Event Series “9/11 + 20” continues at John Jay College’s Christian Regenhard Center
The Christian Regenhard Center for Emergency Response Studies continues its 9/11+20 event series with a panel of our National Advisory Board Members discussing Emergency Response since 9/11: Progress and Challenges. The event is a powerful panel of well-regarded and experienced emergency response leaders. The panel represents experts in EMS, law enforcement, fire, USAR, and emergency management.
“The talent and expertise on our Advisory Board is one of the Center’s great strengths, and it is an honor to assemble this group to address the long view on the emergency response enterprise in the United States,” said RaCERS Director Charles Jennings, who will moderate the event.
Panelists will be:
Theron Bowman
Dr. Theron Bowman is a police and city management professional and consultant with more than thirty years of experience leading and managing some of the most complex and sophisticated police and public safety operations in the world. His diverse array of knowledge and experience equips him to interact with clients and stakeholders at all levels of government, private and non-profit sectors. He spent more than 30 years with the City of Arlington, Texas, rising through the ranks to become police chief and later the deputy city manager. He earned a Ph.D. in urban and public administration from the University of Texas at Arlington and has more than 25 years’ experience teaching college and university courses. His experience also includes international policing, community affairs, workforce diversification, public finance, construction oversight, policing strategies, inspections and accreditations, and technology. He has written extensively on policing topics for industry publications and is a graduate of the FBI National Executive Institute and the FBI National Academy.
Larry Collins USAR/EM/Fire
Deputy Chief Larry Collins currently serves in the Special Operations and Hazardous Materials Section, for the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) Fire and Rescue Division. He is the program manager for California’s Urban Search & Rescue Unit, which includes the planning and preparedness for natural and manmade disasters. Deputy Chief Collins has held many roles during his 3+ decades career with OES; and prior to that, with the Los Angeles County Fire Department. In his role as Battalion Chief with the LACoFD, he served as Task Force Leader and Search Manager covering local, state, national and international disasters. Of the many rescue missions that he led during his tenure in this unit, one was in Japan following the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquakes and Tsunami.
Mike McEvoy – EMS
Mike McEvoy, PhD, NRP, RN, CCRN is the EMS Coordinator for Saratoga County and the Professional Development Coordinator for Clifton Park & Halfmoon Ambulance. He is a nurse clinician in the cardiac surgery ICU at Albany Medical Center where he also teaches critical care medicine. Mike is the chief medical officer and firefighter/paramedic for West Crescent Fire Department. He is the chair of the EMS Section board of directors for the International Association of Fire Chiefs and a member of the New York State Governor’s EMS Advisory Council. Mike is a lead author of the textbook “Critical Care Transport,” the “Informed” Pocket References (published by Jones & Bartlett) and the American Academy of Pediatrics textbook, “Pediatric Education for Prehospital Professionals (PEPP).” In his free time, Mike is an avid hiker and winter mountain climber.
Andrew Phelps is the Director of the Oregon Office of Emergency Management and has had the privilege of leading this office since 2015. In addition to managing the state’s 9-1-1 program and multi-million dollar state and federal preparedness, recovery and mitigation grant programs, Andrew’s office maintains comprehensive planning, training, exercise, and community engagement programs to ensure Oregon can mitigate against, prepare for, respond to, and recover from any emergency or disaster, regardless of cause. Andrew also serves as the Governor’s Authorized Representative for disaster declarations. Andrew has held leadership positions with state, local and non-profit emergency management and response agencies and organizations in New York and New Mexico, with certifications in incident command, firefighting, search and rescue and as an emergency management technician. Andrew received his undergraduate degree from John Jay College and his graduate degree from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.
Frank Straub
Frank Straub, Ph.D., is the Director of the National Police Foundation’s Center for Mass Violence Response Studies. He joined the NPF after serving for 30 years in federal, state and local law enforcement. He has led in-depth studies of targeted violence events in San Bernardino, Kalamazoo, Orlando, Parkland, and the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. He is the project manager for the Averted School Violence (ASV) database, funded by the US Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. The ASV database tracks, analyzes and reports on averted and completed school attacks. He has also led a DHS funded Countering Violent Extremism project in Boston, MA and consults with several government and non-government organizations in the area of counter-extremism and counter-terrorism. He has authored articles and reports on school violence, crisis response, community policing and violence prevention. He speaks regularly at national and international conferences, has participated in numerous Congressional and White House briefings, and is regularly interviewed by national media outlets. Dr. Straub was a first responder to the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center.
Sign up for this 11/9/21 event here.
Our finale event in the series will be a panel on federal oversight of local disaster response, to be held on 12/2/21.
