ABOUT
National Tornado Summit
The National Tornado Summit is hosted by the Oklahoma Insurance Department, University of Central Oklahoma, Oklahoma Emergency Management, NOAA National Weather Service and National Association of Insurance Commissioners. It serves as a national forum for experts to exchange ideas and recommend new policies to improve disaster mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery in order to save lives and property.
Albert Ashwood was appointed Director of the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management (OEM) in August 1997 and is the longest-tenured state emergency management director in the nation. He joined the state in 1988 and has served the department in various positions including Deputy Director from 1995 to 1997.
During his time with OEM, Albert has overseen the distribution and administration of over $1 billion in federal and state aid following dozens of presidentially declared disasters, including the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995 where he headed forward operations for the first three days of the incident before turning his attention to recovery efforts. After September 11, 2001, terrorist attack, Albert spent two weeks at ground zero helping establish and implement debris removal operations at the request of New York Governor George Pataki.
Albert has served on several important initiatives, including the National Response Plan/National Incident Management System State and Local Working Group, the Federal Emergency Management Agency�s National Advisory Council, and as president of the National Emergency Management Association.
Business Career
Kim Decker joined Farmers in May 2002. Her current responsibilities include responsibility for legislative affairs for the states of Alabama, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Tennessee and certain responsibilities for Oklahoma.
Kim is currently co-chair of the National Tornado Summit and a member of the executive committee subcommittee for the National Tornado Foundation. She also chairs the executive committee of the Oklahoma Market Assistance Program; is vice chair of the Oklahoma Automobile Insurance Plan governing committee and is a member of the Oklahoma Property & Casualty Insurance Guaranty Association. In addition, she serves as secretary of the Idaho Life & Health Insurance Guaranty Association and as a board member of the Idaho Insurance Guaranty Association. In addition, she is past chair of the Oklahoma Insurance Ad Hoc group.
Community Engagement
Kim is a board member for the American Red Cross (Oklahoma & Arkansas division) and also sits on the Advisory Council of Parent Promise, an Oklahoma organization that works to prevent child abuse.
Patrick Marsh is the Warning Coordination Meteorologist for the NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center. Patrick earned both a Ph.D. and a M.S. in Meteorology from the University of Oklahoma after obtaining a B.S. in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Arkansas. While a graduate student, Patrick worked as the National Severe Storms Laboratory's Liaison for the NOAA Hazardous Weather Testbed. This experience afforded Patrick the opportunity to work with leading researchers on the creation and evaluation of new diagnostics for utilizing numerical weather prediction models in the forecast of high-impact convective weather. As part of his duties, Patrick oversaw the Operations Center for VORTEX2, the largest meteorological field program to study the origins of tornadoes. These experiences led Patrick to the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) as a Techniques Development Meteorologist in early spring 2013. In December of 2015, Patrick became the third Warning Coordination Meteorologist at the SPC. Patrick plays an integral part in SPC messaging, including placing information in historical context and creating new methods of visualizing forecasts of severe thunderstorms and their associated hazards. Additionally, Patrick has extensive experience in the creation, visualization and interpretation of large datasets, including maintaining and updating the U.S. Severe Weather Database.
