Read more about the 2023 speakers below!
Ahmad Abo El Ezz
École de technologie supérieure, Professor
Ahmad is an associate professor of structural engineering at ETS University in Montreal. His research interests are in the area of multi-hazard risk assessment of buildings and infrastructures including wildfires, earthquakes and floods, resiliency assessment of communities through developing tools and methods for risk-informed decision making of natural hazards mitigation actions.
Alexander Maranghides
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Wildland Urban Interface Fire Group Fire Protection Engineer
Mr. Maranghides has received a B.S. Mechanical Engineering with Aerospace Concentration, and an M.S. in Fire Protection Engineering, both from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, in Worcester, Massachusetts. Mr Maranghides has over 25 years’ experience in large scale testing and 20 years in post fire reconstructions.
Mr. Maranghides has worked for 7 years at the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), on the Navy's Halon Replacement Program. Between 1995 and 2000 Mr. Maranghides was the Test Director for NRL Real Scale Halon Replacement Test Program where he worked on the development of a holistic approach to halon replacement fire protection system design. In that capacity he analyzed current US Navy Fleet fire suppression system design criteria and firefighting doctrine. He is the co-inventor, with Dr. Ronald Sheinson of NRL, of the Water Spray Cooling System (WSCS), a patented gaseous agent suppression enhancing system used to protect shipboard compartments in Navies around the world.
After joining NIST, Mr. Maranghides run the NIST Large Fire Laboratory for seven years where he was responsible for the design and execution of hundreds of large-scale experiments. In the past twenty years, Mr. Maranghides has focused his research on the national Wildland Interface (WUI) Fire problem. He has spent years in the field collecting, analyzing and documenting WUI fires and had led all four NIST WUI Fire reconstructions. His WUI findings have impacted national and regional standards. He is currently leading a multiyear/ multiagency effort to quantify fire spread between residential structures.
His technical fields of expertise include halon replacements, fire suppression, large scale fire testing and the wildland urban interface.
Anthony Dente
Verdant Structural Engineers, Principal Engineer
Anthony Dente, PE, is Principal at Verdant Structural Engineers and Vice President of the Cob Research Institute. He was the lead engineer for the Cob and Hemp-Lime (Hempcrete) IRC appendices. Anthony has extensive natural building testing and permitting experience. He is the project lead for an EPA SBIR grant for prefabricated straw wall panels, and his work with natural and low carbon building systems was recently recognized by the Constellation Prize.
Antonio Madrid
Formed, LLC & Native Earth Block, LLC, Co-Owner
Art Ludwig
Oasis Design, Owner
Art Ludwig is a top-selling author and design consultant. His forte is optimizing and integrating across specialties. He has developed numerous original innovations that he has published unpatented into the public domain, including seismic reinforcement of adobe walls.
Art's quantitative analysis of historical and emerging hazards attributable to the built environment helps regulators and policymakers bring risk into perspective. He played a major role in the crafting of new greywater standards in 2009, and standards for monolithic adobe building in the 2021 International Residential Code.
Beth Hotchkiss
California Governor's Office of Planning and Research, Senior Planner, Wildfire and Forest Resiliency
Beth serves as a senior planner for wildfire and forest resilience within the Governor's Office of Planning and Research (OPR). Prior to this role, Beth served as a program analyst on OPR's planning and community development team where she assisted with the update of OPR’s Fire Hazard Planning Technical Advisory and managed a contract for the development of a Wildland-Urban Interface Planning Guide. Beth approaches her work through an interdisciplinary lens centered around sustainability and equity. Beth graduated from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo with a BS in Civil Engineering and three minors focused on science, technology, and society. Beth also holds a certificate from MITx in Data, Economics, and Development Policy.
Bob Horton
Western Fire Chief’s Association, Deputy Director
Chief Bob Horton has worked in public safety for over 22 years with a third of that time in an executive leadership role. Most recently, he was the CEO/Fire Chief for a special district in Southern Oregon, serving a population of 54,000 residents dispersed over 167 square miles the beautiful Rogue Valley. Chief Horton was appointed Fire Chief in 2017 and had previously
served as the Assistant Fire Chief for Las Vegas Fire & Rescue where he started as a Firefighter in October of 2000. His leadership and direction have led to advancements in community risk reduction, EMS service delivery, technology integration in field operations, as well as numerous employee health and wellness programs.
In addition to his role as Fire Chief, Bob served as a Board Director for the Oregon Fire Chiefs Association where he served as Chair of the OFCA’s Legislative Committee. Bob was elected as the Oregon Representative and later as Vice-President of the Western Fire Chiefs Association, serving on the Finance, Public Safety Technology, Wildfire Policy (past Co-Chair) and Legislative Committees. Chief Horton was appointed by Governor Kate Brown to serve on the Oregon Governor’s Fire Service Policy Council where he currently serves as Council Chair.
Bob is a scholar-practitioner conducting applied research at the intersection of behavioral economics, public policy, and community risk management. His focus is on the use of evidence to evaluate program impact/effectiveness and to examine policy-relevant questions. Bob is a doctoral researcher-in-training in public policy at Old Dominion University and is a research affiliate with Oregon State University’s Policy Analysis Laboratory. He has an MPA from the University of Oklahoma, an MPP from Oregon State University, and an Executive Certificate in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School. He is a Certified Public Manager and has the Chief Fire Officer designation. Bob is a conference speaker on topics related to impact evaluation, executive decision-making, and negotiations and is the host of the popular podcast Assuming Command, where he interviews thought leaders, innovators, and influencers in public service.
In his spare time, Bob and his wife Jennie like to travel, hike, obstacle race, golf, and relax by taking in the local wineries and music scene. They live in Eagle Point, Oregon with their two dogs Stanley and Bruce.
Bob Roper
Western Fire Chiefs Association, Senior Policy Advisor
Caerleon Safford
County of Sonoma,
Clay Kerchof
Department of Housing & Community Development, Senior Specialist, Disaster Recovery
Clay Kerchof is a Senior Disaster Recovery Specialist with HCD's Disaster Response and Recovery Unit where he leads efforts to align HCD programs with the latest resilience standards and advance equity priorities. Clay recently worked with the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR) where he facilitated peer learning and local capacity building for wildfire resilience and long-term recovery in fire-affected communities. Previously, Clay worked as a policy analyst with Enterprise Community Partners in Washington, DC where he advocated for affordable housing funding and equitable disaster recovery policies. He has a Master’s in City Planning from UC Berkeley.
Daan Liang
National Science Foundation (NSF), Directorate for Engineering, Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation
Dr. Daan Liang is the Program Director for Humans, Disasters, and Built Environment (HDBE) program at the National Science Foundation. The program supports fundamental, multidisciplinary research on the interactions between humans and the built environment within and among communities exposed to natural, technological, and other types of hazards and disasters. Prior to his current IPA assignment, Dr. Liang is a Professor in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering and the Director of Center for Sustainable Infrastructure (CSI) at the University of Alabama. 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). Dr. Liang has held various academic and administrative positions at Texas Tech University. Dr. Liang received his bachelor’s degree in engineering management from Tianjin University, China in and both his MS and PhD in civil engineering from University of Buffalo, New York. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in Texas.
Daniel Berlant
CAL FIRE - Office of the State Fire Marshal, Acting State Fire Marshal / Deputy Director
Chief Berlant began his career with CAL FIRE in 2001 as a volunteer and was hired in 2002 in the Fire Prevention Bureau of the Nevada-Yuba-Placer Unit. In 2005, he began working in the CAL FIRE Communications Office as a Fire Prevention Specialist in Sacramento.
After several fire sieges and extensive work in the public information function, he was promoted in 2008 to Department Information Officer and was tasked with serving as CAL FIRE's main spokesperson. In 2014, he was promoted to the Chief of Public Information overseeing the Sacramento and Region staff of the Communications Office. In 2016, Chief Berlant was promoted to Assistant Deputy Director at the Office of the State Fire Marshal over the Wildfire Planning & Engineering, and Fire Engineering & Investigations Divisions.
In 2022, Chief Berlant was promoted to Deputy Director of Community Wildfire Preparedness and Mitigation, which was new to the Department after being established through the passage of Assembly Bill 9 (2021), which created the Community Wildfire Preparedness and Mitigation Division within the Office State Fire Marshal.
In January 2023, Chief Berlant was designated Acting State Fire Marshal, in addition, continuing to function as the Deputy Director over Community Wildfire Preparedness and Mitigation.
Chief Berlant holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Davis.
Daniel Gorham
UL Fire Safety Research Institute, Research Engineer
Daniel Gorham is a Research Engineer with the Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI), at UL Research Institutes. His work focuses on understanding the wildfire hazard, the impacts on buildings including fire performance, and how we can make communities more resilient. Daniel holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Fire Protection Engineering from the University of Maryland and is a licensed professional engineer. In addition to his engineering and research work Daniel has over 10 years of firefighting experience with departments in Maryland and South Carolina, as well as a member of a wildland fire hand crew.
Dave Winnacker
Moraga-Orinda Fire Protection District, Fire Chief
Dave Winnacker serves as the fire chief of the Moraga-Orinda Fire District where he has implemented a comprehensive strategic community wildfire risk reduction program using early warning, fire spread modeling, terrain and vehicular access analysis, and fuel mitigation in conjunction with extensive outreach, education, and enforcement efforts to increase the adoption of residential defensible space and home hardening measures. At the state level he represents CalChiefs on the Statewide Training and Education Advisory Committee, leads the WUI Task Force, and is a member of the AB-9 Wildfire Mitigations and AB-642 Wildfire Risk Modeling advisory committees. Prior to joining the fire service, he served on active duty as a Marine Corps Infantry officer from 1997-2003. As a member of the Marine Corps Reserve, he is a Colonel and served as the Commanding Officer, 4th Force Reconnaissance Company from 2014-2016, as the Deputy Commander, 23D Marine Regiment from 2019-2022, and is currently assigned as the Chief of Staff, Marine Innovation Unit. At Stanford University he is a Hoover Institution Veteran Fellow working on the intersection of wildfire and property insurance.
David Shew
Bushfire Mesh, Advisor
David Shew retired from CAL FIRE in August, 2018 as a Staff Chief for the Division of Planning and Risk Analysis in the California Office of the State Fire Marshal. He helped establish electronic data collection programs for pre- and post-fire inspections, land use planning initiatives, and GIS analysis. He also served as the liaison for the California Strategic Fire Plan and other wildfire regulations with the California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection. David spent many years responding to large wildfires and other emergencies across California, and served on one of the state’s Emergency Management Teams as the Public Information Officer. Prior to his firefighting career, David also practiced as a licensed architect, providing him a unique perspective on structure ignitions. Upon his retirement, he established Wildfire DefenseWorks, a consulting firm that seeks ways to improve community wildfire resilience and reduce structure loss from wildfires. He has provided consultation to insurance companies, communities, and individuals to better understand their own wildfire risk analysis. David also works part time for NFPA as a Wildfire Field Representative with the Firewise USA® Program, and is on the Board of Directors for the California Fire Safe Council. He remains connected to research efforts seeking solutions to wildfire impacts, and has provided many presentations both nationally and internationally on this topic. David and his family reside in Napa, California.
Deborah Glaser
The Nature Conservancy, Climate Resilient Communities Project Director
Deborah Glaser is the Project Director for Climate Resilient Communities at the Nature Conservancy in California. In this role, Deborah manages a portfolio of work that builds community-level resilience to the impacts of climate change, working closely with communities in the Wildland-Urban Interface that are experiencing high wildfire risk.
Derek Alkonis
UL FSRI,
Derek Alkonis is a Research Program Manager with Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI), at UL Research Institutes. He manages the implementation of organizational initiatives related to firefighter health and safety and spearheads efforts in addressing wildland urban interface challenges, a priority expansion area for FSRI research. Prior to joining FSRI, Derek served 31years with the Los Angeles County Fire Department, most recently as Assistant Fire Chief of the Air and Wildland Division. During his tenure with LACoFD, he responded to WUI fires throughout the state during some of the busiest wildfire seasons in California’s recorded history. As LACoFD’s Director of Training, he developed and implemented innovative programs supporting fire ground tactics, survival, and fire fighter health. Derek earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of California San Diego where he also played on the baseball team.
Dillon Sheedy
Truckee Fire Protection District, Forester / Asst. Wildfire Prevention Manager
Dillon is the Forester and Assistant Wildfire Prevention Manager for the Truckee Fire Protection District. He holds a BS in Forestry from Humboldt State University, and is a Registered Professional Forester. He has dedicated his entire professional career to the study and practice of Forestry, Wildland Fire Management, and Community Wildfire Protection. Dillon assists in the management of Defensible space, home hardening, and greenwaste disposal programs at Truckee Fire, while also focusing his efforts on commercial and non-commercial forestry and fuel reduction projects in and around the communities of Truckee and Donner Summit.
Drew Hubbell
California Straw Building Association (CASBA), PRINCIPAL ARCHITECT
Hubbell & Hubbell Architects, Inc. specializes in sustainable architecture and the use of green building materials such as straw bales, insulated composite concrete forms and adobe. He has helped pioneer the use of alternative building materials in Southern California and has been a key figure in educating public agencies about their benefits, in order to gain acceptance and permits for these materials.
Duncan Allard
Berkeley Fire Department, Wildland Fire Inspector
Duncan Allard has worked as a Firefighter/Paramedic since 2011 - with Berkeley Fire Department since 2014. Allard is now a Sworn Inspector in Berkeley's Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) Division.
Eliza Amstutz
Oregon State University, Graduate Student
Eliza Amstutz is a MS student in Geography with a background in geospatial analysis and qualitative social science research related to drinking water contamination and environmental equity. She has experience publishing research mapping and communicating lead content in community drinking water for the Luskin Center for Innovation and working on projects involving conservation and geospatial analysis in Kathmandu, Nepal. She is interested in water access and community resilience and mixing geospatial and qualitative research methods to understand complex social and ecological systems.
Erica Fischer
Oregon State University, Assistant Professor
Erica Fischer, PhD, PE is an Assistant Professor and Loosely Faculty Fellow of Civil and Construction Engineering at Oregon State University. Dr. Fischer’s research interests revolve around innovative approaches to improve the resilience and robustness of structural systems affected by natural and man-made hazards. Dr. Fischer has experience as a practicing structural engineer and holds a Professional Engineering license in the states of Washington, California, and Oregon. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, the Executive Committee of the Structural Stability Research Council, Co-Chair of the ASCE Fire Protection Committee, and a voting member of AISC Committee on Manuals, AISC Task Committee 5, and AISC Task Committee 8. Erica was awarded the AISC Terry Peshia Early Career Faculty Award and an NSF CAREER Award in 2021.
Faith Berry
U.S. Fire Administration/FEMA, Fire Program Specialist
Faith Berry has served as a firefighter, park ranger and assistant park manager working on landscape restoration projects including prescribed fire and selective tree harvesting. She has additionally served as a structure firefighter, fire prevention officer for CAL FIRE, a Fire Safe Council coordinator for the San Diego County Resource Conservation District, a Firewise and Fire-Adapted Community ambassador and then project manager for the National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) Firewise USA™ Program, and as a Wildfire Community Preparedness Day manager which is NFPA’s and State Farm’s national grass roots campaign that encourages residents to take steps to improve their wildfire safety. She has written research papers about wildfire safety including one about how youth can be change agents for wildfire safety.
She is currently a Fire Program Specialist at the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s U.S. Fire Administration working to support the Wildfire Mitigation and Management Commission, assisting the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate’s National Urban Security Technology Laboratory (NUSTL) with testing prototype wildfire respirators, collaborating with the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate on an augmented reality Wildfire Home Safety app, a subject matter expert for the Responder Safety Learning Network’s training course for fire service personnel on Wildland Fires and Traffic Management, and has developed content for the US. Fire Administration’s WUI webpages including a fillable Community Wildfire Preparedness Plan (CWPP) template.
Faraz Hedayati
Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, Lead Research Engineer
Frank Bigelow
CAL FIRE - Office of the State Fire Marshal, Staff Chief – Wildfire Risk Reduction
Frank Bigelow is an Assistant Deputy Director for CAL FIRE, serving 19 years with the Department. He started his career as a Fire Fighter and worked his way through the ranks working in various programs along the way, including, fire operations, the air program, and fire plan. In his current role he oversees the Community Wildfire Preparedness and Mitigation Division as well as Fire Engineering and Investigations.
Gavin Horn
UL’s Fire Safety Research Institute, Research Engineer
Grady Mathai-Jackson
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Chief Counsel
Grady Mathai-Jackson has practiced within the fields of energy and environmental law since 2003. Mr. Mathai-Jackson currently represents Pacific Gas and Electric Company in regulatory proceedings, particularly those related to renewable energy and energy storage policy, legislation, planning, and compliance. Prior to PG&E, Mr. Mathai-Jackson practiced air pollution law for the United States Environmental Protection Agency – Region 9, was in private practice with Latham & Watkins LLP, and served as a Luce Scholar and visiting fellow at the Thailand Environment Institute. Mr. Mathai-Jackson served as a law clerk to Judge (Ret.) Irma Gonzalez in the United State District Court for the Southern District of California. Outside of his practice at PG&E, Mr. Mathai-Jackson has taught Renewable Energy Law and Policy and Introduction to Energy Law at Berkeley Law School and has coached high school mock trial.
Greg Andersen
CAL FIRE/ OSFM, Chief of Fire Engineering & Investigations
Gregory Andersen serves as the Chief of Fire Engineering & Investigations; and currently still serves as the Chief of Code Development & Analysis for CAL FIRE/Office of the State Fire Marshal. He has been with the state for over 28 years. He has also chaired the State Fire Marshal’s Wildfire Protection Building Construction “CBC Ch7A” workgroup for the last seven years.
Harry Statter
Frontline Wildfire Defense, Founder/CEO
Hussam Mahmoud
Colorado State University, Professor
Hussam Mahmoud is the George T. Abell Professor in Infrastructure in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Colorado State University. His research focuses on sustainable and resilient infrastructure and communities. Emphasis is placed on establishing new socio-physical frameworks for functionality recovery, performance-based design, and life-cycle analysis for the built environment and communities subjected to different single and multiple natural disasters including wildfires, earthquakes, flooding, and winds.
Ivan O’Neill
Wuuii, Inc., Co-founder and CEO
Ivan is the co-founder and CEO of Wuuii, which offers a software platform for property owners, insurers, agencies, and community non-profits to model and mitigate wildfire risk at scale.
He is an NFPA Certified Wildfire Mitigation Specialist, NWCG FFT-2 prescribed fire practitioner, and serves on the Board of Directors of Safer West County, a 501c3 preparing communities in Sonoma County to live with wildfire.
Jason Brooks
Fire Aside, CEO
Co-Founder of Fire Aside which works with agencies and FireSafe councils across the western US to improve home hardening, defensible space & community fuel removal.
Jenna Tilt
Oregon State University, Assistant Professor
Jenna Tilt is an Assistant Professor of Geography at Oregon State University. Her research focuses on: 1) exploring the individual and community drivers of vulnerability to acute and chronic natural hazards; and 2) understanding how communities and individuals perceive and develop adaptation strategies in response to these hazards. Dr. Tilt is particularly interested in how natural hazard mitigation decision-making at the institutional level can create adaptation measures that lead to uneven response and recovery. As a social scientist, Dr. Tilt use mixed-methods approaches (e.g. qualitative, quantitative, and GIS) and work to deeply engage a wide variety of community members and stakeholders to co-produce feasible adaptation strategies.
Jim McDougald
CAL FIRE,
Chief McDougald started his career with CAL FIRE in 1994 as a Firefighter I in the Madera, Mariposa, Merced Unit. In 2001, he was promoted to Engineer and worked in both municipal and wildland fire stations. In 2006, he promoted to Fire Captain. He worked in the Madera, Mariposa, Merced Unit until 2009 when he transferred to the Fresno Kings Unit as the Unit Pre-Fire Engineer.
In 2010, Chief McDougald promoted to Battalion Chief in the role of the Southern Region Pre-Fire Coordinator. During his time in this position, he assisted in the implementation of the 2010 Strategic Fire Plan for California, CalMAPPER, the State Responsibility Area Fee, State Responsibility Area reviews, CAIRS and the Land Use Planning Program.
In 2014, he promoted to Assistant Chief in the Fresno Kings Unit where he oversaw the Pre-Fire, Resource Management, Law Enforcement and Protection Planning Programs. During this time, he was on the committee that updated the 2018 Strategic Fire Plan for California, served as the co-chair for the development and implementation of CALFIRS and continued involvement on the CalMAPPER Technical Committee. In 2021, he became the Assistant Chief for the Home Hardening Program implementing the California Wildfire Mitigation Program with CAL OES and in 2022 he promoted to his current position of Staff Chief where he oversees the department’s Wildfire Planning (Fire Plan) Program, as well as the CalStats Program which administers incident reporting (CALlFIRS/NFIRS).
Jim Moore
NeoTerra, President
Jim is developing cost efficient construction techniques utilizing SCEB's with two prototypes beginning construction in New Mexico. He is an Ohio State materials scientist and has worked in technology startups in the fields of wireless remote sensing, health care efficiency, and earthen materials manufacure and use.
Joel Hamilton
Fire Chiefs Association of British Columbia / FireSmart British Columbia, FireSmart BC Home Partners Program Provincial Coordinator
Joel draws from his background in emergency management work at federal, provincial and municipal scale governments in both operational and management functions. This has included several years serving on national incident management teams, numerous wildland firefighting roles, structural firefighting, search and rescue, emergency operations center (EOC) coordination and forest fuels program management.
In his role with FireSmart BC and the FCABC, Joel provides project management and coordination to the FireSmart Home Partners Program, supporting local government and First Nations implement FireSmart programs and practices within their regions while engaging with related industry and WUI research and initiatives.
John Jordan
Paverde LLC, President
M. John Jordan, President, Paverde LLC, manufactures highly engineered compressed stabilized earth blocks (CSEB). Mr. Jordan has spent over 12 years developing the most technically advanced yet economically affordable CSEB possible. Mr. Jordan has been engaged in multiple areas of earthen construction research, education, advocacy, and advancement. With a lengthy professional history that includes operations management, systems management, business analysis, technical scientific research and development, and sustainable technology manufacturing, Mr. Jordan is well positioned to examine, analyze, and report on the findings of the material to be presented at this conference. He received a BS Biology and an MBA/Mgt. of Technology from the University of New Mexico.
Joseph Willi
UL Fire Safety Research Institute, Research Engineer
Since joining UL FSRI as a research engineer in 2017, Joseph has been a primary contributor to projects focused on live-fire training, fire investigation, fire modeling, and fires in the WUI. Prior to UL, Joe worked as a fire protection engineer in the Fire Research Division at NIST, where his work covered topics related to fire model validation, firefighter PPE performance testing, and firefighting tactics. Joseph holds a B.S. in General Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an M.S. in Fire Protection Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Joy Pauschke
National Science Foundation (NSF), Program Director, Directorate for Engineering, Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation
Dr. Joy M. Pauschke is a Program Director at the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the Directorate for Engineering, Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI). She is a Program Director for the Engineering for Civil Infrastructure program, a CMMI core research program; the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI), an NSF mid-scale, multi-user facility to support research, education, and career development in earthquake and wind engineering; and the mid-scale research infrastructure track-1 and track-2 programs. Her background is in structural engineering, with an emphasis in earthquake engineering. Dr. Pauschke earned a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Northwestern University and M.S., Engineer, and Ph.D. degrees in Civil Engineering from Stanford University. She is a registered Professional Engineer in Illinois.
Julia Juarez
California Department of Insurance, Deputy Commissioner, Community Relations/Outreach
Julia Svetlana Juarez leads the California Department of Insurance Community Relations and Outreach Branch. Since then, the Department has met with hundreds of thousands of consumers throughout the state who have been adversely affected by the state’s unprecedented wildfires, floods, earthquakes and the pandemic. With over 20 years of public and private sector outreach, education, and management experience, Juarez oversees constituent outreach with federal, state, and local elected district offices and leads the Department’s expanded efforts to assist wildfire survivors, local governments, small businesses, and consumers in accessing the Department’s many services. Juarez holds Bachelor of Arts degrees in English Literature and Political Science from Point Loma Nazarene University as well as a Master’s Degree in Leadership and Organizational Studies from Azusa Pacific University.
Kasra Shamsaei
University of Nevada, Reno, Ph.D. Student, Graduate Research Assistant
As a Ph.D. student, I am serving NSF funded LEAP-HI project to develop a data-informed, physics-based computational framework for probabilistic risk assessment and mitigation to fight wildfires. During my Ph.D. journey, I will develop different data assimilation approaches to integrate real-world measurements in the wildfire simulation model to improve wildfire simulation capabilities, and contribute to other aspects of the project including data collection, urban fire simulation, fuel mapping, and risk assessment.
Katie Lipiecki
FEMA Region 9, Mitigation Division Director
Kathryn (Katie) Lipiecki is director of the Mitigation Division for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Region 9 office in Oakland, California. In this role, she oversees the regional implementation of mitigation programs, including the flood mapping program, Hazard Mitigation Planning program, multi-million dollar disaster and non-disaster mitigation grants such as the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities and Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, floodplain management and flood insurance programs, and Environmental and Historic Preservation compliance.
Prior to joining Region 9 in 2020, Katie was the hazard mitigation division director in Puerto Rico, supporting recovery efforts for hurricanes Irma and Maria, and the 2020 earthquakes. In this role, she oversaw the implementation of various mitigation program areas, including the $3.6 billion Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, and supported the obligation of over $115 million for 406 mitigation.
Katie started with FEMA Region 3 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, working in the Floodplain Management & Insurance branch and serving as the Risk Analysis branch chief.
Before FEMA, Katie worked for URS Corporation, where she supported FEMA’s flood map modernization program. She also volunteered on a local historic preservation commission in Haddonfield, New Jersey, providing guidance on compliance with historic district regulations.
She holds a Master of Science in Urban Planning from Columbia University in New York City, where she concentrated in housing policy, and has a Bachelor of Arts in Historic Preservation and American Studies from Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland. She is also a graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Command and General Staff Officers' Common Core course.
Kelsey Winter
BC FireSmart Committee / BC Wildfire Service, FireSmart Program Lead
Kelsey Winter is the FireSmart Program Lead for the BC Wildfire Service and the Chair of the BC FireSmart Committee (BCFSC). She has worked in wildfire for over ten years and has experience on the fireline, in operational and strategic communications and is now leading the development and implementation of FireSmart across British Columbia. As a member of the Community Resiliency Investment Program Management Committee she assists with the delivery of BC’s primary FireSmart funding program. Kelsey has a Masters in Fire Ecology and a Masters in Natural Resources; and is currently pursuing her PhD in Public Administration focusing on wildfire resiliency for Indigenous communities. Kelsey has been involved with FireSmart since 2014 when she became the FireSmart Provincial Liaison for BC.
She is grateful to work and raise her little family on the traditional territories of the Lekwungen speaking peoples, today represented by the Esquimalt and Songhees First Nations, those whom have been on these lands since time immemorial. She shares this acknowledgement as part of her personal practice and to encourage all of us to take meaningful steps on our journey towards reconciliation.
Kendra McLauchlan
National Science Foundation (NSF), Directorate for Biological Sciences, Division of Environmental Biology
Dr. Kendra McLauchlan is a Program Director in the Ecosystem Science cluster in the Division of Environmental Biology, Directorate for Biological Sciences at the National Science Foundation. The Ecosystem Science program supports investigations of ecosystem structure and function across a diversity of spatial and temporal scales. At NSF, Dr. McLauchlan chairs the Wildland Fire Initiative Working Group. She also works on the Navigating the New Arctic and Biodiversity on a Changing Planet programs. Dr. McLauchlan’s research background is in paleoenvironmental change, reconstructing paleofire and ecosystem history through proxy records preserved in sediment cores and soils. Dr. McLauchlan earned a B.A. in Biology from Carleton College, and both an M.S. and Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of Minnesota.
Laura Hasburgh
USDA Forest Products Laboratory,
Dr. Laura Hasburgh is a Materials Research Engineer at the Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, WI, where she focuses on the thermal degradation of wood polymers, material properties at high temperatures, and timber construction with respect to fire growth, smoldering, and product fire endurance. Dr. Hasburgh actively participates in the Society of Fire Protection Engineers as a member of the committees on Professional Qualifications and Design Fire Scenarios. She is also a voting member of ASTM Committee E05 on Fire Standards and Subcommittee Chair for E05.33 on Fire Safety Engineering.
Liam Galleher
Plumas County Fire Safe Council, County Coordinator
Liam is happy to be here, and has worked for the Plumas County Fire Safe Council since January 2022. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Ecosystem Management and Forestry from UC Berkeley, and has spent his professional career at the intersection of applied ecology and landowner communications. Before moving to Plumas County, Liam started his career in Washington D.C. in the house of representatives. He then worked for Dodd lab at UC Berkeley, coordinating with landowners in California for coast redwood genetics projects. Liam grew up in Chula Vista, CA, and is happy to see fire-conscious events like WiReS around his hometown.
Lisa Morey
Colorado Earth LLC, Founder
Colorado Earth designs, manufactures, and builds using a locally produced, low embodied carbon, compressed earth block. Our facility in Golden, Colorado produces a structural block that is fireproof, soundproof, bugproof, bulletproof, breathable, biodegradable, and mold resistant, due to pH of lime in our renderings. Our Ecoblox are made using overburden material from a nearby quarry. They are not fired and the combination of thermal mass and insulation reduces energy consumption costs. We offer a regional solution to building supply chain concerns.
Lou Wilde
British Columbia Wildfire Service (BC Panel), Structure Protection Specialist
Lou Wilde has 37 years in the fire service and is a Structure Protection Specialist with the BC Wildfire Service and a retired Deputy Fire Chief from the Kelowna (BC) Fire Department (ECFO).
Marcelo Hirschler
GBH International, Consultant
Marcelo Hirschler has many years of experience with fire safety issues. For example, he has been providing technical assistance with codes and standards issues (emphasis on fire), as well as consulting services for fire-related legal cases.
Dr. Hirschler has a strong background in fire performance of plastics (such as PVC and foam plastics) and on the effects of flame retardants and has published over 500 papers and six books. He is very active on developing proposals for amendment of codes (leading to regulation), including the building codes (IBC and NFPA 5000), the life safety code (NFPA 101), the national electrical code (NEC, NFPA 70), the mechanical codes (IMC, UMC), the fire codes (IFC, NFPA 1), the residential code (IRC) and the wildland code (IWUIC).
Furthermore, Marcelo Hirschler is very active in the development of standard fire tests, practices, specifications and guides (nationally and internationally) within ASTM, NFPA, CSA, ISO and IEEE. In addition, Dr. Hirschler has been appointed to a number of positions of responsibility within codes and standards committees and has received several awards. He was appointed by ICC to the IBC Fire Safety committee for 3 code development cycles and he chairs several committees and task groups at ASTM and ISO.
Marco Mack
Santa Cruz County Fire Safe Council, Chair - Executive Advisory Committee
Marco Mack has more than 30 years’ experience in the Fire Service as a fire ground commander with specialty skills in emergency management, hazardous materials response, community risk reduction, wildfire response, and wildfire risk mitigation. As an ICC Certified Fire Marshal and a Certified Building Official, he has incorporated an emergency response perspective into the fire service’s transition from fire prevention code enforcement to community risk reduction, where we engage residents and business owners as stakeholders to help make emergencies go better.
Marco Mack is currently representing the Santa Cruz County Fire Safe Council in California regulation development for the Board of Forestry Zone Zero Workgroup and the California State Fire Marshal’s effort to develop the California WUI Code by 2025. He is also engaged in developing ICC 605 Standard to address Residential Construction in Regions with Wildfire Hazards - as the Vice Chair of the Site and Area Requirements Task Group.
Marilia Ramos, Ph.D.
University of California Los Angeles, Research Scientist
Dr. Ramos is a research scientist at the B. John Garrick Institute for the Risk Sciences – University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She has expertise on human behavior modeling, human-system interaction, human factors, risk assessment methods. Additionally, she leads and collaborates with research projects on human behavior modeling for non-industrial systems, such as autonomous systems operations (automated cars and autonomous vessels) and wildfire evacuations.
Matt Damon
CAL FIRE - Office of the State Fire Marshal, Staff Chief – Community Wildfire Mitigation Assist
Matthew Malecha
Texas A&M University, Instructional Assistant Professor
Max Young
Ventura Regional Fire Safe Council, Lead Wildfire Safety Liaison
Megan Ellery
University of Colorado Boulder, Graduate Researcher
Megan Ellery is a master’s student at the University of Colorado Boulder in the Civil Systems program and she is co-advised by Amy Javernick-Will and Abbie Liel. Her master’s research focuses on policy decisions surrounding sustainability and resiliency in post-disaster contexts. Megan completed her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 2021 at The Pennsylvania State University.
Michele Barbato
CITRIS and the Banatao Institute, Director of CITRIS Climate Initiative
https://faculty.engineering.ucdavis.edu/barbato/biography/
Mike Eckhoff
Hoover Treated Wood Products, Inc., Codes and Education Specialist
Dr. Mike Eckhoff is a public policy expert with nearly 20 years of experience in the forest products industry. Since 2017, he has been a Codes and Education Specialist for Hoover Treated Wood Products, Inc., providing technical expertise on fire-retardant-treated wood (FRTW) to architects, code officials, and wildland firefighters. He has written over a dozen peer-reviewed articles and has given hundreds of invited presentations throughout the U.S., all with a focus on sustainable wood products, including FRTW, and how they improve forest health and reduce wildfire risks simultaneously.
Mike McCormick
CAPE Analytics, Product Manager, Weather Risk
Mike is currently Product Manager of Weather Risk at CAPE Analytics, where he drives the strategy, roadmap, and execution of weather risk-related AI and ML-derived property intelligence data products for insurance carriers. Prior to CAPE, Mike worked at RMS for 7 years, most recently as a Model Developer of catastrophe models for a variety of insurers, reinsurers, and brokers to manage risks across the globe.
Miriam Aczel
CIEE/CITRIS, UC Berkeley, Postdoctoral Scholar
Miriam Aczel, Ph.D., FRSA, is the McQuown Postdoctoral Fellow at California Institute for Energy & Environment (CIEE), University of California, Berkeley and Honorary Research Associate at Imperial College London’s Centre for Environmental Policy.
Miriam earned her PhD and MSc in Environmental Technology from Imperial College, and BA from McGill University, Montreal.
Miriam is the co-founder and co-director of the Amir Aczel Foundation, which supports science education in Cambodia.
Miriam speaks Italian, French, Hebrew, and is learning Spanish.
Molly Mowery
Community Wildfire Planning Center, Executive Director
Natalie Burke
CAL FIRE Office of the State Fire Marshal, Program Manager – Wildfire Prevention Grants
Natalie earned her Bachelor of Science degree at CSUS. Shortly after, Natalie accepted a permanent position with the State of California. In that position, she developed the Wildfire Prevention Grants program at CAL FIRE and has guided the program through multiple changes in funding and direction. Her leadership skills were evident and in 2019, Natalie was promoted to manager of the Wildfire Prevention Grants Program. Natalie has coordinated and supervised numerous grant solicitations and she takes pride in awarding grant projects that are protecting communities throughout California.
Nikki Caravelli
Governor's Office of Planning and Research, Associate Planner, Climate Resilience
As an Associate Planner of Climate Resilience at OPR, Nikki manages the State Adaptation Clearinghouse and supports climate services and technical assistance under OPR’s Integrated Climate Adaptation and Resiliency Program (ICARP). Nikki brings a commitment to accessible climate communications, community engagement, and holistic, equitable planning and implementation of climate solutions to her work. Prior to OPR, Nikki spent two years with Sierra Business Council as a policy analyst and Project Manager for the Sierra Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Partnership, advocating for and coordinating local and regional solutions to the Sierra Nevada region’s climate vulnerabilities. Nikki also served as a 2016–17 CivicSpark Climate Fellow at Sierra Business Council, providing climate planning and implementation technical assistance to local governments. Nikki has a B.A. in Anthropology and a Concentration in Environmental Studies from Williams College, where she graduated in 2016 as a Class of 1960 Environmental Scholar.
Noah Gershon
University of Colorado Boulder, Graduate Researcher
Noah Gershon is a Ph.D. student in Civil Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder and is co-advised by Amy Javernick-Will and Abbie Liel. His research interests include equitable community-based recovery and resilience in the face of increasingly numerous and intense disasters. Before pursuing a Ph.D., Noah earned his B.S. in Engineering Physics and spent several years working on solar photovoltaics in Hawaii, helping to solve issues around integrating solar energy onto their isolated electrical grid.
OP Almaraz
Allied Disaster Defense, owner
With 28 years of experience helping clients recover from water, smoke, and fire disasters, O.P. Almaraz has become an industry leader in wildfire prevention. After years of research and conversations with Cal Fire, The Forestry Service, Insurance Companies, and State Officials, he founded Allied Disaster Defense LLC, which specializes in providing scientifically-proven approaches to protect homes before a wildfire strikes. Almaraz has positioned Allied Disaster Defense as an industry leader by surrounding himself with some of the most knowledgeable minds.
Rich Snyder
Allied Disaster Defense, Wildfire Mitigation Specialist / Retired Fire Marshal of Sierra Madre
A retired fire marshal with 30+ years of experience will go over his experience and views when fighting a wildfire. Being a wildland firefighter himself, he uses wildfire science, fire science, and fire prevention methods that can be applied to property owners being affected.
Rich Snyder is the retired fire captain/marshal of Sierra Madre. With 30+ years of experience and also being a wildland firefighter, his goal is to educate the public to solve the puzzle of fighting fires. The key is not in suppression but in prevention.
Richard Veihl
SDG&E, Fire Science and Coordination Program Manager
• Born and raised in San Diego with a degree in Economics with a Minor in Mathematics from Occidental College in Los Angeles. I was a firefighter in San Diego County as well as an EMT on an ambulance before joining SDG&E in 2011. My various positions at SDG&E have all related to fire prevention, mitigation, and emergency response. My current role as the Program Manager of Fire Science and Coordination has me leading a team for former fire professionals with over 150 years of collective experience with a primary mission of keeping employees, customers and first responders safe through fire prevention, incident coordination, and education.
Riyaaz Shaik
University of California, Los Angeles, Post-Doctoral Researcher
Riyaaz Shaik earned a B.Tech. and M.E. degree from BSA Crescent University and Osmania University, India respectively in 2017. Another M.S. in Satellite Systems & Services and Ph.D. in Energy and Environment from Sapienza University of Rome, Italy in 2022. After a stint at the School of Aerospace Engineering in Rome as a research fellow, he joined the Civil & Environmental Engineering Department at UCLA in 2022 as postdoctoral researcher. Currently involved in the wildfire projects funded by U.S. National Science Foundation and Amazon Sustainability. He has worked with Italian Space Agency, E-GEOS SpA, National Research Council of Italy and European Space Agency for FirEUrisk, S2IGI and ASI-HYP projects.
Robert Coffelt
New building technology,
Ron French
BCWS, Superintendent Fire Services
Ron is the Superintendent of Fire Services with the responsibility of managing BCWS Structure Protection and Defense program. Prior to filling this role, he held the role as Deputy Fire Commissioner of BC , after retiring in 2015 from Central Saanich Fire dept. as Fire Chief/Emergency Coordinator.
Away from work, Ron enjoys time spent travelling, lake time camping with his family.
Roy Wright
IBHS, President & Chief Executive Officer
ROY WRIGHT President & Chief Executive Officer Roy Wright, President and CEO of the Insurance Institute for Building & Home Safety, is a leader in climate adaptation, building science, and disaster mitigation. A former FEMA official, Roy brings together stakeholders across industries and specialties to tackle some of the toughest disasters facing communities across the U.S. From wildfires to hurricanes, tornadoes to hailstorms, he oversees the research and risk-reduction efforts that are creating stronger, more resilient homes, businesses, and communities. Roy is a recognized resiliency shaper who has dedicated his career to breaking the cycle of human suffering that strikes families and communities in the wake of severe weather.
Sasan Dolati
University of Texas at San Antonio, Ph.D. Candidate, Research Assistant
Sasan is a Ph.D. candidate in Structural Engineering at the University of Texas at San Antonio and the first and current graduate ambassador of the school of civil and environmental engineering that helps UTSA to recruit talented students. Sasan has been selected as the recipient of the UTSA life award (outstanding graduate student) in the college 2022. He serves as the Vice-chair of membership at the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) Graduate Student Council (GSC).
His expertise is seismic design, assessment, and retrofit of buildings with variable structural design software and standards. His Ph.D. research improves the accuracy and enhances the reliability of the current assessment standard [(ASCE 41-17), (ACI 369.1-17)] by adjusting the acceptance criteria, which results in cost-efficient performance-based design and retrofit of buildings. He won several awards, such as an international award for predicting the most accurate seismic evaluation of the RC column behavior [Blind Prediction Contest by PEER at UC Berkeley, 2021]. He is a member of ACI 369 and 374 committees, ASCE, EERI, and Regional Earthquake Committee at SimCenter and a speaker of ACI convention sessions.
Scott Farley
Willow Labs, CEO & Chief Scientist
Scott is co-founder and CEO of Willow Labs, a wildfire risk analytics firm. With a background in physical geography, GIS, and software engineering, Scott's work focuses on bringing together geospatial analysis, big data, and quantitative modeling to guide effective decision making in the wildland urban interface.
Seth Portner
ALL RISK SHIELD INC., Chief of Strategic Planning & Government Affairs/Principal
Seth Portner has worked in residential structure retrofitting for nearly 30 years. An architect of Boulder County's Wildfire Partners Program, he is the Chief Partnership Officer and partner at California's All Risk Shield.
Sina Tate
CALFIRE,
Sina Tate is a grants analyst with the CAL FIRE Wildfire Prevention (WP) Grants Program. Sina and her fellow team members work on the administrative processes and procedures related to the coordinating the grant solicitation and awards process, reporting, and monitoring funding appropriations along with managing the administration of ongoing, multi-year grant projects.
Steve Hawks
CAL FIRE - Office of the State Fire Marshal, Staff Chief
Chief Hawks has served since 1989 with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE). He promoted through the ranks from firefighter to Assistant Deputy Director of the CAL FIRE – Office of the State Fire Marshal’s Community Wildfire Preparedness and Mitigation and Fire Engineering and Investigations Divisions. Although he retired in December 2022, he has since returned to the CAL FIRE – Office of the State Fire Marshal’s Community Wildfire Preparedness and Mitigation Division. Chief Hawks has been involved with several teaching cadres, served for 13 years on different CAL FIRE Incident Management Teams, and holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Forest Resource Management with a minor in Business Administration from Humboldt State University.
Steve Quarles
University of California Cooperative Extension, UCCE Advisor Emeritus / Firewise Community Leader
Stephen Quarles is a University of California Cooperative Extension Advisor Emeritus. After 26 years with the University of California, Quarles retired in 2011, and joined the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) Research Center team in Richburg, SC. Quarles retired from IBHS in 2018 as the Chief Scientist for Wildfire and Durability. At both the University of California and IBHS Quarles’ research and outreach efforts focused on durability and in-service performance issues of buildings subjected to wildfire exposures. Quarles served on the initial WUI Task Group that made recommendations to the Office of the State Fire Marshal for Chapter 7A and has served on subsequent task groups.
Steven Judd
Mr. Judd graduated from the University of Colorado - Boulder, with a BSCE. Mr. Judd is the Technical Director for Interstate Brick in West Jordan, UT, and HC Muddox in Sacramento, CA, premier brick manufacturers, which are part of the Pacific Coast Building Products - Clay Group. Steven is a licensed Structural Engineer in Utah, and a licensed Civil and Structural Engineer in California. He participates on committees with American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), The Masonry Society (TMS), Western States Clay Products Association (WSCPA) -Technical Chairperson, National Storm Shelter Association (NSSA) – Design Practices Committee, Masonry Institute of Michigan – Generic Wall Design Committee, and audits activities of the Masonry Alliance for Codes and Standards (MACS), and Western States Structural Masonry Coalition (WS2MC). Steven has written several articles published in Masonry magazine and Structure magazine, and has been involved with structural clay masonry design for over 30 years.
Todd Lando
Central Martin Fire Department, Battalion Chief
Valerie Brown
United Policyholders, Deputy Executive Director
Ms. Brown works with United Policyholders' Executive Director Amy Bach and Preparedness Specialist Joel Laucher on the Wildfire Risk Reduction and Asset Protection (WRAP) program, to help homeowners better protect and insure their homes from future disasters. Ms. Brown is a Duke University graduate who has spent the last 15 years working in the post-wildfire/disaster space.
William Siembieda
Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, Research Professor
William Siembieda, is Professor Emeritus of City and Regional Planning at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and Principal Faculty Researcher at the Cal Poly Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) Fire Institute.
Dr. Siembieda holds a Ph.D. in Urban Planning from the University of California, Los Angeles and an Economics B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to being at Cal Poly he held academic appointments at the University of New Mexico, the University of California-San Diego, and Kyoto University, Japan.
He has been a subject matter expert to the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Chilean National Center for Integrated Natural Hazard Management, and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency. In California he co-directed the State of California Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan (2007-2018) that integrates an enormous range of state agency efforts under a common vision/ He served as advisor to the County of Santa Barbara, CA Core Team for its Climate Changes Vulnerability Assessment. His reputation for understanding the dynamics of disaster and recovery systems has been recognized by being asked to lead the planning and policy group in the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute’s (EERI) Field Team to Chile in 2010, the Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance (GEER) team in New Zealand in 2014.
He developed the asset-access-time model, an alternate to the standard SWOT method, and then the ASCI (Abandon, Support, Control and Integrate) framework for assessing how to make land use development decisions in high-hazard risk areas. His work appears in a range of peer reviewed journals including: The Journal of Disaster Research, the Journal of the American Planning Association, the International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, Encyclopedia of Wildfire and WUI Fires, and the International Journal of Disaster Risk Science Research, Journal of Integrated Risk Management, the U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report, and Earthquake Spectra. In 2019, he was awarded the International Society for Integrated Disaster Risk Management (IDRiM) Norio Okada Distinguished Implementation Science Award.
Yana Valachovic
University of California Cooperative Extension, Forest Advisor- County Director
Yana Valachovic is a California registered professional forester and forest scientist whose skills and interests cover a broad set of natural resource fields. Over the last decade, much of her work has pivoted from forestry to wildfire mitigation, given California's challenges. She has published papers on fire behavior in coastal California forests and the intersection of fire performance in home and landscape design. In her role, she is active in California policy development and has been a technical resource for bioenergy, forest management, home hardening, and improvements to defensible space legislation. Yana works at many scales and is a leader in developing and delivering local and state strategies to improve wildfire resilience