Dr. Earl J. "Jay" Baker
Department of Geography, Florida State University

Since 1975 Dr. Baker has conducted studies following more than 30 hurricanes to document how the public responded and why. Study locations have included every Gulf and Atlantic coastal state from Texas through Massachusetts, plus Hawaii. Research issues have included the impact on evacuation behavior of of forecast products, public education, refuges of last resort, the cry-wolf syndrome, evacuation fatigue, pet ownership, and obstacles to evacuation. He has conducted studies on hazard perception and evacuation response intentions and has applied the findings of his research to the development of hurricane evacuation plans. Most recently he was the behavioral analyst for the Florida Statewide Regional Evacuation Study. His research also includes public attitudes toward hurricane hazard mitigation options, household preparedness for disasters, and public response to other hazards, including tornadoes, floods, and nuclear power plants. He has worked on methods to assess the costs incurred by local governments in evacuating residents and has worked with colleagues to evaluate the effectiveness of local government comprehensive plans in Florida in mitigating the growth of evacuation clearance times and shelter demand in coastal areas.

He was a founding partner in the inception of the National Hurricane Conference and continues to be on the conference’s planning committee. He is on the faculty of the Department of Geography at Florida State University and president of Hazards Management Group, an emergency management research and consulting firm. He received his Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Colorado in 1974 under the supervision of Gilbert White.

Jack Colley
Assistant Director, Texas Department of Emergency Management

Jack Colley serves as an Assistant Director of The Texas Department of Public Safety. He also serves as the Deputy Director of the Texas Office of Homeland Security, Office of the Governor and is the State Administrative Agent for all Federal Homeland Security Programs within Texas. Assistant Director Colley is a member of the Governor’s Homeland Security Council, First Responder Advisory Council, Critical Infrastructure and Key Resource Protection Council and the Texas Intelligence Council. He serves as the Chairman of the Texas Drought Preparedness Council.

Colley has extensive experience in emergency response and recovery operations having been involved in the response and recovery to many of the State of Texas largest incidents, disasters and emergencies. He is responsible for the operational coordination of all state and federal resources and programs that directly impact on the overall preparedness of the State of Texas to all threats, both man-made and natural. Assistant Director Colley oversees the day-to-day operations of the activities of the Governor’s Emergency Management Council, which consists of 34 state agencies and organizations. He works closely with local, state and federal officials and the private sector with the many on-going Homeland Security initiatives and programs.

Mark Cooper
Director, Louisiana Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness

Mark Cooper, a native of Bossier City, LA, was appointed by Governor Bobby Jindal as the Executive Director of the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness in January 2008. Cooper spent the previous 18 years working for Los Angeles County, California.

Since 2003, Cooper had served as the Deputy Fire Chief of the Los Angeles County Fire Department, one of the nation’s largest, providing fire protection and lifeguard services to over three million residents and 72 miles of coastline. As Deputy Fire Chief, Cooper served as the department’s Emergency Coordinator and managed its $950 million budget, human resources for 4,200 personnel, and provided IT support for the department’s dispatch center. As Deputy Fire Chief, Cooper also helped lead a Los Angeles County team that deployed to New Orleans for four weeks immediately after Hurricane Katrina. The team assisted with Government support and mass fatality management.

During his career with the County of Los Angeles, Cooper also held executive level positions in emergency management and public safety including Division Chief with the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office and Deputy Chief with the Los Angeles County Police. He also served as a member of the Emergency Management Council subcommittee and participated in the response to several federally declared disasters including the 1992 Los Angeles Civil Unrest, 1993 Kinneoloa and Malibu Wildfires, 1994 Northridge Earthquake, and other emergencies and disasters throughout his career with the County.

Cooper earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Finance and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration, both at LSU. In 2001, he received his professional Development Certificate in Emergency Management from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Cooper received the 2000 Inaugural Award of Excellence in Emergency Management for his contributions in Los Angeles County. In 2006, Cooper was named LSU Distinguished Alumni of the Year for the E.J. Ourso College of Business and Public Administration. Other awards include the 1992 Government Achievement Award for Emergency Management from the National Association of Counties and the 1992 Challenge Award for Excellence in Local Government for Emergency Management from the California Association of Counties.

He has been married for fifteen years. He and his wife, Sandra, have four children, Sarah, Sam, Seth, and Sophie.

Richard Devylder
Special Advisor to the Secretary for the California Emergency Management Agency

Currently, Richard is Special Advisor to the Secretary for the California Emergency Management Agency and lead to the Office for Access and Functional Needs. Richard provides guidance in reviewing and reshaping emergency management systems policies and practices in communicating, evacuating and sheltering Californian’s with disabilities. The previous three-years he has served as a point person for the California Department of Rehabilitation, to the Governor’s Offices of Emergency Services and Homeland Security, on the needs of people with disabilities. Richard has also served on the Governor’s Emergency Operations Executive Council and Senior Staff Workgroup.

As Deputy Director for the California Department of Rehabilitation from August 2003 thru January 2008, Richard was responsible for the oversight of four departmental sections. The sections included Independent Living and Assistive Technology, Client Assistance Program, Disability Access and External Affairs. From 2001-2003, Richard served as Chairman of the State Independent Living Council.

BA in Communication; California State University, Long Beach, 1992

General Russel L. Honoré
Retired Lieutenant General

Russel Honoré is a retired Lieutenant General who served as the 33rd Commanding General of the U.S. First Army at Fort Gillem, GA. Honoré is a native of Lakeland, LA and one of twelve children. Honoré joined the Army in 1971 where he served 37 years in the U.S., Korea, Germany, and Saudi Arabia.

Honoré served a variety of positions in Korea and Germany, including Commanding General, 2nd Infantry Division in South Korea. Additional positions include Vice Director of Operations, J-3, The Joint Staff, Washington D.C.; Deputy Commanding General and Assistant Commandant, United States Army Infantry Center and School, Fort Benning, GA; and Assistant Division Commander, Maneuver/Support, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, TX. Honoré also served as Commander, Standing Joint Force Headquarters, Homeland Security, U.S. Northern Command.

Honoré is best known for his accomplishments as the Commander of Joint Task Force Katrina, where he was responsible for coordinating military efforts in the after-math of Hurricane Katrina-affected areas along the Gulf Coast. Honoré is credited with leading this mission that was said to have turned around the situation in New Orleans, earning the nickname “Category 5 General.”

Since his retirement from the military in 2008, Honoré has vowed to spend the second half of his life creating a culture of preparedness. He has committed every effort, including books, public speaking events, and fundraisers, to this cause. In his new book, 'Survival: How a Culture of Preparedness Can Save You and Your Family from Disasters,' written with Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Ron Martz, Honoré offers a manual to disaster preparedness to make sure that the situation New Orleans found itself in never happens again. Honoré is a senior scientist at The Gallup Organization and a CNN expert Preparedness Contributor.

Honoré received a Bachelor of Science degree in Vocational Agriculture from Southern University and A&M College in 1971. He also earned a Master of Arts in Human Resources from Troy State University, as well as an Honorary Doctorate in Public Administration from Southern University and A&M College, an Honorary Doctorate in Laws from Stillman College, an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Virginia State University, an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Stillman College, and an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Loyola University. Honoré received leadership development training from the Center for Creative Leadership.

Pamela Jenkins
Professor, University of New Orleans

Dr. Jenkins conducts research on a variety of topics that concern how communities sustain themselves, solve problems, and resolve conflicts. These interests include domestic violence, public safety, and community violence. Her work examines how individuals identify as members of a community and view themselves as actors in their social context.

Dr. Jenkins teaches primarily in two areas, criminology and women's studies. She has taught Criminology, Sociology of Law, Women and Crime, and Sociology of Corrections. Her most recent course offerings include an Applied Sociology course and a Women's Studies Service Learning Course. She is also a member of the faculty in the Women’s Studies Program at the University of New Orleans.

Dr. Jenkins is a founding and associate member of UNO’s Center for Hazard Assessment, Response and Technology. She has published on a variety of community issues including several manuscripts outlining community responses to domestic violence and more recently several articles focusing on Louisiana coastal communities’ response to coastal erosion.

Post-Katrina, she has been documenting the response to Katrina as part of a national research team on Hurricane Katrina evacuees. She has published on first responders, faith-based communities, response to the storm, and the experiences of elderly during and after Katrina.

Rear Admiral Mary E. Landry
Commander, Eighth Coast Guard District

Rear Admiral Mary E. Landry serves as the Commander of the Eighth Coast Guard District and Commander of Task Force 189.8, headquartered in New Orleans. As District Commander, Rear Admiral Landry is responsible for U.S. Coast Guard operations covering 26 states, more than 1,200 miles of coastline and 10,300 miles of inland waterways from Florida to Mexico and including the entire navigable lengths of the Mississippi, Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, and Tennessee River systems. Rear Admiral Landry arrived in the Eighth District having served for the last two years as the Coast Guard’s Director of Governmental and Public Affairs stationed at Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, DC. Rear Admiral Landry has served the majority of her career in the Marine Safety field. She has held various assignments on the East Coast, West Coast, Gulf Coast and Hawaii. She was the Executive Officer of Marine Safety Office (MSO) Boston during the 9/11 attacks and during her tour as Commanding Officer of MSO Providence, Rhode Island, she oversaw the federal response to the Buzzard’s Bay oil spill in southeastern Massachusetts.

Rear Admiral Landry completed Officer Candidate School in 1980. A native of Buffalo, New York, Rear Admiral Landry graduated from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1978 and worked for the city’s mayor prior to joining the Coast Guard. She also has a Master of Arts in Management from Webster University and a Master of Marine Affairs from the University of Rhode Island. Rear Admiral Landry is a National Security Fellow, earning this distinction at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in 2000. She received an Honorary Doctoral Degree from Hilbert College in Hamburg, New York in May 2009.

In 2006, Rear Admiral Landry was honored as the Maritime Person of the Year by the Propeller Club of Narragansett Bay.

Her military decorations include the Legion of Merit (three awards), Meritorious Service Medal, Coast Guard Commendation Medal (three awards), 9-11 Medal, and Achievement Medal.

Brock Long
Director, Alabama Emergency Management Agency

Brock Long was appointed Director of the Alabama Emergency Management Agency by Governor Bob Riley in January of 2008. He serves as the State Coordinating Officer for all declared disaster events in the state of Alabama.

Within months of beginning his tenure as Director he managed three state level disaster declarations as a result of tornadoes. In his first year he also oversaw federal disaster declarations in the aftermath of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. He directed state resources as Alabama was Host State to 13,000 evacuees relocated during Hurricane Gustav.

One of Long’s top priorities as Director has been to build capability at the local level. To this end he has worked to improve funding available to county emergency managers and their agencies.

Long currently serves as the Hurricane Sub-Committee Chairman and a Preparedness Committee member for the National Emergency Management Association. He represents Alabama as a member of the Board of Directors of the Central United States Earthquake Consortium. He has also served on the FEMA National Advisory Council to review possible revisions to the Stafford Act. This act outlines federal response during events of national significance.

Before coming to the Alabama Emergency Management Agency Long worked in emergency management at the state and federal levels specializing in hurricane planning and response. He also worked in the private sector in emergency planning, disaster training and post-event recovery.

He received a Master’s in Public Administration from Appalachian State University in 1999 and a degree in Criminal Justice, also from Appalachian State University, in 1997.

Betty Morrow
Professor Emeritus in Sociology, Florida International University; Former Director, Laboratory for Social and Behavioral Research at the International Hurricane Research Center

Dr. Betty Hearn Morrow is Professor Emeritus in Sociology at Florida International University and former director of the Laboratory for Social and Behavioral Research at the International Hurricane Research Center. Retired from academia, she continues a productive research agenda as a consultant, primarily for public agencies. Her research focuses on improving the disaster resilience of individuals, households and communities with special emphasis on overcoming response disadvantages created by economic, social, cultural and/or physical factors.

Some of her most recent work focuses on the transportation needs of vulnerable groups during evacuations. Dr. Morrow served on the Transportation Research Board’s Committee on the Role of Public Transportation in Emergency Evacuation and is currently working on a project for the Alabama Emergency Management Agency (sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) developing a model to identify Critical Transportation Needs, using Mobile and Baldwin counties as pilot sites. She has been involved in evacuation post-assessments for several hurricanes, including Andrew, Georges, Ivan and Katrina.

An important area of research involvement is how vulnerable populations receive and understand emergency messages, such as hurricane forecast information. Current and past projects include Communicating Hurricane Information funded by the National Science Foundation, Risk Perception and Communication for NOAA’s Coastal Services Center, and Providing Access to Resilience-Enhancing Technologies for Disadvantaged Communities and Populations for Oak Ridge National Laboratories.

Related publications include reports from two projects: The Role of Transit in Emergency Evacuation (Transportation Research Board of the National Academies) and Providing Access to Resilience-Enhancing Technologies for Disadvantaged Communities and Vulnerable Populations (Oak Ridge National Laboratories). Recent publications she has authored or co-authored include “Social Science Needs for the Hurricane Forecast and Warning System (Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society), “Language and Literacy” chapter in Social Vulnerability in Disasters (Taylor and Francis Group), and “Social Vulnerabilities and Hurricane Katrina” (Marine Technology Society). She co-edited Women and Disasters: From Theory to Practice (Xlibris), The Gendered Terrain of Disasters (Greenwood/Praeger), and Hurricane Andrew: Ethnicity, Gender and the Sociology of Disaster (Routledge).

Dr. Morrow currently serves on the advisory committee of the Societal Impacts Program at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and the Ad Hoc Committee on Communication of Uncertainty in Forecasts for the American Meteorological Society. She is an associate editor for the Natural Hazards Review and on the editorial board of Environmental Hazards.

Tony Russell
Regional Administrator, FEMA Region 6

Tony Russell was appointed Regional Administrator by President Obama in December 2009. As Regional Administrator, Mr. Russell is responsible for the oversight of all FEMA mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery activities in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Prior to this appointment Mr. Russell served as the Acting Director of the Louisiana Transitional Recovery Officer (LATRO) where he reinvigorated the recovery in the state following hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav, and Ike. Under his direct leadership the pace of recovery activities and the collaborative partnership between all stakeholders was greatly improved and tangible signs of progress were noticed throughout the entire state.

Mr. Russell brings a wealth of knowledge and first hand experience as he was a member of FEMA’s Federal Coordinating Officer (FCO) cadre for over six years. In that capacity he coordinated the federal response and recovery support to state and local emergency management officials after presidentially declared disasters. He has managed various and complex disasters and emergencies from hurricanes to floods, tornadoes, mudslides, snow and ice storms. He has worked in Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana, Alabama, North Dakota, South Dakota, Illinois, Colorado and Montana just to name a few states. Prior to joining FEMA, he served in numerous emergency management positions in both the private sector and the Department of Defense.

He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of New Mexico. He has also earned a Master of Arts in Management and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from National University and a Masters in Homeland Security Studies from the Naval Postgraduate School. Mr. Russell also holds the Certified Emergency Manager (CEM) designation.

Jim Schwab, AICP
Senior Research Associate and Manager, APA Hazards Planning Research Center

Mr. Schwab joined the American Planning Association in November 1985. Originally the assistant editor of Planning, APA's monthly magazine, he joined APA’s research department in August 1990. He serves as the co-editor of a monthly publication, Zoning Practice. He is the Manager of APA’s Hazards Planning Research Center in the Chicago office.

Mr. Schwab served as the primary author and principal investigator for Planning for Post-Disaster Recovery and Redevelopment, which APA produced under a cooperative agreement with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Mr. Schwab was the sole author of two PAS Reports in the 1990s, Industrial Performance Standards for a New Century and Planning and Zoning for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. He served as the project manager for a FEMA-supported project in which APA has developed training for planners on the planning provisions of the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000, and for the Firewise Communities Post-Workshop Assessment. With Stuart Meck, he co-authored the 2005 PAS Report, Planning for Wildfires. He was also the principal investigator and primary author of Tribal Transportation Programs, produced for the Transportation Research Board. He was the project manager and general editor for the new PAS Report, Planning the Urban Forest: Ecology, Economy, and Community Development, released in January 2009. He is currently managing a FEMA-funded study on “Integrating Hazard Mitigation into Local Planning,” which will result in a PAS Report in 2010.

Mr. Schwab is also the author of two books. The first, Raising Less Corn and More Hell: Midwestern Farmers Speak Out, was published in 1988 by the University of Illinois Press. It is an oral history of the farm crisis that affected the Midwest during the 1980s. The second, Deeper Shades of Green: The Rise of Blue-Collar and Minority Environmentalism in America, was released by Sierra Club Books in the fall of 1994.

John R. Vaughn
Chairperson of the National Council on Disability

John R. Vaughn is Chairperson of the National Council on Disability. He was nominated by President Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in August, 2006. He was nominated for a second term by President Bush in March 2008 and reconfirmed by the U.S. Senate on October 2, 2008. Mr. Vaughn was blinded by retinitis pigmentosa, a hereditary eye disease when he was 32 and, despite that setback, enjoyed a 22 year banking career. Before retiring in 1991, he served as an Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer, as well as board of director member in the financial services industry. He has worked with major banks and insurance companies in the Midwest and Mid Atlantic states. After retiring from banking, he worked for the Resolution Trust Company and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as a Supervisory Managing Agent overseeing the liquidation of failed savings and loan associations during that federal bailout of the early 1990’s.

During his post retirement, he was appointed by two Governors as the commissioner of the Virginia Department of Rehabilitative Services and commissioner of the Virginia Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired from 1994 until retiring for a second time in 1999. In these positions, he oversaw the rehabilitation services for people with disability to enable them to return to work or live independent lives. In 2002, Mr. Vaughn was appointed to the Florida Rehabilitation Advisory Council for Blind Services by Governor Jeb Bush. Mr. Vaughn has been involved in local, state and national organizations for the blind.

Mr. Vaughn began his working career as a high school economics teacher in Wabash, Indiana, and is a graduate of Indiana University with a B.S. in Education and did post graduate work at The Ohio State University in Special Education Administration and certification as a teacher for students with learning disabilities.