D'Anne began her state career at the Texas Capitol in 1995, coordinating legislation and developing policy in both the Texas Senate and House of Representatives. After leaving the Capitol, she worked in Governmental Relations for the Texas Dept. of Agriculture, focusing on rural economic development, commodity regulation and ag marketing. In 2007, she moved to the General Land Office, starting in Communications and moving to Oil Spill Prevention and Response, where she coordinates Oil Spill's compliance and enforcement efforts as well as contributes to the program's procedures and policy development.
D'Anne has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Art History from Oklahoma State University and a Master of Public Administration from Texas State University. She is a mom to four, g-ma to two (we don't say grandma) and enjoys running, kayaking and riding to nowhere on her Peleton.

Barbara Parker, Principal, Emergency Management Systems, Shell Emergency Management.
Over 30 years of All-Hazards emergency response experience including hands on response to hundreds of oil spills, hazardous materials releases and business continuity incidents with roles varying from: Front line responder; Response team leader; Incident Commander; Deputy Incident Commander; Planning Section Chief; and liaison with executive level leadership. Deep technical expertise in developing assurance and training & exercise programs to improve emergency response preparedness. With a focus on clear communications to enable success, Barbara leads a variety of programs for Shell including: ER Assurance; Training and Competency; Learning from Response Incidents and coordinates Shell's global Tier 3 exercise program.
Current chair of APIs Oil Spill Emergency Preparedness and Response Subcommittee and API's Spills Advisory Group.
Barbara began her emergency response career as a field level oil and hazardous materials emergency responder at the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and progressed through the agency to the Director for Maine's Oil and Hazardous Materials Response Team, in this capacity she was the co-chair of the Maine/New Hampshire Area Committee and a member of RRT 1. In 2010 I she was selected by the US Coast Guard to be a member of the BP Deepwater Horizon Incident Specific Preparedness Review (ISPR) team. In 2012 Barbara joined Shell's Emergency Management Team in Houston.

Mr. Vitale, is the Technical Director of Chemistry and Managing Principal of Environmental Standards, Inc. Mr. Vitale, a Certified Professional Chemist, Certified Environmental Analytical Chemist and Board of Directors positions for the American Institute of Chemists, and the National Registry of Certified Chemists. Mr. Vitale has 41 years' experience in the and has authored numerous published manuscripts relating environmental and analytical chemistry. Mr. Vitale has sat in Incident Command for a number of the largest environmental responses in the nation's history.

The Texas General Land Office Oil Spill Prevention and Response Division's Prevention and Preparedness Coordinator. 15 years of experience with the agency previously serving a senior response officer. 8 years of experience as Marine Science Technician with the United States Coast Guard Reserves. Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology from Texas A&M University Corpus Christi.

Todd Duke has been in the Maritime Emergency Response community for over 30 years with the past 24 years at Resolve Marine. He has worked as a project manager, salvage master, or marine fire officer on numerous salvage, maritime emergency, and oil spill response projects around the world.
He has served as Project Manager for Coast Guard led post hurricane ESF-10 and Debris Clean Up missions in Louisiana, Texas, Florida, Georgia, New York and North Carolina starting in 2005 with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. His teams have retrieved of millions of tons of debris from navigable waters and disposed of properly.
Todd currently serves as General Manager of Compliance Services and Senior Fire Officer for marine related fire response.

Captain Trey Wirth (he/him/his) currently oversees the Office of Marine Environmental Response Policy at Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, DC. He leads a team that administers, develops, and maintains the Coast Guard's marine environmental response program and provides guidance to operational field units. He also serves as the Vice Chair for the National Response Team and Chairs the Interagency Coordinating Committee on Oil Pollution Research.

Previously, he was the Deputy Sector Commander at Sector North Carolina, where he served as the Alternate Captain of the Port, Officer-in-Charge Marine Inspection, Federal Maritime Security Coordinator, and Federal On-Scene Coordinator for the state of North Carolina.

Prior to this, Captain Wirth served as the Sector North Carolina Response Department Head, where he was responsible for command and control activities associated with Search and Rescue (SAR), Ports, Waterways, and Coastal Security, Marine Environmental Protection, Incident Management, and Law Enforcement in the navigable waters of the State of North Carolina. H served at the Operations Section Chief for both hurricanes FLORENCE and DORIAN, where he oversaw the pre-staging of response assets, directed rescue resources, and facilitated the restoration of the Sector's field units to normal operations following the catastrophic storms.

Captain Wirth has served in the U.S. Coast Guard for over 22 years, spending the majority of his career in high optempo All-Hazard incident management and crisis management roles. He is a NIMS ICS Type 1 Operations Section Chief, Type 2 Planning Section Chief, and Type 3 Incident Commander. His other major operational responses include: September 11, 2001 attack on the Pentagon, Baltimore Tunnel Fire of 2001, Hurricane Isabel in 2003, BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, Super Storm SANDY, Paulsboro, NJ Train Derailment, two DoD helicopter crashes in Honolulu, HI, and Hurricane MARIA as the Deputy Planning Section Chief at the Area Command level.

Captain Wirth is a native of Schnecksville, Pennsylvania and has three children, Austie, Colbie, and Crosby.

Danielle Hale
Manager of Emergency Management
Port of Corpus Christi Authority
Office: 361-885-6612
Cell: 361-816-3620
Email: dhale@pocca.com

Melanie Little is the President and Chief Executive Officer for Colonial Pipeline Company, the largest refined petroleum products pipeline system in the United States. She joined Colonial Pipeline in January 2023 with more than two decades of experience in the energy industry.

Prior to joining Colonial, Melanie served as the Chief Operating Officer at Magellan Midstream Partners, L.P., with responsibility for assets in 15 states, consisting of 12,000 miles of pipelines, 55 terminals and a team of over 1,400.

Prior to being promoted to COO, Melanie served in various leadership roles at Magellan, with the opportunity to lead teams in operations, commercial and compliance.

Prior to joining Magellan in 2004, she worked for The Williams Companies, Inc. Before joining Williams, she held project management positions in the areas of environmental remediation as a contractor for the Department of the Army. Melanie is a Veteran, serving in the U.S. Army and in the Army Reserves and Georgia National Guard.

Melanie holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Engineering from the United States Military Academy and a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She also serves on two non-profit boards: The Discovery Lab in Tulsa, OK and the International Liquid Terminals Association.

In January 2023, Melanie joined the Board of Directors of Cenovus Energy, the second-largest Canadian oil and natural gas producer, refiner and upgrader. And as of March 2023, she serves on the Board of the American Petroleum Institute, the largest U.S. trade association for the oil and natural gas industry.

Alex Nuñez is the lower coast Regional Response Coordinator for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department - Kills and Spills Team (KAST). He has held this position for nearly 15 years. The primary duties of KAST are response to fish and wildlife kills, pollution incidents, and function as a technical resource to minimize environmental damage resulting from these incidents. Other duties include obtaining compensation, reparation, and restoration for environmental damages. He received is Bachelor's degree in Biology and Master's degree in Environmental Science at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Prior to employment at TPWD, Alex worked on water and sediment quality related studies at Texas A&M- Corpus Christi - Center for Coastal Studies.

Dr. Paige Doelling has been the NOAA SSC for Texas and Southwest Louisiana since late 2013, serving as the principal scientific advisor to the Coast Guard for oil and hazmat spill response and planning in the coastal zone. She has been lead SSC on several major responses, including the Texas City Y oil spill response (2014), the Morgan's Point Collision hazmat spill response (2015), the Green Canyon 248 offshore oil spill response (2016), Hurricane Harvey (2017), and the ITC Tank Farm Fire (2019) as well as dozens of smaller oil and hazmat responses. In 2018 she served as the acting National Resource Protection Coordinator for the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. She works on science and preparedness issues at the Coast Guard unit, Area Committee (AC), and Regional Response Team (RRT) levels and serves as an instructor for NOAA's Science of Oil Spills (SOS), and Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Technique (SCAT) classes.
Dr. Doelling came to the SSC position with a strong background in ecotoxicology, protected resources, and interagency coordination. In her previous position at National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), she worked on Endangered Species Act (ESA) Section 7 consultations with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on pesticides and water quality issues, and spent a year at NOAA Headquarters as a Fishery Policy Advisor, working on national-level fisheries policy issues. She has worked for several Federal agencies, including EPA, where she wrote ecological risk assessments for pesticides; and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS) Chesapeake Bay Field Office, where she did stream assessment and restoration, and worked on a range of contaminant issues. Her dissertation focused on the trophic transfer of poly-chlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in an estuarine food web. She served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Air Force, providing imagery and targeting support to U.S. troops during Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm, reaching the rank of Captain (O-3). Paige later spent several years as a defense consultant working with imagery-based products and information.
She holds a PhD in Environmental Science and Public Policy, an MA in International Transactions, a BS in Biochemistry, and a First-Degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do. She is also a certified yoga teacher and a certified meditation teacher. When not at work

Environmental toxicologist with over 20 years experience in ecological risk assessment and oiled-wildlife response. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Spill Response Coordinator since 2014.

Michelle Bellizzi is Training and Response Services Manager at International Bird Rescue. She is an experienced wildlife responder and rehabilitator with over 20 years' experience managing IBR's SFBay, CA rehabilitation program and responding with Bird Rescue in oil spill responses nationally and internationally, including remote responses such as Chubut, Argentina and Unalaska, Alaska, and large-scale responses such as Cosco Busan, SFBay 2007 and the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in 2010.

Emergency Management Specialist for U. S. Coast Guard Sector Houston-Galveston. Has served over 20 years with the U. S. Coast Guard conducting emergency management and preparedness missions throughout the Gulf Coast.

George Graettinger is an environmental scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) in Seattle, WA. George is a Senior GIS Project Manager for the Assessment and Restoration Division with over 30 years' experience in remediation, natural resource damage assessment, data analysis, remote sensing, as well as the development of GIS based decision support systems.

George is the Gulf of Mexico Regional lead for the Environmental Response Management Application (ERMA). Regional ERMA sites have been deployed across the US and the Gulf site served as the Common Operational Picture (COP) for the Deepwater Horizon spill. Prior to coming to OR&R George worked with the US Environmental Protection Agency developing decision support systems for contaminant waste sites throughout the Great Lakes.

Tim is the owner and chief scientist of Tactical Electronics. Tactical Electronics develops and provides the latest tactical technology to law enforcement agencies and trend-setting military groups. Tactical Electronics designs tactical camera systems, EOD equipment, provides R&D services, and creates Unmanned Aerial Systems to protect those who protect us.

Mr. Rucker joined Stephens Inc. in 1999 and is a Managing Director in the Investment Banking Department, focused on the Power, Environmental, and Connectivity sectors. While at Stephens, he has worked on dozens of successful M&A and capital raising transactions for a variety of publicly-held, family-owned and sponsor-backed companies. In 2020, he successfully led the sale of CTEH to Montrose Environmental.

Ross and his wife Abbie live in Little Rock with their three children. He serves on the boards of Little Rock Christian Academy and Soaring Wings Ranch, a home for children in crisis serving the central Arkansas region.

Jeff is the Regional Director for Upper Texas Coast of the Texas General Land Office-Oil Spill Prevention and Response Division. Jeff's path to the oil spill response world was not a direct one. He graduated from Texas A&M University at Galveston with a degree in Marine Biology in 1991. Jeff spent his early career working as a fisheries biologist in the Galveston Lab for the National Marine Fisheries Service and then several years working at the Seabrook Marine Lab for Texas Parks and Wildlife Department in the Coastal Fisheries Division. In 2000, Jeff began his career with the Texas General Land Office as a coastal biologist in the Professional Services Division. He went on to serve 5 years as the Regional Manager of the La Porte Field Office for the GLO. Jeff moved over to the Oil Spill Division of the GLO and now has 11 years with Oil Spill. During that time, Jeff worked the Texas City Y Spill, the Bayport Channel Collision Spill, the San Jacinto River Fleet Incident, and the response to Hurricane Harvey.

A twenty-one-year veteran of the US Coast Guard, Steve has an extensive background in maritime safety and security. He has held leadership positions in Environmental Response, Port State Control, Commercial Vessel Inspections, Planning, and Casualty Investigations. His experiences in the field include incident management in the Gulf of Mexico, the East Coast, the Great Lakes, and the Western Rivers. A few years after Coast Guard retirement, he joined Gallagher's Incident Management Team (IMT), became a Qualified Individual (QI), was a member of the Drills and Training Team and managed the GMS Social Media program. In his current position as Senior Manager of Response Services, Steve oversees all response activities, including a nation-wide network of incident management professionals, and supervises the Response Managers for the Gulf Region; the Midwest, including the Western Rivers and Great Lakes; the Pacific North West, including Alaska; Southern California, encompassing also Hawaii; and the East Coast. Steve holds degrees from Ottawa University and the University of Phoenix.

Jessica White is the Deputy Director/Facility Manager for NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) Gulf of Mexico Disaster Response Center, located in Mobile, Alabama. Prior to this position, she was a Regional Resource Coordinator in the Assessment and Restoration Division of NOAA OR&R working primarily on CERCLA sites in Texas and Louisiana. Through nearly eight years in that job, she participated in the Remedial Investigation and Natural Resource Damage Assessment processes with co-trustees to reach cooperative, restoration based settlements. Working on the Gulf coast, she has supported post-hurricane Stafford Act removal of hazmat and marine debris, emergency response to oil spills, and restoration of coastal habitats. Her education includes a BS in Biology from Texas Tech University (1998) and MS in Environmental Science from the University of North Texas (2003).

Wesley Lambert is currently a first-year graduate student at the University of New Hampshire studying the remote sensing of oil in marine environments. I received my undergraduate degree in Environmental Engineering from UNH in 2023, where he began work on projects aimed at advancing our capacity to detect and characterize surface oil in controlled testing and and in the environment. Recent studies involve the ability to characterize oil in ice environments. Wes recognizes the value of working in a team setting and excels at problem-solving collaboratively with inter-disciplinary teams.

Mr. Heath Byrd is a natural resource and environmental economist with over 20 years of experience. He specializes in four areas: 1) assessing the value of ecosystem goods and services in monetary and non-monetary metrics; 2) assessing socioeconomics, environmental justice, and regional economic impacts; 3) collection and analysis of outdoor recreation visitation data; and 4) performing quantitative analyses to support environmental and economic assessments. He has applied these areas of expertise to natural resource damage assessments, regulatory impact and compliance analyses, environmental impact assessments, socioeconomic and regional economic impact assessments, and decision analysis.

Tony is a Senior Managing Consultant at Ramboll US Consulting, Inc. with a specialty in marine mammal science and injury assessment. He has over 30 years' experience in Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) and Habitat Impact Assessment. Tony has worked as a regulator, industry environmental project/program manager and as a consultant which provides a valuable perspective on complex issues and regulations pertaining to habitats and resources at risk. He spent 5 years as the Technical Working Group (TWG) lead for Marine Mammals and Sea Turtles for BP in response to the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) Oil Spill. Mr. Palagyi has managed ecological assessments globally in association with oil spills, offshore drilling, and human/cetacean interactions. He has been employed as a marine mammal expert in conjunction with civil and criminal cases pertaining to the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA).

Tori Sweet is a graduate student at the University of New Hampshire Coastal Response Research Center studying environmental engineering. Her master's thesis research focuses on the fate and transport of sunken oil in flume experiments replicating Mississippi River conditions. Previously, Tori completed a one year Arctic Domain Awareness Center fellowship. During this fellowship, she worked with oil spill and sea ice modelers to incorporate sea ice data into the General NOAA Operational Modeling Environment (GNOME). Tori has also aided in a variety of other research projects and field work at the Coastal Response Research Center related to remote sensing and the fate and transport of oil under ice.

Based out of Houston, TX Ms. Purcell is an HSE Coordinator - CM & ER with ConocoPhillips. Her focus is on their Lower 48 business unit emergency response activities, incident investigation and their incident management system. Ms. Purcell graduated from West Texas A&M with a BAAS in Emergency Management, she has obtained her CEM, is a licensed drone pilot and she is also credentialed through FEMA as a Master Exercise Practitioner.

Steve Buschang serves as a Research Program Manager with the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE). He has over 27+ years of experience overseeing environmental compliance and research projects in the marine environment.
As a researcher with the Response Research Branch (RRB) Steve's research focus is on oil spill science and response technologies associated with shoreline impacts. His work is focused on engaging in actionable science that will improve existing or develop new shoreline response techniques and strategies. Steve is also involved in the study of the emerging threats from activities associated with offshore alternative energy facilities, such as dielectric fluids.
Steve previously served with the Texas General Land Office (GLO) Oil Spill Prevention and Response Program as the Director of Research and Development (R&D), where he oversaw an oil spill research program dedicated towards oil spill related science research initiatives undertaken by Texas institutes of higher education.
Here he served as the State Scientific Support Coordinator (SSC) advising state and federal on-scene coordinators on oil spill preparedness and response activities, providing on-scene technical and scientific support to oil spill response activities. This included identification of protection priorities, Best Available Science and Technologies (BAST), managing Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Teams (SCAT), aerial reconnaissance, and alternative countermeasure activities. He oversaw the activities of the State's Scientific Support Coordinator Representatives (SSCRs) from five coastal field offices. He was responsible for the GLO Texas Automated Buoy System (TABS) and was the agency's lead for the state's inshore and nearshore oil spill hydrodynamic models, modeling, and data products, which's goal was improving hydrodynamic predictions of surface currents near the Texas coast used for rapid oil spill response.
Steve taught as an adjunct faculty member in the Environmental Science Department at Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi, instructing both undergraduate and graduate courses in Environmental Regulations and Environmental Assessment.
Steve has served on the Science Advisory Panel for the Coastal Response Research Center (CRRC), the Board of Directors (Incoming Chair) for the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System (GCOOS), the MEXUS JAT, the planning board for Clean Gulf Conferences, and as the Science and Tech Chair for Regional Response Team 6. He previously worked as a committee member with the National Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine committee, drafting and updating the latest Oil in the Sea IV publication.
Steve holds a Bachelor of Science degree at Southwest Texas State University in Marine Biology and a Master's degree from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi in Environmental Science.

Lucas Fantinato is an Environmental Engineer with a Masters in Oceanic Engineering, having 10+ years' experience in emergency response, incident and crisis management. He has worked nationally and internationally in several large-scale projects for major O&G companies, as well as mining, port/navigation companies. He's also taken part in the response to major incidents such as Mariana/Rio Doce (2015) and Brumadinho (2019) mining disasters.
Before joining Shell Brasil to work as Emergency Response Advisor, Lucas has worked for BP Angola as Crisis, Continuity Management & Emergency Response Consultant, helping the company maintain proper levels of readiness through support to the IMT (Incident Management Team) and delivery of its emergency response training & exercise agenda. Prior to that, Lucas worked for 8 year as Emergency Management Consultant at Witt O'Brien's, providing support to several O&G companies.
Lucas is a highly communicative, adaptable and open-minded person, having lived in various countries (Brazil, USA and France).
In his spare time, he enjoys playing guitar/singing, as well as playing the trumpet in Rio de Janeiro's carnival. He's also a big fan of the outdoors and enjoys sailing, cycling, backpacking and nature photography.

Ligia Inafuku is an Environmental Engineer with 10+ years of experience in the O&G industry. Started my career as an environmental permitting advisor for upstream and downstream operations. Worked as the Emergency Response Coordinator for Brazil, with significant interfaces with key stakeholders such as leadership, industry peers and regulators. In this positions, I have developed response plans and coordinated exercises, ICS training and real responses including oil spill, medical and pandemic. Qualified in ICS Planning Section roles. Currently Safety Sr. Advisor for Upstream, serving as Incident Investigation & Learning focal point and Safety lead for Supply Chain Delivery operations.
Ligia is married to Victor and they have 2 dogs. On her free time, she likes to play piano or go camping in the mountains.

Cintia has 20+ years of global experience assisting organizations develop and implement initiatives to attain (re)design their business and operational model. Cintia has led and supported a $38B+ portfolio of engagements involving organizational design, project management, process improvement, change management, technology assessment and implementation. Cintia has broad and extensive public and private-sector experience leading high profile project management and operational optimization projects at Canadian Provincial and U.S. State levels, as well as global and Fortune 500 firms. 

CGA is one of the largest oil spill cooperatives in the Nation. James is a retired veteran of 24 years with the United States Coast Guard. His most recent Coast Guard assignments included Chief of Response and Chief, Incident Management at the Eighth Coast Guard District. During the Deep Water Horizon oil spill, he served as the Federal On-Scene Coordinator, Deputy Area Commander for Pollution Response and the Incident and Deputy Incident Commander for the Incident Command Post in Houma, LA. While at 8th District, James also served as Operations Officer on the National Strike Force Gulf Strike Team and as Deputy Commander of the National Strike Force. He has also served as the Coast Guard's Incident Management Team, the USCG's representative to the Interagency Board (IAB) and was the Co-Chair for the Regional Response Teams for Federal Regions VI, VII and VIII.

Dr. Gina Coelho has 30+ years' experience in environmental research, consulting and regulatory policy development. She began her career working for the Marine Spill Response Corporation from 1993-1995. In 1996 she founded an environmental consulting firm and over the next 25 years supported a variety of oil spill contingency planning, ecological risk assessment, dispersant R&D research, and spill response scientific support projects for clients including: more than a dozen U.S. state and Federal agencies; private industry clients; non-profit organizations; industry trade associations; and international organizations. In January 2021, Dr. Coelho joined the BSEE OSPD Response Research Branch and is now serving as the Technology and Science Transfer Manager.

Charlie Henry is the Director for NOAA's new GOM Disaster Response Center (DRC) located in Mobile, Alabama. The center's mission is to enhance NOAA's preparedness to respond to natural and man-made disasters in the Gulf of Mexico region and nationally. Henry serves as the DOC/NOAA trustee representative to Regional Response Team VI for oil and hazardous material incidents. For the 14 years previous to this assignment, Henry served as the NOAA Scientific Support Coordinator (SSC) for the Lower Mississippi River and the Western Gulf of Mexico. As a Scientific Support Coordinator, Henry was responsible for managing scientific issues that arose during emergency events and providing direct technical expertise and consultation to the lead Federal On-Scene Commander (FOSC) and managing scientific support teams deployed to such incidents. Henry has nearly 30 years of environmental assessment and spill response experience beginning with the 1985 Arco Anchorage incident near Anacortes, Washington. The first thirteen of those years were at Louisiana State University as a Research Associate providing chemistry support during emergency events and research on the fate of environmental pollution in marine and coastal environments. Henry has responded to more than 200 hundred oil and chemical spill events including the 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, the 1991 Kuwait Oil Fires, the 2000 Tanker Jessica Oil Spill in the Galapagos Islands off Ecuador, the hundreds of oil and chemical spills in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on the Northern Gulf of Mexico Coast in 2005, and the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.

Nicolle Rutherford is a response biologist in NOAA's Emergency Response Division, where she manages the Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) program, the Chemical Aquatic Fate and Effects (CAFE) Database software program, and responds to spills. Nicolle has a broad background in biology and marine science, wetlands ecology, and environmental policy and permitting. Nicolle received a bachelor's degree in Marine Science from the University of South Carolina, and a Master of Science in biology with a concentration in marine and estuarine science from Western Washington University. After completing graduate school, she and her husband served in the Peace Corps in the Republic of Vanuatu. Upon her return to the States, Nicolle worked as a wetland ecologist for several years before taking a position as a biologist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. She started at NOAA in 2008.

Ms. Szathmary is an ecologist specializing in coastal and marine ecology, natural resource mapping, environmental incident response, human impacts on natural systems, and ecological effects of climate change. She also has expertise in data acquisition, management, and analysis. Ms. Szathmary's responsibilities at RPI include serving as lead biologist and data manager on several different types of projects. In her time at RPI, she has worked on 20 Environmental Sensitivity Index mapping projects and hundreds of natural resource data syntheses in support of Resources at Risk Analyses. She also serves as a member of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Scientific Support Team as a responder to oil/hazardous materials spills and hurricanes, and she worked with the NOAA Restoration Center on long-term restoration planning and Natural Resource Damage Assessment for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Over the course of her career, she has worked in the field and/or in stakeholder meetings at dozens of locations along the east, west, Gulf, and Great Lakes coasts of North America, throughout the Caribbean, and in Australia and New Zealand.

Dr. Owens has over 50 years of experience in marine and inland oil spill response and training worldwide, and was the Technical Advisor to Exxon USA for the Shoreline Response to the T/V Exxon Valdez, during which he developed the Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Technique (SCAT) concept, and for BP's shoreline response to the Deepwater Horizon incident. Dr. Owens has worked on spill-related inland, river and coastal projects throughout North and South America, the Middle East, the Black and Caspian Seas, as well as Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Russia. He has conducted oil spill related missions for the UN, the IMO, GI-WACAF, the World Bank, EBRD, and was a member of the U.S. National Academy of Science Oil Spill R&D Committee. He has provided oil spill planning and preparedness training worldwide and has authored more than 300 publications on oil spill related topics. Dr.Owens experience with river spills and SCAT include the Usinsk pipeline. Komi River (Russia: 1995-1996) Equilon pipeline (Washington, USA: 1999); OSSA II pipeline, Rio Desaguadero (Bolivia: 2000-2001); Cheecham Line 35 pipeline (Fort McMurray, AB: 2013-2104); PetroPerú KM 206 pipeline (Amazon Basin: 2016): he North Sasktechewan River 16TAN pipeline (2016-2018); and the Pampilla Refinery T2 spill in Peru (2022-). He co-authored the three editions of the Environment Canada (now ECCC) SCAT Manual and the most recent (2022) ECCC Freshwater Oil Spill Response Guide.

Austin Dulany, graduated from Tarleton State University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Wildlife Management, he has 9 years with the Texas General Land Office Oil Spill Division. He left Corpus Christi after 8 years, a Senior Response Officer and many large spills and disater responses, to come up to the Austin Headquarters. He now fills the rolls of Outreach Coordinator, Lead for Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), Lead for Natural Disaster Operational Workgroup (NDOW), and Communications. He stays very busy with the family and tries to stay outdoor most of the time.

TJ Engstrom presently works as Director of Emergency Services for SET Environmental.  TJ has held a multitude of roles supporting domestic and international corporate preparedness and response, compliance, and business development.  Currently TJ is responsible for SET's Preparedness Programs, which includes emergency event management, OSRO compliance and strategic response partnerships.  TJ has a B.S. from Montana State University-Department of Engineering, and 19 years of professional experience in Emergency Response Management within the Public and Private Sector.

NAME: Paul L. Sonnemann
JOB TITLE: Vice President of Technology - SafeKick
EDUCATION:
1969 - 1971 Engineering (undergraduate) - Michigan Technological University
1971 - 1973 B.A. Psychology - Indiana University
1974 - 1975 post-graduate work in Human Development - University of Wisconsin

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY:
2011 - Present: SafeKick Americas LLC
VP of Technology - Responsible for the identification of opportunities and development of technologies to improve pressure management in field operations
Liaison with industry associations regarding well control and MPD (IADC, SPE)
Founder and chair of IADC Gas-In-Riser workgroups (currently Riser Gas Subcommittee of IADC UBO/MPD Committee), including proposals for revision of IADC Deepwater Well Control Guidelines
Founder and chair of IADC Well Control Practices Subcommittee (IADC Well Control Committee)
Deepwater Well control consultant
In-house expert on human factors and Well Control operational procedures

2004 - 2010: Chevron
Well Control Advisor - Responsible for the development and documentation of CVX
corporate well control policies and recommended practices
1996 - 2003: Self-employed
Well Control Consultant - Provided consulting/contract services to IADC and
various well control training organizations
1993 - 1996: Unocal
Well Control Trainer - Member of centralized well control training team
responsible for world-wide delivery of Unocal's customized well control training
and certification program
1986 - 1992: Sedco Forex Schlumberger
Personnel Manager / Benefits Manager - Served as North America Region human resources manager, including payroll/benefits and property administration
Training Instructor Manager - Served as Sedco Forex's training manager for the
North Sea region,
1981 - 1986: SEDCO / Sedco Forex Schlumberger
Drilling Crewmember - Worked as member of drill crew on Sedco 703, Sedco 701, and Shell Cormorant North Sea drilling rigs in positions up to Driller position

PUBLICATIONS:
"Circulate-and-Weight Well Control Method Has Several Advantages," Oil & Gas Journal (31 January 1994) 96.
"Optimizing and Automating Pressurized Mud Cap Drilling with the Micro-Flux Control Method", SPE 116492, October 2008
"Beyond MPD: Introducing Enhanced Primary Well control (EPWC)", Med Oil & Gas (November 2017) 63.

PRESENTATIONS: (at various IADC and/or SPE conferences on topics including, but not limited to:)
Choke drill recommended practices
Quantitative comparison of well control methods
Consideration of time during well kick management
Proposed application of annular friction during conventional well control operations
Gas-in-marine-riser misconceptions and riser equilibrium principles
Importance of Human Factors in well control
Transitional Kick Tolerance
Relative value of in-house, versus out-of-house well control training

As Emergency Preparedness and Response Manager, Nick
is charged with development and implementation of the
organization's multi-year Integrated Preparedness Plan. Nick
also places deep focus on educating members on Marine Well
Containment Company's (MWCC) Containment System and
response model and on oversight of the organization's Member
Response Network. In addition to his daily responsibilities,
Nick serves as part of MWCC's Advisor Unit, a small team of
subject matter experts (SME) dispatched to work closely with
the Responsible Party upon activation. Specifically, he acts as
MWCC's advisor on subsea dispersant injection.
Nick brings more than a decade of diverse emergency
preparedness and response expertise to his role at MWCC. He
began his career as a law enforcement officer before identifying
his true passion for emergency preparedness and pivoting to
more focused roles. He served under the United States Senate
Sergeant at Arms for the Battelle Memorial Institute supporting
the training of U.S. Senators on specific emergency action plans
and serving in the Emergency Operations Center for high-profile
events such as the annual State of the Union Address and
presidential inaugurations.
Nick went on to serve as the top administrator for the City of
Santa Monica Office of Emergency Management where he
was charged with stakeholder management, training, and
communications strategies related to emergency preparedness.
Nick holds a Master's in Engineering Management from George
Washington University's Institute for Crisis, Disaster & Risk
Management. He also received his Bachelor's in Criminal Justice
from George Washington University. His additional professional
accreditations include Certified Emergency Manager (CEM)
from the International Association of Emergency Managers
and Certified Business Continuity Professional