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.
2019 NTS Co-Chairs
Kim Decker
Director of Legislative Affairs
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.
Mark Gower
Mark Gower was appointed Director of the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management in January 2019 after serving as the State Chief Information Security Officer and CyberCommand Director at the Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES) since 2013.
Mark has more than 20 years’ experience in cybersecurity, business continuity, disaster recovery, and emergency preparedness and response, including serving as the Information Security Officer and Emergency Preparedness and Response Director for the Oklahoma Department of Human Services prior to joining OMES.
With his combined experience, Mark has a broad and varied knowledge base to draw upon in his current role. In addition to his work in the public sector, Mark has held career positions such as Information Technology Director, Corporate Security Manager, and Business Continuity Manager.
Patrick Marsh
Patrick Marsh, Ph.D.
Warning Coordination Meteorologist, National Weather Service, Storm Prediction Center
Patrick Marsh is the Warning Coordination Meteorologist for the NOAA National Weather Service (NWS) Storm Prediction Center (SPC). Patrick earned both a Ph.D. and an 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, Marsh worked as the National Severe Storms Laboratory's Liaison for the NOAA Hazardous Weather Testbed. This experience afforded Marsh 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, Marsh oversaw the Operations Center for VORTEX2, the largest meteorological field program to study the origins of tornadoes. These experiences led Marsh to the SPC as a Techniques Development Meteorologist in early spring 2013. In December of 2015, Marsh became the third Warning Coordination Meteorologist at the SPC. Marsh 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, Marsh has extensive experience in the creation, visualization, and interpretation of large datasets, including maintaining and updating the U.S. Severe Weather Database.
