8:00 am - 12:00 pm

Center for Homeland Defense & Security / Naval Postgraduate School Leadership Symposium - Emerging Trends and Future Strategies

Symposium employing a series of "futures scenarios" to elicit broader, long-term strategic thinking and allow participants to assess how potential future changes in our world may affect emergency management.  Participants explore global trends and their impact on local/regional emergency management operating environments and beyond. Attendees advance their critical thinking and strategic leadership skills through facilitated dialogues, small group activities, and foresight discussions designed to shape strategy, planning and decision-­making processes.

Location - UNR Joe Crowley Student Union, Room 403

Registration at CHDS

1:00 pm - 5:00 pm

ICS 402 - ICS Overview for Executive Leadership

The purpose of this course is to familiarize Senior Officials (executives, elected and appointed officials, city/county managers, agency administrators, etc.) their role in supporting incident management within the National Incident Management System (NIMS). Upon completion of this course, students will be able to explain National Incident Management System (NIMS) tenets and the role of the four command and coordination entities (ICS, EOC, MAC Group and JIS) within NIMS.

Location - UNR Joe Crowley Student Union, Room 403

To register, please send student’s name, agency, title, and email address to Darlene Loff at DLoff@dem.nv.gov

1:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Risk Solutions International - NevadaContinuity.com Training

Location - Washoe County Regional Emergency Operations Center

8:00 am - 12:00 pm

NSHE Focused ICS 402 - ICS Overview for Executive Leadership

The purpose of this course is to familiarize Executive Leadership in their role in supporting incident management within the National Incident Management System (NIMS) with a focus on higher education.

Location - UNR Joe Crowley Student Union, Milt Glick Ballrooms

1:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Statewide Higher Education TTX - Building a Barrier: Cyber Defense in Higher Education

Executive leadership and incident management teams will apply lessons learned in ICS 402 during a tabletop exercise in order to strengthen institutional resilience by application of core functions of the National Incident Management System.

Location - UNR Joe Crowley Student Union, Milt Glick Ballrooms

To attend the NSHE ICS 402 and the TTX, please register here

Tuesday, March 21, 2023

7:30 am - 4:30 pm

Registration - Milt Glick Ballrooms

8:00 am - 8:45 am

Opening Ceremonies - Milt Glick Ballrooms

• Presentation of Colors - Nevada National Guard
  
• Invocation - Reno Sparks Indian Colony - Eagle Wings Dance Group
  
• NEPA President's Welcome - Matthew Williams
  
• UNR President's Welcome - The Hon. Brian Sandoval
  
• Governor's Welcome - The Hon. Joseph M. Lombardo, Jr.
  

8:45 am - 9:45 am

Keynote Address - Milt Glick Ballrooms

David Fogerson, Chief, Nevada Division of Emergency Management

10:00 am - 11:00 am

Breakout Session

• Room 402
  The Scoop on COOP - Jennifer Posten, Risk Solutions International
• • In a post-pandemic world, it is worth considering that this is one of many events that have had impacts on organizations over the last 3 years. Cyber attacks, civil unrest, supply chain disruptions, staffing shortages, and multiple wildfires highlight the need for planning for the unknown and the requirements to keep operations active during times of stress. The NevadaContinuity.com program will help provide a foundation for your jurisdiction's resilience.
• Room 422
  DEM Preparedness Workshop Briefing - Jon Bakkedahl, Nevada Division of Emergency Management
• An overview of the Preparedness Workshops conducted statewide in Fall 2022.
  

11:15 am - 12:15 pm

Breakout Session

• Room 402
  Utilizing HOA's for Preparedness - Kelli Nevills, Nevada Division of Forestry
• A discussion on how HOA's can assist in preparedness within their communities.
  
• Room 422
  Navigating Procurement Planning to your Advantage - Gary Scronce, IEM
• The goal of this session is to make your emergency management program better by helping you succeed every time you procure equipment or a service. A logical process will be laid out and discussed, based on the presenters experience:
  
  • Clearly Define what your program needs any procurement to deliver, i.e. goals and objectives
  • Know applicable local, state, and federal procurement rules
  • Develop Evaluation Criteria and Process
  • Define Minimum Requirements for Vendors
  • Develop a clear Statement of Work.
• Room 423
  How to (for reals) Exercise a Cyber Incident - Dawn Thomas, CNA Corporation
• You sign into your work computer, and start your day. While dreaming of your next cup of coffee, your screen goes blue and “Gotcha!” is blinking in large yellow letters... This presentation is for any organization that knows they need to conduct a cybersecurity response workshop or exercise, but just hasn't gotten there yet. Ms. Thomas will guide participants through each step in the exercise design, conduct, and evaluation process, offering best practices from over 12 years of cyber incident exercise work.
  
  Participants will hear tips and tricks for choosing the right type of workshop/exercise and objectives, designing the scenario, gathering the right players, conducting the exercise (live or virtually), evaluating challenges and best practices, and developing a meaningful corrective action plan. The session will close with an open discussion between participants about past cybersecurity exercise experiences across the county.

12:30 pm - 1:30 pm

NEPA Awards Luncheon - Milt Glick Ballrooms

• NVEM and NVEM-A Certification Recognition
• Preparedness Partners of the Year Awards

1:45 pm - 2:45 pm

Breakout Session

• Room 402
  Changing Public Behavior Through Trusted Communicators - Mikyung Kim-Molina, Lloyd Shand & Susana Rojas - San Francisco Bay Area UASI, San Francisco Dept. of Emergency Management & Calle 24 Latino Cultural District
• • The COVID-19 pandemic demanded rapid development and deployment of public information and outreach strategies to effect behavioral change. The urgent and intense need to create equitable, inclusive, and accessible communications is a requirement for successfully reaching, engaging, and educating diverse populations on how to stay safe from COVID-19. The San Francisco Joint Information Center (JIC) utilized many strategies to reach all the residents in a fair and equitable manner. Strategies include partnering with and leveraging the resources of non-governmental organizations; creating customized community-led messaging campaigns that speak to the unique needs of affinity groups; implementing creative solutions for delivering messaging that include traditional and non-traditional forms of outreach. This presentation will highlight lessons learned and best practices for delivering life-saving information through targeted messaging and outreach in order to positively influence public behavior by getting the right information to the right people at the right time. 
• Room 422
  Moving Beyond the "Best Guess Forecast": Use of Probabilities in Decision Making for Weather and Flood Hazards - Chris Smallcomb, NOAA-NWS

• All forecasts are wrong, but some are useful. You might be saying to yourself, “they finally admitted what I’ve known for years, they get paid to be wrong”. To be sure, especially at super detailed levels, errors can be found with almost any forecast. In reality, forecasts just need to be good enough to help you make a good decision. That is the ultimate value of a forecast anyways. This breakout will explore the NWS transition from a single-number “best guess” forecast philosophy to one that also provides science-based probabilities and best/worst case scenarios to help make the forecast more useful. This additional information could help emergency managers with planning and response for a wide variety of weather and flood hazards. We want to hear from you as emergency management professionals how and if this probabilistic data could help you.

• Room 423
  Washoe County CERT & RAIL Overview - Wade Campbell, Washoe County CERT
• • An overview of Washoe County's CERT and RAIL Programs

3:00 pm - 3:45 pm

Plenary Session - Milt Glick Ballrooms

• 1 October Victim Services - Tennille Pereira, Vegas Strong Resiliency Center
• A review of the VSRC, how it came to be, the statutory changes that made it the state wide victim assistance center and what that means for emergency management.
  

4:00 pm - 4:30 pm

NEPA Annual Member's Meeting - Room 402

Wednesday, March 22, 2023

7:30 am - 12:00 pm

Registration

8:00 am - 8:15 am

8:15 am - 9:15 am

Keynote Address - Milt Glick Ballrooms

Andrew Phelps, AC Disaster Consulting

9:30 am - 10:30 am

Breakout Session

• Room 402
  Disaster Housing Recovery - Chris Smith & Dr. Megan Bond, IEM

• Disaster housing is a keystone of disaster recovery but is often misunderstood. Transitions between phases of disaster housing are often regarded as difficult to navigate for survivors and even more difficult for communities to manage. Moving through these transitions can make or break a survivor’s recovery from disaster, but it can also affect facets of a community’s recovery. In this session, we will explore:
  
  - What do shelter, temporary, and permanent housing really mean?
  - What are individual and community barriers to disaster housing?
  - What is the local emergency management role?
  - Can disaster housing go beyond trailers and manufactured units?
  
  Solutions to this challenge are on the horizon. In this breakout session, participants will learn about the complexities of disaster housing and what it looks like from a survivor’s perspective. Participants will also learn about emerging best practices in disaster housing and case management through the process. The session will end with a group discussion about ways to overcome common challenges and improve recovery for survivors and communities.

• Room 422
  Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging - Diaz Dixon
• Room 423
  Working with the National Guard - Geir Gabrielson, Nevada National Guard
• When local response agencies reach their capacity, they can reach back to the state for additional resources. One of the major resources that a state can pull upon is the National Guard. The use of the National Guard and its role in emergency response has increased notably in the last few years. As threat from both man-made and natural causes increase of the coming years the use of the National Guard is likely to increase. However, there is still much confusion of what the Guard can do and how to request National Guard forces. This brief will cover National Guard capabilities and how to request them. It will also cover expectations on timeline and how to direct National Guard personnel once on sight. Training and exercising with the National Guard will also be addressed. It will then end with a panel Q&A session with National Guard leaders. 

10:45 am - 11:45 am

Breakout Session

• Room 402
  Social Media & Disaster Preparedness - Brandi Richard Thompson, FEMA Region IX External Affairs
• Room 422
  Green Recovery and Creativity in Emergency Management - Kelly Echeverria, Washoe County Emergency Management
• Room 423
  Key Planning Factors and Considerations for Response to and Recovery from Chemical and Biological Incidents - Ward Quayle & Norman "Chuck" Lineback, FEMA
• Planning for the unexpected doesn’t need to be a chore nor does it need to be re-invented for every incident. In fact, the planning section can be the best position in any communities Emergency Management Agency. As a planner you are tasked with evaluating your Threats & Hazards Identification Risks and your Hazard Vulnerability Risk Assessment, to determine what is out there most likely to impact your Continuity of Operations. Chemical and Biological incidents are particularly challenging as they are the most often unplanned guests of any community and yet the greatest risk of quickly growing from small, insignificant to large complex incidents. No more reactionary planning. It is possible to now have a written plan that has been trained and exercised years in advance for these types of incidents. FEMA’s Chemical Biologic Radiation and Nuclear Office has tapped the top talent across the nation to write, review and provide valuable insight into today’s most complex incidents; Chemical and Biological.
  
  Imagine having an unplanned incident and having a written plan, years in advance, so you only need to pull the plan and manage the incident. Imagine a tool that would assist you in thinking outside the box and encourages you to plan for incidents through existing resources, history of events in your community and is capable of being effectively trained & tested through your exercises. FEMA’s Key Planning Factors (KPF) for Response to and Recovery from Chemical and Biological Incidents provides such guidance. This interactive demonstration of the KPF tool provides planners an introduction to both the Chemical and Biological Key Planning Factors & Considerations. Participants will gain knowledge of the FEMA Key Planning Factors and Considerations tool will benefit their community through careful planning with minimal effort.

11:50 am - 12:50 pm

Networking Lunch - Milt Glick Ballrooms

Chief Fogerson One-on-One (County, Tribal, and City Emergency Managers only) - Room 403 

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Breakout Session

• Room 402
  An Inclusive Future: Disability, Access and Functional Needs, Emergency Management, and Bolstering Nevada's Resiliency - Heather Lafferty, Nevada Division of Emergency Management & Kimberly Palma-Ortega, Governor's Council on Developmental Disabilities

• The intended audience are Disability Service Providers, Emergency Managers, First Responders, Physical Security, and Employers. There has been a growing need for Emergency Management approaches that are more inclusive and whole community focused. In this breakout session, we will examine techniques to operationalize access and functional needs, how to incorporate people with disabilities and communities with access and functional needs in to our preparedness efforts, and the value of having candid and hard conversations with the goal of strengthening Nevada's resilience. In addition, we explore the significant contributions made by the Nevada Division of Emergency Management and the Nevada Governor's Council on Developmental Disabilities to support the effort of bolstering Nevada's resiliency, as well as the roadmap for Nevada's future in Access and Functional Needs.
  
• Room 422
  DEM Grants Program Briefing - Suz Coyote, Nevada Division of Emergency Management
• An overview of the DEM Grants Program
  
• Room 423
  Data Drives Dollars - Heather Hilliard

• The federal government has been incorporating more data evaluation components to proposals and funding priorities – not only with the Justice40 and FEMA Equity initiatives, but additional announcements for funding in 2023. Expansions in the disaster recovery arena as well as mitigation funds are just two ways to use your community’s story to increase grant dollar awards. Learn about these and other data points to improve your proposals - and how to score your own projects for funding success to submit the most competitive project possible.

2:10 pm - 3:10 pm

Plenary Session - Milt Glick Ballrooms

Nevada Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 1 - Kenyon Leavitt, NV USAR TF1

An overview of the history of the FEMA USAR program, and what NV-TF1 has to offer

3:20 pm - 4:20 pm

Plenary Session - Milt Glick Ballrooms

DHS - Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency - David Rosado, CISA Region IX Director