Allen Clark

Allen Clark spent more than thirty-five years in public safety as a firefighter, law enforcement officer, and emergency manager.  His career included retiring from law enforcement as an assistant chief and emergency management as the State director.   Allen also spent 6 years in the Arizona Air National Guard as a member of the security forces team at the 162nd, Tucson Arizona.   He is currently retired and loves spending time traveling, hunting, and with his grand babies.

Patricia Frost, RN, PHN, MS, PNP

Patricia Frost, RN, PHN, MS, PNP, is the President and Executive Director of the National Pediatric Disaster Coalition, a 501(c)(3) private foundation dedicated to connecting individuals, families, communities, and professionals to evidence-based pediatric disaster preparedness information and training. She is a former pediatric clinician, university faculty member, and county EMS Director with broad experience building public/private partnerships.

Dr. Todd Canale

Dr. Todd Canale serves as the Academic Dean of Public Safety at Pima Community College and is a retired Fire Chief with nearly four decades of fire and emergency services experience. A Colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve and 2026 Military Firefighter Hall of Fame inductee, he holds a Doctorate in Organizational Leadership and is a Harvard Senior Executive Fellows graduate.

Chief Eric Maloney

Eric Maloney serves as Fire Chief for the Kerrville Fire Department, bringing nearly three decades of dedicated service to the fire and EMS professions. He serves as an Incident Commander in the City of Kerrville’s Emergency Operations Center, leading response efforts during major disasters including Winter Storm Uri, Winter Storm Landon, and the Hill Country Fourth of July Floods.

Chief Jerel Haley

Chief Jerel Haley has served nearly 34 years in law enforcement and is currently the Chief of Police for the Kerrville Police Department.  He was actively involved as part of the Unified Command during the response to the July 4th Flooding incident which took the lives of 119 people.

Darin Smith, BSN, RN, CEN, TCRN

Darin Smith serves as the Acute Care Division Director for the Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council (STRAC), bringing more than 16 years of experience in emergency medicine, trauma care, clinical leadership, and regional healthcare coordination. Previously serving as Director of Clinical Programs at Peterson Health in Kerrville, Texas, he brings firsthand experience in rural healthcare, disaster response, and strengthening regional systems of care through collaboration among hospitals, EMS agencies, and community partners.

Chief Daniel Thompson, CPM, MOL

Chief Daniel Thompson has served as Chief of Police for the City of Waukesha, Wisconsin, since May 2020, bringing more than 35 years of law enforcement and executive leadership experience. Since becoming Waukesha’s Chief of Police, Chief Thompson has led the department through extraordinary challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, periods of civil unrest, and the November 21, 2021, Waukesha Christmas Parade Attack.

Sherry Berg

As manager of the emergency department at ProHealth Care hospital in Waukesha, WI, Sherry Berg has supported and inspired her staff for the last 10 years. Her strength, calm demeanor and experience also shone when she was watching the Waukesha Christmas parade and immediately sprang into action to treat marchers and onlookers injured during the tragedy, after which she rushed to Waukesha Memorial, where she mobilized her team to provide care for dozens.

Dr. Anna Lin

Dr. Anna Lin is a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Hospital Medicine at Stanford School of Medicine. In addition to practicing pediatric hospital medicine at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, she serves as the Assistant Medical Director for the Office of Emergency Management for both the Stanford Medicine Children’s Health and Stanford Health Care enterprises. She is an active member of the Western Regional Alliance for Pediatric Emergency Management (WRAP-EM) and the Pediatric Pandemic Network, both federally funded groups with missions to improve pediatric emergency management regionally and nationally. She also serves on the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council on Children and Disasters Executive Committee.

David J Schonfeld, MD, FAAP

David J Schonfeld established and directs the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement (www.schoolcrisiscenter.org), located at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles where he is Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at Keck School of Medicine. He is Chair of the National Advisory Committee on Children and Disasters and a former member of the Executive Committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Children and Disasters and the National Biodefense Science Board; he served as a Commissioner for both the National Commission on Children and Disasters and the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission in Connecticut.

Dr. Merritt Schreiber

Dr. Merritt Schreiber is Professor of Clinical Pediatrics in the Department of Pediatrics and the Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He has been the lead for the Western Regional Alliance for Pediatric Emergency Management's Mental Health Group, Emergency Mental Health Preparedness for Pediatric Prevention Network, and Chair of the Disaster Response for the California Psychological Association. He is a member of NDMS DMAT CA-4 and the National Academy of Medicine's Health and Medical Preparedness Forum.

Ed Valinski

Bureau Chief of Operational Readiness and Response

Director of Public Health Preparedness

Arizona Department of Health Services

Ed is the Bureau Chief of Operational Readiness and Response and Director of Public Health Preparedness at ADHS. He leads Arizona’s ESF-8 public health and medical response and is Principal Investigator for the state’s CDC PHEP and ASPR HPP cooperative agreements. He has held HEOC leadership roles during outbreaks, disasters, and the COVID-19 pandemic. He holds a Professional Master’s in Public Health Emergency Management from the International Academy of Public Health and Université Mundiapolis.

Corey Waaraniemi

Corey Waaraniemi is an Emergency Management and Environmental Health & Safety Specialist with HonorHealth, bringing nearly 20 years of experience in healthcare safety, security, and emergency preparedness. He contributed to the collaborative development of the Arizona Disaster Accountability & Patient Tracker (ADAPT), including the digital platform designed to support patient identification and tracking during mass casualty incidents.

Ken Crouch

Ken Crouch is an experienced healthcare emergency management and preparedness leader with more than 40 years of military, government, and healthcare leadership experience. As Emergency Preparedness Manager at Phoenix Children’s, he leads system-wide preparedness, response, training, and exercise initiatives and works with healthcare, public safety, and community partners to strengthen organizational and regional resilience.

Christopher "Chris” Bellino

Chris is a visionary, high-impact Healthcare Security and Emergency Management Executive with over 30 years of experience directing enterprise-wide safety operations, crisis response, and asset protection strategies. Proven success leading multi-state divisions, driving organizational transformation, and standardizing complex policy frameworks across large-scale hospital networks. Expert in fiscal stewardship, executive protection, public-private partnerships, and human capital development. Adept at navigating matrixed corporate environments to mitigate risk, protect organizational reputation, and foster cultures of safety and collaboration.

Kathy Crow-Dollarhide, RN, BSN, CEN, CEM

Kathy Crow-Dollarhide is the Director of the Disaster Resource Center, Dignity Health St. Mary’s Medical Center. Kathryn Ann Dollarhide has been a trauma nurse in Los Angeles County for 40 years. She currently works under a bioterrorism grant running large scale disaster drills in Long Beach.

Daniel Dodgen, Ph.D

Daniel Dodgen, Ph.D., is the Senior Advisor for Strategy and Policy with the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).  His expertise includes disaster preparedness & response, health system policy, behavioral health, and community resilience and he has overseen the national behavioral health response to multiple natural disasters, public health emergencies, and mass violence incidents.

Dawn Bailey

As the mother of a daughter with complex medical, cognitive, and physical conditions from a rare genetic abnormality, I have navigated complex, fragmented care systems for over two decades. I am dedicated to improving health systems and family-centered care by bringing lived expertise to care delivery, program design, data analysis, and funding models.

Jennifer Benjamin MD, MS

Jennifer Benjamin MD, MS, is the Assistant Dean, Continuing Professional Development, The Center for Collaborative and Interactive Technologies, Associate Professor, Complex Care Clinic, Academic General Pediatrics, Huffington Department of Education Innovation and Technology, Co-Director Faculty College, Director for Technology Center for Research Innovation and Scholarship in Health.

James G. Hodge, Jr., JD, LLM

James G. Hodge, Jr., JD, LLM, is the Peter Kiewit Foundation Professor of Law and Director of the nationally-ranked Center for Public Health Law & Policy at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, Arizona State University. Through scholarship, teaching, and projects, Professor Hodge delves into multiple areas of health law, public health law, ethics, and human rights, and has published more than 300 articles in journals of law, medicine, public health and bioethics.

Christopher Newton, MD, FACS, FAAP

Dr. Newton is a professor of surgery at UCSF and the department chair of pediatric surgery UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland. Prior to assuming this role he led the development of the level 1 pediatric trauma program at Oakland, and has served in numerous local, state and national pediatric trauma related leadership roles. In 2019 he was awarded one of two ASPR grants providing funding to establish a regional pediatric disaster center of excellence, the “Western Regional Alliance for Pediatric Emergency Management” (WRAPEM). Dr. Newton is one of the four national co-principal investigators for the HRSA funded Pediatric Pandemic Network (PPN), leading a large collaborative effort focused on the capability, capacity and resilience of our nations pediatric healthcare infrastructure.

Dr. Shari Snyder

Shari Snyder Pollack, PhD, is the Operations Director for Region V for Kids, the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response’s Pediatric Disaster Center of Excellence at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital, where she leads strategic planning and regional partnerships to strengthen pediatric disaster readiness. Drawing on more than fifteen years in medical education, recruitment, coaching, and program leadership, she emphasizes the importance of having system structures for recruiting and retaining healthcare practitioners in disaster medicine and designing training that builds a skilled workforce ready to meet the needs of children and adolescents.

Michael Fila

Michael Fila serves as the Emergency Management Officer and Public Health Officer for the Cocopah Indian Tribe's Office of Emergency Management, bringing fifteen years of dedicated service and extensive experience in emergency preparedness, disaster response, public health preparedness, and intergovernmental coordination. He also serves as the Emergency Management Liaison Officer to the Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center and the Chair of the Arizona Tribal Executive Committee, advocating for the emergency management and public health preparedness interests of Arizona Tribal Nations and bringing prior fire service experience from New York. His work focuses on strengthening Tribal emergency preparedness, protecting community health, building regional partnerships, and developing practical strategies to address emerging threats, including extreme heat and other public health emergencies.

Tim Zientek

Tim is the Director of Housekeeping, Maintenance, Emergency Management, Homeland Security, Fire, Emergency Communications, and Safety for the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. Mr. Zientek began his Emergency Management career with the Citizen Potawatomi Nation (population 39,000) in 2000 where he began to work with Federal, State and Local governments on several disasters. He serves on the Pottawatomie County Board of Health the American Red Cross Advisory Board, is a member of the External Stakeholders Working Group at FEMA Headquarters, is in his fifth term of the FEMA Region VI Advisory Council, and serves as the Chairman of the Inter-Tribal Emergency Management Coalition of Oklahoma.