Ross currently works nationally to support disaster response and recovery efforts for both state declared and presidentially declared disasters. Ross was nominated by President George W. Bush and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as the Assistant Administrator for the Grant Programs Directorate at FEMA. In this role Ross managed 53 federal assistance programs totaling over $10.1 billion. As a member of the FEMA Executive Staff, Ross participated in the development of three National Level Exercises (NLE) and numerous continuity of government exercises including exercises with the Executive Office of the President. Ross was asked by President Barack Obama to remain in his post to aid in the policy development and distribution of the American Recovery and Reconstruction Act (ARRA) funding. Ross is a retired member of the Virginia Air National Guard where he responded to multiple hurricanes affecting the Commonwealth of Virginia. Most recently Ross responded to hurricanes Irma and Maria where he was deployed with the Red Cross to supply bulk food and water distribution to the USVI.

Beth is a Senior Manager in the Risk & Advisory Practice based in Halifax Nova Scotia.  She has over 18 years of experience in Business Continuity Management (BC) and Disaster Recovery Program Management (DR), Crisis Communications and Emergency Response.  She has developed and implemented BC and DR program policies and procedures to meet ISO22031 and ISO27001 standards, performed assessments on existing programs and facilitated Business Impact Assessments (BIA)  and Technology Impact Assessments (TIA) across several industries.  She has led the implementation and testing of several DR strategies including on-premise and cloud technologies.

Jay Chalke has been the Ombudsperson of British Columbia since May 2015. In this role, he has led several wide-reaching systemic investigations, including the first referral of a matter to the Ombudsperson by a legislative committee, which resulted in the 2017 report Misfire: The 2012 Ministry of Health Employment Terminations and Related Matters, the most resource-intensive investigation in the 40-year history of the Ombudsperson’s Office in BC.

Jay has an extensive background in executive leadership, conducting fair and independent investigations and the use of modern approaches to dispute resolution. His previous roles include leading the Justice Services Branch of the Ministry of Attorney General; first Public Guardian and Trustee of British Columbia, where he was also a member of Canada’s delegation to the Hague Conference on Private International Law, which negotiated the Convention on the Protection of Adults; Deputy Public Guardian and Trustee of Ontario; Head of the Review of Certain Practices in New Brunswick Correctional Institutions; and Crown Counsel with the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General. He began his career as a Correctional and Psychiatric Services Investigator with the Ombudsman of Ontario.

Jay is a member of the Law Society of British Columbia, and was appointed King’s Counsel in 2006.

The Ombudsperson’s office is located on the unceded traditional lands of the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Lekwungen) Peoples and ancestors and our work extends across the homelands of the Indigenous Peoples within what we now call British Columbia. We honour the many territorial keepers of the lands and waters where we work.

Tom DeSorcy joined the fire service in 1983 and became the first paid firefighter in his hometown of Hope, B.C., when he became fire chief in 2000. Originally a radio broadcaster, Tom’s voice could be heard in the early 1990s across Canada as one of the hosts of Country Coast to Coast. Tom is married with children, and grandchildren. He is equally at home at a bonspiel, on the golf course or in the kitchen, and continues to enjoy his connections to the Canadian fire service.

David Etkin is a Professor of Disaster and Emergency Management at York University. Previously, he worked for Environment Canada from 1977-2005. During his career, he has been a weather forecaster in Nova Scotia and Ontario, taught meteorology to new forecasters, and done applied research in the Arctic and Industrial Climatology Divisions of the Canadian Climate Centre. In 1993 he joined the Adaptation and Impacts Research Group of the Meteorological Service of Canada, specializing in the interdisciplinary study of natural hazards and disasters, and climate change. From 1996-2005 he worked at the University of Toronto with the Institute for Environmental Studies doing research on natural hazards and disasters. He has contributed to several national and international natural hazard projects including the 2nd U.S. national assessment of natural hazards, the IPCC, was Principal Investigator of the Canadian National Assessment of Natural Hazards and is Past President of the Canadian Risk and Hazards Network. His current areas of research are disaster risk assessment and disaster ethics. He has 90 publications including two textbooks and 6 edited volumes.

Bobby Gorantla is a Managing Director in the KPMG LLP Data and Analytics practice. For more than seven years, has led the practice’s state and local government and healthcare domain, helping clients leverage data and analytics, cognitive automation strategies, artificial intelligence, and other innovative technology enablement capabilities to advance their objectives. In this role, he has a focus on innovation in emergency management, leading the development of innovative disaster recovery risk assessment and grants management enablers and solutions that help states streamline and accelerate the grants management process. Bobby received his MBA at Penn State University and his Master of Software Engineering degree at Carnegie Mellon University.

Dr. Johnston is a former wildland fire fighter and incident commander. Today he is a Forest Fire Research Scientist with the Canadian Forest Service and is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on the development of remote sensing tools for studying the physical properties of combustion and fire behaviour, as well as the adaptation of remote sensing tools for operational fire management. Dr. Johnston represents Canada’s satellite fire monitoring interests globally through a number of international leadership roles (e.g. GOFC-GOLD Fire Implementation Team and CEOS WG Disasters). In 2017 Josh launched Canada’s first national emergency tactical wildfire mapping systems, known as Torchlight. In 2018 he was named the Principal Investigator for the WildFireSat (WFS) satellite mission, and in 2022 he led the mission to a fully funded state, making WildFireSat the world’s first publicly owned, purpose built operational wildfire monitoring satellite system.

Zack advises, represents and advocates for employers on a variety of employment and labour law matters, with a particular focus on advocacy. He began his career with Sherrard Kuzz LLP as a law student, during which time he participated in a secondment with the Ontario Labour Relations Board. Zack is a member of the Law Society of Ontario, Canadian Bar Association, and Ontario Bar Association (Administrative Law, Civil Litigation, Labour & Employment Law, Workers’ Compensation, Constitutional, Civil Liberties & Human Rights, Privacy and Access to Information Law).

Vito Mangialardi is an award-winning and industry certified (Business Continuity institute (BCI) Master Business Continuity and the Disaster Recovery Institute Canada (DRIC) as a Certified Business Continuity Professional (CBCP)); and leader in the global Business Continuity and Resiliency industry. With 40 years of experience directly across a broad range of sectors, from transit and telecommunications to environmental technology and power generation, he has been acclaimed as an internationally recognized expert, a powerful change agent and a flexible thinker who has helped transform corporations and public agencies and the field of business continuity itself. A skilled communicator with extensive Canadian and international experience as a speaker, writer, educator and consultant, Mangialardi is a passionate and articulate advocate for his client’s best interests and for the future practices of business continuity and operational resiliency.

Ryan Smith is a climatologist and climate service specialist with the Canadian Centre for climate services, a division of environment and climate change Canada. Ryan works in the outreach and engagement team and contributes to the development of the CCCS’ online data services, including ClimateData.ca which we’ll be hearing a bit more about today. Ryan’s been working in the climate services space for the past 15 years and joins us today from his home office in Winnipeg, Manitoba.