Missouri

Lake of the Ozarks

63445

Emergency Management Director

Kahoka/Clark County Office of Emergency Management

President, Missouri EM Association. Volunteer, Team Rubicon. Chief, Kahoka Volunteer Fire Department

Nationwide

Overcoming "this is how we've always done it" for Emergency Preparedness and Fire Response

Leveraging spontaneous volunteers in disaster response - Tracking, managing, and taking care of unaffiliated volunteers

Challenges of creating an Emergency Management Program - Lessons learned, best practices and challenges
Bringing Rural Counties Together for a Common Goal - creating a region wide storm spotter network and Incident Support Team

Teaching Preparedness Early - Emergency Preparedness and Fire Safety outreach to schools, Scouts and the general public's youth

Interagency Responses to Atypical Responses - Responding to vulnerable populations in low frequency, high impact responses
Leveraging Grant Requirements to Increase Interagency Response Skills - utilizing various funding mechanism to bring together multiple agencies and departments to enhance response capabilities.

Building an IMT/IST from the Ground up - Lessons Learned

Overcoming "this is how we've always done it" for Emergency Preparedness and Fire Response
Driving your volunteers to excellence - leveraging challenge, training and recognition to increase volunteer skills and motivation

Incident Command concerns when responding to large scale incidents with vulnerable populations. Specifically, low frequency, high impact response to long term care, psychiatric care and senior living centers.

Chris has been a firefighter and EMT for 28 years and has been in nursing for the past 19 years. He is medically retired from the Army and has spent his post-retirement years volunteering in the fire service and emergency management. No stranger to emergency planning while in the military, Chris' first journey into disaster response was following the Joplin Tornado. Since that time, Chris has deployed to the Moore Oklahoma Tornado and the South Sudan Refugee Crisis of 2012 as a volunteer and medic, and has traveled to the Washington, Illinois Tornado, Baxter Springs Tornado, Wimberly, Texas Flood, Canton Missouri Flood and to Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria serving as Planning Section Chief, Safety Officer, Operations Section Chief or Incident Commander in each response for the Team Rubicon Incident Management Team. Starting in 2016, Chris began focusing most of his efforts locally, building an Emergency Management Program, from the ground up, for a County of 8000 people and a City of 2500 people. While the Emergency Management Director, he was appointed as the Fire Chief for a city and rural volunteer departments, replacing a legacy Chief of 50 years. Chris is a father to two, wrangler of 20-60 chickens and a local Scout Leader, teaching wilderness skills, first aid and a host of emergency preparedness skills to the county's youth.

Former President of the Missouri Emergency Management Association
Holder of the Missouri Certified Emergency Management Level II Certification
Graduate of the 20-2 Cohort of National Emergency Management Advanced Academy
Retired Army LPN
Current RN
Firefighter/Rescue Tech

Flexible: Full refund up to 3 day prior to event, except fees (travel and service)