops and manages homeland security and disaster resilience activities for the Pacific NorthWest Economic Region (PNWER), a public-private partnership chartered by the states of Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington; the western Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Yukon; and Northwest Territories. Since October 2001, Dr. Scalingi has helped private, public sector, and non-profit organizations to develop and implement regional initiatives and mitigation activities focused on infrastructure security and disaster resilience. As part of these efforts, Dr. Scalingi has helped stakeholders design and conduct numerous regional interdependencies exercises, among them the well-known Blue Cascades Series, workshops and seminars focused on all hazards threats and disruptions, including cyber security, pandemics/other bio-events and supply chain resilience, and develop and implement regional and sector-focused preparedness plans and mitigation strategies. Among recent projects have been the Dam Sector Exercise Series (DSES-09) for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to develop a risk management and mitigation strategy for the Columbia River Basin; a cross-sector Information Fusion System for Washington State; energy assurance and resiliency workshops for state and local governments for the U.S. Department of Energy, a comprehensive community bio-event planning project for the DHS Office of Health Affairs, and an Internet continuity exercise for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). As vice chair of The Infrastructure Security Partnership, a national coalition of engineering and built environment associations, Dr. Scalingi was the principal architect and drafter of the Guide to Develop an Action Plan for Regional Disaster Resilience (RDR Guide), leading a national task force of 100 cross-sector/multi-discipline experts that included federal, state, and local agency representatives. She currently is chairing a follow-on task force to develop the 2011 edition of the RDR Guide. She also serves on the Steering Group for the national Community Resilience System Initiative to develop a common resilience framework for communities and is a senior advisor to the federally funded Community and Regional Resilience Institute (CARRI), created post-Hurricane Katrina to undertake research projects, partnership-building and other activities in collaboration with localities in eight Southeastern states. Dr. Scalingi previously was founder and director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Critical Infrastructure Protection. She also served in the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, and on the staff of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. She in addition was director of the Decision and Information Sciences Division at Argonne National Laboratory, where she founded and managed the Infrastructure Assurance Center and was technical liaison to the President’s Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection. In this capacity, she led the ANL support team, which provided several of the infrastructure vulnerability studies for the Commission Report and produced the preliminary critical infrastructure protection R&D Portfolio for the While House Office for Science and Technology Policy. Dr. Scalingi has written extensively on infrastructure interdependencies and disaster resilience issues and regularly speaks in stakeholder forums across the nation on how to improve regional preparedness, continuity of operations and business. (toggle name to expand bio) Marci Scott is with Pierce County Department of Emergency Management as the Program Manager over the Mitigation, Preparedness and Recovery Division. She also serves as the liaison to all of the various educational systems in Pierce County. As the Liaison between Pierce County Emergency Management and the education community, Marci has worked diligently to improve relationships in preparedness and has established strong ties with educators in both the K-12 (private and public) and the higher education systems, including local Community Colleges and Universities .Marci has developed collaborative partnerships with local first responders to develop an “All Hazard Preparedness Training Program” to help the educational system train, plan and exercise with other community emergency responders. She serves on committees related to the advancement and improvement of school safety as well as others to continue to mitigate and prepare for a disaster hitting the region. They include the following: Center of Excellence Homeland Security Advisory Committee, Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction Safety Advisory Committee, Association for Standards, Training, and Materials (ASTM), Regional Catastrophic Planning Team, and the United States Geological Survey Working Group. (toggle name to expand bio) Dr. John W. Walstrum serves as President of Clover Park Technical College. He has a solid background of experiences and accomplishments through education, training, workforce and economic development, fund-raising, student affairs, and community service programs. As Clover Park Technical College president, Dr. Walstrum is responsible for ensuring that the College’s programs and support services meet the current workforce needs of its service area. He is very involved in numerous community organizations and local boards and is an active participant at the national level on initiatives related to developing a skilled workforce. He is a past President of the National Council on Workforce Education (NCWE), is a member of the American Association of Community Colleges Commission on Economic and Workforce Development, is a member of the Board of Directors of the Pierce County (WA) Workforce Development Council, and other professional organizations. With a reputation as a proactive leader, Dr. Walstrum is known for establishing and promoting new partnerships that are in the mutual best interests of local businesses, major corporations, local school districts, regional universities, and community-based organizations. His career, as a faculty member and administrator, has been dedicated to the development of an educated workforce for the regions being served. Dr. Walstrum holds a Ph.D. in industrial education, masters in technical education, and a bachelor in secondary education all received from the University of Maryland. He began his career in higher education as a full-time community college faculty member and division dean at the Community College of Baltimore County (MD). Prior to taking this current position, he served as the Executive Vice President at Central New Mexico Community College. He also served as a vice president in areas of academic and student affairs at Camden County College (NJ) and SUNY Delhi College of Technology (NY). Bios to follow on the following:
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