Plenary Speaker Bios

Joe Adduci

GIS Analyst/Project Leader
US Department of Energy Argonne National Laboratory

Joseph Adduci is a Geographic Information Systems Analyst/Project Leader assigned to National and Homeland Security areas at Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago, Illinois. Adduci specializes in data fusion involving the geospatial aspects of nuclear and radiological materials, sites, transportation and illicit trafficking. Much of Adduci's work at the laboratory focuses on the creation of geospatial databases as they pertain to the location, movement, detection and security of these materials to support prioritization and the decision making process in the area of nuclear and radiological security.

David Blankinship

Chief Technical Officer

David Blankinship is a 17 year veteran of the Geospatial industry – from Utilities to Public Safety to Major Incident Response. He has built Public Safety Enterprise GIS organizations, workflows, and industry standard geodatabase designs. He currently serves on the IAFC Technology Council, the NFPA Data Exchange Committee, and the NAPSG Pre-Incident Planning Working Group.

David likes to work in the area of interface between mainstream IT, GIS, Remote Sensing, and time-dominant analytics. His current research involves the fusion of multiple sensors, platforms, and feeds with geospatial models and mobile visualization for rapid analytics, risk mitigation, and disaster response.

Dennis Bowerman

GEOINT Mission Manager
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

Dennis W. Bowerman assumed the role of GEOINT Mission Manager for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency's Integrated Work Group for Readiness, Response and Recovery (R3) in May 2012. In this role, he oversees NGA efforts to provide content, processing and application services to emergency preparedness, response and recovery (EPR&R) mission partners with the goal of helping to save lives by improving the efficiency and effectiveness of mission partner use of GEOINT.

Prior to his current position, Bowerman held a variety of analytical and leadership positions in the former National Photographic Interpretation Center (NPIC) and the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA). He spent the first 17 years of his career in the Washington D.C. area, most of them working as an imagery analyst and manager.

Since 2004, Bowerman has served at NGA's Campus West, in St. Louis, Missouri. Bowerman graduated from Marquette University in 1986, with degrees in History, Spanish and Physics. He currently lives in Wentzville, Missouri with his wife, his three boys, and Gertrude, their Chesapeake Bay retriever.

Carla Boyce

Director, National Integration Center
FEMA

Carla Boyce currently serves as the Director of the National Integration Center for FEMA. Boyce began her career in public safety over 25 years ago as a fire fighter/paramedic in northern Virginia. Her public and private sector experience spans a variety of disciplines from fire/EMS, including prescribed burning and wildland fire suppression to state and federal disaster preparedness and operations, including GIS for disaster response. Most recently she served as IEMs Response Division Manager responsible for coordinating and managing catastrophic preparedness initiatives as well as surge disaster operations and logistics support to federal and state emergency management agencies. Prior to joining IEM, she managed the Florida Division of Emergency Management's Bureau of Preparedness leading statewide training, natural and technological preparedness and spatial information programs. While with the FDEM she served as Plans Chief for the State Emergency Response Team.

Rick Driggers

National Protection and Programs Directorate Chief Technology Officer
US Department of Homeland Security

Richard "Rick" Driggers joined the Department of Homeland Security on September 8, 2003. He currently serves as the National Protection and Programs Directorate Chief Technology Officer (CTO). As the CTO, he provides leadership and management in the areas of applied technologies, data management and governance, enterprise architecture, geospatial information system, and portfolio management. Previously, he served as the Acting Director for the Infrastructure Security Compliance Division within the Office of Infrastructure Protection (IP). ISCD leads the national implementation of the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) to assess high-risk chemical facilities, promote collaborative security planning, and ensure that covered facilities meet risk-based performance standards.

Driggers also served as the Director, Infrastructure Information Collection Division and the Deputy Director position in the Risk Management Division within IP as well as with the Collection and Requirements Division within the Office of Intelligence and Analysis. In these positions his responsibilities included leading and directing various national risk management and technical programs; strategic, performance, and budgetary planning; operational and exercise planning; future systems research; and training.

Prior to his arrival at the Department, he was the Chief of Current Operations at the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency following his employment with B3H Corporation, supporting the Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) on Hurlburt Field, Florida. He began his service to the nation when he enlisted as an airman on October 31, 1988 into the U.S. Air Force (USAF) as a Combat Controller assigned to AFSOC. While conducting tactical training he was severely injured during a parachute jump and subsequently medically discharged from the USAF on January 12, 2001.

As a Combat Controller, he held several leadership and operational positions. He deployed as a component of U.S. Air Force Special Tactics Teams; U.S. Army Special Forces Operations Detachment Alpha Teams; U.S. Navy SEAL Platoons; and the British, Australian, and New Zealand Special Air Service (SAS) Troops. He served in the Middle East participating in operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm, Provide Comfort II and III, and Desert Thunder during the 1990s. He deployed to the Balkans to participate in operations Deny Flight and Joint Endeavor in the mid-1990s. He also participated in counter-drug operations in Central and South America.

His awards and decorations include the U.S. Air Force Commendation Medal (5 awards), Joint Service Achievement Medal (2 awards), U.S. Air Force Achievement Medal (5 awards), U.S. Army Achievement Medal (2 awards), National Defense Medal, U.S. Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, and the NATO Medal. He has also earned the U.S. Army Jump Master Parachutist badge, the U.S. Army Special Forces (SF) Military Freefall Master Parachutist Badge, SF Combat Diver Badge, the U.S. Army Ranger Tab, and the Australian Army Parachute Badge from the 1st Squadron, Special Air Service Regiment.

He holds a B.S. in Applied Science and Technology and is a recent graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government Senior Executive Fellows Program. He has three fabulous kids; Christopher, Cole, and Olivia. In his free time he enjoys being outdoors with his family and traveling.

Noah Fritz

Crime Analysis Manager
San Diego County Sheriff's Department

Dr. Noah Fritz is the new Crime Analysis Manager at the San Diego County Sheriff's Department. He looks forward to getting back to the "field" of crime analysis after spending the last five years as an Assistant Professor in the Criminal Justice & Criminology Department at Metropolitan State College of Denver. His primary area of research is Crime Mapping, Crime Analysis and Geographic Information Systems. He was the previous Director and Founder of the Crime Mapping and Analysis Program (CMAP)—a U.S. Department of Justice sponsored training and technical assistance program and served as the Deputy Director of NLECTC.

Fritz's notable accomplishments include a Doctorate in Justice and Social Inquiry from Arizona State University, a Master's degree from the same, and undergraduate degrees in Sociology and Criminal Justice from Illinois State University. He has authored articles in Sociological Quarterly and the Encyclopedia of Criminology and Deviant Behavior; is a coauthor of Exploring Crime Analysis (2004); has appeared nationally on ABC's Weekend News Edition featuring crime mapping; and has been featured on public radio in Australia, where he recently provided consulting services to the Victoria Police Department. He enjoys camping, hiking and golf and spending time outdoors with his family and friends.

Alexander Fuchs

Information Management Officer
Frontex Situation Center—European Agency for the External Borders

After high school Alexander Fuchs joined the German navy in 1999 and became an Operations Specialist. After 8 years of service on seagoing assets as well as shore duty he left the navy in 2007. From 2007 to 2009 he served NATO as a civil servant. His main duty was C2 system management. In 2009 Fuchs joined Frontex, the European Agency for the External Borders. He is working as a project manager and the Frontex CORE GIS is one of his projects

Eric Holdeman

Principal
Eric Holdeman and Associates

Eric Holdeman is the Principal for Eric Holdeman and Associates. His areas of expertise include building regional coalitions between agencies, governments, the private sector and nonprofits. Planning, Regional planning, port security operations, Emergency Operations Center (EOC) design and construction, multimedia public education programs, Joint Information Center (JIC) formation and operations, media relations, social media, meeting facilitation and integration of technology into emergency management and homeland security programs are just a few of the areas in which he has extensive experience. In 2007 he was recognized by Government Technology Magazine as one of the Top 25 people in the nation who, "Challenge convention, confront entrenched bureaucracy and promote innovation." He currently works professionally in the areas of port security, emergency management and risk management. He has also authored numerous articles for professional journals and opinion pieces for local, regional and national newspapers. He is a writer for Emergency Management Magazine where he contributes feature articles and also has a regular column, "Eric's Corner." An experienced and accomplished public speaker he is sought after to present at national and regional conferences. He has the United States' most popular blog on the topic of emergency management at www.disaster-zone.com.

He has previously served as a Principal for ICF International, a Fairfax, Virginia based consulting firm. Prior to joining ICF he was a local emergency management director for King County Washington which is the metropolitan Seattle area. In this position he established the King County Office of Emergency Management as a national leader in many areas of emergency management and homeland security. In 2005 King County was given a national award by the National Association of Counties (NACo) for establishing a "Regional Approach to Homeland Security." Additionally, the 9/11 Commission recognized the King County Regional Disaster Response Plan as a "Best Practice" for integrating the private business sector into community-wide disaster planning.

While leading the King County program the projects he facilitated included regional homeland security, regional coordination and administration of numerous homeland security grants, including Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) grants, totaling over $34M; exercise design and participation in the national counter terrorism exercise (TOPOFF 2); regional disaster response, critical infrastructure and mitigation planning processes for King County; design, construction and occupation of a $30M Regional communications and emergency coordination center; and establishing multi-county mutual aid agreements. King County Washington is known as a national leader in pandemic flu preparedness.

Immediately prior to assuming his position in King County he worked for the Washington State Division of Emergency Management for five years. While with Washington State he served in a number of increasingly responsible supervisory positions in the areas of operations, training, public education, disaster exercises, and plans. Previously, he completed a 20-year career in the US Army as an Infantry Officer. While in the military, he served in a variety of demanding assignments in which he developed and managed operation centers and was responsible for contingency planning. He is a graduate of Concordia University Chicago, where he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts in Education.

He is a member and Past President of the Washington State Emergency Management Association (WSEMA). He currently serves on the Advisory Council for the Center for Regional Disaster Resilience and the Pacific Northwest-Advanced National Seismic Safety Region Advisory Committee. Additionally, he is on the Advisory Board for the University of Washington's Masters in Strategic Planning for Critical Infrastructures.

Additionally, he is on the Advisory Board for the University of Washington's Masters in Strategic Planning for Critical Infrastructures.

Steven King

Geospatial Portfolio Manager
US Department of Homeland Security

Dr. Steven G. King leads the overall governance and alignment of all geospatial (location-based) programs and systems within DHS, as the Department's first Geospatial Portfolio Manager. He represents DHS on several Federal interagency boards and committees. He has been a senior manager since the creation of DHS in 2003. In his time at DHS he has been awarded for work developing a Presidential Executive Order enhancing the security of biological toxins and select agents. He authored significant sections of the country's first Federal chemical security regulations (CFATS). He led the implementation of the interagency Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative for the nation's critical infrastructure.

Prior to joining DHS, he taught explosives for the Department of Justice and conducted vulnerability assessments and developed emergency response plans for the Pentagon, US House of Representatives, US Capitol Police Board, and critical infrastructure across the nation. He also has over 20 years of experience as a fire fighter and EMT-Paramedic. He still remains active as a volunteer fire officer and nationally registered EMT-Paramedic.

Steve holds a Doctor of Science in Information Systems and communication, a Master of Science in Biodefense, a Master of Business Administration, and an undergraduate degree in Emergency Services Administration. He completed the Naval Postgraduate School's Homeland Security Executive Leaders' program, the Federal Executive Institute's flagship course, Leadership for a Democratic Society, and the Senior Executive Fellows program at Harvard University.

In addition to numerous fire fighting, emergency medical services, law enforcement, technical rescue, and hazardous materials related certifications, King is board certified in security management as a Certified Protection Professional (CPP®), certified in homeland security, level five (CHS-V), and is a Project Management Professional (PMP®). He is currently the Chair of the American Board for Certification in Infrastructure Protection.

Ross Martin

GIS Manager
San Diego County Sheriff's Department

Ross Martin is the County of San Diego GIS Manager. He has spent 13 years working in GIS for local government. During this time, his job focus has ranged from operational use of GIS to building the GIS capabilities within all the County of San Diego departments. Over the last 2 years, he has worked to improve the GIS resources available to specialized public safety units in the County. His education background includes an undergraduate degree in Biology and a master's degree in Geography.

Chris McIntosh

Statewide Interoperable Communications Coordinator
Commonwealth of Virginia

Prior to his appointment, Christopher I. McIntosh served as a subject matter expert for the Virtual USA program where he applied operational and technological best practices to information sharing initiatives at all levels of government. Prior to that, he served as the Operations Section Chief at the Virginia Emergency Operations Center where he was responsible for coordinating the response to large scale incidents and events affecting multiple jurisdictions in the Commonwealth, as well as the operation of the VEOC's Watch Center. McIntosh developed and fielded the Virginia Interoperability Picture for Emergency Response (VIPER), which serves as common operating picture for the state. Prior to joining VDEM, McIntosh was an Operations Analyst for the Navy component of the National Ballistic Missile Defense Program in Arlington, Virginia.

McIntosh served over ten years in the United States Navy, separating in 2005. He began his career as a Hospital Corpsman specializing in environmental health, industrial hygiene, and communicable disease control. After numerous assignments supporting hospital, surface ship, and fleet marine force units, he was selected for the Enlisted Commissioning Program in 1999. After commissioning, he served in both the Operations and Combat Systems Departments onboard several surface ships and conducted numerous deployments in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Noble Eagle.

McIntosh is a graduate of the Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelors Degree in History. His professional education includes Naval Preventive Medicine School, the Virginia Professional Management Institute, the Aegis Combat Systems Officer course, and the National Hurricane Center preparedness course.

Sean McSpaden

Deputy State Chief Information Officer
State of Oregon

During the past 20 years in the public and private sectors, Sean McSpaden has gained operational experience and leadership skills at the executive and management levels. His background includes the start-up and management of several small businesses. His public service experience includes progressively responsible positions as an IT analyst, and in statewide coordination, management and leadership positions with the Oregon Department of Administrative Services (DAS). Over the past 13 years, McSpaden has worked directly with virtually every Oregon state agency, all major IT governing boards, agency business and technology leaders, other states and many federal and local government agencies on a variety of statewide and national information technology issues.

He currently serves as Oregon's Deputy State Chief Information Officer. He also serves as the Deputy Administrator for the DAS Enterprise Information Strategy and Policy Division. In that capacity, he oversees the division's administrative operations including planning, budgeting, contracting, personnel, and performance management and oversees the operation of the Geospatial Enterprise Office, Economic Recovery Executive Team and IT Investment and Planning sections.

Among other topics, he and his team are very involved in assessing how Cloud-based solutions might best be deployed across Oregon state government.

In 2010, he co-led a multi-agency team that established Oregon's state price agreement for Software as a Service (SaaS) E-mail and related services. In addition, he co-sponsored a series of multi-agency e-mail workshops which led to the adoption of a Statewide Email Consolidation Roadmap designed to dramatically reduce the number of e-mail systems deployed across state government.

In 2011, he co-led the deployment of data.oregon.gov via the use of a Software as a Service (SaaS) offering. He also serves on a four (4) state team that issued an RFI and RFP on GIS Cloud Computing Services and is currently pursuing the execution of a multi-state contract through the Western States Contracting Alliance (WSCA) in the coming months. 'His team led the deployment of Oregon's Dedicated SaaS Email environment, authored Oregon's Software as a Service (SaaS) Strategy, and is in the process of completing an initial study on alternative approaches for deploying desktop office productivity tools across Oregon state government (including Desktop Virtualization and Cloud-based solutions).

He holds a Bachelors of Arts in Business Management from Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon. He is a 2006 graduate of the Willamette University Atkinson Graduate School of Management's Certificate of Public Management Program. He completed Oregon's project management certification program in 1999 and enterprise architecture certification program (TOGAF) in 2008. He is a member of several professional organizations including the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO), the National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC), the Project Management Institute (PMI) and the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA).

Mike Sena

Deputy Director
Northern California Regional Intelligence Center

Deputy Director Mike Sena is a sworn law enforcement professional with the California Department of Justice, Division of Law Enforcement-Bureau of Investigation. Sena is tasked with managing and developing the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center's (NCRIC) Homeland Security Section of the fusion center. The NCRIC is one of four Department of Homeland Security funded Regional Intelligence Fusion Centers located within the State of California.

Sena has a diverse nineteen year law enforcement career as a veteran investigator with the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, the California Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, and the California Bureau of Investigation and Intelligence. His assignments have included the investigation of major narcotic violators, violent gang organizations, career criminal enforcement, terrorist and organized crime groups.

Sena serves as the president of the National Fusion Center Association, is a member of the Criminal Intelligence Coordinating Council, and is a member of the Homeland Security Information Network–State and Local Intelligence Community Executive Board. He also serves as the chairman of the San Francisco Bay Area Urban Area Security Initiative Advisory Group.

Sena was the recipient of the 2010 State and Urban Area Fusion Center Representative of the Year Award from the Fusion Center Management Group.

Sena holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Criminal Justice from the California State University, San Bernardino.