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

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 13 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, Pelican Island Bridge Allision, and the responses to Hurricane's Harvey and Beryl.

Melanie is a Senior Emergency Preparedness and Response Advisor at Marine Well Containment Company (MWCC), dedicated to ensuring the organization's resilience. She develops and maintains emergency response plans, policies, and procedures, and facilitates the implementation of the Integrated Preparedness Plan. Melanie also educates members on MWCC's Containment System and response model, and provides planning support for the Member Network. In addition to her daily responsibilities, Melanie is qualified for the role of Deputy Planning & External Affairs Section Leader and Liaison to the Joint Information Center as requested by the Responsible Party. With over a decade of experience in emergency preparedness and response, including roles at Fort Bend County Health & Human Services and the City of Houston Office of Emergency Management, Melanie holds a Master's in Risk Communication and is a Certified Emergency Manager (CEM), Master Exercise Practitioner (MEP), and Certified Business Continuity Professional (CBCP).

April Sagerian is an accomplished supply chain professional with an extensive, 23-year history in the Oil and Gas industry. Presently serving as the Senior Supply Chain Manager at Hess Corporation, she leads the Production and Logistics category contracting team. Notably, she serves as a rotating Logistics Section Chief at Hess for the past decade. April's academic pursuits have been marked by her dedication to continuous education, culminating in a Master's Degree in Supply Chain Management from the University of San Diego. This academic achievement mirrors her commitment to staying abreast of the latest industry trends and practices. Not confined to her professional endeavors, April holds additional qualifications as a licensed UAS (Unmanned Aircraft Systems) Pilot and a 100T Merchant Mariner, underlining her diverse skill set and adaptability within the dynamic realm of supply chain management.

The Texas General Land Office Oil Spill Prevention and Response Division's Prevention and Preparedness Coordinator. In charge of the Training, Exercise, Compliance, Discharge Cleanup Organization, and Small Spill Prevention programs. 16 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.

With over 26 years of government and military service, Dan provides comprehensive local, regional, national, and international emergency management experience to our clients and teams. Dan completed his federal service at US Coast Guard Headquarters as the Chief of Contingency Preparedness and Exercise Policy, where he was the Program Manager for all-hazards emergency management strategy, doctrine, training and qualification requirements for incident preparedness and large-scale crisis response. In this role, he set service-wide policy for emergency operation planning process, continuity of operations, exercises, lessons learned and corrective action programs, as well as overseeing the annual process for all USCG Type 1 and 2 NIMS Incident Command System certifications.

Throughout his career, Dan has been assigned to ICS command and general staff positions on several large incidents, to include spills of national significance, international response, hurricanes, and National Special Security Events (NSSE), such as the 2004 G8 Summit-Sea Island, GA; Republican National Convention; the 2005 Presidential Inauguration; and NFL Super Bowl 39 in Jacksonville, FL.

In more typical response roles, Dan deployed to Houston, TX, ahead of Hurricane IKE in 2008 and served as Group Supervisor and Branch Director during the response for 120 personnel with 12 USCG response boats to conduct search and rescue, law enforcement, and security operations from Lake Charles, LA, to Houston, TX. Immediately after the 7.3 magnitude Haitian earthquake in January 2010, Dan deployed to Port-au-Prince as a Planning Section Chief on the DHS Haiti Integrated Response Team. Dan utilized his prior relationships with Haitian officials and knowledge of the country to quickly assess the seaport and to develop and implement security measures for humanitarian cargo arriving by sea and ensure an effective "re-start" to maritime sector of the Haitian government. He also supported security of the US Embassy perimeter alongside US Marine Corps and Diplomatic Security Teams and contributed to the immediate evacuation of over 12,000 US citizens back to the United States.

Indicative of his skills and leadership, Dan directed a diverse Operations Section of personnel, oil skimmers, small boats, heavy construction equipment, and multiple staging areas to address the oil impact along 24 miles of National Wildlife Refuge beaches on Matagorda Island, TX, and safeguard the habitat for several endangered species as Operations Section Chief during the Texas City "Y" spill. In 2017, he served as the senior Coast Guard Liaison Officer to FEMA at the National Response Coordination Center during response phase to Hurricanes HARVEY, IRMA, and MARIA and coordinated service-wide response operations with National and Regional Emergency Support Function (ESF) leaders, while brokering $200 million in Mission Assignments for USCG response.

After leaving the Coast Guard, Dan thrived as an Emergency Preparedness Planner for Duval County, FL, and as the Director of Terminal Operations for the Jacksonville (FL) Port Authority. Spanning more than 840 square miles, the emergency management role was a massive undertaking, as Duval County is home to Jacksonville, the largest city by land area in the contiguous United States. In this capacity, Dan was responsible for managing the Emergency Management program in all mission areas of emergency management, including prevention, preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation programs.

Dan holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Marine Sciences (US Coast Guard Academy), a Master of Arts in National Security Policy Studies (US Naval War College), and a Master of Science in Military National Resource Strategy and Policy (National War College).

Since joining EMSI, Dan has worked closely with the oil and gas industry and government clients to prepare companies to respond to highly complex scenarios on a global basis. Indicative of his expertise, he holds ICS qualifications as a Type 1 Incident Commander and Type 1 Operations Section Chief in addition several other Type 3 command and general staff certifications from the US Coast Guard. He also holds Certified Emergency Manager (CEM) and Professional in Human Resources (PHR) certifications.

Commander McQuate graduated from Coast Guard Recruit Basic Training in 1999 and Coast Guard Officer Candidate School in 2005. As an enlisted member, his assignments included Enlisted Aid for the Seventeenth Coast Guard District Commander in Juneau, Alaska, and onboard the Coast Guard Cutter KUKUI in Honolulu, Hawaii. Since Commissioning, Commander McQuate has supported the Coast Guard's strategic missions of Marine Safety, Port, Waterways and Coastal Security, and Marine Environmental Protection at Marine Safety Unit Houma, LA, Sector New Orleans, Marine Safety Unit Paducah, KY, Coast Guard Headquarters Office of Port and Facility Compliance, and Sector North Carolina in Wilmington, NC. Prior to his tour at Coast Guard Headquarters, Commander McQuate spent a year in an Executive Internship where he focused on the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) industry while working with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Cheniere LNG, Gas Technology Institute, and American Petroleum Institute. Since June 2022 he has served as the Chief of Prevention at Sector New York. In this capacity he is vital in ensuring the safety and security of one of the Nation's busiest and most economically important port complexes. Sector New York's area of responsibility spans over 6,000 square miles from 200 miles offshore and inland north of Albany, NY, and includes facilities and waterways moving hundreds of billions of dollars in cargo and tens of millions of passengers annually.

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 communications 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.

Dan Wesp joined American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) in 2007 as an Engineer within the ABS technical engineering office and has been a member of the Global Gas Solutions team since 2013. He provides business development and advisory services for all U.S. gas markets, including gas fueled vessels and liquefied gas cargo vessels, with vast knowledge of class and statutory requirements. He is an active participant and held chairmanship roles in numerous industry committee working groups, such as but not limited to; Society of Gas as Marine Fuel (SGMF), National Chemical Transportation Safety Advisory Committee (NCTSAC), and ASTM F25 on Ships and Marine Technology. Dan is a graduate of Massachusetts Maritime Academy with a Bachelor of Science in Marine Engineering Systems and has sailed as a U.S. Merchant Marine Engineer.

J.T. Newman is the President of E3 Environmental taking the company from its founding in 2014 to one of the largest and most capable environmental companies in the Southeast. Mr. Newman has over 17 years of experience in the Environmental Response Industry and has worked on numerous projects over his career including hurricane responses, train derailments, hazardous waste facility fires, tank battery demolitions, oil spills both on land and water, and numerous responses to petroleum releases, orphaned containers, leaking containers, and material transfers for both private entities and government agencies. Mr. Newman has a Bachelors Degree in Biology and a Master's Degree in Chemistry and extensive experience in RCRA, OSHA, and many other governmental regulations.

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.

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.

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.

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).

Mike Walker, MSRC Vice-President, Gulf Region has 31-years' experience in supporting and managing spill response and emergency activities. 25 of these 31 years have been with MSRC. Prior to MSRC, Mike held response and marketing positions with the following companies:

Riedel-Peterson Environmental Services
Garner Environmental
EmTech Environmental
Oil Mop Inc.

Mike began his MSRC career in 1997 as the Galveston, Texas Site Supervisor and was promoted to Area Response Manager in 1999, which included responsibility for 5 response sites in the Gulf Region.

In 2000, Mike assumed responsibility for MSRC's Atlantic Region as the Regional Response Manager and remained in the New York area for 6 years. In 2006, Mike transferred back to the Gulf Region to assume responsibility for all response activities as the Regional Response Manager. In 2007, Mike was promoted to Regional Vice-President, Gulf Region.

Mike is a 1989 graduate from McNeese State University and resides in Montgomery, Texas with his wife Deborah and has one grown child; Stephen.

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.

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.

Paul is the Director of External Affairs (Americas) for Oil Spill Response Limited. He has over 25 years in oil spill preparedness and response including 23 years as President/CEO of Clean Caribbean & Americas.

Caitlyn E. Stewart serves as Vice President - Regulatory Affairs of the American Waterways Operators (AWO), the national trade association representing the inland and coastal tugboat, towboat and barge industry. In that role, she promotes the industry with the Administration and federal agencies and advocates for sound regulatory policies.

Ms. Stewart joined AWO in May 2010. She served as Government Affairs Assistant, Government Affairs Associate, Government Affairs Manager, Senior Manager - Regulatory Affairs, Director - Regulatory Affairs and Senior Director - Regulatory Affairs before assuming her current position in January 2021.

Ms. Stewart holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California. A native of Minneapolis, Minnesota, Ms. Stewart now resides in Alexandria, Virginia.

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.

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.

Sara Moore is the newly appointed Gulf Oil Spill Preparedness Section Supervisor for the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) Oil Spill Preparedness Division (OSPD), which oversees oil spill planning and preparedness for oil and gas exploration, development, and production facilities in both state and federal offshore waters of the U.S. Through both office and field verification activities, the goal of OSPD is to evaluate, test, and help advance the preparedness posture of the offshore spill response community.

Prior to this appointment, Sara worked in the private sector as a consultant and regulatory compliance specialist, and most recently as a Senior Analyst within BSEE OSPD. She has experience in a wide variety of industries, with focus in the areas of water resources, remediation and restoration, regulatory compliance, and policy development, among others.

Rick is a spill planning expert at PHMSA with review and approval authority for 530+ onshore facilities and 17 railroad oil spill response plans. Rick leads a team of highly motivated and trained professionals who ensure that operators have included all the regulatory requirements in their plans to assist federal, state, tribal and local emergency response officials to minimize damage to environments.

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 outdoors most of the time.

Anthony is currently the Emergency Management Coordinator for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Anthony brings to this position over 30 years of experience working in the Environmental/HAZMAT response field.
Anthony is also retired from the US Military where he spent most of his service working in Homeland Security and Civil Defense; specializing in Weapons of Mass Destruction Response. Anthony is also a licensed Part 107 Unmanned Aerial Systems Pilot.
Education: US Army Infantry School, US Coast Guard Marine Safety Course, US Coast Guard Machinery Technician School, US Army CBRN Warfare Specialist, US Army Technical Escort School, and US Army Battlestaff NCO Course

Lauren Szathmary is an ecologist at RPI. She specializes in marine and coastal ecology, natural resource mapping, oil spill science, environmental incident response, and development of materials for response. She has served as lead biologist on dozens of ESI projects in coastal and offshore areas.

Christine Boring is the Biology Department Manager at RPI where she has been an ecologist with the firm for 24 years. She specializes in coastal ecology, wildlife/fisheries biology, natural resource mapping, data synthesis, on-scene oil spill and hurricane response, natural resource damage assessment, resources at risk analyses, and multi-day in-person course leadership and instruction.

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