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Lori Stone is a senior public safety advisor for the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority). She is responsible for outreach and consultation with local public safety agencies. She most recently served as Maryland’s single point of contact for the FirstNet Authority. In this role, she was responsible for the development and implementation of the outreach and state consultation strategy to engage public safety in FirstNet planning efforts.

Lori also spent several years working on the legal, operational, and planning requirements for the deployment of Maryland FiRST, the statewide 700 MHz public safety radio communications system. She also served as the grant manager for two public safety communications federal grant programs.

Lori has worked as a National Capital Region Planner at the Maryland Emergency Management Agency; developed public education and media campaigns for emergency preparedness; and drafted and exercised Continuity of Operations Plans for higher education institutions, hospitals, and non-profit organizations.

She has a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from Towson University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Maryland School of Law.

Lyons Hale has been a sworn police officer since 1998 and currently holds the rank of captain. He has worked in a patrol capacity for most of his career and leads Louisiana’s statewide crisis negotiation team. He is also the co-founder of Juliet Lima Solutions, a law enforcement and private industry training and consulting company that offers leadership, de-escalation and emotional intelligence training. Learn more here.

Jim Schwartz retired in 2021 after five years as the deputy county manager for public safety and technology in Arlington, Virginia. Prior to that, he served in the Arlington County Fire Department for 32 years, the last 11 as chief of department. The ACFD was the lead agency for the response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attack at the Pentagon. Chief Schwartz led the unified command effort for the Pentagon incident.

Schwartz is a senior fellow with the Program on Crisis Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School, and teaches in the Executive Education programs, including Leadership in Crises, the General and Flag Officer Homeland Security Executive Seminar, and Leadership in Homeland Security.

Schwartz provides frequent lectures on crisis leadership for organizations, such as U.S. State Department, FBI, several universities and numerous international audiences. He also lectured as part of the Joint Counterterrorism Awareness Workshop Series (JCTAWS) on complex coordinated attack preparedness provided by FEMA from 2014 to 2018.

Schwartz is a member of the International Association of Fire Chiefs Committee on Terrorism and Homeland Security, which he chaired from 2008 to 2014. He previously served on the Advisory Council for the Interagency Threat Assessment and Coordination Group (ITACG) and subsequently the Joint Counterterrorism Assessment Team (JCAT) at the National Counter-Terrorism Center. He also served on the Homeland Security Science and Technology Advisory Committee and was a member of the Advisory Committee for the Department of Homeland Security’s first Quadrennial Review in 2010.

Schwartz is a founder of the Northern Virginia Emergency Response System an inter-disciplinary, multi-jurisdictional organization that works to support and enhance regional preparedness.

Dr. Randall W. Hanifen is an assistant chief of operations for West Chester (OH) Fire, an associate professor at the American Public University’s Emergency Management Program, adjunct professor at University of Cincinnati, and CEO of a national fire service consulting company. Randall serves as the executive director of a regional special operations team, a former taskforce leader for FEMA’s Ohio Task Force 1 US&R team, vice-president of the Institution of Fire Engineers-USA Branch, and is the chair of IAFC Company Officers Section.

He serves as a member of NFPA 1021 Fire Officer Professional Qualifications standard and NFPA 1026 Incident Management committees. Randall is credentialed as a Chief Fire Officer by the Center for Public Safety Excellence and has been accepted as a fellow to the Institution of Fire Engineers. He is the associate author of the textbook “Disaster Planning and Control” (2009). Randall has provided presentations and trainings for the Ohio Fire Chief’s Association, Fire Rescue International, Emergency Management Institute, and is a contract instructor for the NFA, teaching courses in the Executive and Managing Fire Officer Programs. He has a BS in Fire Administration, an MS in Fire Service Executive Leadership and a PhD in Executive Management of Homeland Security. Randall can be reached at Randall@hanifen.org.

Lucas Neff, MD, is a former USAF general surgeon and now is a pediatric general and trauma surgeon at a large academic medical center. He is a cofounder of Certus Critical Care, a medical device company leveraging the power of robotics for precision hemodynamic management. He can be reached at luke@certuscriticalcare.com.

Andrea is the owner and author of The EMS Professional. With over 20 years of EMS industry experience in various leadership roles, including field training officer, supervisor, quality assurance and compliance manager, EMS director and programs management, Andrea is skilled in system management, training, education, administration and project management. She has work experience in frontier, rural, suburban, and urban EMS systems.

In addition to her leadership experience, she brings years of experience working in the ambulance and emergency department. Andrea holds her National Registry Paramedic license, Community Paramedic certification and Instructor Coordinator license in addition to her formal education and degrees. Her unique consulting approach is detailed, honest and highly personalized. Andrea offers a variety of EMS leadership and wellness courses to EMS agencies and departments. She’s an avid blogger, national speaker, podcaster and consultant. You can contact her at: theemsprofessional@gmail.com

Dr. Jeremy Kanter is chief medical officer at Ally Medical Emergency Room, a subsidiary of USA Emergency Centers. Founded in 2015 and owned and managed by board-certified physicians driving to reinvent emergency care with more caring and less waiting, Ally Medical provides emergency medical care through a network of freestanding emergency rooms in Austin and Houston, where patient care is the priority. Ally Medical is headquartered in Austin, Texas, and operates five freestanding emergency rooms across Texas.

Janet graduated with her Associates of Science in Nursing in 1998. She worked different departments in order to gain experience in all fields including ICU, med-surg, outpatient, obstetrics and ED before joining Mercy Life Line in 2004 as a flight nurse. She began teaching various topics for the local paramedic program in 2008 and soon began her career as a speaker at EMS conferences across the nation. She was named Flight Crew Member of the Year in 2009 and received her Bachelors of Science in Nursing in 2013. In March 2017, Janet started working for LifeFlight Eagle Air Medical Transport. In 2022, Janet took a break from flight and now works full time as a nurse in a paramedic role for Golden Valley EMS.

Since 2009, she has been a speaker for EMS conferences in 37 different states. She is a module writer for various online education forums and a part-time instructor for University of Maryland at Baltimore County’s paramedic program and State Fair Community College.

Janet prefers to keep it simple and help others learn difficult concepts with learning outside the box.

Dr. Crowe is an expert in using data to power quality improvement and research initiatives in EMS. From truck clutches to clinical care, she has shown how improvement in science and sound research methodology work to solve problems across fields. As an EMT with a passion for advancing EMS, she earned her PhD in epidemiology and has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications. Now, as director of research at ESO, Dr. Crowe routinely uses data to improve community health and safety.

Missy Morris started in public safety as a juvenile probation worker after graduating from University of California Santa Barbara in 1991 with a degree in behavioral psychology. She moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to work in probation before quickly transitioning to police work. She spent three years with the Palo Alto and Mountain View police departments as a patrol officer. She spent the following 22 years of her 28-year career at the City of Roseville. Missy worked in critical incident negotiations, eventually becoming the multi-city team leader and serving seven years on the state board of hostage negotiators. Missy feels her greatest assignment was a five-year stint as a traffic motor officer riding a BMW and working fatal accidents. She held several special assignments before retiring in 2020 as a lieutenant. Missy now works with the Lexipol Professional Services Team, working closely with Cordico wellness solution.