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Penn State Harrisburg and Homeland Security Experts List

Penn State Harrisburg has been trying to develop a network of expertise, from within the University, from other area institutions of higher education, and from the community. Following is a listing of some of those individuals and their specific expertise.

Adams, Jonathan. Medical Director, Penn State Family Medicine, State College: http://webapp.hmc.psu.edu/physdir/provider.cfm?id=jdadamsand. Has taken the Basic and Advanced Disaster Life Support Life courses (http://www.bdls.com/ ), and anticipates taking the Instructor's -level course. Has an interest in presenting on topics included in those courses, or on pandemic flu. Currently there are no BDLS/ADLS courses or training sites in central Pennsylvania. He is working, as a result of this training, to be able to, with others, make either University Park or Hershey Medical Center a regional training center. It requires a cadre of 4-5 who have completed the instructor's-level course and the preceding BDLS and ADLS courses.

Allard, David. Director of the PA DEP Bureau of Radiation Protection, where he is responsible for the effective implementation, policy, management, and technical aspects of the Commonwealth's radiation protection programs. These programs include: radiation control of radioactive materials, accelerators and x-ray equipment; nuclear safety and independent oversight at nine nuclear power plants on five sites, emergency response and radioactive waste management; decommissioning and environmental surveillance; and radon testing and mitigation. Mr. Allard is certified by the American Board of Health Physics for comprehensive practice. He holds a master's degree in Radiological Sciences and Protection from the University of Massachusetts - Lowell and a bachelor of science degree in Environmental Sciences from the State University of New York at Albany. Prior to joining DEP, he was a consultant to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office on Independent Oversight for eight years, and performed environmental and occupational radiation protection appraisals of various national laboratory, weapons, reactor, accelerator and clean-up sites. Mr. Allard has authored numerous professional papers and reports, and lectures frequently on a wide variety of radiation protection topics and concerns.

Arminio, Thomas J.Director of Emergency Management Services, Delta Development Group, Inc. Delta Development Group's expertise in emergency management planning and homeland security resides in the following areas:

Planning for the implementation of the Strategic National Stockpile at the task

force/county/local level

Municipal, County, and Regional Counter Terrorism Task Force Emergency Operations Plans
Hazard Vulnerability Analysis and Hazard Mitigation Planning
County Continuity of Government Planning
Basic NIMS and ICS
Special Event Planning
Building Disaster-Resistant Universities
County Citizen Corps Strategic Planning
Classroom instruction for Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT)
GIS mapping capabilities to support most of the above
Emergency management exercise development, execution, and evaluation.

Plus, it has three software tools for emergency managers:

Total Visibility, a web-based resource management system
Special Needs population tool; includes on-line survey, GIS mapping, and HAZMAT plume depiction
Damage Assessment tool

Baker, Katherine. School ofScience, Engineering, and Technology, Environmental Engineering, Penn State Harrisburg. Expertise in biological warfare (and security). Secondary interests in chemical warfare. Experience and resources specifically dealing with Hamas and the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Bedell, Doug. PRO Barrier Engineering, Communication Director. Interests: emergency communication/media relations expertise. After a career in journalism at the Philadelphia Bulletin and the Wall Street Journal's Philadelphia bureau, he served for 14 years at TMI as the post-accident Communication Manager. He drafted TMI's post-accident emergency communication plan, participated in numerous emergency drills, worked in association with PEMA on nuclear emergency preparedness/media relations and was responsible for TMI's media relations. At GPU Nuclear, TMI's operating company, he practiced techniques of risk and crisis communication, fields in themselves.
After retiring from GPUN, he worked as a public affairs disaster reservist for FEMA on seven disasters, including Hurricane Dennis. He is an evaluator of nuclear plant emergency drills for ICF Consulting, on behalf of FEMA. At PRO Barrier he is marketing a new type of U.S. State Department-certified anti-terrorism vehicle access control barrier with unique aesthetic features.

Bigos, William. School of Behavioral Sciences and Education. Teaching and Curriculum program, Penn State Harrisburg. Background in counseling and school psychology as well as administrative degrees. Is a counselor/clinician at New Insights, a licensed D&A/counseling facility and has been contracted through them (and also privately) with businesses encountering "traumatic" situations such as employee threats, death, suicide, harassment and also general climate problems related to the situations. Previously had training through Western Psychiatric Hospital in Pittsburgh related to suicide and tragic death and supervised a large student assistance program in a Pittsburgh area school district for 6 years. Experience in critical incident interventions.

Chen, Y. Frank. School of Science, Engineering, and Technology, Civil Engineering, Penn State Harrisburg . Interested in blast resistant analysis and design, and protective/hardened structures.

Cherry, Robert. MD, FACS graduated with a B.A. in Political Science and earned an M.D. degree from Columbia University. He is currently the Trauma Program Medical Director for the Penn State Shock Trauma Center, and Chief of the Section of Trauma and Critical Care in the Department of Surgery at the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. Dr. Cherry was a trauma director at a municipal hospital in New York during the 9/11 WTC attacks. He subsequently served on the Regional Disaster Planning Subcommittee of the New York City Regional Trauma Center Advisory Committee. Although Dr. Cherry has an academic reputation in trauma, with notable publications and presentations in this area, he also has a passion for advanced education and training in the emerging field of public health preparedness. Penn State’s graduate degree program in homeland security, for which Dr. Cherry is the Program Chair, is now an important collaborative partner for the Homeland Security/Defense Educational Consortium.

Cigler, Bev. School of Public Affairs, Penn State Harrisburg. A former NASPAA-FEMA Fellow (National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration-Federal Emergency Management Agency), began her interest in emergency management with a dissertation in the late 1970s which focused on land use mitigation policies for natural hazards. She has authored or co-authored two books and numerous book chapters and articles on hazards policy and management issues, especially flood policies. She has presented a number of speeches on all phases of emergency management and provided legislative testimony, as well as been frequently interviewed by national printed and other media on emergency management and homeland security topics. Dr. Cigler currently co-chairs the American Society for Public Administration's (ASPA) Katrina Task Force (KTF) within ASPA's membership base of 10,000 professionals in service to the public. The 9-member Task Force, along with its 85 member advisory board, come from every level of government and the public, private, and non-profit sectors in seeking to understand and contribute to research, practice, and teaching in the area of emergency management. Her most recent manuscript is "The Big Questions of Katrina and the Great New Orleans Flood of 2005." She is currently completing work on intergovernmental issues of the U.S. homeland security system.

DeFlitch, Chris. Department of Emergency Medicine, Penn State College of Medicine. Medical: Clinical emergency medicine, disaster medicine and pre-hospital medical care.
Information Systems: Clinical information systems design and maintenance from a clinical user perspective; Systems: Systems and protocol development for both emergency medical care, information systems, hospital wide capacity management and the interface of information systems leading to systems improvement and capacity management.

DuPont-Morales, Toni . School of Public Affairs, Criminal Justice, Penn State Harrisburg. Expertise is in the human element in terms of PTSD, support services, and social welfare. Victimologists have now extended their work to survivors of disasters including torture and genocide. The torture care centers have provided us with important knowledge to address a number of issues that were ignored in New Orleans, initially in Oklahoma, and early in response to 9/11.

Eshelman, Col. Mark. Army War College. Teaches Defense Support to Civil Authorities (DSCA) at the U.S. Army War College. DSCA provides civil support to other principal federal agencies.

Forster, Peter K. World Campus and Lecturer Political Science, Penn State. Has expertise in the study of conflict, terrorism, and counter-terrorism. His research interests are on security sector reform and the penetration of security forces by extremists and other armed political action groups and the international aspects of Homeland Security. He is part of the Department of Homeland Security and Northern Commands committee on establishing standards for homeland security education and the University's representative to the Institution-Agency Partnership Initiative headed by the Navy Post-graduate School.

Gemmell, Kevin. Pennsylvania Gaming Commission. Experience in business continuity, disaster recovery and IT audit and control. Has worked in both the public and private sectors assisting organizations with planning for continuity events. Has a B.S. in Management Information Systems from Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia and holds both a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) and Certified Business Continuity Professional (CBCP) certification. He is also the President of the Mid-Penn chapter of the Association of Contingency Planners, an international non-profit group dedicated to assisting organizations with continuity and contingency planning (located at www.acp-international.com/midpenn).

Hippensteel, Philip . School of Business Administation,Penn State Harrisburg. Teaches and consults in IT and network security including the security and vulnerability of transmitted voice, video and data.

Institute of State and Regional Affairs (ISRA).Penn State Harrisburg. ISRA has research capabilities that could be deployed to support research and outreach in homeland security and emergency management. Some of the people who could support such ventures:

Behney, Michael T. Director of the Institute of State and Regional Affairs and Instructor in Public Affairs,Penn State Harrisburg. The Institute specializes in a variety of social science research areas including: demographic analysis, modeling and training; survey research; geospatial services applications and training; economic impact modeling and analysis and a host of technology solutions for effectively collecting and reporting information through websites, listservs, and virtual communities. Behney’s expertise is in managing large scale projects involving multiple disciplines and multiple agencies.

Stroh, Brady. Director of the Center for Geospatial Information Services, Institute of State and Regional Affairs, Penn State Harrisburg. In this role he is responsible for the development and execution of various geospatial projects that involve project design, database development, statistical analysis and training. Involved with socio-economic and environmental planning research, GIS and data analysis for over twenty-five years. Stroh is also the Director of the annual Pennsylvania GIS Conference, currently serves as the Outreach Coordinator for the PAMAP program and is a GIS instructor at Penn State Harrisburg.

Copella, Susan. Director of the Pennsylvania State Data Center, Institute of State and Regional Affairs, Penn State Harrisburg. The Pennsylvania State Data Center is the Commonwealth’s official source of population and economic statistics. Extensive experience in demographic data and analysis. This includes demographic modeling, database management, graphics and mapping, and statistical analysis. Copella also serves as the Pennsylvania’s liaison to the Federal State Program for Population Projections and the Federal State Program for Population Estimates.

Thomas, Auden D.Director of the Center for Survey Research, Institute of State and Regional Affairs, Penn State Harrisburg. Expertise in survey research including conducting primary data collection, analysis, technical assistance, and training. Experience with focus groups, depth interviewing, survey design, sample design, computer assisted telephone interviewing (CATI), mail and web-based surveys, statistical analysis and reporting.

Hintz, Stephanie L. Assistant Director of the Center for Survey Research, Institute of State and Regional Affairs, Penn State Harrisburg. Expertise in conducting primary data collection and managing data collection field operations. Survey research capabilities can be utilized to collect data pertaining to homeland defense and security issues.

Johnson, David. Has been involved in public safety/emergency management for over 25 years on the local, county, state and federal levels. His primary occupation is as a planner/GIS specialist/training officer for Allegheny County Department of Emergency Services but he is also a Deputy Commander of FEMA NDMS Disaster Medical Assistance Team Pennsylvania 1. In those roles, he has responded to incidents ranging from "routine" to the crash of flight 427 and the WTC attack. He has a B.S. from Juniata College in Biopsychology, a master’s in Public Administration and most recently a Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. His dissertation was titled “Dynamic Hazard Assessment: Using agent-based modeling of complex, dynamic hazards for hazard assessment.” He was a GSR, now turned consultant, at the University's Center for Social and Urban Research working on an emergency management decision support system called IISIS (Interactive, Intelligent Spatial Information System), with Dr. Louise Comfort. In that role, he works primarily on the modeling and simulation aspect as well as data management and emergency management issues.

Kenney, Michael . School of Public Affairs, Public Policy/Political Science, Penn State Harrisburg. Dr. Kenney has expertise in terrorism and counter-terrorism. His research interest focus on understanding how terrorist networks, Islamist and otherwise, are structured and organize their operations, with a specific focus on information creation and dissemination. Dr. Kenney also studies how counter-terrorism agencies gather, interpret, and apply information. He has conducted field research in Israel and Colombia.

Konkle, Donald. Fire Chief, City of Harrisburg. A thirty-year veteran of the Fire Service, he was appointed to the Harrisburg Bureau of Fire in 1974, was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in 1980 and Fire Chief in 1984. Chief Konkle is the President of the Pennsylvania Fire and Emergency Services Institute, Chairman of Community Life Team, President of the Dauphin County Fire Chief’s Association and a board member of the Pennsylvania National Fire Museum. He is a member of the Dauphin County Local Emergency Management Planning Committee. Chief Konkle is an adjunct faculty member at Harrisburg Area Community College and the Agency Head for Pennsylvania Task Force One. He is a 1973 graduate of Penn State, a graduate of the National Fire Academy’s Executive Fire Officer Program, and has Professional Certification as a Local Emergency Management Coordinator.

Middaugh, Jesse. IST, School of Business Administration, Penn State Harrisburg. Interested in Homeland Security. In some IST (and INFSY) classes, teaches aspects of security. Stays in contact with former colleagues from CSC who are directly working in the area of Homeland Security.

Owen, Dennis. Vice President of PRO Barrier Engineering LLC, a manufacturer of anti-terrorism vehicle barriers (www.probarrier.com). The company applies advanced materials technology and aesthetics to perimeter security. Their flagship product, dubbed the Arrestor, replaces conventional massive steel structures with energy absorbing bands inside a hollow steel shell, and is offered with a digital finishing process that can simulate virtually any architectural material. The Arrestor achieved the U.S. State Department's highest crash test rating, stopping a 15,000-pound truck traveling at 50 m.p.h.

Peterson, Steven A.School of Public Affairs, Penn State Harrisburg. Political decision-making (including crisis decision-making) under conditions of uncertainty; brain sciences and political decision-making (including crisis decision-making); biopolitics and terrorism.

Pierce, James G. Col. USA Ret. Headquarters Department of the Army and Adjunct for the School of Public Affairs, Penn State Harrisburg. Currently the Director of the Army Transformation Team for Stryker Brigade Combat Team - 6 and former faculty member of the U.S. Army War College teaching National Security Policy; DOD Organization Planning and Strategy; and Military Operations other than War to include Military Support to Civil Authorities. Currently teaching Public Policy and Introduction to Homeland Security for Penn State Harrisburg.

Plant, Jeremy F.Professor of Public Policy and Administration, School of Public Affairs, Penn State Harrisburg. Conducts research and writes on the subject of railroad security. His work on rail security has been presented at the Annual Conference of the American Society for Public Administration and has been published in Review of Policy Research and The Public Manager. He has chaired an information meeting on the subject of rail and homeland security for the Pennsylvania Legislature. Professor Plant has also presented his work on rail security at the Regional Symposium on Homeland Security at Penn State Harrisburg in September 2005 and several other colloquia on the topic. He recently completed a project on rail security under contract with Citizens for Rail Safety. The resulting report was entitled: “Securing and protecting America’s railroad system: U. S. railroads and opportunities for terrorist threats” (co-investigator is Dr.Richard Young).

Schafer, Wendy. Below is a description of the research being conducted at the Computer-Supported Collaboration and Learning Lab at Penn State's University Park campus. A similar project is being conducted at Penn State Harrisburg by Roderick Lee, a remote member of our research lab. Emergency management does not occur in government offices. It is a community effort. Local first responders, local hospitals, local businesses, and local public transportation are all involved. They ensure that a community is prepared and they are on the front lines when an event does occur. The Lab’s work examines this broader perspective of emergency management. It investigates the community aspects of large-scale emergencies, studying community preparations, community involvement, and community response. It adopts a community informatics approach, exploring information and communication technologies to support community emergency management. In particular, the research examines the Centre Region community in Central Pennsylvania and their emergency management practices. Centre Region consists of six townships and a total population of approximately 80,000, with five of the six townships bordering the Penn State University Park campus. The Lab has established a long-term partnership with the local emergency management coordinator, Steve Abrams who fulfills multiple roles, acting as the common emergency management coordinator for six the townships and as the emergency management coordinator for the university. Using ethnographic methods over the last nine months, research has observed multiple meetings related to the local area threats. Researchers have also interviewed the emergency management coordinator to understand his objectives for the region and his role in the local work practices. The work documents the community aspects of emergency management planning and investigates scenarios of geospatial information sharing. The overall objective is to understand the current work practices of emergency management and design technology solutions that enhance these efforts.

Sevison, Tim. Deputy Fire Chief, City of Harrisburg. A 25-year veteran of the fire service, Sevison currently serves as the Senior Deputy Chief for the Harrisburg Bureau of Fire. In addition, Tim serves as a Task Force Leader with Pennsylvania Task Force One (PATF1) of the DHS/FEMA National Urban Search and Rescue Response System, and has responded in a leadership capacity to a multitude of regional and national disasters, to include the 9-11 World Trade Center attacks, and the Gulf Coast hurricanes of 2005. In addition, he participates on FEMA US&R Incident Support Teams, and is a member of the FEMA Urban Search and Rescue training working group. Deputy Chief Sevison is a team manager for the Dauphin County Hazardous Materials Team, a Senior Advisor for the Dauphin County Crisis Response Team, Chairman of the South Central PA Counter-Terrorism Task Force, Fire/Rescue/Haz-Mat group, and leader of the South Central PA Incident Support Team.

Shoop. Glenda H.Office of Medical Education, Penn State College of Medicine.

Knowledge and experience with curriculum development and program evaluation; knowledge and experience in needs assessments; knowledge and experience with cost-effective analysis; experience working with community partnerships; develop strategic plans, design processes, and define outcome measures; Registered Respiratory Therapist and Pulmonary Function Technologist; Planning and managing faculty development programs; Ph.D. candidate in Instructional Systems (Penn State).

Subramanian, Girish. School of Business Administration, Penn State Harrisburg. IT Security, with interests in software development and applications of IT. Detailed list of areas: Computer-Aided Software Engineering, Data Warehousing, Object-oriented Development metrics, Capability Maturity Model and Software Process Improvement, and Global Software Development

Tussing, Bert B.Director of the Center for Strategic Leadership's Homeland Defense and Security Issues group, United States Army War College. He has worked homeland defense and security issues since January 2000, organizing and hosting conferences, leading studies, and contributing to strategic and policy development in the regime. In pursuit of these endeavors, he interacts frequently with the Department of Homeland Security, the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense, and the United States Northern Command.

Wise, J. Theodore. Chairman, South Central Regional Counter Terrorism Task Force (1999-2000)-(2004-2005). Director of Public Safety, Cumberland County Department of Public Safety. Certified by the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency as a Professional Emergency Manager; Hazardous Materials Technician; Degree in Fire Science Technology; Actively participated in Regional, State and National Associations, such as the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO), Inc., the Pennsylvania Emergency Health Services Council and the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM).

Xie, Yuefeng. School of Science, Engineering, and Technology, Penn State Harrisburg; Director of Small Public Water Systems Technology Assistance Center and Environmental Training Center. A registered professional engineer and board certified environmental engineer, he has 30 years’ teaching and research experience in environmental analysis, environmental chemistry, and water quality and treatment.

Young, Richard . School of Business Administration, Supply Chain Management, Penn State Harrisburg. During 2005, served as the logistics subject matter expert to Delta Development Group on a project that designed a distribution system for medications in the event of a bioterrorism attack. Regional responsibility was for eastern and south central Pennsylvania. Modified global supply chain complexity model for use in determining vulnerability of specific imports as determined by offshore source, type of items, transport modes and providers, and intermediaries. Research presented at the regional symposium in Harrisburg during September 2005. Continues as the PI for the Import Processes Benchmarking Consortium of the Center for Supply Chain Research for which security is now a high priority topic. CSCR is a unit of the Smeal College of Business, Penn State University Park.