SPEAKERS
A native of Miami, Florida, Charles is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society and achieved the designation of Certified Insurance Counselor. He graduated from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill with a BS in math and a minor in physics and from the University of Maryland with a Masters in math.
Much of Charles' long insurance career has been as a senior operations officer with responsibility for Actuarial, Underwriting, Claims, Product Development, Marketing, and Reinsurance divisions at the Amerisure Companies, Great American Insurance Co., and Vesta/Shelby Insurance Co. Charles has also owned and operated a full-service captive management / third-party administrator company for medical professional liability risk retention groups and onshore/offshore captives. He joined the Department of Insurance as Casualty Actuary in 2008 and became Deputy Commissioner & Chief Actuary in 2009, responsible for the Divisions of Rates & Forms Filings, Producer Licensing, Consumer Services and The Strengthen Alabama Homes Mitigation Grant Program.
Charles and his wife Vicki live in Birmingham, but they will be retiring July 2018 and moving to Boerne, Texas. They have one son, Chris, who is married and lives in San Antonio. Charles and his wife volunteer their time conducting marriage classes and providing marriage and budget counseling through their church.
David Barnes began his 40+ year public safety career in 1977 as a firefighter with the Edmond Fire Department. After progressing through the ranks and obtaining the position of Deputy Fire Chief, David retired from the department in 1997 to become Edmond's Director of Emergency Management and Communications Director. He served in that capacity for eight and one-half years, then accepting the position of Emergency Management Director for Oklahoma County, beginning June 1, 2005.
David attended the University of Central Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University and has a degree in Municipal Fire Protection. He has served as an instructor for Fire Service Training at Oklahoma State University and on the adjunct faculty of Oklahoma State University, Oklahoma City campus. David is a past president and board member of the Fire Service Instructors of Oklahoma, a past board member of the Oklahoma Chapter of the International Association of Arson Investigators and a Past-President of the Oklahoma Emergency Management Association. David is also an Oklahoma Certified Emergency Manager through the Oklahoma Emergency Management Association and was appointed by Governor Mary Fallin in July 2015, to the Oklahoma State Fire Marshal Commission.
Troy Bolander
Director of Planning, Development & Neighborhood Services for the City of Joplin, Missouri
Troy Bolander is currently the director of Planning, Development & Neighborhood Services for the city of Joplin, Missouri. Troy has over 20 years of experience in project development and administration for the city. On May 22, 2011, Joplin experienced an EF5 tornado that impacted approximately 30 percent of the community which destroyed infrastructure, businesses, and homes displacing thousands of residents. Troy chaired a housing task force that coordinated federal, state and local resources which mission was to find or develop temporary housing for displaced residents. He also led the city's efforts to address the permanent housing shortage that was created by the disaster. In addition to his housing duties, Troy is responsible for the management of $158 million allocated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to Joplin's recovery. Troy and his staff have led citizen discussions and updated existing policies to ensure sustainable and resilient development is part of Joplin's recovery plan.
Troy is a member of the American Planning Association and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Geography from Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, KS and a Master of Regional and Community Planning from Kansas State University. He is currently a member of the American Planning Association and is a former board member of Rebuild Joplin, a non-profit agency that is partnered with the St. Bernard Project out of New Orleans, LA to ensure tornado-impacted residents have access to affordable and safe housing.
Dr. Harold Brooks is a Senior Research Scientist at the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) in Norman, Oklahoma. His undergraduate degree is from William Jewell College, with a year at the University of Cambridge. He has a M.A. and M. Phil. from Columbia University and a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in Atmospheric Sciences. After graduating from Illinois, he was a post-doc at NSSL and joined the permanent staff there in 1992. During his career, his work has focused on why, when, and where severe thunderstorms occur and what their effects are, and on how to evaluate weather forecasts. In 2002, he received the United States Department of Commerce's Silver Medal for his work on the distribution of severe thunderstorms in the United States and, in 2007, the NOAA Administrator's Award for work on extreme weather and climate change. In 2012, he received the Daniel L. Albritton Outstanding Science Communicator Award from the Oceanic and Atmospheric Research branch of NOAA. In 2006, he was awarded a Citation for Achievement from William Jewell College. In 2011, he was named a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society.
Tanya Brown-Giammanco, PhD.
Vice President, Research, Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety
Tanya Brown-Giammanco joined IBHS in 2010 and is a Lead Research Engineer and Director of Hail Research at the Research Center. She is the South Carolina High Wind and Hail Underwriting Association hail chair at the lab. Her responsibilities include providing engineering leadership on hail, the wind, water, and roofing-related research projects. Her research focus is on hailstone formation, hail impact testing, wind-flow characterization and testing, instrumentation, and field measurement and damage assessment studies. Dr. Brown-Giammanco serves the IBHS representative to the RICOWI Board of Directors. Prior to joining IBHS full-time, Dr. Brown-Giammanco was an engineering consultant for IBHS and LNSS & Associates. Tanya Brown-Giammanco was a National Science Foundation - Integrative Graduate Education Training Fellow while completing her Ph.D. in Wind Science and Engineering at Texas Tech University. Her dissertation topic was "Development of a Statistical Relationship between Ground-Based and Remotely-Sensed Damage in Windstorms." While at Texas Tech, she was an instrumental member of their field research teams, leading a team in thunderstorm and tornado intercepts during VORTEX 2, participating in hurricane intercepts with the Texas Tech University Hurricane Research Team, and conducting numerous post-disaster damage assessments. Tanya Brown-Giammanco also holds a master's degree in Water Resources Science and a bachelor's degree in Atmospheric Science from the University of Kansas and served as a teaching assistant and academic advisor while at KU. She is currently appointed as a Faculty Associate at Texas Tech University to continue serving with the Texas Tech University Hurricane Research Team.
Shain Carrizal began his career at Harris County in 1998. As the Director of Administration and Finance in the Budget Management Department, he is responsible for the financial management of the county's $347 million self-insured health plan as well as it's $50 million workers’ compensation program. When a disaster occurs in Harris County, Shain oversees the Recovery Branch, which includes damage assessment, debris removal operations, and reimbursements from Federal and State agencies. He has served in this role during Hurricane Ike (2008), the Memorial Day Flood (2015), the Tax Day Flood (2016) and most recently, Hurricane Harvey (2017). In the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, Shain was instrumental in Harris County receiving $84 million in reimbursement from FEMA and the Federal Highway Administration.
Shain holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin and a Masters of Finance degree from the University of Houston at Clear Lake. He is a member of the Texas Public Risk Management Association and the Texas Association of Counties Investment Academy.
Gawain Charlton-Perrin
Esq., Director of Risk Management, Professional Liability, The Hanover Insurance Group
Mr. Charlton-Perrin has a strong background in Professional Liability Claims, Underwriting and Risk Management. Gawain focuses on Risk Management for Professional Liability Programs (Accountants, Architects & Engineers, Lawyers, Real Estate Agents & Brokers, Mortgage Field Services, Home Inspectors & Property Management Firms).
Prior to joining Hanover in November of 2012, Gawain focused on risk management for attorneys and law firms at CNA Insurance Company. Formerly, Gawain prosecuted attorneys for ethical violations for the State of Illinois and later defended attorneys for a Chicago law firm in legal malpractice cases and ethics complaints.
He is a nationally recognized author and lecturer on Professional Liability, Ethics, Cyber & Information Breach Risks and Risk Management. He is licensed to practice law in the State of Illinois, the Federal Northern District Court, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Gawain has also passed the Illinois Real Estate Broker Exam in November 2015.
Danny started his insurance career in 1993 with Jefferson-Pilot Life Insurance Company. In 1999, he started Cook Insurance Services in Lumberton, North Carolina. He is an active member of IIANC, where he is a board member and an instructor.
Danny received a B.S. in Business Administration from Pembroke State University and a M.S. in Risk Management and Insurance from Florida State University. Additionally, he holds the CIC, CRM, and LUTCF designations. In 2002, Danny received the IIANC Young Agent of the Year award, and in 2009 the IIANC Southeastern Insurance Institute's Education Award. He is also a CISR Faculty member with The National Alliance.
Danny is a volunteer member of Lumberton Rescue & EMS which was the lead agency during the Matthew evacuation/recovery efforts. Within his rescue roles, he serves as an EMT, RT (Rescue Technician), Chairman of Finance and a board member.
Roger Edwards is a Dallas native and attended OU for both undergraduate and graduate studies in meteorology. He was an undergrad meteorological aide at the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL), and participated in their field research, including TOtable Tornado Observatory (TOTO) team, and team leader for NEXRAD-prototype field-verification projects. Roger left graduate work at OU for a meteorologist position at the National Hurricane Center from 1990 to 1993. That included forecasting, experiencing, and surveying Category-5 Hurricane Andrew. In 1993, he joined the National Severe Storms Forecast Center in Kansas City, now the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) in Norman, where he is a lead forecaster.
Since joining SPC, Roger has both forecast and photographed several major tornado events, including the May 3rd, 1999, May 24, 2011, and May 9, 2016, violent tornadoes in Oklahoma. His main research focus is on tornadoes from tropical cyclones, and he published the definitive scientific review article on the topic in 2012. Roger's other areas of study and research include supercell environments, storm damage, spotter training, storm-data integrity, and large-venue weather safety. Roger has authored or co-authored over 75 formal and conference papers, with refereed publications in the journals Weather and Forecasting, Monthly Weather Review, Electronic Journal of Severe Storms Meteorology (EJSSM), Bulletin of the AMS, and Pure and Applied Geophysics, along with a current submission to Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology. He maintains the Publications and Online Tornado FAQ sections of the SPC website.
Roger was a forecaster for Project VORTEX in 1994 and deployed mobile mesonet vehicles and in-situ probes for TWISTEX in 2008. Roger also contributed to Storm Track magazine. He co-founded (with David M. Schultz), and serves as editor-in-chief of, EJSSM, an open-access journal. He also served for five years as the Local Steward representing SPC for the National Weather Service Employees Organization (NWSEO).
Off-duty, Roger has been an avid storm chaser and outdoor photographer since the mid-1980s. His wife, also a storm chaser and photographer, works as a freelance graphics artist and web designer, and they have two children. Roger enjoys travel, field geology, hiking, softball, gardening, and fishing.
Randy Frank is a Certified Emergency Manager in both Kansas and Iowa; he is certified as a FEMA Master Continuity Practitioner, Master Exercise Practitioner and is presently the Director of Emergency Management for Marion County, Kansas and a licensed sUAS Pilot. He has been serving in Emergency Management since the turn of the century filling numerous position in Kansas, Iowa, and Utah.
Frank also currently works as the Emergency Response Coordinator for FEMA Region VII, HHS, NDMS, DMORT. In this assignment, he provides expertise in functional areas at the disaster site, and supporting Incident Response Coordination Teams during the initial assessment, and provides expertise to State and Local Government Emergency Management Officials during major emergencies.
Frank completed a career in law enforcement holding positions of Gang Enforcement Officer, Major Crimes Task Force Member and Chief of Police. Frank honorably served in the United States Army from 1980 until 1994.
Mark has worked for the Oklahoma Dept. of Agriculture, Food and Forestry - Forestry Services Division for thirty-two years. He currently serves as the Assistant Director/Fire Management Chief for the Agency.
Mark began fighting wildland fire with the U.S. Forest Service in 1980. He has served as an Incident Commander (Type 3 and Type 4) on hundreds of multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional wildfires. His career also included duties as an Operations Section Chief, Type 2 on the Arkansas/Oklahoma Interagency Incident Management Team and Incident Commander Oklahoma Forestry Services' State Incident Management Team. From 2002 through 2004, he functioned on Wally Bennett's Northern Rockies Type I Incident Management Team as an Operations Branch Director. Mark is a primary Operations Section Chief, having served on Northern Rockies Type I Incident Management Teams from 2005 to present. His incident management experience has been gained from wildfire and all-hazards assignments in twenty-one states. He also is a member of the National Wildfire Coordinating Group Risk Management Committee.
In addition to wildland fire experience, Mark has a total of eighteen years of structural firefighting experience for the City of Jay Fire Department and Keys Volunteer Fire Department. He also is the current Chairman of Oklahoma's All-Hazards Standards, Qualifications and Training Committee for Incident Management Teams and a member of the Oklahoma Incident Management Team Advisory Committee.
Jared L. Guyer is a national severe weather forecaster at the NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center in Norman, OK. His primary responsibilities are the issuance of nationwide Tornado and Severe Thunderstorm Watches and severe weather outlooks. Jared is heavily involved in SPC outreach, science-sharing activities, and operationally oriented applied research. Prior to arriving at the SPC in 2003, he spent time at National Weather Service offices in Hastings, Nebraska (2000-2003) and La Crosse, Wisconsin (1999-2000). He earned a B.S. degree in Meteorology and Communications from Valparaiso University in 1999 and an M.B.A. from Oklahoma Christian University in 2014.
Jones is an architect licensed to practice in Louisiana and formerly licensed in eight other states. Jones is a member of the American Institute of Architects and holds a certificate through the National Architectural Registration Board. Jones is a licensed general contractor and home builder in Louisiana, and a member of the National Association of Home Builders, Louisiana Home Builders Association and Capital Region Home Builders.
Currently serving his fifth gubernatorial appointment to the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors and he has been inducted into the Louisiana Construction Industry Hall of Fame and the Capital Region Builders Association Hall of Fame.
Jones has also earned the rare and distinguished John Gentry Award of Excellence.
Jones earned a Bachelor of Architecture from Louisiana State University, School of Environmental Design.
Kevin Kloesel, PhD.
University Meteorologist, Office of Emergency Preparedness, University of Oklahoma
James LaDue is someone who likes to be a bridge between meteorological research and operations to help facilitate the research to operations process through his activities as a senior instructor at the Warning Decision Training Division of the National Weather Service. Being on the bridge affords him the opportunity to maintain connections with the broad community of meteorologists, social scientists, engineers and emergency management. On the research side, he has been authored or co-authored several refereed journal articles and numerous conference proceedings, participated in field projects (e.g., IHOP, VORTEX2, STEPS). In VORTEX2 and IHOP, he served as a forecaster in the field to select targets for intensive operation periods. On the operations side, he has close ties to NWS forecast offices and participates in severe weather warning operations, both during and after major events. He utilizes his experience on both sides as inspiration to continually improve existing, and develop new course material, with the forecaster in mind. Lately, he's been developing educational materials in warning decision making for tornadoes, leading a professional development series for winter storm forecasting, leading the Multi-Radar/Multi-Sensor (MRMS) course, the EF scale training, and GOES-R training development. His work in the EF scale training has given him a desire to improve the scale for use by future operational damage surveyors by founding a new committee on estimating wind speeds of tornadoes and other severe windstorms within the American Society for Civil Engineering. This is the first standard development of its kind anywhere. His fascination with the weather and sky spans beyond his regular job to his hobbies like photography, storm chasing, and outdoor recreation. He shares his professional life, hobbies, and other activities with his wife, Daphne LaDue (also a meteorologist with a Ph.D. in Adult Education) and his son, Dylan who wants to be a Volcanologist.
Amber Larson is an active duty Lieutenant (O-3) in the United States Coast Guard currently serving in the Incident Management & Crisis Response Division at Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C. She is a recent graduate of the Coast Guard's post-graduate program earning her an Executive Master's degree in Emergency & Disaster Management from Georgetown University's School of Continuing Studies (2017). In her eight-year career in the Coast Guard, she has served as the direct representative for the Captain of the Port in Sector San Diego's Joint Harbor Operations Center, a Deck Watch Officer onboard the 378-foot Coast Guard Cutter SHERMAN, and a boat crewman at Station Curtis Bay. From 2010 to the present, she both participated in and oversaw the responses to hundreds of search and rescue, counterdrug, alien migrant interdiction, pollution, and natural resource protection cases while simultaneously earning numerous advanced emergency management qualifications and certifications. She is an active member of the International Association of Emergency Managers, Natural Hazard Mitigation Association, International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, and Oklahoma Emergency Management Association. Prior to joining the Coast Guard, she earned a B.A. in Communications with a Journalism Emphasis (2004) and a M.E. in Education Administration (2006) from Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant, Oklahoma. Amber is a graduate of Silo High School (2000). Presently, she lives with her husband and two daughters in Baltimore, Maryland.
Marc Levitan, PhD.
Director (Acting), National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program (NWIRP) National Institute of Standards and Technology, TWSE Standards Committee Co-Chair
Marc Levitan leads the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program (NWIRP), a multiagency program whose purpose is to achieve major measurable reductions in the losses of life and property from windstorms. He also leads the wind engineering and coastal inundation R&D; efforts at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). He served as Team Leader for NIST Technical Investigation of the 2011 Joplin Tornado and for the NIST study of the 2013 Newcastle-Moore Oklahoma tornado. Before coming to NIST, Dr. Levitan was an Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Louisiana State University and the founding Director of the LSU Hurricane Center. Prior to joining LSU, he spent five years as the Managing Director of the Wind Engineering Research Field Laboratory at Texas Tech University, studying wind effects on full-scale buildings. Dr. Levitan co-chairs the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) committee currently developing a national standard for wind speed estimation in tornadoes, which will include major improvements to the EF Scale. He chaired the committee that wrote the first edition of the ICC/NSSA Standard on the Design and Construction of Storm Shelters (ICC 500-2008) and the Committee that wrote the ASCE Guidelines for Wind Loads on Petrochemical and Other Industrial Facilities. Dr. Levitan has served as President of the American Association for Wind Engineering (AAWE) and Vice-President of the Applied Technology Council (ATC).
Tim Marshall is a meteorologist and civil engineer who makes his living surveying and assessing damage in the wake of tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, and hailstorms. Tim graduated Northern Illinois University in 1978 majoring in meteorology, earned a master's degree in Atmospheric Science from Texas Tech University in 1980, and a master's degree in Civil Engineering from Texas Tech University in 1983. Tim is a registered professional engineer in Texas and has worked with Haag Engineering Company, a failure and damage consulting firm based in Dallas, since 1983.
Tim has chased hundreds of tornadoes and witnessed dozens of hurricanes. He has been part of several government-sponsored scientific projects including VORTEX 2, ROTATE and TWIRL where his task has been to deploy instrumented pods in the paths of tornadoes. Tim has conducted hundreds of damage surveys throughout the U.S. in the wake of natural disasters, has written numerous publications on building damage, and has appeared on dozens of radio and television programs. He is the principal trainer in how to conduct damage surveys for the National Weather Service (NWS) since the 1990s and serves on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Quick Response Team. Tim is currently chair of an American Society of Civil Engineers sub-committee whose task is to write a standard on how to use the Enhanced Fujita Scale to rate damage to structures.
Clayton McCook
DVM, Vice-President of Oklahoma Large Animal First Responders, Associate Veterinarian, Equine Sports Medicine and Surgery
Dr. McCook is a native Texan and grew up in Granbury, which is outside of Fort Worth. He went to high school in the small northeastern New Mexico town of Springer, where his family operated a small organic farm. Dr. McCook has a BS in Biology from Texas Christian University, a BA in Spanish from the University of Texas-Arlington, and a MS in Animal Science from the University of Connecticut. He received his DVM from Texas A&M; University in 2009 and then completed a racetrack internship with Equine Sports Medicine and Surgery (ESMS), headquartered in Weatherford, TX, in 2010. Dr. McCook stayed on as an associate with ESMS and worked the New Mexico racetrack circuit for a year before transferring to the ESMS Oklahoma division in 2011. He currently works the Remington Park Quarter Horse meet in Oklahoma City and also works part-time at Fair Meadows in Tulsa and Will Rogers Downs in Claremore. While his primary practice is located in OK, he is also licensed in NM, TX, AZ, and FL. Dr. McCook lives in Edmond with his wife Cindy and his daughters Lily and Olivia, ages 6 and 4. In his spare time Dr. McCook enjoys spending time with his family, attending church at St. Mary's Episcopal, and volunteering with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) and the Oklahoma Large Animal First Responders (OLAFR), a nonprofit large animal disaster relief organization he helped form in 2013 following the devastating tornadoes that affected the Oklahoma City area.
Shannon is the Emergency Management Specialist at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. She holds a Master's Degree in Homeland Security with practical experience in private healthcare and emergency management at the county and university level. At the University of Nebraska for over two years, she has been instrumental in coordinating the creation and maintenance of Emergency Action Plans for colleges and departments. She is a go-to trouble-shooter for the State of Nebraska's statewide resource tracking software system. As Resource Unit Leader during Nebraska Football games, Shannon and her team provide accountability and tracking of first responders. While it may seem unlikely, she claims to love generating and reviewing report logs.
Gaurav is a managing director in PwC's Capital Projects and Infrastructure (CP&I;) services and leads the CP&I; Infrastructure Resilience and Recovery business in the state and local markets. With 18 years of professional services experience, Gaurav specializes in supporting public and private sector entities involved in the delivery of large and complex grant programs, with a focus on long-term community development and capital asset rebuilding strategies.
Gaurav has been involved in disaster recovery work in Louisiana, Colorado, Texas, New York, Missouri, Japan, and Indonesia. His focus is in dealing with federal and state grants including HUD Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), FEMA Public Assistance (PA), FEMA Hazard Mitigation (HM), and Federal Highway Authority (FHWA) grants. Gaurav has advised clients in both the public and commercial sectors on project management oversight, governance assessments, forensic investigations, risk assessments, contract reviews, policies and procedures enhancements, and management controls within several industries including energy, oil & gas, transportation, healthcare, hospitality, and education.
Greg Merrell is a Major with Oklahoma City Fire Department and Company Officer with the Technical Rescue Team and HazMat Response Team at Oklahoma City Fire Department. His duties include responding to all technical rescue incidents in the Oklahoma City Metro Area, to include: Rope, Trench, Confined Space, Structural Collapse, Vehicle Extrication, HazMat and Swift Water Rescues and SCUBA Dive Rescue/Recovery incidents. Greg is a Task Force Leader with the OK-TF 1, US&R; Task Force. He served as the Rescue Team Manager during OK-TF 1 Deployment to the May 2013 Tornadoes. Greg has 9 years of Fire/Rescue Instruction Experience. He is responsible for both initial and continuation training of members of OK-TF 1 and Technical Rescue Training of OKC Rescue personnel. He instructs Technical Rescue Training for Oklahoma State University - Fire Service Training and Mid-America Rescue Company. He trains the Emergency Response Team with Oklahoma Highway Patrol and Oklahoma City Police Department in Swift Water Rescue. Greg is also a Swift/Flood Water rescue boat instructor and trains Swift Water Rescue Teams throughout the state of Oklahoma and Kansas on proper boat operations. He has trained U.S. National Guard soldiers throughout the United States, in Urban Search and Rescue Operations in preparation for disaster response. He consults with Oklahoma Department of Homeland Security on the development of Water Rescue Response Team Training and Requirements for the state of Oklahoma. He served on Active Duty in the U.S. Army as a UH-60 Blackhawk Helicopter Pilot in Command, Unit Trainer, and Aviation Safety Officer.
As President of the Property Drone Consortium, Charles Mondello is active with unmanned aerial system research and strategy for property inspections with an emphasis on regulatory and standards development. He was recently appointed as a member of the Federal Aviation Administration's Drone Advisory Committee Subcommittee. Mondello is currently chief industry strategist at EagleView Technologies, where he shapes client requirements into corporate initiatives. Mondello's career encompasses multiple leadership roles including his most recent as EVP of corporate development at Pictometry. Mondello has a Master's and Bachelor's degree in Imaging Science from Rochester Institute of Technology, is certified as a Geographic Information Systems Professional (GISP) and holds multiple patents in remote sensing/photogrammetry in oblique and real-time data processing.
Dawn Mortimer is the assistant vice president of IoT/Telematics Claims Product Management at Verisk Insurance Solutions/ISO. Before that, Dawn was with Guidewire Software as the market strategy director for data and analytics; she was innovation director at American Family Insurance. Dawn's background in insurance for the past 29 years has been to serve the industry in many capacities, such as strategy, marketing, I/S, claims, agency, and product lines. She is responsible for leading the claims efforts around IoT/Telematics with suppliers and insurance companies to develop new products, services, and business opportunities.
Dawn has her master's degree in business administration. She is also a Project Management Professional with the Project Management Institute, is a certified Usability Specialist with Human Factors International, has a certification in Alliance Management from the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals, and has her Fraud Claim Law Associate designation from American Educational Institute (AEI). Dawn's experience with project management, technology, usability, and market development is critical to working with partners to leverage the Internet of Things for the future.
Scott Nethero
CHS-III, CAS, CRC. Senior Security Manager- Emergency Management, Walt Disney World Security
Scott Nethero began his journey with the Walt Disney World Resort in 1994 and today leads the Access Control, Security Training and Development, Security Communications Center and Emergency Management teams as a Senior Security Manager. Nethero is responsible for the creation, maintenance, and execution of the Walt Disney World Resort Tropical Storm/Hurricane Plan. Nethero and his team track all tropical systems that could impact Walt Disney Company assets in Florida, Bahamas, and South Carolina. Nethero partners with multiple departments/agencies, both within the Walt Disney World organization as well as outside, in the development, implementation, and coordination of Emergency Management/Preparedness for the WDW Resort property. Nethero develops, conducts, participates, and evaluates emergency management exercises and incidents. Additionally, Nethero ensures that crisis communications and notifications are made before, during and after an incident has occurred.
Nethero is a graduate of The Florida State University with a BS in Criminology. He has received certifications from the American Board for Certification in Homeland Security Level III, Crisis Response Coordinator, and is also an accredited member of the Anti-Terrorism Accreditation Board, Certified Anti-Terrorism Specialists.
Combining his experience in the SIU and insurance fraud industry with his service to our country in disaster relief efforts as recently as Hurricane Harvey, Michael Parker has dedicated his career to serving insurance carriers, businesses and individuals, providing superior legal representation in insurance fraud, defense and coverage matters throughout the United States. His areas of practice include Federal and State Fraud Recovery Actions, Bad Faith Defense, Civil RICO, Complex Civil Litigation, Insurance Coverage, FEMA Law, Health Care Fraud, Cargo/Trucking Litigation and Business Litigation.
As well as being a successful litigator, Michael is a Licensed Investigator, an IASIU Certified Insurance Fraud Investigator, and has received the FEMA Military Emergency Management Specialist Basic Certification. He has served our country through the State Guard Association of the United States, the National Guard Association of Texas, the JAG-C Trial Defense Service, Texas State Guard, and the JAG-C California State Military Reserve and is currently ranked as a Major. He has shared his vast array of knowledge through more than 150 dynamic and interactive presentations to professional organizations across the country.
Residing along the edge of Tornado Alley near Fort Worth, Texas, Michael and his wife, Shanna, have four children. He enjoys traveling to various hunting locales, raising livestock on their ranch, and volunteering through various military and legal organizations and activities.
Joey Picca
Director, Office of Observations, National Weather Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Chris is an expert in structural design and teaches both steel and concrete design courses at the undergraduate and graduate level. His teaching skills are exemplary, and while working as a graduate student, he won the prestigious George Tauxe faculty teaching award for 2004. Since becoming an assistant professor he has also won the College of Engineering, Alumni Teaching award in 2007 and the George Tauxe faculty teaching award for a second time in 2011.
Chris is also an excellent researcher and is currently performing large-scale experimental efforts at Fears Lab, including testing oil-drilling structures at loads ranging to millions of pounds of force.
In addition to his teaching and research duties, Chris also serves as the E-Club, LKOT, AEI, SAME and OU ASCE student chapter faculty advisor and as the experimental facility mentor to the rest of the civil engineering faculty. He's also the Fears Lab director, landscape designer, and the resident OU South Campus birdwatcher, so this man wears a lot of hats.
Mark is the Emergency Management Coordinator for the University of Nebraska -Lincoln. His start in Emergency Management came in the year 2000 when he inadvertently switched careers from Radio Personality to Emergency Management. He has since held Emergency Management roles at county and state levels. Mark has been with the University of Nebraska for five years, where he created an award-winning cartoon video series called "Really Obvious Preparedness Facts". Just completing his sixth season as Planning Section Chief of the Incident Management Team for Nebraska Football, Mark admits to being an Incident Command System (ICS) Nerd.
Dr. Arindam Samanta leads Property Underwriting Product Management efforts in the areas of Weather and Natural Hazards, including FireLineTM Verisk's wildfire risk management tool for the insurance industry, and a range of other property risk assessment tools related to hail, wind and lightning. Additionally, he is responsible for the Personal Lines Property Underwriting Innovation Pipeline and Agenda.
Arindam's scientific and technical expertise span several areas, including advanced satellite remote sensing and image science, climate dynamics and change, data science and machine learning/artificial intelligence, and natural hazard risk analysis/assessment. Arindam graduated with a Bachelors and Masters in Geoscience from the Indian Institute of Technology. He did his Ph.D. in Earth and Environment from Boston University.
The national and international news media - including the BBC and Nature and Science magazines - have highlighted his research, and he has contributed to articles and been quoted in trade journals such as Insurance Journal, Business Insurance, CLM Magazine, PropertyCasualty360, Risk and Insurance, and Canadian Underwriter. Arindam is a member of the American Meteorological Society (AMS), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the International Association of Wildland Fire (IAWF), and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). He has also received the Verisk Citizenship Award.
Rick Smith is the Warning Coordination Meteorologist at the National Weather Service's Norman Forecast Office. He manages NWS Norman's hazardous weather preparedness, outreach, and decision support services activities for the office's 56 county area of responsibility. Rick and the NWS Norman staff work closely with the media, emergency managers and other state, county, tribal and local government officials to ensure that communities in central and western Oklahoma and western north Texas are ready when hazardous weather threatens.
Rick has been recognized for his work with several awards, including the National Weather Association's Individual Operational Achievement Award in 2013, and the American Meteorological Society's Francis W. Reichelderfer Award in 2015. Rick was also awarded the Department of Commerce's Bronze Medal Award in 2015 for his vision and application to social media to advance the goals for a Weather-Ready Nation. Rick is a member of the National Weather Association, the American Meteorological Society, and the Oklahoma Emergency Management Association.
Rick has been a meteorologist with the National Weather Service since 1992 and worked in Memphis, Tennessee, Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Fort Worth, Texas before assuming his position in Norman in January of 2002. Rick and his wife Christina live in Norman with their four children.
Lieutenant David Taylor is a member of the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) Fraud Unit and is assigned to the Dallas Fort Worth Region. He has 17 years Law Enforcement experience and is a charter member of the Catastrophe Response Team dedicated to protecting and educating homeowners about roofing and contractor fraud.
Prior to TDI, Lt. Taylor has experience as an officer with the Rockwall Police Department, an insurance fraud special investigator, a British police officer, and a member of her majesty's armed forces.
Reed Timmer has chased more than 1,000 tornadoes and hurricanes, becoming one of the world's leading experts on severe weather forecasting, research, and safety. Driven toward discovery in the "wild west" of meteorology, Timmer is determined to solve the mysteries of tornadoes and hurricanes, his ultimate goal being to collect data that saves lives.
Completing a Ph.D. in Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma in 2015 after starring on Discovery Channel's hit TV series, Storm Chasers, for four seasons, Reed continues to lead his team from TVN to intercept tornadoes in their armored tank-like vehicles called the Dominators. For Timmer, the ultimate goal is to better understand the complex dynamics behind tornadoes and other extreme storms so safer and stronger structures can be designed to withstand their destructive power.
Presently, Reed provides live coverage of severe weather across the world as the lead storm chaser for Accuweather since April 2015 and continues to provide lifesaving reports from the field in Oklahoma for KFOR, the NBC news affiliate in Oklahoma City.
Timmer is married to the love of his life, soul mate and chase partner, meteorologist Maria Molina of Fox News Channel. His happiest moments are when he is chasing down tornadoes and other extreme storms with Maria, and traveling to incredible displays of nature across the world with their common appreciation for the sciences.
Hank is responsible for Lloyd's operations and market development activities in the US and Canada. From offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Frankfort KY, Los Angeles, New York, the USVI, Montreal and Toronto, Lloyd's is actively engaged in educational and marketing outreach to retail, wholesale and reinsurance intermediaries, risk managers, managing general agents, risk management programs at colleges & universities and other stakeholders in the Lloyd's market.
Hank has more than 30 years of experience in the insurance industry and has held a range of underwriting, client management and leadership positions in the United States and Europe at Chubb, Johnson & Higgins, Marsh, and HRH.
Hank received his BA from the University of California, Berkeley and has completed an executive leadership program at The Wharton School. He's a member of the Board of Overseers at St. John's University's School of Risk Management, Insurance and Actuarial Science and is on the boards of the Insurance Information Institute and Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (NY/Northeast Division).
Brian Weatherford is a Major, Training Officer, Special Operations Coordinator and Paramedic with Norman Fire Department. He is a member of OK-TF 1 and serves as Rescue Specialist and Medical Specialist. He has been on several deployments with OK-TF 1 to include the May 2013 Moore, OK tornado. He is certified as a Technician in all Rescue Disciplines. He instructs Technical Rescue Training for Oklahoma State University - Fire Service Training and Mid-America Rescue Company. He trains the Emergency Response Team with Oklahoma Highway Patrol in Swift Water Rescue. He has trained U.S. National Guard soldiers throughout the United States, in Urban Search and Rescue Operations in preparation for disaster response. Brian is also a Swift/Flood Water rescue boat instructor and trains Swift Water Rescue Teams throughout the state of Oklahoma and Kansas on proper boat operations. He is responsible for the training of all Norman Fire Dept. active personnel and the initial fire and rescue training of the Norman Fire Dept. Recruit Academy. He consults with Oklahoma Department of Homeland Security on the development of Water Rescue Response Team Training and Requirements.
James ("Jim") Whittle is Associate General Counsel and Chief Claims Counsel to the American Insurance Association. Jim is responsible for automobile, catastrophe, claims and property issues. He has over two and a half decades of experience in these subjects both with AIA and in corporate and private practice.
Jim's work product can be found in myriad regulations, legislation and court decisions across the country. He is widely recognized as an expert in the legal, regulatory and public policy issues arising out of motor vehicle use and catastrophes such as Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy. Jim is a sought-after speaker and has appeared widely in print, radio and televised media. He has been a featured presenter at many leading conferences and has testified many times before regulators, legislators and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
A long-time litigator before he left private practice, Jim is a Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent® rated Lawyer. He is admitted to bars of the District of Columbia, Maryland and United States Supreme Court.
Chad Williams
PE, Senior Engineer, EFI Global Inc., House Delegate, Oklahoma Society of Professional Engineers
Mr. Williams is a Senior Engineer with more than 13 years of engineering experience including forensic evaluations of residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional facilities, and operations engineering in support of military, aviation, and industrial facilities. His forensic experience includes the assessment of damage related to construction defects, engineering and other design errors, earthquakes, fires, floods, foundation movement and failures, hail storms, hoarding behaviors, surface and subgrade plumbing systems, surface and overland flooding, soils and ground movements, tornados, vehicle impacts, water intrusions, and wind. Mr. Williams' design experience includes commercial and institutional site and grading plans, the design of water distribution and sanitary sewer collection systems, and the design of stormwater management systems for roadway and intersection projects.
J. Arn Womble is an Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at West Texas A&M; University in Canyon, TX. He is a graduate of the wind engineering programs at Colorado State University and Texas Tech University, and he has examined the effects of high winds on structures since 1989. His consulting engineering background includes structural design, wind-tunnel testing of structures, and failure analysis. He worked extensively in engineering expert-witness investigations for wind/water damage causation studies in the unprecedented insurance litigation following Hurricane Katrina. His academic research emphasizes the use of remote-sensing technologies for visual and automated wind damage assessment. He chairs the Remote Sensing Subcommittee of the ASCE Standards Committee for Wind Speed Estimation in Tornadoes and is a member of the ASCE Enhanced Fujita Scale Committee, which is responsible for future updates of the EF Scale.
Roy E. Wright serves as the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Deputy Associate Administrator for Insurance and Mitigation. As the senior career leader in FEMA's Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration, he leads the delivery of the agency's risk management, risk reduction, and flood insurance programs. These programs act as a catalyst to drive increased understanding and proactive actions to help people in communities reduce their losses from natural hazards.
Mr. Wright is the chief operating officer of the National Flood Insurance Program, serving 5 million policyholders across more than 22,000 communities. He leads the reinsurance and risk transfer program that underpins the National Flood Insurance Fund. Additionally, he directs the mitigation and resilience programs under FEMA's Stafford Act authorities, theNational Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program, and the National Dam Safety Program. Collectively, these FEMA programs promote a risk conscious culture, enable faster recovery from flood disasters, address repeated flooding, and address long-term vulnerabilities to life, property, and well-being in communities across the Nation.
Mr. Wright was appointed to the Federal Senior Executive Service in 2013. He earned a Master of Public Administration from The George Washington University and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Azusa Pacific University. A native of California, Roy, and his family live in northern Virginia.