Speaker Biographies
Dianne Clancy is married with 3 children and 5 grandchildren My medical background is a diploma in nursing in SD, a BSN in Denver, and my MSN in Nursing Education at UNC Greeley, CO. Primarily all of my nursing experience has had a focus on the family (many years working in Pediatrics, some time in Neonatal Intensive Care, and then Public Health Nursing).
Timothy Edwards is currently the Acting Executive Director of the Susquehanna Area Regional Airport Authority. For the past three years, he was the Deputy Executive Director of SARAA. Prior to Tim´s work at SARAA, he was the Airport Director at the Lebanon Municipal Airport in Lebanon, New Hampshire. He has a Commercial Pilot Certificate along with a BS in Aeronautical Science from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University.
John Farrell was born in Scranton PA, currently living in Biglerville, PA. He worked for the Commonwealth of PA in various PA counties for 34 years before retiring. He taught health and safety courses for the Red Cross for 10 years as a volunteer. He has worked part time for the Red Cross for the last three years as an instructor. Since July 2006, he has worked full time for the Red Cross as the Health and Safety Services Director at the Cumberland County Chapter. He is married to Michelle Farrell, and they have three children, Ashton and Alexandra Farrell attending Mercyhurst College in Erie, PA and Caleb Farrell attending King´s college in Wilkes-Barre, PA.
George Giangi has over 30 years of experience in the field of emergency preparedness. He received his education at Syracuse University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is the former Director of Emergency Preparedness at GPU Nuclear Corporation, now Amergen/Exelon. He is an Instructor of Emergency Preparedness & Response for Hazardous Facilities at Penn State. In addition, he is the Chairman of the Business, Industry & Infrastructure subcommittee of the South Central PA Counterterrorism Task Force.
Dr. Wallace Greene, PhD Associate Professor, is a virologist and Director of the Virology Lab at Penn State Hershey Medical Center. Dr. Greene is a native of Tennessee where he completed an undergraduate degree in microbiology at the University of Tennessee and a doctoral degree in Comparative and Experimental Medicine at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine. This was followed by a postdoctoral program at the University of Rochester Strong Memorial Hospital in Clinical Microbiology and Public Health. After completing this program he was recruited by the Penn State Hershey Medical Center in 1988 to develop the Diagnostic Virology Laboratory. This has grown to a full service laboratory that serves the medical center and clinics throughout the area. In addition to the diagnostic work, this laboratory has bee active throughout the years in numerous clinical trials for new rapid diagnostic assays, particularly those directed at influenza viruses. He has served as President of the Central Pennsylvania Microbiology Association, and is a Diplomate of the American Board of Medical Microbiology with certification in Medical and Public Health Microbiology.
Lee Groff, EMT, is the Disaster Coordinator for Penn State Hershey.
David Hawk is with the York County Health Department.
Michael K. Huff, R.N., is Director of the Bureau of Community Health Systems in the Pennsylvania Department of Health. As Director of the Bureau of Community Health Systems, Mr. Huff administers the statewide implementation and evaluation of public health programs through a network of 6 health district offices, 57 health centers, and 10 Act 315-funded County/Municipal Health Departments, all of which act as the implementation arm for the Department´s public health programs. In addition, this bureau is also responsible for the Division of School Health, which administers the DepartmentÂs school health programs. Mr. Huff served as Acting Director of the Department´s Office of Public Health Preparedness from November 2002 to December 2003. In this capacity, he served as the principal advisor to the Secretary of Health on public health preparedness planning and implementation.
Mr. Huff´s previous positions with the Department include Director of the Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Project, Director of the Division of Communicable Disease, and Director of the Division of Chronic Disease Prevention. Prior to joining the Department, he held senior management positions in nursing and hospital administration in community health settings, clinical instructor for nursing care of the older adult and advanced surgical nursing, and was responsible for strategic development and program evaluation of cancer, cardiac and women´s health services, as well as clinical positions in the areas of medical– surgical, critical care, and emergency trauma. Mr. Huff has also served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps.
He is a member of the Sigma Theta Tau, National Nursing Honor Society, and currently serves as a board member of the Pennsylvania Public Health Association. Mr. Huff was appointed to the Pennsylvania Homeland Security Advisory Council in December 2002, and serves as an Ad Hoc member of Pennsylvania State University´s Master of Homeland Security in Public Health Preparedness Advisory Board.
Darcy Medica is an Assistant Professor of Biology at Penn State, Schuylkill. Dr. Medica has a Ph.D. in Animal Sciences from Rutgers University. Her doctoral research focused on the transmission biology of nematode parasites of horses and sheep. She was a NIH post doctoral fellow at New York University Medical School. Her project was focused on the transmission of malaria parasites by mosquitoes. Her current research examines the transmission biology of parasites and pathogens. She studies the biology of West Nile virus in wildlife, and conducts research on American kestrels in conjunction with Hawk Mountain Sanctuary. In addition, she studies the biology of mosquitoes and the transmission of malaria by infected mosquitoes. She teaches Anatomy, Physiology and Microbiology at Penn State.
Jim Messinger is an All-Hazards Emergency Planner with the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency. During his twenty years with PEMA, Jim has served in various capacities, including area training manager and manager of the state professional development and certification program.
After transferring to the Bureau of Plans, Jim spearheaded a project to rewrite Pennsylvania´s State Emergency Operations Plan, updating and simplifying it as well as bringing it into compliance with federal planning formats. Three years ago he administered a project to convert to a simpler format the emergency operations plans for all of Pennsylvania´s 2568 cities, boroughs & townships. He has written sample plans to be used in day care centers and schools, and is currently working on a sample plan for personal care and nursing homes.
Recently, Jim´s major emphasis has been in the state´s preparation for Pandemic Influenza, where he co-chairs the vaccination and distribution working group, and sits on the incident coordination and response workgroup. Jim also monitors off-site planning at Pennsylvania´s 26 State Correctional Institutions, planning for emergencies at high-hazard dams, and municipal planning for special events involving high population concentrations.
Jim is a native of Central Pennsylvania, being born in Hershey. He and his wife, Barbara, live near Harrisburg. Their one son lives in upstate New York, their older son and their only daughter (and two-month-old grandson) live in the Harrisburg area.
Steven A. Peterson is Director of the School of Public Affairs and Professor of Politics and Public Affairs at Penn State Harrisburg. He received his Ph D in political science from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1974. His areas of research interest include: American Politics, Public Opinion and Voting Behavior, Biology and Politics, and Public Policy (AIDS policy and education policy). He has authored or co-authored nearly twenty books, among which are Darwinism, Dominance, and Democracy; The Failure of Democratic Nation Building: Ideology Meets Evolution, Political Behavior: Patterns in Everyday Life; The World of the Policy Analyst; Human Nature and Public Policy, and over 100 publications. He has served as President of the New York State Political Science Association and the Northeastern Political Science Association. He has served as an officer in the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences (APLS) and Research Committee # 12 (Biology and Politics) of the International Political Science Association.
Chief Kevin Stoehr has been a law enforcement professional for twenty-nine years. Twenty years were spent with the Mt. Lebanon Police Department (near Pittsburgh, PA) which is a full-service suburban police department with 85 employees (48 sworn police officers) serving 34,000 residents. During his career with Mt. Lebanon, Chief Stoehr rose through the ranks until his promotion to Deputy Chief of Police in 1991 (which he retained until his departure in 1997). He also served as Accreditation Manager for Mt. Lebanon PD when Mt. Lebanon gained certification from the National Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) in 1989. Since 1997, Chief Stoehr has been the Director of the Penn State University Police Department for both the Penn State Harrisburg and Penn State Schuylkill campuses providing public safety services for a community of approximately 6000 faculty, staff and students.
Jeffrey Stonehill, Borough Manager, is the Chief Administrative Officer of the Borough of Middletown and works very closely with the Borough Council and is responsible for carrying out the policies and procedures developed by Council. Some of his particular areas of management responsibility include finance, personnel, public relations and program development leading to more efficient delivery of municipal services.
Dr. Audrey Utley has 34 years of experience in the field of education. She served as an elementary teacher, a school principal, and an assistant superintendent, before assuming the position of Superintendent of the Middletown Area School District in 2002. Dr. Utley holds a Bachelors Degree in Elementary Education from Penn State University, a Masters Degree in Educational Administration from Shippensburg University, and a Doctorate Degree in Educational Administration from Widener University. She is most proud of being the recipient of an Outstanding Alumni Award from Penn State University, an Outstanding Teacher Award from Shippensburg University, and the Karl E. Hope Foundation Award for Educational Excellence. In addition to her district duties, she serves on the Penn State Harrisburg´s Teacher Education Advisory Council, the Dauphin County Children & Youth Advisory Board, and the Capital Region Board of the American Heart Association.
