Speakers' Bios

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Tom Adams

Tom retired from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after 20 years of service in October 2022. He spent the early part of his federal law enforcement career investigating white-collar crime matters in Florida and Texas. In 2008, Tom completed the FBI’s Hazardous Devices School and became a Special Agent Bomb Technician (SABT), a role in which he served for over 11 years. During his time as a SABT, he deployed to Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and Southern Asia in support of U.S. counter-terrorism efforts.

 

Tom’s last three years in the FBI were spent as a Supervisory Special Agent in the Counter-UAS Program. He led the team's evolution in this role, including developing a training program, policies and procedures, and operational standards. He led numerous high-profile Counter-UAS missions throughout the U.S. at our nation’s highest-profile sporting and cultural events, including protecting our government’s highest-ranking officials and critical infrastructure. He is still involved in the industry as the CEO of AeroVigilance, a Counter-UAS training, consulting, and services company, and C-UAS Hub- an online resource for Counter-UAS and airspace awareness vendors, products, news, articles, jobs, events, and resources.

 

Gemma Alcock

Gemma Alcock is an award-winning innovator and respected thought-leader in the use of drones for public safety. Gemma was selected in a prestigious competition as the woman making the most difference in drones for search and rescue (SAR) around the world, receiving the title of the ‘Woman to Watch in UAS 2018’.

Gemma’s backgrounds in both SAR and in technology, combined with her love of aerial systems (borne of her passion for skydiving), set the foundation for a fascinating piece of work exploring the utility of drones for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and their search capability. By conducting a rigorous quantitative and qualitative (human centred) analysis, Gemma formulated a strong case for further development of system requirements based on the benefits such a system could deliver. Her prototyping brought ideas to life and her work informed greatly the Future SAR Innovation programme in the RNLI. After which, she founded SkyBound Rescuer in 2016 to help shape the future of public safety drones and to start helping all Emergency Services around the world to benefit from drone technology.

 

Not to mention, Gemma is the Lowland Rescue Director of Air Services, after previously fulfilling the role of Technical Development Lead for Air Operations. Lowland Rescue is the UK-based SAR charity that searches for missing vulnerable people on behalf of police forces. Gemma leads the air services team, which ensures that Lowland Rescue volunteers can work effectively and safely with SAR helicopters and drones, all across the UK.

Through Gemma’s tireless focus and commitment to the advancement in the use of public safety drones, Gemma has become widely respected as a thought-leader in both the drone industry and SAR sector; she is truly committed to and passionate about creating a future in which drones will routinely be a tool for saving lives.

 

Ryan M. Berry

Ryan M. Berry is the manager of the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Security Division within FAA’s Office of Security and Hazardous Materials Safety (ASH).  The UAS Security Division serves as the primary coordinator on agency actions, policy, outreach, messaging, evaluation, and technical requests relating to UAS security, and collaborates with security partners and the private sector on a holistic approach to UAS security and counter-UAS issues.

 

Prior to joining the FAA, Mr. Berry served as an electronic warfare and counter-UAS subject matter expert in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense, Policy, Homeland Defense and Global Security; and is a veteran of the US Navy serving as a Naval Flight Officer in carrier-based EA-6B Prowler tactical electronic warfare aircraft.  

 

Ryan is a graduate of the Federal Executive Institute, and holds a Masters in International Security from George Mason University, a MBA from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and a Bachelors in History from Virginia Tech. 

 

David Cameron 

David Cameron has been with the Campbell Police Department for 34 years as a full-time and Reserve Officer. David has held assignments in traffic collision investigations, SWAT, Crime Scene Response, financial crimes investigation, and drone pilot. In 2018 David created the department's UAS program and servers as its manager and has continued to do so since retiring in 2019. In September of 2022, David wrote and received an FAA Beyond Visual Line Of Sight waiver for the Department, and as of Feb 2023, Campbell's DFR program is up and running. David continues to serve as the UAS/DFR program manager alongside his work in the private sector. David continues to advocate for the use of drones by the first responder community.

 

Robert J. Campbell 

Robert J. Campbell began his federal law enforcement career in 2005, with the United StatesCapitol Police, and has served in a number of law enforcement roles over his seventeen year law enforcement career, providing uniformed patrol duties in both the Uniformed Services Bureau and the Training Services Bureau as a Certified Training Instructor.  Sergeant Campbell was promoted to Sergeant in 2010 and has spent the last thirteen years assigned to the Command and Coordination Bureau’s Operations Division.  He is currently assigned to the United States Capitol Police’s Command Center as the Department’s Airspace Security Coordinator for the United States Capitol Police, he serves as the agencies direct airspace security liaison and Subject Matter Expert (SME) to the U.S. Capitol Police Board, U.S. Congress and Senior Law Enforcement officials in the Legislative Branch of Government.

 

As the Airspace Security Coordinator, Sergeant Campbell manages the day to day operations for the United States Capitol Police at the National Capital Region Coordination Center (NCRCC) and also serves as the NCRCC’s primary Law Enforcement Outreach Liaison for the interagency airspace community within the National Capital Region (NCR). Sergeant Campbell has drafted numerous Standard Operating Procedures to include the Departments current Air Threat Response Plan, he has also developed and published three separate Law Enforcement Outreach Reference Documents that have been shared and used by State, Local and DoD agencies across the National Airspace System.  Sergeant Campbell also developed and introduced the Acronym D.R.O.N.E. that has been adopted and used by numerous Law Enforcement agencies within the NCR as well as nationally adopted by the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in Glynco, GA, and the Federal Aviation Administrations (FAA) Law Enforcement Assistance Program (LEAP).  

 

Sergeant Campbell also serves on multiple Interagency working groups in the National Capital Region.  He is currently the Co-Chair of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Government's UAS Working Group under the Technology Subcommittee, and the Interagency Airspace Protection Working Group (IAPWG).  He also serves on the NCTC UAS/RCMA Working Group, and formerly on theDC UAS Working Group and DHS Whole of Community Non-Traditional Aviation Technology Working Group.    

 

Sergeant Campbell is a military veteran with twelve years of service in the U.S. Navy, U.S. Navy Reserve, U.S. Army, U.S. Army National Guard, and is an Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps(ROTC) Graduate.  He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Hotel Restaurant Management with a Minor in Business from Kansas State University in 2005.  He currently resides in Montgomery County, Maryland.  

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Mike Cox

Mike Cox is the Fire & EMS Industry Manager at Esri where he advocates for fire and EMS agencies to leverage geospatial information and technology to achieve their response and recovery goals.

As a member of the Public Safety Industry Marketing team, he works collaboratively with GIS professionals to promote the broad use of Esri’s ArcGIS platform within fire and EMS.
Mike recently retired from the Henrico County, Virginia Fire Department after 27 years of service. He served as the Deputy Chief with responsibilities including operations, emergency management, planning, accreditation, budget, and human resources.

 

He was also a member of the Central Virginia All Hazard Incident Management Team, was the technical rescue team leader, and served as a Hazmat Specialist on the Virginia Department of Emergency Management’s regional hazardous materials team.

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Tim Doyle

Tim was Born in Massachusetts and attended the Catholic University of America in Washington DC   He joined Hyattsville’s Volunteer Fire Department in Prince George County in October of 2000. There he served as a member of the dept from 2000 until 2006 as a Firefighter/EMT and Hazmat Technician.  Tim was hired by Norfolk Fire Rescue in Summer 2005 as a Firefighter/Enhanced. He finished his degree at Old Dominion University graduated with BS in Biology in 2008.  His career in Norfolk Fire Rescue has been composed of assignments to the technical rescue team, Virginia Regional Hazmat Team, Rescue Company 1, and Rescue Company 2.  He transitioned into the Fire Marshalls office in 2017 and was assigned as the Hazardous Device Technician to the joint Norfolk Police and Norfolk Fire Bomb Squad.  Certified as a Hazardous Device Technician, Tactical Bomb Technician, Hazardous materials specialist, Technical rescue technician, Emergency Medical Technician, and a Public safety diver.  Tim jointly developed the Norfolk Police and Fire UAS team beginning in 2019.  He is currently the sUAS program coordinator for Norfolk Fire and Police UAS operations as well as his duties as a hazardous device technician.  Tim also serves as the public safety member for the Hampton roads chapter of AUVSI and is on the board of advisors for the Public Safety Innovation Center with VIPC.   

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Josh Eastlee

Josh Eastlee is a Senior Technical Advisor in the Safety and Integration Division at the FAA’s UAS Integration Office and more recently has been instrumental in shepherding the first true BVLOS Drone as a First Responder (DFR) waiver enabling technology to be implemented, resulting in the elimination of visual observers. 

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John Eberhardt

Mr. Eberhardt is the Chief Technology Officer ATA, LLC. Mr. Eberhardt has over 25 years of experience in Solution Architecture, Systems Engineering, Data Science, and Analytics, managing teams of scientists and engineers to rapidly create customer-centered solutions in the Aviation, Defense, Healthcare, Security, and Biotechnology sectors.

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Mr. Eberhardt has delivered data sharing systems in federal agencies, streaming data processing systems in commercial aviation, clinical decision support systems for cancer treatment, and logistics analysis systems, including award winning healthcare quality applications.  Mr. Eberhardt is one of the founders of the Virginia Flight Information Exchange and led ATA’s efforts to become an FAA onboarded LAANC UAS Service Supplier.

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With three patents, seven patent applications, and over 50 publications and invited speaking engagements, John is a thought leader in advanced analytics with experience in machine learning, statistical algorithms, and user interface design for decision support in Aviation, Healthcare, Defense, and Logistics.

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Dr. Kyle Ellis

Dr. Kyle Ellis is the Associate Project Manager for NASA’s System Wide Safety project. He has over 15 years of experience in aviation research, most recently as the principal investigator and technical lead for safety enhancements developed by the commercial aviation safety team to prevent loss of control in-flight. His current focus is to engage industry and advance the development of technologies for increasingly autonomous systems and enable emerging operations.

 

Paige Fitzgerald 

Paige Fitzgerald is the Deputy Director of the Delaware Emergency Management Agency (DEMA).  She obtained her Part 107 certificate in September 2016 and began serving as the agency UAS Program Administrator at that time.   She began teaching Part 107 test prep and flight instruction courses in 2017 as the UAS Training Director for Adam Ringle Consulting and began teaching Drone Assessment and Response Tactics (DART) through New Mexico Tech in 2019.  Paige also served as the Chair of the State of Delaware UAS Training & Certification Steering Committee from 2018-2019.  She has trained over one hundred UAS pilots nationally and has provided aerial support for multiple large scale incidents from disaster damage assessments and site assessments to law enforcement and fire scenes. She has worked to better integrate drone technology with other situational awareness tools across the state, helping to make them a key asset now throughout the Delaware response community.  In addition to her UAS experience, Paige has a Master of Science in Disaster Science and Management from the University of Delaware Disaster Research Center and is a Certified Emergency Manager (CEM) through the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM).

 

Kerry Fleming 

Kerry Fleming has been employed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for over thirty five years. The first twenty of which as an air traffic controller in Bridgeport, CT, and since then as an airspace security specialist at the FAA Headquarters in Washington, DC.

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Mr. Fleming is currently the Manager of the System Operations Support Center (SOSC), which is a component of the airspace security group.  His team is responsible for applying all airspace security regulations with the protection of all Presidential and Vice Presidential aircraft throughout the United States as their number one job responsibility. The group’s other main duties include; the creation and oversight of all security-related Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs), approving flight operation requests for restricted and prohibited airspace, waivers, and assisting law enforcement agencies at the local, state, and Federal levels with their airspace needs. Additionally, this group is the sole approving authority for Special Governmental Interest (SGI) COAs and A-COAs for all Unmanned Aircraft (UAS) into the National Airspace System (NAS) for real-time life-saving emergency situations or in the aftermath of a natural or man-made disaster.

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Chris Grazioso

After working over 30 years in public safety, Chris Grazioso is now the full time Operations Lead for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation's Aeronautics Division’s Drone Team. He is responsible for planning and flying missions, the team's initial and recurrent training, and coordination of emergency responses which include pre and post incident damage assessments and large scale transportation accidents.

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Part time, Chris is the team lead for the Metropolitan Law Enforcement Council’s (MetroLEC) Tactical Drone Unit. MetroLEC is a consortium of more than 46 local police and sheriff departments in the south metropolitan Boston area which covers 600 square miles and has a corresponding residential population of 850,000 people. The Tactical Drone Unit responds along side Metro’s SWAT and SAR teams. They assists with pre-mission planning, real-time situational awareness, live streaming, search and rescue, and indoor and outdoor suspect searching. The unit started with one pilot and aircraft and is currently at 10 pilots and 15 aircraft.

 

Chris is also a FAAST Team DronePro for the Boston FSDO and on the Board of Advisors and is a Public Safety Technical Expert with DRONERESPONDERS. He has presented at AUVSI’s XPONENTIAL, the DroneDeploy Conference and the FAA Droning On! Conference. Chris has been a medical specialist with Massachusetts Task Force 1, one of the FEMA US&R teams, since 2005 and has deployed to several national incidents.

 

Chris's extensive aviation experience includes 11 years as a manned aircraft pilot and 7 years as an unmanned pilot. He has been training the general public and public safety agencies nationwide since 2015 and is often called upon as a SME to assist local public safety agencies in starting their drone programs. Chris has significant experience in all of DJI’s rotorcraft as well as the Delair and eBee fixed wing aircraft. Chris's sensor experience includes EO, thermal, multispectral and LIDAR. Chris's UAS areas of expertise include aerial mapping and inspections, aerial photography and videography, public safety operations, night operations, search and rescue, and indoor flying.

 

Adam Jacoff

Adam Jacoff is a robotics research engineer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) which is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Over the past thirty years, he has developed a variety of innovative robots and directed evaluations of more than a hundred others in a range of sizes, including the first technology readiness level assessment of autonomous mobility for the U.S. Army's Experimental Unmanned Vehicle (XUV) (2002-2003).

 

His current efforts are focused toward developing a suite of 50 standard test methods for response robots to objectively evaluate ground, aquatic, and aerial system capabilities and facilitate integration of emerging technologies. He has conducted more than thirty international robot competitions using the test methods as challenge tasks to guide innovation and measure progress (2000-present). He has conducted more than a hundred robot exercises to refine and validate the test methods with emergency responders and robot manufacturers, including dozens of comprehensive robot evaluations using the test methods to quantify key capabilities guiding more than $100M of purchasing decisions for civilian and military organizations (2005-present). He is now validating use of the test methods as repeatable practice tasks to focus remote operator/pilot training and measure proficiency for credentialing.  

 

Brandon Karr

Brandon Karr is an internationally recognized subject matter expert for UAS operations for public safety.  He is currently a Drone as First Responder Solutions Engineer for DroneSense.  He is from Pearland, Texas and was the Chief Pilot, UAS Program Coordinator, and a night shift patrolman for the Pearland Police Department. Brandon started his interest in aviation in 2006 where he earned his Commercial and Certified Flight Instructor licenses for manned fixed wing single-engine, multi-engine, and instrument ratings. He used his aviation knowledge and experience to start the Pearland Police Department’s UAS program and since has assisted other agencies start or develop their programs across the nation. He has developed Pearland PD’s UAS program to be integrated into patrol, K9, SWAT, crash reconstruction, and crime scene functions.  Brandon has developed several courses involving utilizing UAS in public safety including Part 107 Ground School, Basic to Advanced Flight Scenarios, Night Operations, Crime and Crash Scene Mapping, and Legal Concerns for UAS. Brandon is a committee member on two subcommittees for the State of Texas regarding the implementation of sUAS for major disasters or incidents.

 

Steven Katz

Steven manages Flying Lion team members engaged in DFR programs at Chula Vista, Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach, Santa Monica, and Beverly Hills Police Departments. To date, the Flying Lion's pilot team has logged over 21,000 DFR flights, of which, 10,000 flights have been Beyond Visual Line of Sight.  

 

Steven's expertise is supporting Public Safety agencies with FAA consulting and COA submissions - especially those focused on Drone as First Responder and Beyond Visual Line of Sight operations. All while leading the team in NIST pilot training and continuously seeking out new technology partnerships.  

 

Steven holds an undergraduate degree in Business from California State University, Northridge, and MBA from Pepperdine University.

 

Mike Keefe-Thomas

Mike Keefe-Thomas is the Chief of COMMS & UAS Programs for the Virginia Department of Emergency Management.  Mike works within VDEM’s Response Programs And has been actively involved in numerous major events/incidents throughout his career. He has been an active leader in the Virginia Flight Information Exchange (VA-FIX) and is involved with CUAS initiatives. 

 

Dr. Steven G. King

Steve King is the Senior Manager for the Special Projects Office at MITRE’s Center for Securing the Homeland. He was previously the Department Manager leading MITRE’s support to the US Department of State and the US Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, after serving as the Chief Engineer for MITRE’s Global Operations and Intelligence Programs. MITRE is at a not-for-profit organization chartered to work in the public interest. 

 

Steve spent more than a decade as a DHS executive, where he received awards for his work writing a Presidential Executive Order enhancing the security of biological toxins and select agents; worked closely with the then-DHS General Counsel to help author the country’s first Federal chemical security regulations; and led the implementation of the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative for the nation’s critical infrastructure. 

 

Steve was also an Assistant Professor, DHS Chair, and the Director of Research and Writing Programs at the Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Management at National Defense University (NDU) from 2012-2015. He was an associate faculty member at the US Intelligence Community’s National Intelligence University and the George Washington University. He is a published author and frequent presenter at conferences in the US and Europe. He created and currently teaches homeland security courses at Touro University.  

 

He has over 25 years of firefighting experience in both paid and volunteer departments, most recently retiring as a Fire Captain in Northern Virginia. He is a former sworn local law enforcement officer and fire and explosion investigator. He holds numerous specialized firefighting, technical rescue, emergency medical services, and law enforcement certifications. 

 

He holds a Doctor of Science in information systems and communications, Master of Business Administration, and Master of Science in Biodefense. Board Certified in Security Management as a Certified Protection Professional (CPP), certified PMI Project Management Professional (PMP), and is the immediate past Chair of the American Board for Certification in Infrastructure Protection. He completed executive programs at the Federal Executive Institute, Naval Postgraduate School, and was a 2010 Senior Executive Fellow at Harvard University.

 

David Kovar

David Kovar is the CEO and founder of URSA Inc. URSA delivers unmanned risk management capabilities at scale to system operators, investigators, and regulators through a vendor agnostic telemetry data analysis and visualization solution.

 

Mr. Kovar founded the practice of UAV forensics in 2015 and is one of the leading practitioners in the world. He has worked in digital forensics and cyber security since the mid 90’s and, prior to founding his own company, led EY’s U.S. incident response program. Mr. Kovar earned a BA from Dartmouth in Computer Science and received a Masters degree from the Fletcher School at Tufts in International Affairs in 2020. His Master’s thesis is entitled “Defending Against UAVs Operated by Non-State Actors”.

 

URSA manages a wide variety of user, organization, and government data domestically and internationally. Unlocking value from this data is critical to our customers while protecting the data and individual’s privacy is critical to URSA and to society at large.

 

Mr. Kovar is a rated pilot, is the Advocacy Director for the National Association of Search, is active with his regional public health network, and a cleared private sector partner of the NH IAC (fusion center).”

 

Ron Leach

SFC (Ret.) Ron Leach is the Principal of Leach Strategic Partners, LLC. Ron has 30 years of aviation experience and is a retired law enforcement professional after serving 23 years with the New Jersey State Police (NJSP).

 

Leach Strategic Partners provides Unmanned Aircraft System consulting services to public safety and security entities focusing on UAS technology, assists with project start-ups, policy development, and response strategies including counter UAS issues, and provides specialized training to UAS users. 

 

Ron holds several Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Pilot Ratings including Airline Transport Pilot,Certified Flight Instructor, Instrument Instructor, Private Pilot, and Remote Pilot for UAS. Ron was the Chairman of the NJSP UAS Working Group which developed a direction for the use of UAS technology as well as counter-UAS technology. 

 

Ron served as a member of the U.S. Department of Justice, Law Enforcement UAS Working Group, and Co-Chaired the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness, Domestic Security Preparedness Task Force - UAS Subcommittee. He has been published in NJ Cops magazine, presented to the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police, and contributed to the ANSI UASSC Standardization Roadmap for Unmanned Aircraft Systems. 

Ron has a Bachelor of Science degree from Wilmington University (Delaware), a Master of Administrative Science degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University (New Jersey), and served honorably in the United States Navy.

 

Michael Leo

Captain Michael Leo has been a firefighter with the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) for 20 years, serving 13 years in the special operations command. While earning a B.A. in Fire and Emergency Management at John Jay College, Michael studied the expanding role of remotely piloted aircraft systems for use in emergency management. As the program administrator for FDNY Robotics, Michael’s responsibilities include all aspects of remotely operated robotics in addition to emerging technologies to support command tactics. Michael currently serves as a member of the Federal Aviation Administration’s advanced aviation advisory committee, National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) small unmanned aircraft committee, ASTM International small aircraft committee and is studying towards a Master’s Degree in unmanned systems at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

 

Brian Leventhal

Brian Leventhal has spent over 21 years in public service as a law enforcement officer in North Carolina.  Brian continues to serve as a State Trooper with the North Carolina State Highway Patrol, where he is a helicopter pilot assigned to the Aircraft Operations Unit.

 

Before his transfer to Aircraft Operations, Brian was assigned to the Crash Reconstruction Unit,where he helped create the UAS program for the Highway Patrol to use unmanned aerial vehicles to map crash scenes and provide disaster and emergency response.

 

Brian frequently participates in the UAS community as a remote pilot. He often speaks about program implementation and development of Unmanned Aerial Systems in Government and Public Safety Agencies, using UAVs for Crash & Crime Scene Mapping, and using UAVs forDisaster Response & Emergency Planning.

 

Kevin O’Malley

A 13 year veteran of the FDNY. Joined the department in 2010 as an EMT, In 2013 was promoted to Firefighter. 2019 continued a new assignment within the Special Operations Command and is currently serving in the FDNY Robotics unit since 2022. 

 

Anders Martinsen

Anders Martinsen is the managing director of UAS Norway, the Norwegian special interest organisation for unmanned aircraft systems, encompassing drones and the entire industry ecosystem.

 

During his four years as a leader, Anders Martinsen has been a driving force in developing UAS Norway into Europe’s largest drone special interest organisation, incorporating more than 1950 member companies and over 4000 drone pilots. Safe usage, public acceptance and integration of drones in our society is UAS Norway’s main objective. The organisation wants to be more than merely a mouthpiece for the drone operators, in addition it operates as a co-player and a corrective organ for aviation authorities, politicians, and a business sector increasingly utilising drones as a part of their activities. One of Martinsen’s main concerns is in what manner technology generates new business models in addition to entirely new lines of business.

 

Into his position as manging director of UAS Norway, Anders Martinsen brings 28 years of experience as a photo journalist. For several years he has been a drone operator, utilising drones in photo assignments for national media, law enforcement and the business sector. Today Martinsen is the CEO of UAS Norway and editor of UAS Norway

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Art Martynuska

Art Martynuska is the Executive Director of the Cambria County Departments of Emergency Management and 9-1-1. He is a retired Assistant Fire Chief form the City of Johnstown Pennsylvania. Mr. Martynuska is the coordinator for the Cambria County UAV response program. He holds a Bachelor's Degree is Safety Engineering and Fire Science from the University of Cincinnati, a Master's Degree in Public Safety from Saint Joseph's University.  He is also a graduate of the National Fire Academy Executive Fire Officer Program and the Harvard University Trade Union Program.  Mr. Martynuska holds a Part 107 Pilot certificate, is voting member of the NFPA 2400 Standard's committee, and is a principle with the Pennsylvania FIX program.   

 

Miriam McNabb

Miriam is the Editor in Chief of DroneLife, one of the most popular online drone publications. Miriam is also the co-host (along w/Tim Martin) of the DRONERESPONDERS Public Safety Drone Review, a monthly online webinar to discuss all things in the public safety drone community. 

 

John Meehan

John is an Aviation Safety Analyst in the Aviation Safety Line of Business, Office of Flight Standards, Commercial and General Aviation Safety Division located at FAA Headquarters in Washington, DC.  John’s role is to provide technical support, subject matter expertise, and UAS related outreach support to the general aviation UAS flying public, and to provide UAS specific training and support to FAA Flight Standards District Offices and FAASTeam Program Managers.  He also assists in the development of UAS concepts, policies, standards, procedures and guidance related to the safe integration of UAS into the NAS.

 

John is a graduate of West Point and former US Army Helicopter Instructor Pilot and served just over 5 years in the Army as an Aviation Officer before getting his MBA from Boston College.  His civilian career has been mostly with private industry, in International Sales and General Management positions.  He has worked at three Aircraft Manufacturing companies and run Fixed Base Operations at Stewart Airport in New York and Washington Dulles Airport in Virginia. Prior to joining the FAA, John was most recently the Chief Operating Officer and Head of Global Sales at Wyvern Ltd, an aviation risk management company based in Yardley, PA.

 

John holds a Commercial Pilot Certificate with Instrument rating rotary wing, a Private Pilot Rating with Instrument rating, single engine land airplane, and a UAS Remote Pilot Certificate.

 

John is a model railroader, attempting to recreate nostalgia of the New York Central RR, where his grandfather was a steam locomotive fireman and engineer, and is a Lacrosse fanatic.

 

John is married and the proud father of two sons, both recent graduates of Service Academies, and both serving on active duty in their respective services.

 

David Merrick

David Merrick is the Director of the Emergency Management and Homeland Security Program and the Center for Disaster Risk Policy at Florida State University. His research and interest areas include emergency management planning and policy, remote sensing and unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in public safety, disaster logistics, crisis mapping, and information technology in emergency management. 

 

David developed and oversees CDRP’s Disaster Incident Research Team (DIRT), which deploys to disaster impact areas to perform applied field research on disaster and emergency management. DIRT provides UAS and remote sensing capabilities in a variety of disaster contexts, including search and rescue, damage assessment, and other response activities as well as international disaster risk reduction projects. 

 

This team is part of the State of Florida’s response system and has been deployed as part of SERT in response to hurricanes, wildland fires, and to Surfside in response to the 2021 condominium collapse. David is the statewide UAS Coordinator and activates as part of the State of Florida’s Air Operations Branch. He leads the Florida UAS Working Group which develops best practices for disaster UAS operations in the state and in conjunction with FEMA Region 4. In addition, the team has assisted local and state law enforcement with missing person and fugitive cases since 2015. 

 

He has extensive experience in emergency management training and exercises for all levels of government, facilitated plan review and development, developed bioterrorism preparedness programs, and has provided expert technical assistance on a variety of governmental EM projects. 

 

David currently teaches 'Foundations of Emergency Management', 'Emergency Management Planning and Policy', 'Disaster Systems', 'Unmanned Aircraft Systems' and routinely lectures on logistics, technology, and cyber security in other EMHS courses.  

 

David has a Master of Science degree from the Florida Institute of Technology in Humanitarian Logistics and Disaster Response.

 

Scott Mlakar

Scott Mlakar is an Assistant Chief (Ret) with the Willoughby (OH) Fire Department where he has served for 40 years. He serves on the Fire Chief's Special Operations Committee in Lake County. He developed and oversees operations of the Lake County Public Safety Unmanned Response Team (Lake County PSURT), composed of Firefighters, Police officers.. It provides UAS support to all of Lake County's Emergency Services and special teams. including SWAT, Bomb Squad, Haz-Mat Unit, Crime Scene Reconstruction Team, and Technical Rescue Teams.  and   He has presented at various National and International UAS conferences including, IEDO Paris Conference, Commercial UAV and the Fire Department Instructors Conference (FDIC).  He developed and is on the board for North East Ohio Public Safety Unmanned Response Teams Organization (NEO-PSURT) that is made up of Police and Fire Organizations around NE Ohio to train and coordinate Public Safety UAS resources. He has published articles for Fire Engineering magazine on Public Safety UAS. He serves as Lead Instructor at Tri-C Community College and Airborne Public Safety Association as  part of their Public Safety Drone programs.

 

Brian Mullins

Brian serves as the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office Drone Team Commander and serves as a DFR remote pilot for North Carolina’s First DFR program. He is a private pilot instrumented rated. 

 

Dr. Natasha Neogi

Dr. Natasha Neogi is currently a member of NASA's Urban Air Mobility Coordination and Assessment Team, as well as a research scientist at NASA Langley supporting the System Wide Safety, Transformative Tools and Technologies—Autonomous Systems, and Air Traffic Management-eXploration Projects.

 

Michael O’Shea

Michael O’Shea is a Program Manager for the FAA’s UAS Integration Office’s, Safety and Integration Division where he serves as liaison, facilitator, and resource for both public and civil unmanned aircraft integration efforts.   

 

Before joining the UAS Integration Office, Mr. O’Shea was a program manager for 17 years in the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Office of Science and Technology, where he managed the law enforcement aviation technologies program among other duties. As part of his duties at DOJ, Mr. O’Shea sat on the Small UAS (Part 107) and Remote Tracking/ID Aviation Rule Making Committees and was the co-author of the MOU between the FAA and DOJ that initiated public safety COAs for UAS. Prior to working at DOJ, Mr. O’Shea spent almost 15 years as a uniformed law enforcement officer.

 

Mr. O’Shea is a graduate of Baker University (Kansas) with a degree in Business and Marketing. Mr. O’Shea holds an FAA Light-Sport Pilot Certificate (Fixed Wing, Gyroplanes, and Powered Parachutes) and a Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate.

 

Ross Patterson

Ross serves as an EM coordinator, and the logistics and infrastructure officer, for the Winston Salem/Forsyth County Office of Emergency Management. His career began in 1983 when he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served for 24 years until honorably retired in 2007 as a Chief Petty Officer (Hospital Corpsman).  This career took him all over the world including service in Iraq. Following his retirement, he completed his bachelor and master’s degree in emergency and Disaster Management from American Military University to continue his career in the area of emergency preparedness, response, and recovery. Ross has worked for the Special Operations Response Team (SORT) in Winston-Salem, as Logistics Section Chief and Operations Officer, Disaster Medical Assistance Team (NC-1 DMAT) and National Medical Response Team - East (NMRT-E) as Logistic Chief in support of disaster and domestic operations in North Carolina and nationally with these teams. His last job before coming to WS/FC OEM was as the Divisional Disaster Training Coordinator for the Salvation Army of North and South Carolina planning, conducting, directing, managing, evaluating, and monitoring the division’s disaster training program and operations. During his time with The Salvation Army he deployed to numerous national and region disasters to include Superstorm Sandy, Hurricanes Matthew, Irma, Maria, Florence and Michael as well as numerous major flooding events as part of the incident command for the agency’s response.

 

He serves as a volunteer in many capacities in his local community.  These include a local volunteer fire department as a Safety LT and FF/Rescue member, and he maintains active support of the Boy Scouts of America in the Winston Salem/Forsyth County area. 

 

Ross is qualified as a Certified Emergency Manager (CEM) from IAEM, North Carolina Emergency Management - Executive (NCEM-E) from NCEM, South Carolina Certified Emergency Manger (SC-CEM), Military Emergency Management Specialist (MEMS) from the State Guard Association of the United States, and a Certified Hospital Emergency Coordinator III (CHEC III) from Augusta University.