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Office of Human Services Emergency Preparedness and Response
National Commission on Children and Disasters: 2010 Report to the President and Congress

Appendix I. Commissioner Biographies

Ernest E. Allen, J.D.

Appointed to the Commission by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Mr. Allen is Co-Founder, President and CEO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). He guided NCMEC's role in the recovery of 151,000 children, with NCMEC's recovery rate climbing from 62 percent in 1990 to 97 percent today. Mr. Allen also built a global missing children's network that includes 17 nations. He came to NCMEC after serving as Chief Administrative Officer of Jefferson County, Director of Public Health and Safety for the City of Louisville, KY, and Director of the Louisville-Jefferson County Crime Commission. He is a graduate of the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law.

Michael R. Anderson, M.D., FAAP
Vice-Chairperson

Appointed to the Commission by President George W. Bush, Dr. Anderson is Vice President and Associate Chief Medical Officer at University Hospitals and Associate Professor of Pediatric Critical Care at Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital in Cleveland, OH. As a pediatric specialist, Dr. Anderson has been active at the local, State, and national level in pediatric disaster readiness and response. Currently he is pooling the talent of Ohio's six children's hospitals to form a disaster response team to serve as a State and Federal asset in the wake of future disasters. His research and clinical interests include national physician workforce, pediatric critical care transport, and national health policy issues for children.

Merry Carlson, MPP

Appointed to the Commission by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Ms. Carlson is the Preparedness Manager for the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management for the State of Alaska. She is the deputy State Coordinating Officer and was previously the State Individual Assistance Officer and chaired the Alaska Disaster Housing Task Force. Ms. Carlson has served as Alaska's Suicide Prevention Council Coordinator, and as Director of Health for the North Slope Borough in Barrow, AK, where she both provided direct service and administered 17 programs in physical and behavioral health. She also held roles in Barrow's Local Emergency Planning Committee and Emergency Operations Center.

Honorable Sheila Leslie

Appointed to the Commission by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Ms. Leslie is a Member of the Nevada General Assembly and the Specialty Courts Coordinator for the 2nd Judicial District Court, running the criminal, family, and juvenile drug courts and the State's first mental health court. Ms. Leslie has worked on behalf of Nevada children, youth, and families for more than 25 years. She served as Executive Director of the Children's Cabinet, where she created innovative, award-winning programs including Family Preservation, the Child Care Resource Council, Homeless Youth Advocacy, Parent Education Network, and Nevada's first comprehensive Adolescent Health Care program. She was also founding director of the Food Bank of Northern Nevada. As owner of a small consulting business, Ms. Leslie provided comprehensive consulting services through contracts with public and private nonprofit human service organizations, specializing in developing and implementing public/private partnerships addressing the needs of children and their families.

Bruce A. Lockwood, CEM

Appointed to the Commission by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Mr. Lockwood is the Public Health Emergency Response Coordinator for the Bristol-Burlington Health District in Connecticut. Mr. Lockwood has 28 years experience in emergency management, emergency medical services and public safety, with extensive planning at the local, regional, and State levels for children's needs in disaster situations. He served as the Canton Schools All Hazard Planning Chair and as a member of the Governor's Prevention Partnership School Safety Portal Committee and the Child Safety and Crisis Response, State of Connecticut, Daycare and Child Care Subcommittee; he also served on the Connecticut Public Health Emergency Preparedness Advisory Committee.

Graydon "Gregg" Lord, MS, NREMT-P

Appointed to the Commission by President George W. Bush, Chief Lord is Associate Director of the Grants & Training Division and Senior Policy Analyst at the Office of Homeland Security at George Washington University Medical Center. His career in public safety and emergency management has encompassed roles in rural and urban jurisdictions. He became a paramedic in the early 1980s, subsequently achieving promotion to EMS Operations Chief of the second largest EMS system in New England at Worcester Emergency Medical Services. Chief Lord lectures nationally and internationally on emergency and disaster systems management, leadership, and operations. He is an adjunct faculty member for various institutions and agencies, including the Institute for International Disaster Emergency Medicine, Texas A&M University, U.S. Department of Justice and the Copenhagen Fire Department. Prior to his role at George Washington University Medical Center, Chief Lord served as Division Chief of Emergency Medical Services for Cherokee County Fire Department in Cherokee County, GA.

Irwin Redlener, M.D., FAAP

Appointed to the Commission by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Dr. Redlener is President and cofounder of The Children's Health Fund and is Director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. Dr. Redlener worked extensively in the Gulf region following Hurricane Katrina, where he helped establish ongoing medical and public health programs, as well as a research program providing insights regarding the impact of disaster trauma on children and families. Dr. Redlener speaks and writes widely about challenges regarding large-scale disaster recovery. He also organized medical response teams in the immediate aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks in 2001 and has national and international disaster management leadership experience. Dr. Redlener served as Director of Grants and Medical Director of USA for Africa and Hands Across America. He also developed one of the country's largest health care programs for homeless children and their families. Currently, Dr. Redlener is developing clinical and public health programs in response to the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster.

David J. Schonfeld, M.D., FAAP

Appointed to the Commission by House Minority Leader John Boehner, Dr. Schonfeld, FAAP, is a developmental-behavioral pediatrician and the Thelma and Jack Rubinstein Professor of Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, where he directs the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement and the Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. Dr. Schonfeld is a member of the Disaster Mental Health Subcommittee of the National Biodefense Science Board Federal Advisory Committee and the American Academy of Pediatrics Disaster Preparedness Advisory Council; he is also a Past President of the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. For more than two decades, he has provided consultation and training on school crisis and pediatric bereavement in the aftermath of a number of school crises (e.g., school shootings) and disasters within the United States and abroad, including flooding from Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and Hurricane Ike in Galveston and the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan, China. He coordinated the training of school crisis teams for New York City Public Schools after 9/11. Dr. Schonfeld is actively engaged in school-based research involving children's understanding of and adjustment to serious illness and death and school-based interventions to promote adjustment and risk prevention.

Honorable Mark K. Shriver, MPA
Chairperson

Appointed to the Commission by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Mr. Shriver is Senior Vice President for U.S. Programs at Save the Children. Before joining Save the Children, Mr. Shriver served as a Member of the Maryland House of Delegates. Among his many leadership roles as an elected official, he served as Maryland's first-ever Chair of the Joint Committee on Children, Youth and Families, where he spearheaded an early childhood education initiative resulting in more than 37 million new dollars for early education. Before being elected, Mr. Shriver created and served as Executive Director of the innovative Choice Program, a public/private partnership serving at-risk youth through intensive community-based counseling and job training services. The Choice Program has expanded to include The Choice Jobs Program and The Choice Middle School Program, and has been replicated nationwide. Mr. Shriver has served on a number of boards and commissions, including the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the FEMA National Advisory Commission, the Cal Ripken, Sr., Foundation, and the Living Proof Project. He was a member of the Maryland Governor's Juvenile Justice Advisory Council and the Governor's Task Force on Alternative Sanctions to Incarceration.

Lawrence E. Tan, J.D., NREMT-P

Appointed to the Commission by House Minority Leader John Boehner, Mr. Tan is Chief of Emergency Medical Services at the New Castle County, DE, Department of Public Safety. He started his career as a volunteer firefighter/EMT during high school. He has served as a paramedic, EMS Lieutenant, Emergency Services Assistant Manager, Assistant Chief and Deputy Chief during his 28 years service with New Castle County, DE. Mr. Tan's assignments have included commander of both the Administrative and Operations components of the service, in addition to a special Homeland Operations detail within the Office of the County Executive. Mr. Tan was a member of the National Faculty for the Counter Narcotics and Terrorism Operations Medical Support Program conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Homeland Security Federal Protective Service, and United States Park Police. He also serves on the Federal Interagency Board for Equipment Standardization and Interoperability as a member of the Health and Medical Responder subgroup, and serves on the executive committee of the FEMA Region III Regional Advisory Council. Mr. Tan is a graduate of the Widener University School of Law and has been admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and the United States District Court of New Jersey.

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