Jessica Rigler

Jessica Rigler, Interim Assistant Director, Public Health Preparedness at the Arizona Department of Health Services, began her public health career nearly 15 years ago. In that time, she has served in a variety of roles at the federal, state, and local level, primarily in support of public health emergency preparedness and infectious disease prevention and control. In 2008, she started at ADHS, supporting evaluation activities with the state immunization program, serving as the state’s first Healthcare Associated Infections Coordinator, and overseeing infectious disease surveillance and response activities. For the last 2 years, Jessica has served as the Branch Chief of Public Health Preparedness, which includes the areas of infectious disease, immunization, environmental health, and public health emergency preparedness. She has served in multiple command roles in the ADHS Health Emergency Operations Center including service as the Incident Commander for the initial month of Arizona’s declaration of public health emergency due to the opioid crisis. Jessica has a Master of Public Health from Emory University, is a Certified Health Education Specialist, and is certified in infection prevention and control.

Adam Wojciehowski

Adam has an eclectic background in safety, security, emergency management, EMS and hazardous materials. For over 15 years he was a law enforcement officer. In addition, he has over 20 years as an active EMS clinician and 10 years as an Emergency Manager. He currently provides corporate guidance for Safety, Environment of Care, and Emergency Management for Sutter Health. Adam’s passion for emergency management includes experiences in international program development with supervisory responsibilities of multi-national professionals. With his energetic and humorous personality, his presentations are sure to have you asking for more!

Lori Upton, RN, BSN, MS, CEM

Lori is the Director of Regional Preparedness for SouthEast Texas Regional Advisory Council. She has her Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing, Master’s Degree in Emergency Management, and she is a Certified Emergency Manager. Ms. Upton has extensive clinical experience in emergency and trauma nursing, she authored several peer-reviewed articles on medical components of disaster response and planning, and she authored the Disaster Chapter of Emergency Nurses Pediatric Course (ENPC) 4th edition. She speaks nationally and internationally on coalition building, and developing and integrating medical disaster planning and response. Her expertise has been deployed on Federal and State incidents including, Hurricane Andrew-Florida, September 11-New York, and she served as Medical Operations Chief for Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav, Ike, and Harvey in Texas. Ms. Upton has served on local, state and national committees including, The Institute of Medicine, Governor’s Emergency and Trauma Advisory Council, Department of State Health Services Preparedness Coordinating Council, UASI Health and Medical Committee.

Irene Navis, AICP

Irene is the Managing Partner of Navis Strategic Services, LLC. Irene recently retired from Clark County after a 30-year career, and spent the past 5 years as the Assistant Emergency Manager. Irene’s consulting company focuses on emergency preparedness, including emergency response planning and grant writing. Irene’s expertise ranges from emergency management, nuclear waste management, grant writing and coordination, strategic planning, and meeting facilitation. Irene has been a Certified Planner since 1996, and spent the past 7 years as a council member on the Department of Homeland Security’s State, Local, Tribal, Territorial Government Coordinating Council, focused on critical infrastructure protection and cybersecurity.

Karen Donnahie

Karen is the Emergency Preparedness Coordinator at Desert Springs Hospital, a 293-bed, progressive acute-care facility and medical center, a 142-bed facility which is the newest hospital in the Valley Health System. Karen has been an Emergency Department nurse for 30 years and has been involved with Emergency Preparedness for 18 years. She has had opportunities to provide care in a multitude of settings, from a frontier clinic in Yellowstone National Park to Level 1 Trauma Centers, as well as prehospital services on the ground and in the air. Karen has served on county, regional and state-wide coalitions in an effort to increase collaboration among diverse healthcare partners. She is currently the Vice-Chair of the Southern Nevada Healthcare Preparedness Coalition. Karen earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Emergency Medical Services from the American College of Prehospital Medicine and her Master of Healthcare Administration from Independence University. In her free time, you can find Karen enjoying the desert trails from the back of her horse, with her dog running alongside.

Kelly Coleman

Kelly has been the Regional Disaster Medical Health Specialist (RDMHS) for California Region II since April 2013 and currently works as an EMS Coordinator at Alameda EMS Agency. Kelly got his start in EMS in 2001, and became a Paramedic in 2004, working full-time in Fresno and Contra Costa counties and promoting to Operations Supervisor and Ambulance Strike Team Leader in 2010. Since becoming Region II RDMHS, Kelly has helped to coordinate several large disasters, including the 2013 Asiana Airbus crash at SFO, the 2014 South Napa 6.0 Earthquake, the 2015 Valley Fire, and the 2017 North Bay Fires. Kelly completed his bachelor’s degree at California State University, Sacramento and his Associates of Science in Paramedics at American River College.

Nichole Splinter

Captain Splinter has been with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department since 2000. In 2016, she was promoted to Captain and placed in charge of the Internal Affairs Bureau. By the beginning of 2018, at the request of a County Commissioner, she took over as captain of the Northeast Area Command. In her longest assignment to date with Metro, as Operations Lieutenant for the Southern Nevada Counter Terrorism Center, she was involved in the operations during a standoff against the federal government in April 2014, as well as the counter terrorism investigation following the domestic terrorist ambush attack on June 8, 2014 which killed two Las Vegas Metro Police Officers. Captain Splinter is a graduate of Nevada State College (2006) where she received her Bachelors of Science degree in Public Administration – Law Enforcement. She has also begun work towards her Master’s degree in International Relations. In February 2015, Captain Splinter completed the Naval Postgraduate School, Center of Homeland Defense and Security, Fusion Center Leaders Program. Captain Splinter is also an Air Force Military Veteran.

Dr Rachel Jenner, MBChB (Hons) FRCEM FRCSEd

Dr Jenner is a Consultant in Emergency Medicine and Clinical Service Unit Lead for Paediatric Medicine at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital opened in 2009 and has 371 beds and is the largest children’s hospital in the UK. The Paediatric Emergency Department at RMCH sees approximately 50,000 children each year and is the regional Level 1 Paediatric Major Trauma Centre. She graduated from the University of Manchester in 1996 and then completed training in Emergency Medicine and subspecialty training in Paediatric Emergency Medicine predominantly in the North West of England with a year spent at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, Australia. She was appointed as a consultant at Booth Hall Children’s Hospital and Manchester Royal Infirmary in 2006 after completing a Fellowship in Paediatric Emergency Medicine at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. She co-ordinated the Paediatric Emergency Department response after the terrorist bomb attack.

Wendy Smith-Reeve

Wendy Smith-Reeve began her tenure as Director of the Arizona Division of Emergency Management in May 2013, assuming the duties of Deputy Director of the Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs (DEMA) in November 2013. As Director of Emergency Management, Smith-Reeve manages the state’s emergency preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation efforts. As Deputy Director for DEMA, she supports the agency Director/Adjutant General in ensuring agency alignment with the Governor’s vision and priorities. Smith-Reeve joined DEMA’s Division of Emergency Management in September 1996 as a finance specialist for the Public Assistance Program within the Recovery Section. She was progressively promoted through the section and became Assistant Director for the Recovery Section in 2009. During her tenure at DEMA, Smith-Reeve has supported and/or managed state response and recovery efforts for 100 state disaster declarations, and 12 presidential disaster declarations. In April 2015, the Emergency Management Accreditation Program reaccredited Arizona in affirmation that the state’s emergency management program meets industry-recognized national standards. Smith-Reeve is a current member and former president of the Arizona Emergency Services Association. She is a member of the National Emergency Management Association (NEMA) and serves as NEMA Past-President. Smith-Reeve also supports and serves on multiple committees, councils, and coordinating groups.

Denny Foulk, MS, CEM

Denny Foulk is from Gilbert, AZ. After leaving high school he served in the U.S. Army at Ft Bragg, NC; Germany; Aberdeen Proving Grounds, MD; U.S. Army Recruiting Command, and the 1st Armor Division, Bad Kreuznach, Germany where he served as a logistician, and was honorably retired June 1998.
Currently, he and his wife Barbie live in Chandler, Arizona, where he serves as the CEO of Emergency Management Resource, Inc. As an Emergency Manager, Denny has served in a variety of post which include most recently Yavapai County, University of Central Arkansas, and Pope County. Experienced, he has served during many Federal and State Declared disasters in a various capacities in both Arkansas and Arizona.
As an honors graduate of Arkansas Tech University, Denny has degrees in both Emergency Management and Homeland Security. Denny has worked in Emergency Management since 2003. He has served on the following Association National and State boards and commissions:

• AESA – President 2018-2019
• IAEM – Standards and Practices Committee
• IAEM – University and Colleges Committee
• Arkansas Representative-Mid America Earthquake Consortium
• AZ DoHS – Western Regional Advisory Council

Michael Clark

Michael is a retired chief officer from a Chicago suburban fire department. For the past 12 years he has served in multiple capacities in the public health arena in Arizona including emergency program manager for a large hospital system in Phoenix. Currently, he serves as section chief of Community and Healthcare Preparedness for the Arizona Department of Health Services.

Alan Vierling, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, FABC

Alan is the executive vice president/administrator for Harris Health System’s Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) Hospital. LBJ is the busiest Level III trauma center in Texas. The full-service acute care facility is a major medical teaching partner of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Alan’s career in healthcare spans more than 30 years. Yet, he has always had just one career goal: “go where I can make a difference.” Since 2014, he has been committed to making Harris Health and LBJ the model for community-owned safety net hospitals. Alan assumed the administrator position at LBJ in 2016 after filling it on an interim basis. A hands-on leader and mentor, Alan has increased LBJ patient satisfaction and employee engagement scores, and reduced nurse vacancy rates. In August of 2017, he successfully led LBJ through Hurricane Harvey crisis management and response by maintaining an open, full-service facility, deploying ride-out and recovery teams, and sheltering storm evacuees. Alan is an avid reader of leadership and history books. He has two grown daughters. His bucket list includes seeing Major League Baseball games in every ballpark, visiting every national park and hiking the highest peak of every state.