Below are the first 10 and last 10 pages of uncorrected machine-read text (when available) of this chapter, followed by the top 30 algorithmically extracted key phrases from the chapter as a whole.
Intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text on the opening pages of each chapter.
Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
Do not use for reproduction, copying, pasting, or reading; exclusively for search engines.
OCR for page 97
Appendix C
Biographies of Workshop Participants
Charles E. Allen III
Charles Allen is the director the Mayor’s Office of Environmental Affairs of the
City of New Orleans. He has also served as president of the Holy Cross Neigh-
borhood Association (HCNA). Founded in 1981, the Holy Cross Neighborhood
Association is a neighborhood organization in the Lower Ninth Ward of New
Orleans, whose mission is to improve the living conditions and serve the needs of
its residents, preserve cultural and architectural heritage, serve as a clearinghouse
for information, and actively represent the interests of the neighborhood with city,
state, and federal agencies; private businesses; community organizations; and
individuals for the purpose of improving the community. As HCNA president,
Mr. Allen helped to spearhead multiple restoration and recovery efforts in the
Holy Cross–Lower Ninth Ward community. Mr. Allen has been an active REACH
NOLA partner since its inception in April 2006, and co-leads the Sustainability
Workshop project and sits on the Health and Resilience project council.
Knox Andress, R.N.
Knox Andress is a practicing emergency department nurse and the weapons of
mass destruction (WMD) response coordinator at Christus Schumpert Health
System, Shreveport, Louisiana. He leads hospital disaster planning and chairs
his hospital’s disaster safety team. Mr. Andress also serves on the Shreveport
Metropolitan Medical Response System’s (MMRS) Hospital Committee and is
the Region 7 hospital coordinator of the Health Resources and Services Admin -
istration (HRSA)—Louisiana Bioterrorism Hospital Emergency Preparedness
Program. He is the chair-elect of the Emergency Nurses Association’s Emergency
Preparedness Committee and instructs WMD medical management throughout
97
OCR for page 98
98 APPENDIX C
Louisiana with the Louisiana Homeland Defense Education Team. Mr. Knox is a
Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Domestic Preparedness, WMD instructor
and serves as a consultant to DOJ and SAIC (Science Applications International
Corporation).
Justin Augustine
Justin Augustine is the chief executive officer of the New Orleans Regional
Transit Authority (RTA) as well as a vice president of Veolia Transportation.
Mr. Augustine is a professional in management and finance with more than
28 years of experience in the fields of transportation management and finance
and accounting. The Veolia Transportation team is responsible for all aspects
of the public transportation system in New Orleans. The city of New Orleans
and the RTA Board of Commissioners has worked with Veolia Transportation
to be the first city in the United States to implement a “delegated management”
modeled contract under which Veolia Transportation assumed the numerous
responsibilities that are associated with running an urban public transit system.
As a transit executive, he has managed numerous multimodal transit agencies
including Capital Metro in Austin, Texas; the Africa Transportation Company in
Johannesburg, South Africa; and Regional Transit Authority and Transit Man -
agement of Southeastern Louisiana, Inc., in New Orleans, Louisiana; and many
transit agencies in California, including San Diego, Santa Clarita, San Francisco,
Oakland, Napa Valley, Sonoma County, Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, San Jose,
Redding, Chico, Victor Valley, Antelope Valley, and Yolo County. Mr. Augustine
received his undergraduate degree from Xavier University, where he studied
accounting.
John M. Barry
John Barry is a prize-winning and New York Times best-selling author whose
books have won more than 20 awards. In 2005 the National Academies named
The Great Influenza, a study of the 1918 pandemic, the year’s outstanding book
on science or medicine. In 2006 the National Academies also invited Mr. Barry
to give its annual Abel Wolman Distinguished Lecture; he is the only nonscientist
ever to give that lecture. In 1998, Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of
1927 and How It Changed America won the Francis Parkman Prize of the Soci-
ety of American Historians for the year’s best book of American history. After
Hurricane Katrina, the Louisiana congressional delegation asked Mr. Barry to
chair a bipartisan working group on flood control. In 2007 a Democratic gov -
ernor appointed him to both the Southeast Louisiana Flood Control Authority
East, which oversees levee districts in the metropolitan New Orleans area, and
the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, which develops and
implements the hurricane protection plan for the state. In 2009 a Republican
governor reappointed him to both positions. In addition to serving on advisory
boards at Johns Hopkins and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he is on
OCR for page 99
99
APPENDIX C
the boards of the Society of American Historians and American Heritage Rivers,
and the advisory board for the National Mississippi River Museum in Dubuque.
Before becoming a writer, Mr. Barry coached football at the high school, small
college, and major college levels. Currently distinguished scholar at the Center
for Bioenvironmental Research of Tulane and Xavier Universities, he lives in
New Orleans.
Steven Bingler
Steven Bingler received his architectural training at the University of Virginia,
where he was free to indulge his curiosity of democratic principles. In 1983 he
founded Concordia, a community-based planning and architecture firm, to pursue
systemic and collaborative design practices. Concord—which means harmony
among things and agreement between people—is the firm’s one-word mission
statement. Design projects include the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans,
where a cooperative partnership with seven sculptors explored visual art and
architectural design as a collaborative enterprise; and the Henry Ford Academy in
Dearborn, Michigan, where Concordia worked with teams of teachers, students,
and arts curators to integrate a learning environment for 400 inner-city high school
students into the 80-acre Henry Ford Museum complex. In 2006, Concordia
coordinated the development of the Unified New Orleans Plan, a comprehensive
strategy for the redevelopment of the city of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
The process incorporated the work of 12 urban planning firms, 54 community
planning district meetings and 3 citywide community congress events, with a
combined participation of more than 9,000 New Orleans citizens. Concordia was
also the principle education facilities planning consultant for the development
of the New Orleans School Facilities Master Plan, which features a melding of
school planning and urban design principles to form a nexus of walkable, equi -
table, and environmentally sustainable community programs, facilities, parks and
public spaces. Concordia’s research alliances have included the MIT Media Lab,
Harvard University’s Project Zero, the University of New Mexico, the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Thornburg Institute, the Appalachian
Education Lab, and the West Ed Research Lab. In addition, Mr. Bingler has served
as a special consultant to the Office of the Secretary of the U.S. Department of
Education for policy related to the design of schools as centers of community. His
papers have been published in a wide range of books and journals in the fields of
urban planning, architectural design, education, public health, and smart growth.
Paul Byers, M.D.
Paul Byers received his B.S. in biology from Millsaps College. He earned his
medical degree from the University of Mississippi, with training in internal medi-
cine in 1992. Dr. Byers has been employed with the Mississippi State Department
of Health since 1993 in the position of medical director for the Copiah County
OCR for page 100
100 APPENDIX C
and Hinds County Health Departments. He is currently the deputy state epide -
miologist for the Office of Communicable Diseases, Division of Epidemiology.
Mike Chaney
Mike Chaney is Mississippi’s commissioner of insurance. Before his election in
2007, Commissioner Chaney served 7 years in the Mississippi House of Repre -
sentatives and 8 years in the Mississippi Senate. Since taking office in January
2008, Commissioner Chaney has opened a Mississippi Insurance Department
office on the Gulf Coast. He has also spearheaded a wind mitigation program
for the Mississippi Gulf Coast region to strengthen homes against hurricane-
force winds and help homeowners realize discounts on their wind insurance
premiums. In addition to the mitigation program, he has overseen the addition
of 49 property and casualty companies in the state, with 30 being multiline and
19 single-line companies, and he has overseen the addition of 18 surplus lines
companies. Commissioner Chaney has worked to streamline and modernize the
licensing procedures used in the department; strengthen and stabilize the state’s
Windpool, the insurer of last resort for some homeowners; lengthen the amount of
time the department has in responding to rate filings; worked to secure insurance
for volunteer firefighters; and sought legislation to protect victims of domestic
violence from discrimination by health insurance companies. He has also directed
a market conduct study on a major insurer in the state and studied and reduced
several major rate filings by companies. Commissioner Chaney has received
many awards for his legislative work in education, economic development, and
catastrophe recovery, and has served on many community development entities,
including as president of the Vicksburg–Warren County Chamber of Commerce
and president of the Vicksburg–Warren County Economic Development Com-
mittee. He is also a Rotarian and Paul Harris fellow. He is a past president of the
Republican Elected Officials of Mississippi and serves on the state Republican
Executive Committee. He is a 1966 graduate of Mississippi State University with
a B.S. in business and finance and is a veteran of the U.S. Army, having served
in Vietnam in 1968–1969.
Craig E. Colten
Craig Colten is the Carl O. Sauer Professor of Geography at Louisiana State
University. A native of north Louisiana, his recent research has focused on New
Orleans. His award-winning An Unnatural Metropolis: Wresting New Orleans
from Nature (2005) appeared months before Hurricane Katrina and provided
essential geographic insight on the circumstances that contributed to the calam -
ity unleashed by the storm. A subsequent book, Perilous Place, Powerful Storms
(2009), portrayed the protracted construction of a hurricane protection system in
southeast Louisiana. Currently he is a research associate with the Community and
Regional Resilience Institute at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and a member
of the U.S. Department of Interior’s Strategic Science Working Group, which
OCR for page 101
101
APPENDIX C
was established in response to the Deepwater Horizon oil release in the Gulf of
Mexico. He also serves as the editor of the Geographical Review.
Joseph Donchess
Joseph Donchess is the executive director of the Louisiana Nursing Home Associ-
ation. Before joining the association in 1986, Mr. Donchess worked as an attorney
for the Louisiana Department of Health and Human Resources. Mr. Donchess is
a member of several organizations, including the Louisiana State Bar Associa -
tion, Louisiana Emergency Preparedness Association, Alzheimer’s Association
of Louisiana and Louisiana Patients’ Compensation Fund Oversight Board. He
served on the Louisiana Health Care Collaborative, a commission assigned to
redesign health care in Louisiana after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. He received
his undergraduate degree from Chaminade University of Honolulu and his juris
doctorate from Southern Law School.
Alice Graham
Alice Graham is the executive director of the Mississippi Coast Interfaith Disaster
Task Force (MCIDTF). MCIDTF was formed in 1980 as a Long-term Recovery
Committee to respond to the needs of Mississippi Gulf Coast citizens following
Hurricane Frederick. The task force also provided services to the community after
Elena in 1986, and Georges in 1998. MCIDTF is working with its partners to
address the short- and long-term impacts of the Gulf oils spill disaster on coastal
residences. As a member of South Mississippi Voluntary Organizations Active in
Disaster (VOAD), it played a key role in the summit’s organization and coordina-
tion. MCIDTF is working with local partners to determine necessary resources
for assisting citizens affected by the oil spill disaster. Before taking this position,
Dr. Graham was a professor of pastoral care and counseling at Hood Theological
Seminary. She holds a Ph.D. from Northwestern University in pastoral psychol -
ogy and counseling.
Greg Grillo
Mr. Grillo is the director of transmission project management and construction
and incident commander for Entergy Corporation. Mr. Grillo previously served as
Entergy Arkansas’ director of dristribution operations, a job he held for 5 years.
During his career at Entergy, Mr. Grillo has held positions in engineering, distri -
bution planning, system meter reading, revenue protection, and load research. He
has worked both for electric and gas operations for three of the five utility com -
panies. He also worked for Entergy’s London Electricity company for 2 years.
He is an alumnus of the University of New Orleans.
John M. Hosey
John Hosey received his M.Div. from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary,
Wake Forest. He is currently serving as the disaster mental health project man -
OCR for page 102
102 APPENDIX C
ager and disaster response coordinator for the Mississippi Coast Interfaith
Disaster Task Force in Biloxi, Mississippi. He serves as a board member for
the South Mississippi Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (SMVOAD)
and as the committee chair for the Emotional and Spiritual Care Committee
for the MSVOAD. He has co-published several articles related to faith-based
and collaborative partnership recovery efforts following hurricane Katrina. His
work includes an effort with Dr. Jamie Aten (Wheaton College) and Dr. Sharon
Topping (University of Southern Mississippi) to develop collaborative part-
nerships between faith-based organizations and mental health professionals to
address disaster preparedness plans for congregations and addressing the unmet
psychosocial needs following disasters like Hurricanes Katrina and Gustav and
more recently the Deep Water Horizon oil spill. This effort has been funded by the
American Red Cross, Foundation for the Mid-South, and the United Jewish Com-
munities. More recently, the Mississippi Department of Mental Health awarded
his organization a grant to manage a five-partner mental health collaborative
to conduct a comprehensive assessment and provide a culturally appropriate
intervention program to address the psychosocial impacts of the Gulf oil spill on
residents of the Mississippi Gulf Coast region. Mr. Hosey is also currently serv -
ing as lead facilitator and chair for the Mississippi Coast Primary/Mental Health
Collaborative and as the chair for the sixth annual Mississippi Coast Mental
Health and Community Wellness Conference. As a part of its work in Katrina
recovery, his organization was recognized in 2009 as a merit finalist for the 2008
Community Partnership Award.
Natalie Jayroe
Natalie Jayroe is the president and chief executive officer of Second Harvest
Food Bank of New Orleans and Acadiana. Following hurricanes Katrina and
Rita she was the Feeding America representative at the Joint Field Office in
Baton Rouge. The mission of Second Harvest is to lead the fight against hunger
in south Louisiana through food distribution, advocacy, education, and disaster
response. Second Harvest currently distributes more than 19 million pounds of
food annually through more than 240 faith-based and nonprofit agency members
in 23 parishes of south Louisiana. Through the Lagniappe Backpack Program,
1,100 children at 14 schools receive backpacks of kid-friendly nutritious food
every Friday of the school year. In 2010 Second Harvest piloted a summer
feeding program. Senior Box, 9-A-Day the Head Start Way, and Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) outreach are other programs that Second
Harvest has added under Ms. Jayroe’s leadership to help achieve its mission.
Second Harvest continues to be a strong partner of local, state and federal agen -
cies in disaster response, providing emergency food relief after hurricanes Gustav
and Ike and currently working to support families affected by the Gulf oil spill.
Second Harvest has also worked with five Louisiana universities to conduct a
“farm-to-fork” food system analysis of post-Katrina and Rita south Louisiana. In
OCR for page 103
103
APPENDIX C
her 17-year career in food banking, Ms. Jayroe has since held several positions
of leadership within the Feeding America network. She was a founding member
of the National Council of America’s Second Harvest, served on the 2004 Con -
tract Task Force, and chaired the eastern region of Feeding America from 2000 to
2002. She served on many national state and local boards and committees while
in Georgia, including the Governor’s Workforce Investment Board of Georgia, the
Board of Parent and Child, and as chair of the United Way Executive’s Associa -
tion. Currently, Ms. Jayroe is a founding member of the Louisiana Food Bank
Association and the Food Policy Advisory Committee of New Orleans’ City
Council. She is a member of Louisiana’s Sustainable Food Policy Council. She
was named one of City Business’s Women of the Year in 2007, and in 2008 she
was honored with MAZON’s Irving Cramer award, given to individual leaders
and groups who emphasize passion, wisdom, and dedication in their mission to
end hunger across America.
Pam Jenkins
Pam Jenkins is a professor at Louisiana State University. Dr. Jenkins teaches
primarily in two areas, criminology and women’s studies. She has taught classes
on criminology, sociology of law, women and crime, and sociology of correc -
tions. Her most recent course offerings include an applied sociology course and
a women’s studies service learning course. She is also a member of the faculty
in the Women’s Studies Program at the University of New Orleans (UNO). Her
research is on a variety of topics that concern how communities sustain them-
selves, solve problems, and resolve conflicts. She is also a founding and associate
member of UNO’s Center for Hazard Assessment, Response and Technology. She
has published on a variety of community issues, including several manuscripts
outlining community responses to domestic violence, and more recently, several
articles focusing on Louisiana coastal communities’ response to coastal erosion.
Post-Katrina, she has been documenting the response to Katrina as part of a
national research team on Hurricane Katrina evacuees. She has published on first
responders, faith-based communities, response to the storm, and the experiences
of the elderly during and after Katrina.
John R. Kelly
John Kelly serves as a vital link between the Mayor’s Office, City Council,
department directors and other entities to facilitate outcomes consistent with
the overall vision and mission of the city of Gulfport, Mississippi. The chief
administrative officer (CAO) oversees the city’s more than 20 departments and
is responsible for oversight and management of city operations, ensuring effi -
ciency, accountability and productivity in the city’s commitment to deliver qual-
ity services through the daily operations of municipal government. Dr. Kelly is
a 1970 graduate of Alcorn State University. He also earned a master’s degree
from Wayne State University in Detroit and a doctorate from the University of
OCR for page 104
104 APPENDIX C
Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg. Before becoming Gulfport’s CAO, he served
as the city’s municipal court administrator for a short period. In addition, he has
also served as president of the Board of Gulfport Job Corps Center. From 2000
to 2004 he served as chairman of the Board of Trustees for Gulf Coast Medical
Center. Dr. Kelly served 4 years as a national officer (regional vice president)
of his fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha. He is currently servicing as sire archon of his
local Boule’ of Sigma Pi Phi. Last year he was named a trustee for Leadership
Gulf Coast. He is a member of Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church, where
he serves as chairman of the Board of Deacons and the church’s Rebuilding Com -
mittee. The church, which was virtually destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, recently
moved into its new $3 million facility.
Rupert Lacy
Rupert Lacy was appointed director of the Emergency Management/Homeland
Security/E911 Agencies for Harrison County in August 2006. Before serving in
this position, he was captain of Harrison County Sheriff’s Department for 6 years.
Mary Claire Landry
Mary Claire Landry is the director for Domestic Violence Programs at the Catholic
Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans. Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New
Orleans is an umbrella agency of health and community services throughout the
archdiocese. On July 13, 1938, the agency was formally incorporated under
the name of Associated Catholic Charities of New Orleans, Inc. On August 8,
1996 the name of Associated Catholic Charities of New Orleans, Inc., was legally
changed to Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans.
Tom Lansford
Tom Lansford is associate dean of the College of Arts and Letters and professor
of political science at the University of Southern Mississippi. His research areas
and public speaking topics include transatlantic relations, homeland security,
American foreign and security policy, arms trade and disarmament, and environ-
mental politics and coastal development. He is also the editor of multiple books
including Judging Bush; America in World History; Ethics and Global Politics;
and U.S. Foreign Policy and Conflict in the Islamic World. He received his B.A.
from Virginia Wesleyan College and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Old Dominion
University.
Douglas Meffert
Doug Meffert is the Eugenie Schwartz Professor of River and Coastal Studies
and deputy director for policy at the Tulane/Xavier Center for Bioenvironmental
Research (CBR), where he also serves as CBR’s chief financial officer. He is also
director of Tulane’s RiverSphere, a new initiative fostering green jobs in renew-
able energy through testing and development of hydrokinetic energy systems in
OCR for page 105
105
APPENDIX C
the Mississippi River. Dr. Meffert has faculty appointments in Tulane’s School of
Public Health’s Environmental Health Sciences Department and the Tulane Law
School’s Payson Center for International Development. He is also co-principal of
Meffert + Etheridge Environmental Projects, LLC. Recent awards include a 2007
joint Loeb Fellowship at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design and the Lincoln
Institute of Land Policy in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he currently serves
as a faculty associate and, in 2009, an award of excellence from the American
Society of Landscape Architects. Dr. Meffert has more than 15 years of research,
policy development, and practice related to urban sustainability and coastal
restoration and protection. He currently serves as the New Orleans coordinator
for the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization’s Urban
Biosphere Program, which is dedicated to intellectual exchange and research to
promote resilience and sustainability of urban ecosystems worldwide. Dr. Meffert
received his undergraduate engineering and a master’s in business degrees at
Tulane University and doctorate of environmental science and engineering from
the University of California, Los Angeles.
Reilly Morse
Reilly Morse is a senior attorney at Mississippi Center for Justice. Mr. Morse is a
third-generation Gulfport lawyer with more than 20 years experience in civil and
criminal law. He has specialized in land use, zoning, and environmental justice
issues with pro bono and paying clients that include the low-income, minority,
and substantially elderly communities of North Gulfport and Turkey Creek, the
Mississippi Sierra Club, Concerned Citizens to Protect Isles and Point, and Citi -
zens Association for Responsible Development. Mr. Morse is a former assistant
municipal judge and assistant municipal prosecutor of the city of Gulfport. He is
also a member of the Affordable Housing Committee of the Governor’s Recovery
Commission and the Harrison County Recovery Committee. A graduate of the
University of Mississippi School of Law and Millsaps College, Mr. Morse held
a judicial clerkship with Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Michael Sullivan
(1984–1985); he is licensed to practice law in the state and federal courts of
Mississippi.
Stephen Murphy
A native of south Georgia and graduate of the University of Georgia, Stephen
Murphy moved to New Orleans only 10 weeks before Hurricane Katrina to
continue graduate school studies in public health at Tulane School of Public
Health and Tropical Medicine after earning an M.B.A. in health care manage -
ment at Mercer University in Georgia. Katrina immediately forced Mr. Murphy
to relocate to Baltimore, Maryland, where he matriculated with Johns Hopkins
University and began his master’s pursuit of infectious disease epidemiology.
Mr. Murphy returned to Tulane to continue his studies in the field of environ -
mental health sciences and disaster management, where he received his master’s
OCR for page 106
106 APPENDIX C
of public health (MPH), and is currently focused on a Ph.D. Upon finishing the
M.P.H., Mr. Murphy joined the New Orleans Office of Homeland Security and
Emergency Preparedness, where he serves as the planning section chief (or direc-
tor of planning). Mr. Murphy’s previous roles have included serving as deputy
planning section chief and medical and public health planning lead. His respon -
sibilities include (among others) pandemic influenza planning for the city, mass
prophylaxis/medical countermeasure planning for infectious disease outbreaks
or bioterrorism, mass casualty and mass fatality planning, and graduate school
intern coordinator.
Earthea Nance
Dr. Earthea Nance is an assistant professor of environmental planning and hazard
mitigation at the University of New Orleans, and a fellow in the National Science
Foundation’s Next Generation of Hazards and Disaster Researchers Program. She
recently served as the director of disaster mitigation planning and the director
of infrastructure and environmental planning for the city of New Orleans in its
recovery from Hurricane Katrina, and she previously held faculty positions at
Virginia Tech and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Nance holds a
B.S in civil engineering (1985) and an M.S. in environmental engineering (1991)
from the University of California at Davis, and a Ph.D. from the department of
civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University (2004). Dr. Nance’s
research addresses the intersection of environmental and urban development
problems in vulnerable socioeconomic settings and postdisaster areas. She has
studied the role of community participation in expanding basic urban services to
chronically underserved neighborhoods. Her research has generated methods for
critically evaluating infrastructure performance using multiple perspectives, and
has produced strategies for sustainable urban development and environmental
justice in areas of severe environmental hazard. Dr. Nance is currently research -
ing the impacts of climate change on urban development and the effects of envi -
ronmental trauma on urban social and ecological systems.
Kimberly J. Natasi
Kimberly Nastasi is the chief executive officer of the Mississippi Gulf Coast
Chamber of Commerce. Born in Utah, Ms. Nastasi earned a speech communica -
tions degree from the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) in 1999, fol-
lowed by a summer studying at the Universidad de Cemanahuac in Cuernavaca,
Mexico. In 2000 she earned a master’s degree in communications from USM and
soon began teaching public speaking at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community Col -
lege. Her first postcollege role was handling public relations for the Mississippi
Sea Wolves professional hockey team in Biloxi. She then joined the Biloxi
Chamber of Commerce, where she left as executive director after 5 years to take
over the interim post at the Mississippi Gulf Coast Chamber of Commerce, which
serves nearly 1,000 members. Ms. Nastasi graduated from the Leadership Gulf
OCR for page 107
107
APPENDIX C
Coast Class of 2003 and the Leadership Mississippi Class of 2004. Also in 2004,
she traveled with three others from Louisiana to Brazil for 5 weeks, represent -
ing Mississippi and the Mississippi Rotary district club. Soon after, Lighthouse
Business and Professional Women named her an Outstanding Career Woman,
and the Sun Herald named her one of the area’s Top 10 Under 40. She was also
selected as one of the 50 Leading Business Women in 2007 by the Mississippi
Business Journal.
Eric M. Nelson
Eric Nelson is Vice President of Risk Management for the Travelers companies.
Travelers is one of the leading providers of property insurance in the United
States; with the number 2 market share in commercial property and number
5 market share in homeowners. Mr. Nelson coordinates product, pricing, and
underwriting strategy related to natural catastrophes. Since 2008, he has led the
Travelers’ efforts to develop a public policy solution to the crisis in coastal home-
owners’ marketplace. Mr. Nelson holds a finance degree from Bryant University.
Ann Olsen
Ann Olsen is a senior mediator at the Meridian Institute. She has extensive
background supporting collaboration among diverse parties and identifying
issues, opportunities, and solutions. Ms. Olsen currently facilitates the Gulfport,
Mississippi, community partnership for the Community and Regional Resilience
Initiative (CARRI) directed by the National Security Directorate (NSD) at Oak
Ridge National Laboratory (www.resilientUS.org). She has also facilitated work-
ing sessions of the NSD Strategic Advisory Group. For CARRI, Ms. Olsen also
contributes to the development of the larger CARRI program, provides day-to-
day contract management leadership for Meridian’s engagement, and has assisted
in facilitating community workshop sessions for the CARRI Charleston, South
Carolina, partner community. Ms. Olsen is a Ph.D. candidate and Bridgestone
fellow in environmental management at Vanderbilt University. Her dissertation
research examines cross-state diffusion patterns for the U.S. Green Building
Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Rating
System s™. She earned her masters in management and M.A. in economics at
Vanderbilt and her B.A. in economics and mathematics at Rice University.
Allison Plyer
Allison Plyer is co-deputy director of the Greater New Orleans Community Data
Center. She works collaboratively with the Brookings Institution to analyze the
state of the New Orleans recovery through the regular publication of the New
Orleans Index and with the Urban Institute to analyze the state of the New Orleans
housing market. Dr. Plyer is recognized as an expert in post-Katrina demographics
and New Orleans recovery trends. Her other areas of expertise include market
research and analysis. She spearheaded the city of New Orleans’ challenge to the
OCR for page 108
108 APPENDIX C
Census Bureau’s 2007 population estimate, resulting in a nearly 50,000-person
adjustment to the bureau’s estimate of the city’s population. She frequently pro -
vides commentary on recovery issues to local and national media such as WDSU
television, WWL radio, the New Orleans Times-Picayune, National Public Radio,
the Associated Press and the New York Times. Dr. Plyer joined Knowledge Works
with 12 years experience developing the management capacity of nonprofit and
microenterprise organizations in New Orleans, the San Francisco Bay Area, and
Guatemala. Additionally, she has almost a decade of experience in the for-profit
sector as a marketing consultant to large and small companies including AT&T,
Barnes and Noble, Lexus, and Inc. magazine. She received her doctorate in sci-
ence from Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine
with a dissertation entitled “An Analysis of Administrative Data for Measuring
Population Displacement and Resettlement Following a Catastrophic U.S. Event.”
She has an M.B.A. in marketing and organizational behavior from the Kellogg
Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and a B.A. in reli-
gious studies and Spanish from Vanderbilt University.
Julie Rochman
Julie Rochman is president and chief executive officer at the Institute for Busi -
ness and Home Safety (IBHS). She has more than 20 years of public affairs and
advocacy experience representing major corporations, research and safety orga -
nizations, and issue-based coalitions. She is regularly consulted and quoted by
national print, broadcast, and electronic media on a wide variety of topics. IBHS
is an independent, nonprofit, applied research and communication organization
supported by the property insurance industry. IBHS conducts field and labora -
tory research to identify and advance improved construction, maintenance and
preparation practices. Before joining IBHS, Ms. Rochman was senior vice presi -
dent of public affairs for the Glover Park Group, senior vice president of public
affairs for the American Insurance Association (AIA), and vice president of
communications for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), where she
successfully managed media relations for the IIHS and the Highway Loss Data
Institute (HLDI). Upon leaving the IIHS, Ms. Rochman served on the IIHS and
HLDI boards of directors for several years. Before joining IIHS, Ms. Rochman
managed federal communications for the Alliance of American Insurers, worked
for the Insurance Information Institute, for a public health organization dedicated
to preventing drunk driving, at an advertising agency, and for a global insurance
brokerage. A native of Omaha, Nebraska, Ms. Rochman earned a bachelor’s
degree in international relations from Tulane University and a master’s degree in
American government from the University of Virginia.
Marcia A. St. Martin
Marcia St. Martin is executive director of the Sewerage and Water Board (S&WB)
of New Orleans. She serves as the board’s first female and first African American
OCR for page 109
109
APPENDIX C
executive director. She has offered innovative approaches to logistical devel-
opment, problem solving, human resource management, operating and capital
budget administration and project planning. Ms. St. Martin previously served as
deputy director of the S&WB for almost 12 years, director of the Department
of Safety and Permits, and parking administrator for the city’s Department of
Streets. Ms. St. Martin serves on the board of Water for People—USA and Water
for People—Canada, an international humanitarian organization that helps com -
munities throughout the world that lack access to drinking water, sanitation, and
hygiene education. She is a member of numerous water agencies and associations
and is an active alumna of St. Mary’s Academy in New Orleans.
Ommeed Sathe
Ommeed Sathe has served as director of real estate development for the New
Orleans Redevelopment Authority (NORA) since June 2007. NORA is a quasi-
public entity, whose mission includes the alleviation of blight, the redevelop -
ment of residential and commercial properties (including nearly 5,000 properties
acquired by the state of Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina), and the imple -
mentation of crucial public projects. At NORA, Mr. Sathe manages all of the
agency’s acquisition, redevelopment, and disposition programs and raises capital
to support development ventures. In addition, he has led the agency’s effort to
examine distortions in the homeowner’s insurance market. He commissioned
groundbreaking research that demonstrates that current insurance rates are four
to five times higher than actuarial levels would suggest. He is currently leading
NORA’s attempts to devise mechanisms to address this discrepancy—including
catastrophe bonds, reciprocal insurance vehicles, regulatory reform, and govern -
ment guarantees—and has been recognized by the International Risk Linked
Securities industry for his work in this field. Before joining NORA, Mr. Sathe
was a real estate associate at the law firm of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver and
Jacobson LLP in New York. While at the law firm, he was involved in Columbia
University’s expansion and worked on the merger of two of the largest commer-
cial property owners in the country. He received his law degree from Harvard Law
School and a master’s degree in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology. He received his undergraduate degree from Columbia University,
where he studied neuroscience and urban planning.
Tracie Sempier
Tracie Sempier is the Coastal Storms Program outreach coordinator for the
Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium. She is working to design a coastal
storms outreach and education program that will introduce people to storms tools,
information, and partnerships. In this capacity she works with local communities,
state and federal agencies, nonprofit organizations, port authorities, emergency
and floodplain managers, residents, and other audiences to try to decrease the
negative impacts of coastal storms on families, communities, the environment,
OCR for page 110
110 APPENDIX C
natural resources, and property. Dr. Sempier has more than 15 years of profes -
sional experience in education and outreach with various audiences in formal and
informal learning environments. She completed her Ph.D. at Mississippi State
University in curriculum and instruction, has a M.S. in science and mathematics
education from Oregon State University, and holds a B.S. in marine science and
biology from the University of Alabama.
William F. Stallworth
Bill Stallworth is the executive director of East Biloxi Coordination and Relief
Center and a councilman on the Biloxi City Council. A former Biloxi High
School teacher, Mr. Stallworth has served the city of Biloxi in various capaci -
ties since 1976, most recently as the councilman for Ward II, a position he also
previously occupied for 12 years. Mr. Stallworth was also the city’s residential
and business relocation officer, the community development planner, community
development specialist, the personnel officer and voter registrar, and vice presi -
dent for economic development for the Biloxi Chamber of Commerce Board of
Directors. In addition to his public service, he is a businessman, founding BFS
Services, a construction and landscaping company, in 1985 and becoming a
partner of Computer and Technology Support Services in 1992. Compelled to
return to politics 12 years later, he was once again elected to the city council as
the only African American member shortly before Katrina struck, and has since
founded the East Biloxi Coordination, Relief, and Redevelopment Agency (later
named the Hope Community Development Agency) and dedicated himself to the
rebuilding of his community.
Lori R.West
Lori West is Gulf Coast region director for International Relief and Development
(IRD), which runs U.S. Gulf Coast Community Resource Centers in Mississippi
and Louisiana. IRD’s initial emergency services in 2005 prompted the creation of
IRD US and its Gulf Coast Community Resource Center (GCCRC) in Gulfport,
Mississippi. GCCRC now provides a comprehensive set of services to low- and
middle-income residents of the Gulf Coast. Ms. West is also vice chair of the
South Mississippi Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (SMVOAD).
