Month: July 2023

MDERS Welcomes Emergency Response Specialist, Olivia Napoli

The Maryland-National Capital Region Emergency Response System (MDERS) is excited to announce that Olivia Napoli has joined our team as an Emergency Response Specialist. In this role she will serve under the Operational Support Directorate, supporting training, exercise, and planning efforts in close coordination with MDERS’s stakeholders.

Olivia joins the MDERS team after serving as the Acting Logistics Branch Chief and Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Program Manager & Resource & Logistics Section Leader of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency. In these roles she had various roles including supervising all logistical operations of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, developing and maintaining the agency’s response plan and procedures, and leading response efforts to a volcano eruption. Before this, she worked at the Alaska Department of Revenue and the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. Olivia holds a Bachelor of Art in Business Administration from the University of Alaska Southeast.

The MDERS team is happy to welcome Olivia and use her expertise in emergency management to advance the development of our stakeholder’s capabilities.

MDERS Welcomes, Emergency Response Specialist, Elizabeth Adams

The Maryland-National Capital Region Emergency Response System (MDERS) is pleased to announce that Elizabeth Adams has joined our team as an Emergency Response Specialist. In this role she will serve under the Operational Support Directorate, supporting training, exercise, and planning efforts in close coordination with MDERS’s stakeholders.

Elizabeth joins the MDERS team after serving as an Emergency Management Specialist for the City of Bowie. Her work for Bowie included aiding in the creation and drafting of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) Position Task Books, 2022-2023 Integrated Preparedness Plan, and various Emergency Action Plans. Elizabeth also collaborated with local partners to create exercises and training initiatives to prepare for emergency situations.

Before this, Elizabeth was an Emergency Dispatcher and Emergency Call Taker for Prince George’s County. Elizabeth has a B.A. in Criminal Justice from The University of Nevada Reno and a M.S. in Emergency Management from The University of Maryland Global Campus.

The MDERS team is happy to welcome Elizabeth and use her expertise in emergency management to advance the development of our stakeholder’s capabilities.

MDERS Welcomes Emergency Response Specialist, Katie Weber

The Maryland-National Capital Region Emergency Response System (MDERS) is thrilled to announce that Katie Weber has joined our team as an Emergency Response Specialist. In this role she will serve under the Operational Support Directorate, supporting training, exercise, and planning efforts in close coordination with MDERS’s stakeholders.

Katie joins the MDERS team after serving as an Emergency Management Specialist for Anne Arundel County. In this position she led the redrafting of Anne Arundel County’s Evacuation Plan, facilitated Baltimore’s Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI) workgroup, and had an integral role in maintaining the readiness of Anne Arundel’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC). Before this role, Katie has held numerous positions in the emergency management field in private and public settings. Additionally, Katie serves as a volunteer Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) for the Bethesda Chevy Chase Rescue Squad. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Michigan and a Graduate Certificate in Homeland Security Emergency Preparedness and Response from the George Washington University.

The MDERS team is happy to welcome Katie and use her expertise in emergency management to advance the development of our stakeholder’s capabilities.

11Jul

2023 MDERS Symposium

The Maryland-National Capital Region Emergency Response System (MDERS) hosted its seventh annual symposium in early May. This forum brings industry leaders and distinguished speakers together to discuss topics related to homeland security threats. This year’s symposium theme was Reimagining Homeland Security: What Public Safety Leaders Need to Know to Navigate the Evolving Threat Landscape. The two-day virtual event allowed our regional partners to understand emerging and evolving threats that impact the National Capital Region.

The program started off with a panel discussion on public order and crowd control. Darrell Darnell moderated the conversation and was joined by Glendale Fire Chief Ryan Freeburg, Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management Homeland Security Program Manager Gary Spector, Yale University’s Associate Vice President for Public Safety and Community Engagement Ronnell Higgins, and Emergency Department Physician and the Institute of Emergency Management Director for the MedStar Washington Hospital Center Craig DeAtley. The panelists explored discipline-specific and multiagency coordination in planning for and responding to large-scale public order events. Symposium attendees posed various questions to the panelists to facilitate discourse about various public order topics. The breadth of this discussion supplied participants with lessons learned and best practices for response to large-scale planned and unplanned public order events.

Day two of the program featured a variety of homeland security topics that leaders should consider such as, critical infrastructure security and resiliency, cyber risk management, and the consequences of political violence on U.S. elections. The morning kicked off with a presentation by Jonathon Monken of Converge Strategies and Daniel Genua from the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on physical threats to critical infrastructure. The speakers explored current threats to power infrastructure and provided recommendations on how to mitigate and respond to potential threats when they arise.

The critical infrastructure presentation was followed by a panel discussion on cyber threats and consequence management. The panelists, Daniel Genua from CISA and David Paniwozik from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) discussed basic steps organizations can take to reduce their vulnerability to a cyber intrusion and limit the cascading effects of a cyberattack.

Closing out the program was a presentation on political extremism and its potential impact on election security. Seamus Hughes from George Washington University and Katie Reisner from States United Democracy Center discussed current trends and threats posed by terrorist groups and how some radicalization efforts can heighten political violence.

The Symposium was well received by those who tuned into this year’s program. The featured topics were carefully curated to provide the MDERS stakeholder community with information and tools that will aid them in their ability to respond to emerging and evolving threats. MDERS would like to sincerely thank all speakers for their participation, Howard University for broadcasting the event, and the MDERS staff who were involved in the planning and execution of this year’s program. MDERS’s next symposium will be held in the spring of 2024.