<<-About Us

Appointed Members

John R. (Jack) Harrald, Chair, Virginia Tech and George Washington University
Dr. Harrald is a Research Professor at the Virginia Tech Center for Technology, Security and Public Policy.  He is the Co-Director Emeritus of GWU Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management and a Professor Emeritus of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering in the GWU School of Engineering and Applied Science.  Dr. Harrald is a member and Chairman of the National Research Council’s Disasters Roundtable and the National Research Council Committee on Aviation Emergency Management.   He is the Executive Editor of the electronic Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and Associate Editor, The International Journal of Emergency Management (IJEM). He is the Immediate Past President of The International Emergency Management Society (TIEMS) and is the former Associate Director of the National Ports and Waterways Institute. He also served as a member, National Research Council Transportation Research Board Aviation Emergency Management Task Force. Dr. Harrald has been actively engaged in the fields of emergency and crisis management and maritime safety and security and as a researcher in his academic career and as a practitioner during his 22 year career as a U.S. Coast Guard officer, retiring in the grade of Captain.  He has written and published in the fields of crisis management, emergency management, management science, risk and vulnerability analysis, and maritime safety.   Dr. Harrald was the Principle Investigator for maritime risk and crisis management studies in Prince William Sound, Alaska, the Port of New Orleans, San Francisco Bay, and Washington State.  He has studied the response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the Loma Prieta Earthquake, Hurricane Hugo, Hurricane Andrew, the Northridge Earthquake, the 1999 Turkey earthquakes, the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and Hurricane Katrina.   Dr. Harrald received his B.S. in Engineering from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, a M.A.L.S. from Wesleyan University; an M.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he was an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow; and an MBA and Ph.D. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Arrietta Chakos, Acting in Time Advance Disaster Recovery Project, Harvard University
Arrietta Chakos is Director of the Acting in Time Advance Disaster Recovery project at the Harvard Kennedy School involved with disaster policy research and application. A seismic safety advocate, she was assistant city manager in Berkeley, California until 2007 and managed the city's intergovernmental coordination and hazard mitigation initiatives. She directed California's first municipal hazard mitigation plan aimed at sustainable risk reduction. Berkeley's mitigation efforts are nationally recognized and use innovative tax incentives and locally-funded programs to promote community resilience. Ms. Chakos worked with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for its report to the Congress on all hazards risk mitigation, and with the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services (CalEMA) on natural hazards projects and seismic safety legislation. She served as a technical advisor to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on its international seismic safety program for schools; the World Bank on disaster risk reduction and sustainable development in the metropolitan Istanbul region; and with the National Research Council's research on community disaster resilience. She has also advised on a recent Ford Foundation study on Stafford Act implementation in the Gulf Coast region; as well as with the Association of Bay Area Governments; the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute; GeoHazards International; the Center for Biosecurity; and the Natural Hazards Center on disaster policy issues. Publications include papers on disaster risk reduction for technical conferences; the American Society of Civil Engineers; Spectra , an engineering professional publication; the Natural Hazards' Observer; the United Nations journal, Regional Development, and as a contributor to Keeping Schools Safe in Earthquake Country (OECD, 2004) and Global Warming, Natural Hazards, and Emergency Management (2009). She received a BA from California State University, Humboldt and a MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Reginald DesRoches, Georgia Institute of Technology
Reginald DesRoches is a Professor and Associate Chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His primary research interests are structural design and analysis, design of bridges and buildings for extreme loads, and applications of smart materials in earthquake engineering. He has published over 150 articles in the general area of structural and earthquake engineering. He is Chair of the ASCE Seismic Effects Committee, Chair of the executive committee of the Technical Council on Lifeline Earthquake Engineering (TCLEE) and is on the Board for the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI). Dr. DesRoches has received numerous awards, including the National Science Foundation CAREER award in 2001 and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) in 2002. Most recently, he was a recipient of the 2007 Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize, and the Georgia Tech ANAK Award. The ANAK award is considered the highest honor the undergraduate student body can bestow on a Georgia Tech faculty. Dr. DesRoches received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, M.S. in Civil Engineering, and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, all from the University of California, Berkeley.

Ronald T. Eguchi, ImageCat Inc.
Ronald Eguchi is President and CEO of ImageCat, Inc., a risk management company specializing in the development and use of advanced technologies for risk assessment and reduction. Mr. Eguchi has over 30 years of experience in risk analysis and risk management studies. He has directed major research and application studies in these areas for government agencies and private industry. He currently serves or has served on several Editorial Boards including the Natural Hazards Review published by the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Natural Hazards Research and Applications Information Center, University of Colorado; the Journal on Uncertainties in Engineering Mechanics published by Resonance Publications, Inc.; and the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute's Journal SPECTRA. He is a member of the National Research Council's Disaster Roundtable whose mission it is to identify urgent and important issues related to the understanding and mitigation of natural, technological, and other disasters. He is a past member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the U.S. Geological Survey, a committee that reports to Congress on recommended research directions for the USGS in the area of earthquake hazard reduction. In 1997, he was awarded the ASCE C. Martin Duke Award for his contributions to the area of lifeline earthquake engineering. He still remains active in the ASCE Technical Council on Lifeline Earthquake Engineering serving on several committees and having chaired the Council's Executive Committee in 1991. In 1992, Mr. Eguchi was asked to chair a panel, established jointly by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop a plan for assembling and adopting seismic design standards for public and private lifelines in the U.S. This effort has led to the formation of the American Lifeline Alliance, currently managed by the National Institute of Building Sciences. In 2006, he accepted an ATC Award of Excellence on behalf of the ATC-61 project team for work on An Independent Study to Assess Future Savings from Mitigation Activities that showed that a dollar spent on hazard mitigation saves the nation about $4 in future benefits. He was recently recognized by EERI as the 2008 Distinguished Lecture where he discussed the topic of "Earthquakes, Hurricanes, and other Disasters: A View from Space." He has authored over 250 publications, many of them dealing with the seismic risk of utility lifeline systems and the use of remote sensing technologies for disaster response. Mr. Eguchi received his M.S. in engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Gerald E. Galloway, Jr., University of Maryland, College Park
Gerald E. Galloway is a Glenn L. Martin Institute Professor of Engineering and an affiliate professor of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, College Park. His 38-year career in the military included positions such as commander of the Army Corps of Engineers District in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and professor and founding head of the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering and dean of the Academic Board at the U.S. Military Academy. He was promoted to Brigadier General in 1990 and retired from active duty in 1995. Dr. Galloway earned his MSE at Princeton and his Ph.D. in geography (specializing in water resources) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A civil engineer, public administrator, and geographer, Dr. Galloway's current research focuses on the development of U.S. national water policy in general and national floodplain management policy in particular. Prior to joining Maryland, he was Vice President, Geospatial Strategies, for the ES3 Sector of the Titan Corporation. He is a member of the National Research Council's Water Science and Technology Board and he served on the Committee to Review the JSOST U.S. Ocean Research Priorities Plan. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

Juan M. Ortiz, City of Fort Worth, Texas
Juan Ortiz is the Emergency Management Coordinator with the City of Fort Worth and Tarrant County where his primary duties include the coordination of response to major emergencies and disaster through a joint City and County Emergency Operations Center (EOC). Mr. Ortiz coordinated the EOC operations in response to both Hurricane Katrina and Rita, as well as the all city operations in response to both Hurricane Gustav and Ike. Mr. Ortiz also is a Chief Petty Officer in the United States Coast Guard Reserve at Coast Guard Station Port Aransas, Texas. He is a member of the Emergency Management Association of Texas, the International Association of Emergency Managers, and the International Hispanic Network. Mr. Ortiz also is a founding member of the Fort Worth Hispanic Leadership Organization. He has served as a member of the National Research Council's Disaster Roundtable from 2005-2009. He has served on several other committees including the Committee on Disaster Research in the Social Sciences, Local Emergency Planning Committee, the North Central Texas Council of Government Regional Emergency Preparedness Advisory Committee, the Dallas/Fort Worth/Arlington Urban Area Security Initiative, Texas Coastal Advisory Team and Executive Board of the Fort Worth Hispanic Leadership Organization. Mr. Ortiz received a Bachelor of Science degree in Emergency Administration and Disaster Planning from the University of North Texas.

Monica Schoch-Spana, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
Monica Schoch-Spana, a medical anthropologist, is Senior Associate with the Center for Biosecurity of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh's School of Medicine Division of Infectious Diseases. Since 1998, Dr. Schoch-Spana has led research, education, and advocacy efforts to encourage greater consideration by authorities of the general public's capacity to confront bioattacks and large-scale epidemics constructively. National advisory roles include serving with the NRC Committees on "Educational Paradigms for Homeland Security" and "Standards and Policies for Decontaminating Public Facilities Affected by Exposure to Harmful Biological Agents: How Clean is Safe?" Schoch-Spana recently chaired the Working Group on Citizen Engagement in Health Emergency Planning, and was the principal organizer for the 2006 U.S.-Canada summit on Disease, Disaster & Democracy - The Public's Stake in Health Emergency Planning. In 2003, she chaired the Working Group on "Governance Dilemmas" in Bioterrorism Response that issued consensus recommendations to mayors, governors, and top health officials nationwide in 2004. Schoch-Spana helped established the Biosecurity Center of UPMC in 2003 after serving with the Johns Hopkins University Center for Civilian Biodefense as a founding member. She received her A.B. from Bryn Mawr College and her PhD in cultural anthropology from the Johns Hopkins University.

Darlene Sparks Washington, independent consultant
Darlene Sparks Washington, D.P.M., is an Independent Consultant in the fields of disaster emergency preparedness and public health preparedness offering clients assistance in educating and training individuals, families, communities and businesses. Dr. Washington has extensive subject matter expertise in behavior change strategies as an approach for enhancing preparedness. After almost 20 years of service at one of the largest non-profit, humanitarian organizations, Washington recently left the American Red Cross national headquarters where she had advanced within the organization assuming positions of increasing authorities and responsibilities directing national and community-level preparedness and public health related efforts, managing mult-imillion dollar budgets, and supporting a customer base of up to 1000 local affiliates over her Red Cross career. Having served her most recent role as the director for Preparedness and Team Lead for Influenza Pandemic Planning, she led the strategic planning, execution and financial management of the organization's responsibilities for developing, testing and implementing disaster preparedness education for the general publics, supporting chapters in reaching 5 million people annually in this area. Prior to this appointment, Washington served as the director for Public Health and Emergency Preparedness Education at Red Cross national headquarters where she managed a multi-million dollar cooperative agreement with the Center's for Disease and Control and Prevention that included the development, implementation, evaluation and technical support of four national HIV prevention programs that reached over 20 million people. Washington is a member of the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) and has served on the Guest Editorial Board for the SOPHE Health Promotion Practice Journal, Special Emphasis Issue. She is also a member of the Fairfax County (VA) Community Emergency Response Training (CERT) team. Dr. Washington received her undergraduate degree in biology, pre-med from Hampton Institute (University) and received her doctorate in Podiatric Medicine from the New York College of Podiatric Medicine. She is a 1997 American Red Cross President's Fund Ambassador Award recipient for outstanding accomplishment in Cultural Diversity.

Mary Lou Zoback, Risk Management Solutions, Inc.
Mary Lou Zoback is vice president, Earthquake Risk Applications, with Risk Management Solutions, a provider of products and services for the quantification and management of catastrophe risks. She was formerly a senior research scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earthquake Hazards Team, Menlo Park, California. Dr. Zoback is a geophysicist who has worked on the relationship between earthquakes and states of stress in Earth's crust. From 1986 to 1992, she created and led the World Stress Map project, an effort that actively involved 40 scientists in 30 countries with the objective of interpreting a wide variety of geologic and geophysical data on the present-day tectonic-stress field. Dr. Zoback was awarded the AGU Macelwane Award in 1987 for "significant contributions to the geophysical sciences by a young scientist of outstanding ability" and a USGS Gilbert Fellowship Award (1990-1991). She is a former president of the Geological Society of America and AGU's Tectonophysics Section, and she was a member of the AGU Council. Dr. Zoback is a member of the NAS and has extensive National Academies service and currently serves on the NAS Council and the Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy. She served as a member of the Board on Radioactive Waste Management (1997-2000) and the Commission on Geosciences, Environment, and Resources (1998-2000). Dr. Zoback received her PhD in Geophysics from Stanford University.

Ex Officio Members

Frank Best, PB Americas, Inc.
Frank Best is a Senior Vice President of PB Americas. His career is a record of successful program design, implementation and management across a broad spectrum of industries including education, real estate, construction, and insurance. During the past decade his work has focused on both pre and post disaster valuation and condition of property within the US. Recently tasked with strategic pursuits in alternative energy, he is becoming recognized as a national and international consultant in both the planning and funding of such projects. Mr. Best came to PB in 1995 as a member of the project design team responsible for PB's successful bid for the FEMA Housing contract. As a senior member of the management team for the PB/FEMA Housing Project he was integral in the planning of policy and operational strategies. As Project Facilitator he was responsible for the management of client relations at active Disaster Recovery Centers. In 1997 Mr. Best was directed to expand PB inspection services to the Insurance Industry in response to a growing need for a nation wide revaluation of personal property. In achievement of this directive, he lead a project team of 20 staff members and over 400 Independent Contractors providing service to major insurance carriers across 50 states. Over a six year period his team achieved over one million inspections totaling over 250 billion dollars of housing inventory. During this period he identified the need for and led the development of a WEB based resource management tool that streamlined identification, activation, training, QA measurement and payment of Independent Contractors. In 2003 Mr. Best was tasked with expanding PB's strategic plan through development of Small Business 8(A) partners. In pursuit of this task, he established working relationships for the pursuit of Federal Contracts with Chenega COS, an Alaskan 8(A), The Black Feet Nation, and other multiple small, disadvantaged businesses resulting in multiple ongoing pursuits. Since 2004 Mr. Best has been managing strategic pursuits in alternative and "green energy" working with the State of Montana to develop 64,000 MW of potential wind power. He leads a strategic planning team focused on business development with the country of Trinidad/Tobago emphasizing Waste to Energy and Desalinization projects. Mr. Best received his B.A. from Franklin & Marshall College and M.A. from the University of Connecticut.

Andrew J. Bruzewicz, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Andrew Bruzewicz is the Acting Chief of the Future Readiness Concepts and Initiatives Branch of the Directorate of Contingency Operations, Headquarters, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Washington, D.C. He is responsible for refining requirements for future response capabilities and contingencies, as well as testing the solutions produced by researchers and developers. He also is Program Manager of the US Army Corps of Engineers International Emergency Management Program which works to assist nations and regional entities improve their disaster preparedness, planning, response, recovery, and mitigation capabilities. Mr. Bruzewicz has previously served as Program Manager of the international Civil Military Emergency Preparedness Program and was the first program manager of the Corps' Black Sea Initiative for Department of Army. He has served as director of the Corps' Remote Sensing/GIS Center of Expertise, managed the Corps civil works remote sensing and GIS R & D program, and served as lead of the Corps GIS Planning and Response Team, a national team of GIS experts that provides GIS and remote sensing services as part of national disaster response in the US. Mr. Bruzewicz is interested in improving capabilities in managing all phases of disasters, the use of GIS and remote sensing as enabling technologies permitting improved information flow between emergency managers and responders, and ways in which these technologies also can be used to facilitate environmentally sound development of large river basins. He has served four terms as chair of the Education Committee of the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Mr. Bruzewicz received his A.M. degree in geography from the University of Chicago.

Roger V. Pierce
Roger Pierce became the acting director of the NOAA, Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (OAR), Office of Weather and Air Quality in 2009 with the primary goal of program execution of the multi-agency U.S. Weather Research Program and NOAA portion of The Observing System Research and Predictability Experiment (THORPEX).  In addition, the Office of Weather and Air Quality functions as coordination entity in association with OAR headquarters and Laboratories. Mr. Pierce joined NOAA in 1984 and is a familiar face to many in across all of NOAA, as he has worked with OAR Laboratories and Cooperative Institutes for the past 8 years in OAR headquarters and has served in multiple detail assignments in NOAA headquarters, OAR Laboratories, the National Centers for Environmental Prediction, and in other leadership positions in OAR’s Office of Policy, Planning, and Evaluation and former Office of Scientific Support. Before coming to OAR, he spent 17 years in the National Weather Service in multiple Hydrologist and Meteorologist positions in 3 regions and National Headquarters.  Mr. Pierce is an active member of the American Meteorological Society, serving on the Committee for Weather and Forecasting and possesses a B.S. degree in Physical Geography from Missouri State University, in Springfield, Missouri, and performed Graduate Studies in Meteorology and Hydrology at Northern Illinois University and the University of Hawaii.

H. Michael Goodman, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Mr. Goodman is the Natural Disasters Area Co-Lead within the NASA Earth Science Division / Applied Sciences Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington DC (since September 2009).  He represents NASA on the Office of Science and Technology Policy / Subcommittee on Disaster Reduction.  Prior to his current NASA Headquarters appointment, he served as the Deputy Director of the Earth Science Office at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.  Mr. Goodman has extensive experience in airborne science field campaigns, spaceborne-ground validation field experiments and managing Earth science data systems.  He is the project manager on several Earth science satellite data processing systems.  In addition, Mr. Goodman is the principal investigator on several NASA data analysis and geoinformatic projects and is a member of the NASA Hurricane Science Research Team.  Mr. Goodman received a B.S. in Environmental Science from University of Virginia and an M.S. in Atmospheric Science from Florida State University.

Paula Gori, U.S. Geological Survey
Paula Gori is the Associate Program Coordinator of the Landslide Hazard Program at the U.S. Geological Survey. Ms. Gori's primary mission with the U.S. Geologic Survey (USGS) is to encourage other federal agencies, state and local governments, and the private sector to use geologic hazards information to reduce losses through informed natural hazard management. Ms. Gori holds a Master of Public Administration from The American University in Washington, D.C. She is the author of articles on earthquake and landslide hazards loss reduction and the application of research by decision makers. In that capacity, she has conducted research on the consequences of the Iben Browning pseudo-scientific earthquake prediction. During Ms. Gori's 30+ years at USGS, she convened numerous multi-disciplinary conferences in the United States and the Caribbean in conjunction with other federal agencies. She has served as an expert on review panels and advisory boards for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the National Science Foundation, the National Research Council, and university researchers. She is an associate editor of the Natural Hazards Review and an officer of the International Consortium on Landslides. Prior to joining the USGS, Ms Gori worked as an urban planner for the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. At USGS, she serves as a liaison with other federal agencies, states and local government on issues related to natural hazard planning, response, mitigation and recovery. Ms. Gori is a co-editor of an American Planning Association handbook for planners on landslide hazards entitled, "Landslide Hazards and Planning."

Mary Ellen Hynes, Science &' Technology Directorate (S&T) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Mary Ellen Hynes is the Director of Research for the Infrastructure/Geophysical Division in the Science & Technology Directorate (S&T) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). She comes to DHS/S&T after 30 years of research and development work at the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center headquartered in Vicksburg, MS. She obtained - with honors - her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Civil Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and her PhD in Civil Engineering at University of California at Berkeley. Her past research areas focused on earthquake engineering for dams and probabilistic modeling. Now she has all the targets and all the threats for critical infrastructure protection and natural hazards. Additionally, Dr. Hynes is the DHS/S&T Co-Chair of the National Science and Technology Council Infrastructure Subcommittee, co-chaired with the Office of Science and Technology Policy, Executive Office of the President. She is a member of the US-Japan Natural Resources Panel on Wind and Seismic Effects. Her technical affiliations include the American Society of Civil Engineers (past Chair of the Probabilistic and Risk Technical Committee and past Member of the Technical Advisory Council for the Geo-Institute; served on Geotechnical Journal editorial board), the Society of American Military Engineers, American Society for Testing and Materials (served on editorial board), International Society of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineers, and The Infrastructure Partnership (TISP). She chaired the National Science Foundation review panel for Geotechnical, Geomechanical, and Geoenvironmental Engineering for 5 years during the 1990's. She is the author or co-author of over 50 contributions to journals, books, proceedings and papers, and technical reports.

David J. Kaufman, Federal Emergency Management Agency
David Kaufman was appointed Director of FEMA's Office of Policy and Program Analysis (OPPA) in September 2009. In this position he is responsible for providing leadership, analysis, coordination, and decision-making support to the FEMA Administrator on a wide range of Agency policies, plans, programs, and key initiatives. Mr. Kaufman has extensive experience with homeland security and disaster preparedness issues. He has been a member of the faculty at the Naval Postgraduate School's Center for Homeland Defense and Security, where he has taught in the Center's graduate and executive level education programs, and has previously served in several senior positions in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and in FEMA. His previous service included establishing the Office of Preparedness Policy, Planning and Analysis in FEMA's National Preparedness Directorate, where as the Director he led policy and planning efforts for national preparedness; and Acting Director and Deputy Director of the Preparedness Programs Division in the Office for Domestic Preparedness, where he oversaw the day-to-day activities of DHS' $3 billion portfolio of state, local, and infrastructure preparedness assistance programs. In 2008, Mr. Kaufman left government service to become Safety and Security Director for CNA, a non-profit think-tank that provides analysis and solutions to challenging problems for all levels of government, where he worked on a range of homeland security issues including community engagement, risk management, and catastrophic planning, and supported the Quadrennial Homeland Security Review. Mr. Kaufman holds a Master of Public Policy degree from the University of Michigan and he is a graduate of the Center for Homeland Defense and Security's Executive Leaders Program.

Claire Lee Reiss, Public Entity Risk Institute
Claire Lee Reiss is Interim Executive Director and General Counsel of the Public Entity Risk Institute (PERI), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to advance the practice of risk management by public entities, nonprofit organizations, and small businesses.  Ms. Reiss provides leadership to ensure that PERI’s programs and activities achieve their intended results, serves as PERI’s internal legal counsel, and develops programs and resources that serve the needs of PERI’s constituents.  She has authored numerous publications and articles and is a nationally recognized expert and speaker on liability and emergency volunteerism, and on risk management planning.  Her writings include the Citizen Corps Volunteer Liability Guide, which was prepared for the National Citizen Corps Program.  She is also the director and primary author of PERI’s InsuranceForMyNonprofit.com website, for which she was selected as a 2009 Risk Innovator by Risk Management Magazine.  Prior to joining PERI, Ms. Reiss was risk manager for the City of Alexandria, Virginia, vice president of H.F.I.C. Management Company, Inc., and engaged in the practice of law as a defense attorney with law firms located in Kentucky and Virginia.  Ms. Reiss holds a B.A. in economics, summa cum laude, from Washington University in St. Louis, and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.  She is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and in the Commonwealth of Virginia.  She also holds the professional designations of CPCU (Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter) and ARM (Associate in Risk Management).


Ted C. Van Kirk, Dewberry
Theodore (Ted) Van Kirk manages Dewberry's Emergency Management, Disaster and Mitigation Services Group which is part of the firm's Federal Programs Operating Group. Mr. Van Kirk has 28 years of national experience encompassing full range of FEMA mitigation, hazard identification, flood mapping, and disaster assistance programs, and he has served FEMA as a trusted advisor for more than 24 years. On an annual basis, he is responsible for $60+ M of disaster and mitigation contract/task order work across the nation. Over the past decade, Mr. Van Kirk has managed or performed work on 60+ disaster declarations in 35 states including Hurricane Katrina, the 2004 Florida Hurricanes, and the WTC terrorist attack. Following Hurricane Ivan in 2004, he served as a Subject Matter Expert for a USAID team in Grenada to incorporate mitigation principles into rebuilding of schools and medical clinics. He also adapted FEMA's Cost Estimating methodology to address fire mitigation grant estimates following the Cerro Grande fires. Mr. Van Kirk is recognized as a leader in the planning, evaluation, and design of floodproofing, flood fighting, and flood retrofitting measures for private and public facilities nationwide. He is the primary author of several FEMA Mitigation publications, including FEMA 259 (Engineering Principles and Practices for Retrofitting Flood Prone Structures), 348 (Protecting Building Utilities from Flood Damage) and the one of the AIA Buildings at Risk Series (Flood Design Basics for Practicing Architects) and he has contributed to dozens of FEMA building science and mitigation related publications including the IVAN Mitigation Assessment Team, FEMA 312 (Homeowner's Guide to Retrofitting), technical bulletins, recovery bulletins, and the Hurricane Mitigation Handbook. He is a FEMA Certified Train-the-Trainer and serves as an instructor for multiple FEMA training courses for the Mitigation and Disaster Assistance Directorates. He served on ASCE Standards Committee that developed ASCE 24-98 (Flood Resistant Design and Construction).

Dennis E. Wenger, National Science Foundation
Dennis Wenger is the Program Director for Infrastructure Management and Hazard Response at the National Science Foundation. He was a Professor of Urban and Regional Science at Texas A&M University from 1989 until 2007, where he also was the Founding Director and Senior Scholar of the Hazard Reduction & Recovery Center. He is interested in the areas of sociology, natural and technological disaster research, hazards mitigation, urban ecology, collective behavior and mass communication, and disaster and emergency planning. Dennis has written or co-authored several books and articles including Hurricane Bret Post-storm Assessment: A Review of the Utilization of Hurricane Evacuation Studies and Information Dissemination, Texas: Texas A&M University Hazard Reduction & Recovery Center, 2000; Respuestas Individuales e Institucionales Ante ed Sismo de 1985 en la Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico: Cenapred, 1994; "A Test of the Emergent Norm Theory of Collective Behavior," Sociological Forum, 1998; "The Social Organization of Search and Rescue: Evidence from the Guadalajara Gasoline Explosion," International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, 1995. Dr. Wenger received his BS, MA and PhD from The Ohio State University.

Liaison

Ellis M. Stanley, Sr., Dewberry
Ellis Stanley is the Vice President of Western Emergency Management Services at Dewberry LLC. Prior to joining Dewberry, Ellis served as General Manager of the City of Los Angeles Emergency Preparedness Department, where he worked for 10 years. Before that, he was director of the Atlanta-Fulton County Emergency Management Agency. In 2008 he served as Director of DNC planning for the City and County of Denver, CO. With 35 years of experience in the emergency management field, Ellis has worked at four national political conventions, the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and the 1994 Papal visit and World Youth Conference in Denver. He currently is serving on the Board of Directors of Greater Los Angeles Red Cross Chapter and chairs the Response Committee. Ellis has served as past president of the International Association of Emergency Managers and has led delegations of emergency management professionals to China, Japan and other countries. He also serves as an adjunct professor at American University teaching Senior Crisis Management and at Harvard University teaching Meta-Leadership.

Staff

Lauren Alexander Augustine
Lauren Alexander Augustine is the Director of the Disasters Roundtable at the National Academies in the Division of Earth and Life Studies and Country Director in the Academies' African Science Academy Development Initiative. Dr. Alexander Augustine worked at the US Geological Survey, Water Resources Division, doing hydrogeomorphic research in Coastal Plain wetlands. She came to the National Academies in 2002 as a study director for the Water Science and Technology Board in the National Research Council and directed many studies on a range of water resources topics, including Texas instream flows, endangered species in the Klamath and Platte River Basins, and forest hydrology. Dr. Alexander Augustine received her B. S. in applied mathematics and systems engineering and her Masters degree in environmental planning and policy from the University of Virginia; she completed her Ph.D. from Harvard University in an interdisciplinary program that combined physical hydrology, geomorphology, and ecology.

John H. Brown, Jr.
John Brown is the Program Associate for the Disasters Roundtable at the National Academies in the Division of Earth and Life Studies. He came to the Academies in 2002 and has worked on numerous studies in conjunction with the Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology, including a research and restoration plan for Western Alaska salmon, risk reduction and economic benefits from controlling ozone air pollution, and environmental impacts of wind energy projects. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Boston University.

Sheena Siddiqui
Sheena Siddiqui is currently a Research Associate for the Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology and the Disasters Roundtable. She provides support to all ongoing projects. Sheena graduated from the University of Maryland with a B.S. degree in Biological Sciences in 2008. She has also completed internships with the Food and Drug Administration. Currently, she is working on her Master of Science in Public Health.

Contact the Disasters Roundtable