FIREWALL Workshop 2021

Bradley Barker is a Professor and Youth Development Specialist with 4-H Extension at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Barker is currently serving as a Program Director at the National Science Foundation in the Education and Human Resources (EHR) directorate as part of the Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal learning environments (DRL).  His specific programs include the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST), Advancing Informal STEM learning (AISL), Discovery Research PreK-12 (DRK-12), CS for All, and the Navigating the New Artic (NNA) programs. Barker has been the Principal Investigator on several National Science Foundation including the Nebraska 4-H Robotics and GPS/GIS project, the Nebraska 4-H Wearable’s Technologies (WearTec) Wearable Technologies Grant, and most recently the Nebraska Innovative Maker Co-Laboratory (NiMC).

Dr. Barker’s research interests include the development and evaluation of educational technology systems for STEM education in non-formal learning environments especially focused on rural communities.  Dr. Barker has authored a number of peer reviewed journal publications.  He is the co-editor of the chapter book Robots in K-12 Education: A New Technology for Learning (2012) and co-authored a book chapter titled Developing an Elementary Engineering Education Program through Problem-Based Wearable Technologies Activities (2015) in the chapter book Handbook of Research on Wearable and Mobile Technologies in Education.  Recently (2019) he has published two chapter books: American Perspectives on Learning Communities and Opportunities in the Maker Movement and European Perspectives on Learning Communities and Opportunities in the Maker Movement.

Dr. Barker received his Ph.D. in Administration, Curriculum and Instruction in the area of Instructional Technology in 2002 from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Dr. Micah Hahn is an assistant professor of Environmental Health in the UAA Institute for Circumpolar Health Studies at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA). Her work focuses on understanding the health impacts of climate change and working with communities to develop locally-relevant adaptation and resilience-building strategies. In order to address community needs, Dr. Hahn’s prior work has addressed vector-borne and zoonotic diseases, wildfires, air quality, food security, safe transportation, and energy use. Prior to joining UAA, she was an epidemiologist at the Centers for the Disease Control and Prevention Climate and Health Program. Micah received her joint PhD in Epidemiology / Environment and Resources from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her MPH in Global Environmental Health from Emory University. Her current research focuses on understanding the physical and mental health impacts of wildfires in Alaska as well as the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in remote Alaskan communities.

Andrea Jacuk is the Land Manager for Cook Inlet Region, Inc. (CIRI), an Alaska Native corporation owned by over 9,200 shareholders, and the largest private landowner in southcentral Alaska. In her work, Andrea focuses on balancing land conservation and resource management for CIRI’s undeveloped land holdings. Andrea has been with CIRI for 6 years and worked in the field of geospatial analysis prior to her current position. Her background is in Computer Science, GIS, and Russian language. She also serves as a board member for the Tyonek Tribal Conservation District, a non-regulatory, nonprofit 501(c)3 organization whose mission is to conserve, enhance, and encourage the wise use of natural resources in Game Management Unit 16B, and for the Native Village of Tyonek.

Casey Cook is the Emergency Manager for the Matanuska Susitna Borough located just North of Anchorage. He has been a first responder for nearly 30 years, dealing with fires, floods, EMS and emergency management throughout the State on multiple levels over that time frame, to include the Sockeye and McKinley fires most recently. He has also manages the Borough’s CERT program, community preparedness programs along with all disaster planning, preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery. Casey received his BA from UAA and MS from APU, and has completed both the FEMA EMI EMPP program and the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and Chan School of Public Health. He currently sits on the State of Alaska’s State Emergency Response Commission and is the President of the Alaska Emergency Management Association (AKEMA).

Nathan has successfully completed both undergraduate and graduate forestry education at Northern Arizona University and has over 15 years of professional experience in the forestry field.   He is a SAF Certified Forester and represents Alaska Native corporations on the Alaska Board of Forestry.  Nathan has worked in Utah, Arizona, West Africa, Virginia, and Alaska as a graduate student, Peace Corps Volunteer, and Forester.  Nathan moved to Alaska in 2009 and has been working as the Chugachmiut Forestry Manager since then. He has worked on various projects from forest management planning, forest inventory, fire and fuels, forest health projects, and carbon credits.   Nathan was a recipient of the Earle R. Wilcox Individual Achievement award in 2019.

Donna Attanasio joined The George Washington University Law School in July 2013 as Senior Advisor for Energy Law Programs. In that role, she leads the Law School’s Sustainable Energy Initiative, conducts and supervises research, and supports the Environmental and Energy Law curriculum. Her primary areas of research, writing and teaching relate to the electric utility industry and its transition to a sustainable fuel mix, with an emphasis on consumer protection and energy equity. This work includes regulatory issues related to the deployment of microgrids, community solar, electric vehicles, and other emerging technologies. Ms. Attanasio has worked on electric energy sector matters for over 35 years, including over 24 years as a lawyer in private practice. In 2018, she was appointed as a fellow to the National Regulatory Research Institute. She is a former President of the Energy Bar Association and has served on the boards of its affiliate organizations, the Foundation of the Energy Law Journal and the Charitable Foundation of the Energy Bar Association. She has also served on the advisory board to Smith College’s Center for the Environment, Ecological Design, and Sustainability (CEEDS). Ms. Attanasio received her J.D. from Harvard Law School and an A.B. in Economics from Smith College.

Dr. Daan Liang is currently a Professor in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering and the Director of Center for Sustainable Infrastructure  at  the  University  of  Alabama.  Since 2021, he has been detailed to the National Science Foundation, serving as Program Director for Human, Disaster, and Built Environment Program. His research interests include wind damage assessment, recovery, and mitigation, community resilience to natural hazards, risk transfer and hedging, and construction engineering. He has been supported by grants and  contracts  from  National  Science  Foundation,  U.S.  Department  of  Energy,  U.S.  Department  of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Texas Department of Transportation, private industry, and charitable foundation. Dr. Liang co-founded and co-directed an NSF Industry-University Cooperative Research  Center  (IUCRC)  on  Wind  Hazard  and  Infrastructure  Performance  (WHIP).  Between  2014  and 2017,  he served as the Interim Director of the National Wind Institute (NWI) at Texas Tech University, an intellectual  hub  for  interdisciplinary  and  transdisciplinary  education,  research,  and  commercialization related  to  wind  science,  wind  energy,  wind  engineering  and  wind  hazard  mitigation.  Prior  to  joining University  of  Alabama, Dr. Liang was a  civil  engineering  faculty  member (assistant/associate/full  professor) at Texas Tech University for 15 years.

Mr. Stewart Cedres is the Senior Technical Lead and Strategist of Electric Grid Resilience Capabilities within the Office of Electricity (OE). Mr. Cedres is a recognized energy expert specializing on critical infrastructure resilience and on detecting vulnerabilities in advanced complex systems. He has over 27 years of experience in the federal government where he has been actively engaged in a wide range of energy activities including R&D, modeling & analytics, national & international policy negotiations, and field operations. He currently manages the OE’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) portfolio, advices DOE leadership on issues related to grid resilience against wildfires and other threats, and is engaged on the development of advanced smart robotics and other technologies including AR/VR, etc. Prior to OE, Mr. Cedres served as Acting Deputy Secretary for OE’s R&D and was the first Director of Energy Preparedness and Response. Mr. Cedres also served in DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy international program and worked in operations while serving in DOD. Mr. Cedres is a Gulf War Veteran with advanced science degrees in Mechanical Engineering (Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico) and in Systems Engineering (Virginia Tech).

Mark Cahur is currently the Hazardous Fuels Coordinator for the Alaska Region of the USDA Forest Service.  Over the past 32 years Marks has specialized as a forester, fire management officer and environmental planner.  As a technician at heart, Mark finds the greatest reward in bringing policy, budget, administrative requirements, and collaborators into alignment for actionable forest health and forest resiliency projects that have meaningful outcomes on the landscape.

Gwen is the founder and Director of the Alaska Center for Energy and Power (ACEP), an applied energy research program based at the University of Alaska Fairbanks which focuses on community-scale fossil and renewable/alternative energy technologies. Specific areas of emphasis include power systems integration for microgrids, hydrokinetic energy, high latitude solar, low temperature geothermal, and diesel efficiency. Prior to joining the University of Alaska, Gwen worked in the private sector as a design engineer and project manager, including the design and construction of the only operating geothermal power plant in Alaska at Chena Hot Springs. This project received several awards including a R&D 100 award (R&D Magazine) and Project of the Year in the Renewable Energy Category (Power Engineering Magazine). Gwen has been inducted into the Alaska Innovator’s Hall of Fame, and was selected as a member of Alaska’s Top Forty Under 40, and is a former Arctic Fulbright Scholar. She has a BS in Physics from Bradley University and an MS in Energy Engineering and Policy from UAF. She is the mother to three children, ages 12 (twins) and 10, and has competed in the Yukon Quest and Iditarod sleddog races.

Brian D’Agostino is the Director of Fire Science & Climate Adaptation for SDG&E. As director, D’Agostino is responsible for meteorology, fire science, and climate adaptation initiatives. D’Agostino joined SDG&E in 2009 and oversaw the development of SDG&E’s weather network, one of the nation’s largest and most sophisticated privately-owned weather networks. D’Agostino is the former chair of the American Meteorological Society’s Energy Committee and is a founding member of the AMS Committee on Wildfire Weather, Technology and Risk.  D’Agostino also sits on several advisory committees specializing in climate adaptation and fire science. D’Agostino is a graduate of Plymouth State University with a bachelor of science in meteorology.

Ed Jenkin is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Alaska with more than 30 years of experience in the utility industry.  He is presently the Chief Operations Officer for Matanuska Electric Association.  In this role he has oversight of MEA’s clearing program. Ed graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks in 1984.  He also has a Master of Arts degree in cross-cultural studies, because people are important.

Jim Butler is a partner in the law firm of Baldwin & Butler, LLC in Kenai, Alaska. For over 25 years, Jim has represented both for-profit and nonprofit organizations, including a regional electric utility in Alaska, in areas of disaster or incident response planning compliance and actual incident operations. Jim remains active on several public and private sector incident management teams serving in various command and general staff functions on “all-hazard” and Type-1 national wildfire incidents around the country. His specialized training includes U.S. National Fire Academy: All Hazard Incident Management Team and National Wildland Fire Coordinating Group: Advanced Incident Management Team. He remains nationally qualified as a Type 1 Public Information and Liaison Officer. Jim earned a Bachelor of Business Administration/Business Economics and Public Policy from the George Washington University School of Government and Business, Washington D. C. and his Juris Doctor from Seattle University Law School. He served through 4 state administrations as sole Public-at-large Member of the State Emergency Response Commission and served as the initial Chair of the Alaska Intrastate Mutual Aid System Committee. Jim regularly supports promulgation of policies, practices and training for clients as they implement hazard mitigation and incident management programs for their organizations.

Steve’s CEA role encompasses many aspects of the electrical utility business to include Distribution Transformers; Tree Trimmers; Operation’s Warehouse; Fleet and Locators.  Steve brings over 30 years of operational experience. Steve has lived in Anchorage, AK for over twenty years yet much of that time was spent working outside the state and internationally.  Steve last worked for The Boeing Company as Site Manager for the Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX-1) a Department of Defense radar ship. Steve also took a Boeing assignment to Nagoya, Japan as a Boeing 787 Wing Production Line Manager.  Steve is a retired Air Force Officer after 24 years of service. Steve earned a Master of Science degree in Aeronautics from Embry Riddle University in Daytona, FL and a Masters of Art in Large Organizational Management from the George Washington University in Washington, DC.

Travis is currently the CEO, and was the prior COO, at Copper Valley Electric Association and has over 20 years of experience in the power system and electric utility industry.  Travis has education in Electrical Engineering, Business Management, Finance, and Cooperative Leadership. Prior to working for CVEA, Travis worked for Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories and was the power engineer at the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Project, or HAARP.  He is a past recipient of the Alaska Journal of Commerce "Top Forty Under 40" award for business and community leadership. He and his wife Emily have been married 17 years and have two daughters.  He enjoys spending time with his family, coaching youth basketball, camping, hunting, fishing, wood working, and running.

In June 2020, Brian Wiens became the Managing Director for Canada Wildfire which is a partnership of provincial and territorial wildland fire agencies, federal departments and the University of Alberta. He was with the Canadian Forest Service for the previous five years, where he was the director of wildland fire research at the Northern Forestry Centre in Edmonton Alberta. His roots in wildland fire hail back to his undergraduate days working summers as a meteorological technician with the Alberta Forest Service. For the intervening 30 years he worked for Environment and Climate Change Canada in various roles including operational meteorology, air quality, hydrometric monitoring, and his last year there as the Chief Meteorologist for western and northern Canada.

Tom Marsik is Associate Professor of Sustainable Energy at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where he is split between the Alaska Center for Energy and Power and the Bristol Bay Campus. He also has a joint position with the Cold Climate Housing Research Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory. His main interests are in the areas of energy efficiency, renewable energy, and indoor air quality and he utilizes the synergies of his joint position to benefit people in Alaska and beyond through research and education.

Jeremy Littell is a Research Ecologist (Climate Impacts) with the Department of Interior Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center. He conducts research on the role of climate in and impacts of climate change on Alaskan and other terrestrial ecosystems. His research background includes the effects of climate on wildfire in the western US and boreal North America. He also facilitates the development and use of climate information in planning, adaptation, and vulnerability assessment.

Dr. Christine Waigl is a remote sensing scientist with the UAF Geophysical Institute and the AK EPSCoR Fire & Ice Boreal Fires team. She is interested in using imagery to quantify and visualize change processes on the landscape across the changing circum-polar North, and has chiefly worked on improving our understanding of boreal wildfire. Currently, Chris uses satellite and aerial remote sensing to improve the detection of active fire and the retrieval of fire behavior variables as well as to map fuels and burn scars.

Cecilia (Cece) Borries-Strigle is a PhD student in Atmospheric Sciences at University of Alaska Fairbanks.  Her research focuses on seasonal forecasting of both wildfires in Alaska and sea ice in the Arctic.  In her free time, Cece likes to enjoy all of the unique activities that Alaska has to offer.

Dr. Brinkman is an Associate Professor of Wildlife Ecology with the Department of Biology and Wildlife and the Institute of Arctic Biology. Over the past two decades, Todd has used an interdisciplinary research approach to advance knowledge on the interactions and relationships among humans, wildlife, and rapidly changing social, economic, and ecological conditions in Alaska. He is currently studying the immediate effects of wildfire on moose hunting opportunities, and also trying to design a rapid-assessment tool that rural communities can use to bolster wildfire resilience planning around their community.

Dr. Payman Dehghanian received the B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees all in electrical engineering from the University of Tehran, Tehran, in 2009, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, in 2011, and Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA, in 2017, respectively. He is currently an Assistant Professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, George Washington University, Washington, D.C., USA. His research interests include power system reliability and resiliency modeling and assessment, asset management in energy networks, power system protection and control, and smart electricity grid applications.

Dr. B. Don Russell is Distinguished Professor and Bovay Endowed Chair Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University where he has conducted power system research for 46 years. He is director of the Power System Automation Laboratory and his research focuses on real-time failure detection of electric distribution systems to prevent outages and wildfire ignition. He is past president of the IEEE Power and Energy Society and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He is a fellow of six technical societies.

Feng Qiu received his Ph.D. from the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2013. He is a principal computational scientist and a section leader with the Energy Systems Division at Argonne National Laboratory. His current research interests include power system modeling and optimization, electricity markets, power grid resilience, machine learning and data analytics.

Professor Whelton is an environmental engineer and professor with 20 years of experience in the infrastructure, public health, and environmental areas. He is the Director of the Healthy Plumbing Consortium and Founder and Lead for the Center for Plumbing Safety. His teams are called upon to help communities prepare for respond to and recover from disasters. Whelton’s leadership through research, community engagement, and education has positively changed how government agencies (EPA, CDC, NRC, NIOSH, NIST), water utilities, nonprofit organizations, health departments, state legislatures, and building owners approach their responsibilities. Results from his work have been reported nationally and internationally. In recent years, one of his team’s initiatives have focused on helping communities respond and recover from wildfire damage to utility water systems and building plumbing. His team provided support to government agencies, utilities and communities impacted by the Camp Fire, California’s deadliest fire on record, and many others. Professor Whelton previously worked for the U.S. Army, private sector, National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), and University of South Alabama. He earned a B.S Civil Engineering, M.S., Environmental Engineering, and Ph.D. Civil Engineering degrees from Virginia Tech.

Scott Anderson is a third-year graduate student in the Department of Computer Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is advised by Prof. Paul Barford. Scott previously obtained a BS in Computer Science from the College of William and Mary, as well as an MS in Telecommunications from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He brings cross-disciplinary experience to the research community with his 16 years of service in various roles as an active-duty officer in the United States Army, where he continues to serve. His research interests are in computer networking, including Internet protocols and infrastructure, Internet measurement, managing risk to infrastructure, and providing reliable wireless network service.

Matthew Berman is Professor of Economics with the Institute of Social and Economic Research at the University of Alaska Anchorage. His main research fields include economic and social organization, institutional performance, and social-ecological systems, with an emphasis on Arctic regions. Matt teaches energy economics and the economy of Alaska, and is currently studying how financial incentives affect wildfire preparedness in the wildland-urban interface (WUI).

Dr. Schmidt is a professor of natural resource management and policy at the University of Alaska Anchorage, Institute of Social and Economic Research.  Her work focuses on social-environmental systems with an emphasis on Alaska and Arctic issues.  Research topics include, but are not limited to, hunting and fishing, natural hazards such as wildfire, mining, and adaptation/mitigation strategies. I enjoy using GIS and getting outside to enjoy all Alaska has to offer.

Hannah Brenkert-Smith is a research associate professor at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Institute of Behavioral Science. Her research examines social-environmental interactions in the face of environmental change, particularly in the American West. Over the past 20 years, her work has focused primarily on household and community response to wildfire risk. In recent years, her work has prioritized collaborative research practices that yield actionable data and insights for those working at the forefront of wildfire risk mitigation in the wildland-urban interface. She earned her PhD in sociology from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She was an Environmental Protection Agency Science to Achieve Results (STAR) fellow, a science and technology policy fellow at the National Academy of Sciences, and a postdoctoral fellow in the Climate Science and Applications Program at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Claire Richards is an Assistant Professor of Nursing at Washington State University. She completed her PhD in Nursing Science at University of Washington in 2017, after which she completed a post-doctoral fellowship in health services at the Department of Veterans Affairs in Seattle. Her program of research focuses on improving the quality of care for patients with serious illnesses. Claire is currently conducting research to identify research priorities and potential individual-level and community-level interventions to improve the resilience of vulnerable populations to power outages and co-existing extreme heat and wildfire smoke across emergency management, public health, health care, and energy sectors in Washington State. Claire is a member of the Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility Climate Action Task Force and the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments climate change and policy work groups.

Sara Hamideh is an assistant professor of community resilience planning at Stony Brook University. She studies housing recovery inequalities after disasters to identify resource needs and effective recovery policy levers. Hamideh is a Co-PI in the Center of Excellence for Community Resilience at Colorado State University funded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. She has conducted longitudinal and interdisciplinary modeling of housing recovery in seasonal and year-round housing submarkets in tourist-based communities, survey and qualitative studies of community and housing recovery after floods, tornadoes, wildfires, and hurricanes. She also looks at the role of social vulnerability and stigma in access to recovery decision making for marginalized groups such as public housing residents. Hamideh teaches courses in disaster resilience, sustainable communities, environmental planning, and planning analytical methods.

Alison York joined the Alaska Fire Science Consortium (AFSC) at the University of Alaska Fairbanks as the coordinator in 2013. AFSC is supported by the Joint Fire Science Program as part of a national fire science exchange network to accelerate the awareness, understanding, and adoption of wildland fire science information by stakeholders within ecologically similar regions. As part of this collaborative science delivery network, AFSC has worked directly with Alaska’s interagency wildland fire management community since 2009 to support their decisions with the best available science. Alison has lived in Alaska since 1986. She earned a PhD from UC Berkeley in 1990 and has been working with scientists and managers to understand and address the impacts of environmental change in high latitude systems since 1997.

Randi Jandt is a fire ecologist and wildlife biologist working at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks International Arctic Research Center.  Current work with the Alaska Fire Science Consortium (AFSC http://akfireconsortium.uaf.edu) a regional fire science knowledge exchange supported by the federal Joint Fire Science Program) focuses on science delivery and liaison between management and academia. AFSC works with stakeholders to foster exchange and application of new fire science findings including research briefs, workshops, webinars, presentations, and white papers.  AFSC maintains strong connections with fire managers in the US and Canada as well as US and international science teams.  Recent research and field work has involved the ecological effects of wildfires in Alaska tundra ecosystems as well as their relationship to climate and documenting the effectiveness of vegetation treatments for fuel breaks in boreal forest.

David has worked on energy and development projects in Mexico, Nigeria, Wisconsin, and Alaska.  Since 1994 he has worked for AEA managing the design and construction of bulk fuel tank farms, diesel powerhouses, and other energy projects in rural Alaska.  At various times he has managed Alaska’s Bulk Fuel, Geothermal, Ocean and River Energy, and Solar Programs.  Since 2016 he has worked with AEA’s Owned Assets team to manage the Alaska Intertie, a 172-mile 138kV transmission line between Willow and Healy.  He represents AEA on the Intertie Operating Committee.  David holds a Master's Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  He is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Alaska (ME-10021).

Mike currently works for the State of Alaska/Division of Forestry as a Strategic Fire Planner, where his duties range from managing the State’s computer aided dispatch system to interagency fire management planning. He also regularly deploys with the Alaska Incident Management Team as a Situation Unit Leader. His wildland fire career began 1988, when he got a job working on a Emergency Fire Fighter (EFF) Crew out of Tanancross, AK. Before his current job with the State of Alaska, the bulk of Mike’s 33 year fire career were with the Bureau of Land Management on hand crew, aviation, and fire management positions, where he eventually retired as a Fire Management Officer for the Tanana Zone

Bill Witte is the Fairbanks North Star Borough (FNSB) Emergency Services Administrator. In that role he is responsible for provision of Fire and EMS services as well as 9-1-1 services in the Borough. This includes analysis of the effectiveness of fire and EMS service operations and recommendations for improved delivery of emergency services. His background is in the natural sciences and spatial analysis. Bill has worked 10 years at the Borough and over 20 years as a volunteer EMT, fire fighter, and Battalion Chief at Chena Goldstream Fire and Rescue.

Christina Buffington is a Science Education Specialist with the International Arctic Research Center (IARC) and an Adjunct Faculty with the Natural Resources and Environment Department at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). As the Project Coordinator for several community and citizen science projects across the Arctic and beyond, she works with communities, educators, youth, and scientists to braid Indigenous knowledge and Western science in arctic climate change monitoring, education, and resilience. She is a member of the Navigating the New Arctic (NNA) Community Office (CO) Education and Outreach team. Christina brings over 20 years of experience in community-based applied science and education work.

MICHELE STEINBERG is the Wildfire Division Director at the global nonprofit National Fire Protection Association (NFPA^®) based in Quincy, Massachusetts. NFPA’s wildfire-related projects cover a broad spectrum of safety education, advocacy, and professional training in the US and abroad. She has been with NFPA since 2002, guiding the development and growth of the Firewise USA^® recognition program, the Wildfire Community Preparedness Day campaign, and Outthink Wildfire™, a policy initiative to end the destruction of communities by wildfire. Michele has 30 years of experience in disaster safety outreach and education. She serves as Secretary on the Board of Directors of the International Association of Wildland Fire and co-founded the Hazard Mitigation and Disaster Recovery Membership Division of the American Planning Association. Michele holds a Master of Urban Affairs degree from Boston University and has served as an adjunct professor of emergency management at Trine University, Angola, Indiana, and as a guest lecturer at the University of North Carolina, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.  She writes the wildfire column for NFPA Journal. Connect with her on Twitter @Michele_NFPA.

Tim Mowry is the Statewide Public Information Officer for the Alaska Division of Forestry’s Wildland Fire and Aviation Program. He is based in Fairbanks, Alaska, where he works collaboratively with the BLM Alaska Fire Service public affairs officer to provide the public and media with timely, accurate information regarding wildfire activity in Alaska.

Karli Tyance Hassell is Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) from Kiashke Zaaging Anishinaabek (Gull Bay First Nation) and grew up in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. She currently serves as the Indigenous Engagement Coordinator with the Navigating the New Arctic Community Office team and is based in Anchorage, Alaska.

As an Indigenous environmental scholar and practitioner, Karli’s formative education is in environmental and fisheries science. She has over 10 years of experience in coordinating Indigenous-led education, outreach and land-based projects. She has a broad background in human-environment systems, including expertise in equitable engagement strategies for knowledge co-production and community-based research and engagement. Karli liaises across interdisciplinary teams and sectors, and aims to strengthen relationships or connections among Indigenous communities, academia and scientists, policy-makers and managers, tribal organizations, and research collaboration for sustainable futures. In Canada, she served as a Resource Liaison for a forestry planning team conducting Fire Stewardship Planning that centered Indigenous use and knowledge of fire in management documents and implementation strategies. She is a traditional women’s jingle dress dancer, hand drummer and enjoys being out on the Land.