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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Speaker Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Exploring Disaster Human Services for Children and Youth: From Hurricane Katrina to the Paradise Wildfires: Proceedings of a Workshop Series. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26158.
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Appendix C

Speaker Biographies

Robert Amler, M.D., M.B.A., is the dean of the School of Health Sciences and Practice at the New York Medical College and the vice president for government affairs. Dr. Amler was previously the regional health administrator at the Department of Health and Human Services, where he secured supplemental State Children’s Health Insurance Program funding for Medicaid programs. He oversaw hospital emergency preparedness and directed federal medical emergency assets during heightened external threats to the region. As the chief medical officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, he coordinated medical monitoring for anthrax response teams, launched a nationwide program to protect children from chemical hazards, established standardized environmental medicine biomarkers, and created a nationwide clinical network (Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Units) that has since expanded to several other countries. A practicing physician, Dr. Amler is a graduate of Dartmouth College; New York University; Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey; the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School; and CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service, with residencies at Bellevue Hospital and St. Luke’s–Roosevelt Hospital.

Deborah Bergeron, Ph.D., M.Ed., is the director of the Office of Head Start (OHS). Known as “Dr. B” to former students and teachers, she has been a teacher at heart for her entire life and has spent three decades in pre-K–12 public education as a classroom teacher and elementary and high school administrator. In the course of her career, Dr. Bergeron also started, grew, and ultimately sold her own educational services company. During her

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Speaker Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Exploring Disaster Human Services for Children and Youth: From Hurricane Katrina to the Paradise Wildfires: Proceedings of a Workshop Series. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26158.
×

tenure as a school administrator, she specialized in school improvement. In three different school systems, Dr. Bergeron used strategies around school climate and effective instruction to inspire staff. In turn, staff were able to provide students with programming and instruction that yielded significant gains, including reading, math, discipline, and graduation rates. Since joining OHS in April 2018, Dr. Bergeron has used her experience as an elementary principal and her strong background in pre-K–12 instructional leadership to provide unique insights into how Head Start can support the most vulnerable children to become school ready. She has focused her energy on improving the relationship between Head Start and the public school system and continues to work at both the national level and with education influencers at the state and local levels to affect change. In January 2019, Dr. Bergeron was asked to broaden her leadership to include the Office of Early Childhood Development (ECD) in the Administration for Children and Families. Her vision for ECD in conjunction with the work for OHS is to transform how the nation prioritizes early childhood programming and to create a more collaborative, cohesive environment for early childhood. Dr. Bergeron holds a bachelor’s degree from Texas State University. She earned a master’s in education leadership and a doctorate in education policy from George Mason University.

Josephine Bias-Robinson is an executive leader with more than 20 years of organization transformation, life cycle communications, and people strategy expertise. She has led strategic relationships, national partnerships, and campaigns across multiple sectors and industries including education, workforce, health care, and financial services. Her focus is always to bring organizations closer to the people they serve. Most recently she served as the executive vice president of external affairs for the HSC Health Care System (HSC), a subacute special health care system dedicated to serving children and youth with chronic medical conditions and disabilities. She came to HSC after serving as the chief of family and public engagement for the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS). As part of the Chancellor’s Management Team, her partnership work with families and community stakeholders improved family engagement and helped move DCPS to become one of the fastest rising school systems in the nation. Prior to her work at DCPS, Ms. Bias-Robinson served as the vice president for financial stability and community impact for United Way Worldwide and in various roles at the Department of Health and Human Services and the White House, including the director of community services at the Administration for Children and Families, the associate director of the White House Office of Public Liaison, and an executive assistant to the chief of staff to President George W. Bush. Committed to matters related to children and families, she has served on numerous local boards focused on children and youth.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Speaker Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Exploring Disaster Human Services for Children and Youth: From Hurricane Katrina to the Paradise Wildfires: Proceedings of a Workshop Series. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26158.
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Shannon Christian, M.P.P., serves as the director of the Office of Child Care at the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS’s) Administration for Children and Families (ACF). She is a former associate commissioner of the former Child Care Bureau at ACF, where she advanced President George W. Bush’s Good Start, Grow Smart early childhood initiative, and shaped the office’s research agenda to better support state policy and spending decisions. Committed to effective prevention strategies, Ms. Christian oversaw the launch of Illinois’ home visiting program and was an active board member of Be Strong Families, a Chicago-based national nonprofit organization. Earlier in her career, Ms. Christian was part of former Wisconsin Governor (and HHS secretary) Tommy Thompson’s welfare reform team, serving as the head of the planning section in the state Health and Social Services Department’s Office of Policy and Budget, and as the senior advisor to the secretary of workforce development. Ms. Christian has an M.P.P. from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, a certificate in nonprofit management from the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Business, and an undergraduate degree in economics and international relations from California State University, Chico.

Jeff Daniels is the regional program manager in Regions VIII, IX, and X for the Runaway and Homeless Youth (RHY) program at the Family and Youth Services Bureau in the Denver Regional Office. Mr. Daniels has more than 22 years of leadership, management, and administrative experience in government, including the Department of Defense, with expertise in leadership development, strategic planning, RHY program partnership, policy development, grant management, budget oversight, and congressional finance. He has held leadership positions as the Family Service Center director, Community Service Center director, Youth Program director, and commanding officer of a Transition Team. In his previous position while serving on active duty in the Marine Corps, he was responsible for all fiscal, administrative, and management duties for an agency with a budget in excess of $14 million annually. He led and supervised more than 50 military and civilian personnel in a seven-state region encompassing the southwestern United States. Additionally, while serving as the Transition Team commanding officer, he worked with the Iraqi government establishing runaway and homeless shelters, emergency clinics, and training procedures for more than 100 personnel. He has a B.S. in government and an M.S. in human development from Texas A&M University along with an M.B.A. from Webster University.

Alice Fothergill, Ph.D., is a professor of sociology at The University of Vermont (UVM). She studies disasters, children, inequality, and vulnerability. She and co-researcher Lori Peek conducted a longitudinal study on

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Speaker Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Exploring Disaster Human Services for Children and Youth: From Hurricane Katrina to the Paradise Wildfires: Proceedings of a Workshop Series. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26158.
×

the experiences of children and youth in Hurricane Katrina, which resulted in the 2015 award-winning book Children of Katrina. Professor Fothergill is an editor of Social Vulnerability to Disasters, first and second editions. Her book Heads Above Water: Gender, Class, and Family in the Grand Forks Flood examines women’s experiences in the 1997 flood in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Professor Fothergill and her co-researcher Dr. Seana Lowe Steffen studied volunteerism in New York City, exploring how volunteers were affected by their efforts in the short and long term. In the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene in 2011, she took her UVM sociology of disaster students into devastated Vermont communities to help with recovery efforts for a unique community-based, service-learning experience. In 2017, Professor Fothergill was a Fulbright Fellow in New Zealand, examining disaster preparedness in child care centers. Originally from Washington, DC, she was a research associate at the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado, and then a faculty member at the University of Akron in Ohio, before joining the Department of Sociology at UVM in 2003. Presently, she is embarking on a 2-year study of children and the elderly in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Patricia Frost, RN, M.S.N., PHN, PNP, is the vice chair for the National Pediatric Disaster Coalition and recently retired as the director of emergency medical services for Contra Costa County in California. Ms. Frost received her B.S.N. from the University of San Francisco in 1977, her M.S.N. in 1983, and her post-master’s Pediatric Nurse Practitioner in 1995 from the University of California, San Francisco. Ms. Frost has an extensive background as a pediatric clinician in prehospital, inpatient, ambulatory, and critical care settings, serving in a variety of roles including nurse practitioner, clinical educator, and nurse, and has served on medical missions in Ecuador and Vietnam. Ms. Frost is currently the education project manager for the Eastern Great Lakes Pediatric Consortium for Disaster Response and serves as an adjunct faculty member for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Mgt. 439 Pediatric Disaster Response and Emergency Preparedness Course.

Natalie Grant, M.P.H., joined the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS’s) Administration for Children and Families as the director of the Office of Human Services Emergency Preparedness and Response (OHSEPR) in November 2018. In this capacity, she oversees the disaster human service emergency management mission for the agency and the department. OHSEPR’s primary responsibilities include preparing human and social services programs and providers for disaster incidents; overseeing coordinated delivery of disaster human services case management; developing a disaster and applied science agenda for human services; support-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Speaker Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Exploring Disaster Human Services for Children and Youth: From Hurricane Katrina to the Paradise Wildfires: Proceedings of a Workshop Series. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26158.
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ing the coordination of support services for children, youth, and families in emergencies; and overseeing emergency repatriation mission for U.S. citizens overseas during international crises. Previously, she worked for HHS’s Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response in the Division of Recovery, where she served as the Health and Social Services Recovery field coordinator for federal interagency coordination following Superstorm Sandy in New York and the lead for the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico following Hurricanes Irma and Maria. She has also managed other disaster and emergency incidents within HHS Regions 1, 2, 5, and 10. Prior to her federal role, Ms. Grant served as the director of the Office of Public Health Preparedness at Boston Emergency Medical Services within the Boston Public Health Commission. She received her M.P.H. in international health from Boston University and A.B. in biology from Harvard College.

C. J. Huff, Ed.D., is an educator with more than 20 years of experience as a classroom teacher, building principal, and superintendent of schools. On May 22, 2011, the costliest tornado in U.S. history hit Joplin, Missouri. This EF-5 tornado with winds in excess of 200 mph devastated the community, killing 161 community members including 7 students and a staff member. As a school system, 10 of the 19 schools in his district were damaged or destroyed. Dr. Huff was responsible for successfully leading his district of 1,100 employees and 7,700 students through the community response and recovery effort that followed. Retiring from Joplin Schools in July 2015, Dr. Huff currently serves as a subject-matter expert to the Department of Health and Human Services and Louisiana State University, supporting preparedness, response, and recovery for natural and human-made disasters. In addition, he serves as an advisor to the national not-for-profit organizations Safe and Sound Schools and Bright Futures USA, working to build capacity and community resiliency to address the myriad of challenges facing children and youth across the nation.

Lauralee Koziol has led the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA’s) efforts for nearly a decade to ensure that children’s needs are integrated and implemented into disaster planning, preparedness, response, and recovery efforts starting at the federal level. This has been done by developing and institutionalizing tools and resources throughout FEMA and collaborating closely with federal, state, territorial, local, nongovernmental, and pediatric partners across the nation. In addition to her work on a national level, she has led field efforts to support children and their families in the aftermath of the Joplin, Moore, and El Reno tornadoes; Superstorm Sandy; Baton Rouge floods; and Hurricane Maria. She has served on the Department of Health and Human Services’ National Advisory Committee on Children and Disasters, the Department of Homeland Security’s Blue

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Speaker Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Exploring Disaster Human Services for Children and Youth: From Hurricane Katrina to the Paradise Wildfires: Proceedings of a Workshop Series. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26158.
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Campaign to Combat Human Trafficking, and as a principal advisor during the 2014 Unaccompanied Alien Children Influx.

Scott Lekan, M.B.A., serves as the principal deputy assistant secretary and the acting commissioner of the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) within the Department of Health and Human Services. Mr. Lekan previously served as the assistant director of Arizona’s Department of Economic Security. In that role, he focused on improving child support program performance through detailed analysis of caseload data and close attention to customer service. While there, he expanded the traditional enforcement toolkit to include fatherhood, employment, and diversionary services. Additionally, he worked in the area of economic security in the Division of Aging and Adult Services. Before joining the Trump administration as the OCSE commissioner, Mr. Lekan worked as a business development manager for Informatix, Inc., providing services for child support and other human services agencies around the country. As the principal deputy assistant secretary, Mr. Lekan serves as the chief operating officer of ACF and oversees both the Office of Regional Operations and the Office of Human Services Emergency Preparedness and Response. Additionally, he works to promote assistant secretary Johnson’s goals, including a focus on primary prevention and economic mobility. Whether in human services, his 21-year career in law enforcement, or achieving his B.S. in criminal justice from Northern Arizona University and M.B.A. from California Pacific University, the keys to his success have been strong leadership, lean organization, and a passion for public service.

David Markenson, M.D., M.B.A., the director of the Center for Disaster Medicine at New York Medical College, co-founded the center in 2005 and is currently the medical director and a professor of public health. Dr. Markenson serves as the chief medical officer for training series, the chair of the National Scientific Advisory Council for the American Red Cross, and the chair of the Evidence-Based Group for Health for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. In addition to these roles, he serves as the deputy editor-in-chief for Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, the premier Medline indexed journal in the field of disaster medicine. Over the course of his extensive career in pediatrics, disaster medicine, emergency management, and public health, Dr. Markenson has become an internationally recognized expert in all aspects of disaster medicine, public health preparedness, and operational medicine with a unique expertise in the areas of pediatric considerations, health care planning and education, and planning for persons with disabilities. Dr. Markenson received his M.D. from the Albert Einstein College of

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Speaker Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Exploring Disaster Human Services for Children and Youth: From Hurricane Katrina to the Paradise Wildfires: Proceedings of a Workshop Series. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26158.
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Medicine and his M.B.A. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Following medical school, Dr. Markenson completed his residency in general pediatrics followed by a pediatric chief resident year and fellowship training in both pediatric emergency medicine and pediatric critical care. His career has been dedicated to improving hospital and health system quality, improving the approach to pediatric care, disaster medicine and health care emergency management, and advancing emergency medical services and emergency medicine.

Leanne McCallum is the task force coordinator of the Greater New Orleans Human Trafficking Task Force. As the task force coordinator, she facilitates multidisciplinary collaboration among law enforcement, social services, and other sectors to enhance partnerships to combat human trafficking. Her work in the Greater New Orleans region centers on facilitating evidence-based, trauma-informed antitrafficking response. She has been featured as an expert speaker for a variety of local and national organizations, including the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Office of Victims of Crime, and the HEAL Network. She began her interest in antitrafficking efforts as part of a collaborative ASIANetwork Freeman Foundation Fellowship, studying human trafficking of vulnerable populations in Southeast Asia. She earned her M.A. in international studies from the University of Denver Josef Korbel School of International Studies, graduating with concentrations in human rights and human trafficking. She received her undergraduate degree from Linfield College with a B.A. in international relations and a minor in political science.

Kate Moran, Ph.D., has dedicated her life to the education of students who have learning disabilities, mental challenges, and other health impairments. For more than 12 years, Dr. Moran has overseen States Special Education programs at the Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). In addition to her role as a state lead, she has two lead areas, disaster response and private schools. In October 2017, after volunteering to participate in the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Surge Capacity Force, she was deployed to Puerto Rico for 45 days, assisting Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria survivors through an assignment to the Disability Integration Team on the western side of the island, in Mayagüez. The work experience with FEMA has proven invaluable to her work at OSEP. In December 2014, she received her doctorate in special education leadership from George Mason University, and she has worked in the field of education for more than 25 years. Dr. Moran’s research focused on the effects of the CrossFit Kids Program on improved academics and fitness with students with disabilities. Dr. Moran studied theater at The Catholic

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Speaker Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Exploring Disaster Human Services for Children and Youth: From Hurricane Katrina to the Paradise Wildfires: Proceedings of a Workshop Series. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26158.
×

University of America and followed that with a master’s in special education from the University of Virginia. After graduation she ran a behavior program with Loudoun County Public Schools, Virginia, and was a special education coordinator with Alexandria City Public Schools, Virginia, prior to obtaining her position at the Department of Education.

Scott Needle, M.D., is the chief medical officer and a practicing community pediatrician for Elica Health Centers, a federally qualified health center in Sacramento, California. He serves on the Executive Committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ (AAP’s) Council on Children and Disasters. Prior to this he was a member of AAP’s Disaster Preparedness Advisory Council from its inception in 2007 until 2019. Dr. Needle also served as the chair of the Department of Health and Human Services’ National Advisory Committee on Children and Disasters from 2017 to 2018. He has written and lectured extensively on the needs of children and the role of pediatricians in disaster preparedness, response, and recovery, and he has worked closely with numerous local, state, and federal groups. He was one of the lead authors on the 2015 AAP policy statement “Ensuring the Health of Children in Disasters.” Previous work with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention includes helping to develop guidance on Zika, anthrax, and pandemic influenza. Dr. Needle received his M.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore and completed his pediatric internship and residency at the New England Medical Center/Tufts University in Boston.

Holly Nett serves as the director of child care emergency partnerships at Child Care Aware of America. She has a primary focus on bridging the gap between the emergency preparedness, response, and recovery industry and child care programs. She also develops and delivers emergency preparedness training and technical assistance to child care resource and referral teams and child care program staff across the nation. This training and assistance is focused on business continuity, disaster plan development, and helping children and caregivers deal with the social and emotional aftermath of a disaster. Her professional service includes more than 20 years of experience in the child care resource and referral industry within the states of North Dakota and Minnesota, where she held leadership roles focused primarily on coaching and technical assistance systems development and delivery for early childhood programs. Ms. Nett has a B.S. in child development and family science from North Dakota State University.

Joy Paluska joined the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in 2019 as a program manager in the Missing Children Division. In this role, she oversees the Disaster Preparedness and Response Program and

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Speaker Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Exploring Disaster Human Services for Children and Youth: From Hurricane Katrina to the Paradise Wildfires: Proceedings of a Workshop Series. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26158.
×

supports special projects related to children on the autism spectrum and children of color. Between 2010 and 2018, Ms. Paluska served as a civil servant within the Executive Office of the President. Prior to that she worked in disaster recovery with both the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the American Red Cross. Ms. Paluska began her career at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and following that, worked as an attorney for Legal Aid and in private practice in her home state of Illinois. Ms. Paluska is a graduate of The University of Iowa and The City University of New York School of Law at Queens College.

Lori Peek, Ph.D., is the director of the Natural Hazards Center and a professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Colorado Boulder. She is a co-author of Children of Katrina, the author of Behind the Backlash: Muslim Americans After 9/11, and a co-editor of Displaced: Life in the Katrina Diaspora. Dr. Peek helped create the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s P-1000, Safer, Stronger, Smarter: A Guide to Improving School Natural Hazard Safety, which is the first comprehensive, natural hazards–focused school safety guidance for the nation. In addition to her work on potentially vulnerable populations in disaster, Dr. Peek is also the leader of the National Science Foundation–supported CONVERGE facility, the Social Science Extreme Events Research network, and the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Extreme Events Research network.

Tara Powell, Ph.D.’s research explores the impact of postdisaster behavioral health interventions in disaster-affected communities throughout the United States and internationally. She began her career as a clinical social worker in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. As both a hurricane survivor and postdisaster service provider, Dr. Powell recognized the need for behavioral health programs to address and prevent the emotional toll of a collective trauma such as Hurricane Katrina. Most recently she has examined the effect of community-based mental health interventions for Syrian refugees in Jordan, and with health care providers after Hurricanes Harvey and Maria. She also has been responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, providing webinars on self-care, supporting distressed children and youth, and helping with grief and bereavement. She provides expertise in stress management and coping skills, psychoeducational curriculum development, and aiding children, families, and communities after a collective trauma.

Trevor Riggen, M.P.P., was appointed as the senior vice president for Disaster Cycle Services at the American Red Cross (ARC) on January 2, 2019. In this role, Mr. Riggen leads a team of ARC staff and volunteer experts in disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. Team members develop and implement programs and conduct operations aimed at pre-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Speaker Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Exploring Disaster Human Services for Children and Youth: From Hurricane Katrina to the Paradise Wildfires: Proceedings of a Workshop Series. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26158.
×

venting and alleviating human suffering in the face of emergencies within the United States and its territories. Prior to this, Mr. Riggen served as the chief executive officer of the Northern California Coastal Region, where he provided management oversight of ARC services and supported a team of more than 7,000 volunteers and employees who responded to more than 800 local disasters each year and served more than 8 million residents with lifesaving programs. Prior to coming to ARC, Mr. Riggen held several leadership positions with community-based organizations in Illinois and in the Washington, DC, metro area. These positions focused on literacy, crime prevention, poverty reduction, education, and emergency planning for public school districts. He also served in the Peace Corps in Morocco, where he developed local agricultural cooperatives. Mr. Riggen earned his B.S. in political science from the University of Illinois and an M.P.P. from Georgetown University.

Amanda Rivera, M.P.P., is the executive director of the Youth Development Institute (YDI), Puerto Rico’s only entity strictly dedicated to research, policy, and advocacy around children’s issues, with a particular focus on child poverty. She is a leader committed to providing opportunities so that all children and youth in Puerto Rico can develop to their full potential. From being a middle school teacher through the Teach for America program to the director of development and community relations in a school in Harlem, New York, to leading federal policy efforts around child welfare and youth mental health, she has more than 15 years of experience working for children and youth and promoting public policy and education research. She worked as a public policy associate at edCount in Washington, DC, where she served as the assistant director of the Department of Education of Puerto Rico’s Technical Assistance Project, and authored studies on the cognitive validity of standardized tests and school culture. Prior to YDI, she also led all federal policy efforts for Youth Villages, a nonprofit organization that serves 23,000 young people and their families in 13 states. Additionally, she is the co-founder of Puerto Rican Minds in Action (Mentes Puertorriqueñas en Acción), an entity with a mission to empower a network of young agents of change to create inclusive and effective initiatives for Puerto Rico. She has a bachelor’s degree in government and sociology from Harvard College, where she conducted her thesis on the implementation of the Special Communities Program in Puerto Rico and focused her studies on the issues of inequality and poverty on the island. She also received an M.P.P. from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government with a specialization in social and public policy and a focus on childhood and youth issues.

Ann-Marie Sabrsula has more than 25 years of experience working in the field of developmental disabilities, with a specialization in young children

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Speaker Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Exploring Disaster Human Services for Children and Youth: From Hurricane Katrina to the Paradise Wildfires: Proceedings of a Workshop Series. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26158.
×

(from birth to age 5) with autism spectrum disorder. She is the current education coordinator and co-administrator for the Arc Westchester Children’s School for Early Development. Ms. Sabrsula earned her master’s degree in applied developmental psychology and postgraduate work in school-building leadership, and she has presented on various topics related to early childhood special education and young children with developmental disabilities for community-based programs, school districts, local early intervention councils, and in support of the professional development of early intervention and preschool educational staff as well as family-focused trainings and workshops.

Carmen Sánchez is an education program specialist in the Office of Special Education Programs at the Department of Education, serving as the lead for the parent training and information center program for families of children with disabilities throughout the country. In addition, she is the project officer for the Center for Parent Information and Resources and the Center on Alternative Dispute Resolution in Special Education. Ms. Sánchez has also worked for local government, providing information and referral on disability issues across the life span.

David Schonfeld, M.D., FAAP, established and directs the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement (www.schoolcrisiscenter.org) located at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. He is a professor of clinical pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine. Prior faculty positions have been in the Department of Pediatrics at the Yale University School of Medicine, the head of the Section of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, the pediatrician-in-chief at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, and the chair of pediatrics at the Drexel University College of Medicine. For more than 30 years, he has provided consultation and training to schools on supporting students and staff at times of crisis and loss in the aftermath of numerous school crisis events and disasters within the United States and abroad, including the COVID-19 pandemic (2020); terrorist attacks of the World Trade Center (2001); school and community shootings and stabbings in Santa Clarita, California (2019), Parkland, Florida (2018), Newtown, Connecticut (2012), Benton, Kentucky (2018), Las Vegas, Nevada (2017), Thousand Oaks, California (2018), Floresville, Texas (Sutherland Springs church) (2017), Marysville, Washington (2014), Osaka, Japan (2001), Corning, California (2017), Aurora, Colorado (2012), Platte Canyon, Colorado (2006), Chardon, Ohio (2012), and Townville, South Carolina (2016); flooding from Hurricane Maria in San Juan, Puerto Rico (2017), Superstorm Sandy in New York and New Jersey (2012), Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana (2005), and Hurricane Ike in Galveston, Texas (2008); tornadoes in Joplin, Missouri

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Speaker Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Exploring Disaster Human Services for Children and Youth: From Hurricane Katrina to the Paradise Wildfires: Proceedings of a Workshop Series. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26158.
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(2011), and Alabama (2011); wildfires in Butte County, California (2018), Sonoma County, California (2017), and in the Great Smoky Mountains in Sevierville, Tennessee (2016); and the 8.0-magnitude earthquake in Sichuan, China (2008). Dr. Schonfeld is a member of the Executive Committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Disaster Preparedness and Recovery (formerly the Disaster Preparedness Advisory Council) 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. He served as the president of the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics from 2006 to 2007.

Merritt D. Schreiber, M.D., is a professor of clinical pediatrics in the Department of Pediatrics at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, the Lundquist Research Institute, and the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. He leads the mental health working group for the University of California, San Francisco, Pediatric Disaster Medical Center of Excellence. Dr. Schreiber created the PsySTART Rapid Mental Health Triage Incident Management System for stepped triage to care via rapid identification of at-risk victims and emergency responders. PsySTART has been used throughout the United States and internationally. He is also the developer of “Anticipate, Plan, and Deter,” a disaster medical provider triage and resilience system. Dr. Schreiber has actively deployed to multiple mass casualty events for adults, children, and first responders, including the American Red Cross–led Family Assistance Centers for AA 11, 77, and United 173 at Los Angeles International Airport after 9/11. He deployed for the National Disaster Medical System and the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps as a reserve officer to Hurricane Katrina, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the Southeast Tsunami, and most recently he deployed for the National Disaster Medical System for the COVID-19 Quarantine at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.

Laura Stough, Ph.D., is the assistant director at the Center on Disability and Development, an associate professor of educational psychology, and a faculty fellow at the Hazards Reduction and Recovery Center at Texas A&M University. Dr. Stough’s research investigates how environmental hazards affect individuals with disabilities and other historically marginalized populations. She is the co-author of Disaster and Disability: Explorations and Exchanges, which includes 19 chapters written by individuals with disabilities from around the world on their experiences with disasters and emergencies. Dr. Stough serves as the chair of the Disability Task Force for the Division on Emergency Management for the State of Texas and the chair of the Special Interest Group on Emergency Preparedness for the Association of University Centers on Disabilities.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Speaker Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Exploring Disaster Human Services for Children and Youth: From Hurricane Katrina to the Paradise Wildfires: Proceedings of a Workshop Series. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26158.
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Madeline Sullivan is a management and program analyst in the Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Healthy Students. She also serves as the contracting officer’s representative for the Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools Technical Assistance Center. Prior to joining the federal government workforce, she provided technical assistance on prosocial skill development, violence prevention, and school emergency management after having served as a special educator.

Jonathan Sury, M.P.H., is the project director for communications and field operations at the National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP). He holds an M.P.H. in environmental health sciences with a concentration in environment and molecular epidemiology from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. He has a keen interest in geographic information systems and their use in disaster preparedness and recovery. Presently, he contributes to a variety of disaster-related research at NCDP, including community resilience and child-focused preparedness, evaluating the unanticipated consequences of pandemic flu, determining racially and ethnically appropriate emergency messaging, analyzing the long-term disaster resiliency and recovery issues in the Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina, and the measurement and mapping of social vulnerability and the role of place and space in disaster recovery.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Speaker Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Exploring Disaster Human Services for Children and Youth: From Hurricane Katrina to the Paradise Wildfires: Proceedings of a Workshop Series. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26158.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Speaker Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Exploring Disaster Human Services for Children and Youth: From Hurricane Katrina to the Paradise Wildfires: Proceedings of a Workshop Series. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26158.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Speaker Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Exploring Disaster Human Services for Children and Youth: From Hurricane Katrina to the Paradise Wildfires: Proceedings of a Workshop Series. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26158.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Speaker Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Exploring Disaster Human Services for Children and Youth: From Hurricane Katrina to the Paradise Wildfires: Proceedings of a Workshop Series. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26158.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Speaker Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Exploring Disaster Human Services for Children and Youth: From Hurricane Katrina to the Paradise Wildfires: Proceedings of a Workshop Series. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26158.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Speaker Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Exploring Disaster Human Services for Children and Youth: From Hurricane Katrina to the Paradise Wildfires: Proceedings of a Workshop Series. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26158.
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Page 113
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Speaker Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Exploring Disaster Human Services for Children and Youth: From Hurricane Katrina to the Paradise Wildfires: Proceedings of a Workshop Series. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26158.
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Page 114
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Speaker Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Exploring Disaster Human Services for Children and Youth: From Hurricane Katrina to the Paradise Wildfires: Proceedings of a Workshop Series. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26158.
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Page 115
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Speaker Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Exploring Disaster Human Services for Children and Youth: From Hurricane Katrina to the Paradise Wildfires: Proceedings of a Workshop Series. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26158.
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Page 116
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Speaker Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Exploring Disaster Human Services for Children and Youth: From Hurricane Katrina to the Paradise Wildfires: Proceedings of a Workshop Series. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26158.
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Page 117
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Speaker Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Exploring Disaster Human Services for Children and Youth: From Hurricane Katrina to the Paradise Wildfires: Proceedings of a Workshop Series. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26158.
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Page 118
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Speaker Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Exploring Disaster Human Services for Children and Youth: From Hurricane Katrina to the Paradise Wildfires: Proceedings of a Workshop Series. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26158.
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Page 119
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Speaker Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Exploring Disaster Human Services for Children and Youth: From Hurricane Katrina to the Paradise Wildfires: Proceedings of a Workshop Series. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26158.
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Page 120
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Speaker Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Exploring Disaster Human Services for Children and Youth: From Hurricane Katrina to the Paradise Wildfires: Proceedings of a Workshop Series. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26158.
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Page 121
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Speaker Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Exploring Disaster Human Services for Children and Youth: From Hurricane Katrina to the Paradise Wildfires: Proceedings of a Workshop Series. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26158.
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Page 122
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To explore issues related to the effects of disasters on children and youth and lessons learned from experiences during previous disasters, the virtual workshop From Hurricane Katrina to Paradise Wildfires, Exploring Themes in Disaster Human Services was convened on July 22 and 23, 2020, by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The workshop was designed to focus on families engaged with federal, state or local supportive programs prior to disasters. Additional areas of focus were the coordination of disaster response efforts and the transition to reestablishing routine service delivery programs post-disaster by human services, social services, and public health agencies at the state, local, tribal, and territorial levels. The workshop was also intended to provide a platform for highlighting promising practices, ongoing challenges, and potential opportunities for coordinated delivery and restoration of social and human services programs. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussion of the workshop.

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