Disaster Resilience Across the Chattahoochee Valley Conference Agenda

Columbus Georgia Convention & Trade Center | 801 Front Ave Columbus, GA 31901

Conference Agenda

Tuesday, July 15 | Conference Day One

Time	Topic
7:45 a.m.–8:30 a.m.	Registration (Riverside Registration)
8:30 a.m.–8:45 a.m.	Opening Remarks (Ballroom C) Chance Corbett, Columbus-Muscogee Emergency Management & Homeland Security Agency
8:45 a.m.–9:00 a.m.	Welcome (Ballroom C) Mayor Skip Henderson, City of Columbus
9:00 a.m.–10:10 a.m.	Opening Plenary Presentation: Here for the Chattahoochee Valley (Ballroom C) David Banks, Georgia Power Company Greg Edwards, Alabama Power Company
10:10 a.m.–10:30 a.m.	Break & Tour Exhibit Hall (Foundry Hall A/B) Sponsored by Liberty Utilities
10:30 a.m.–11:45 a.m.	Panel: Recent Disaster Response in Georgia and Alabama (Ballroom C) Moderator: Chance Corbett, Director of the Columbus, Muscogee County Emergency Management & Homeland Security Agency Nathan Saylors, State Search and Rescue, Calhoun Fire Department Greg Koller, Deputy Director of the Support Services Division, GEMA Stephen Clark, Hazard Mitigation Officer, GEMA Lisa Castaldo, Executive Operations Officer, Alabama EMA
11:45 a.m.–12:15 p.m.	Break & Tour Exhibit Hall (Foundry Hall A/B) Sponsored by Liberty Utilities
12:15 p.m.–1:00 p.m.	Lunch (Ballroom C) Sponsored by Columbus Water Works Columbus Water Works: Disaster Preparedness Planning Jeremy Cummings, President of Columbus Water Works
1:00 p.m.–1:15 p.m.	Break
1:15 p.m.–2:30 p.m. Breakout Sessions (Meeting Rooms 101-103)	Building Resilience: Foundations of Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Recovery (Meeting Room 103) Moderator: Chief Sal Scarpa, Columbus Fires and EMS David Martin, President, Alabama Association of Emergency Managers Chance Corbett, Director, Columbus-Muscogee EMA/HS Rita Smith, Director, Lee County EMA, CLEM, MLEM, EPIO Karl Nagel, Emergency Management Specialist, Ft. Benning Water Resource Management: Distribution, Security, and Resilience (Meeting Room 102) Moderator: Tom Barnes, Security & Emergency Preparedness Manager, Columbus Water Works Jay Matthews, Georgia Rural Water Association Jeremy Cummings, President, Columbus Water Works Sheppard Dearing, General Manager, Russell County Water Authority Adam Littleton, Smith Water Authority, Lee County, AL Clearing the Path: Managing Trees and Debris Response during a Disaster (Meeting Room 101) Moderator: Brent Widener, Chief, Environmental Division at Ft. Benning Troy Clymer, Forest Management Chief, Georgia Forestry Commission Justin Hardee, County Engineer, Lee County Alabama Highway Department Michelle Mang, Deputy Director of Infrastructure of the Public Works Department, City of Columbus Will Jacobs, State on Scene Coordinator, Georgia Department of Natural Resources
2:30 p.m.–3:00 p.m.	Break & Tour Exhibit Hall (Foundry Hall A/B) Sponsored by Liberty Utilities
3:00 p.m.–3:30 p.m.	Session Closeouts (Ballroom C)
3:30 p.m.–4:30 p.m	Networking & Exhibit Hall Hour (Foundry Hall A/B)

Wednesday, July 16 | Conference Day Two

Time	Topic
7:45 a.m.–8:15 a.m.	Registration (Riverside Registration)
8:15 a.m.–8:20 a.m.	Welcome (Ballroom C) Kirk Ticknor, Director, Fort Benning Department of Public Works
8:20 a.m.–9:00 a.m.	Opening Message: The Importance of Partnership in Disaster Management (Ballroom C) Jeff Smitherman, Director, Alabama EMA Michael Smith, Chief of Staff, GEMA/HS
9:00 a.m.–10:00 a.m.	Opening Plenary Speaker: Transforming Installations at the Pace of Requirements (Ballroom C) Brandon Cockrell, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Energy & Sustainability
10:00 a.m.–10:30 a.m.	Break & Tour Exhibit Hall (Foundry Hall A/B) Sponsored by Liberty Utilities
10:30 a.m.–11:45 a.m. Breakout Sessions (Ballroom C & Meeting Rooms 101-103)	Advancing Energy Resilience through Regional Partnerships & Planning (Meeting Room 103) Moderator: Lindsey Warner, Utilities Specialist, O&M Division, Ft. Benning Geoffrey Ray, Directorate of Public Works, Operations & Maintenance Division Chief, Ft. Benning Walker Fricks, Vice President of Engineering & Operations, Flint Energies Toby Chandler, Manager of Federal Accounts, Southern Company Clint Cox, Director of Business Planning, Liberty Utilities The Right Message at the Right Time: Coordinating Emergency Communication and Response (Ballroom C) Moderator: Dr. Morgan Taylor, Associate Director of the Institute for Disaster Management, UGA Dr. Curtis Harris, Director, Institute for Disaster Management, UGA Savannah Roberts, State Warning Officer, GEMA/HS Dave Nadler, Georgia Warning Coordination Meteorologist, National Weather Service John De Block, Alabama Warning Coordination Meteorologist, National Weather Service Deliberate Dangers: Understanding and Responding to Manmade Threats (Meeting Room 102) Moderator: Stephen Stierwalt, Area Field Coordinator, GEMA/HS Charlie Fligg, Cybersecurity Advisor, GEMA/HS Shelby Bergmann, Program Manager of Radiological Emergency Preparedness, GEMA/HS Warren Shepard, Drones Detection, Critical Infrastructure & Key Resources Unit, GEMA/HS Clinton Westbrook, Area 4 Homeland Security Coordinator, GEMA/HS From Triage to Transport: Managing the Complexities of Mass Casualty Incidents (Meeting Room 101) Moderator: Samantha Cato, Deputy Director, Russell County Emergency Management Sheriff Jay Jones, Lee County Alabama Sheriff’s Office Daniel Sexton, Coroner, Lee County, AL Rick Rainer, Principal, Enterprise High School, Enterprise, AL Dr. James O’Neal, Institute for Disaster Management, UGA
11:45 a.m.–12:00 p.m.	Break & Tour Exhibit Hall (Foundry Hall A/B) Sponsored by Liberty Utilities
12:00 p.m.–12:30 p.m.	Conference Closeouts (Ballroom C)

Speaker Biographies

David Banks

David Banks is the Emergency Preparedness Manager for Georgia Power Company. In this role, he is responsible for incident response leadership, overall business assurance and continuity and the implementation of prevention and recovery plans for power delivery for major events across the state. He has 40 years of experience in various roles within Southern Company.

Prior to his current position, he served as Operations Manager at Southern Company Federal Services. Banks began his career with Southern Company in 1984 as a co-op student at Plant Hatch and joined the company full-time in 1989 where he held positions in Marketing and Local Management. In 1998, he moved to Southern Company Energy Solutions as a Business Development Manager. In 2003, he returned to Georgia Power in Power Services, where he served as a Project Manager and then T&D Manager. Banks later served as a Project Manager in Customer Choice, Market Specialist in Managed Accounts, Project Manager for the Vice President of Sales & Marketing and Industrial Segment Sales Manager on the Managed Accounts team inside the Georgia Power Customer Experience organization.

Banks has a degree in mechanical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and is a graduate of Emory University’s Managerial Leadership Program.

Brandon Cockrell

Brandon Cockrell serves as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Energy and Sustainability (DASA(E&S)). He is responsible for overall program direction, policy development and supervision of all Army energy security and sustainability initiatives, both on installations and in the operational context. Cockrell provides strategic guidance and supervision for facility-related energy investments, energy security, operational energy, water security, and contingency based initiatives executed by the Army and coordinates across the Army to advance energy-focused research and development.

Prior to his current assignment, Cockrell was the Deputy to the Garrison Commander at Fort Benning, where he led efforts to deliver over 700 installation services, at the Army’s standard, to over 125,000 soldiers, families, civilians and retirees with a team of over 2,300 soldiers, civilians, and contractors and an annual budget of over $450 million.

Cockrell also formerly led Fort Benning’s Plans, Analysis & Integration Office. He has performed multiple development assignments during his tenure as an Army Civilian, including as the Director of Public Works for IMCOM-Training, where he coordinated public works services across 16 Army installations that have training as their primary mission.

Cockrell has a bachelor’s degree in industrial and systems engineering from Auburn University and a Master of Business Administration from Columbus State University.

Jeremy Cummings

Jeremy Cummings is the President/CEO of Columbus Water Works. Cummings has worked at Columbus Works for 26 years in numerous operational and leadership roles. He holds a Class 2 Wastewater Treatment Certification and a Water Distribution Certification. Cummings has an associate’s degree from Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College and a Bachelor of Science Degree from Valdosta State University.

Greg Edwards

Greg Edwards has nearly 25 years of experience with Alabama Power and Southern Company, specializing in storm operations coordination, emergency planning, and logistics management. Prior to joining APC’s Storm Center, he was an Emergency Planning Coordinator for Southern Nuclear, facilitating emergency response programs and working with various government Emergency Management agencies. In 2021, Greg received the Chartwell Best Practices Gold award for creating SuperPinger, a tool to detect isolated customer outages after storms.