Dr. Scala is a certified consulting meteorologist providing expert opinions in criminal and civil litigation on topics ranging from motor vehicle accidents and personal injury to illumination issues, visibility and storm-related damage. He served as The Weather Channel’s Meteorological Training Coordinator and first on-camera Storm Analyst, and more recently as a broadcast meteorologist with WGAL-TV8, the local NBC affiliate in central Pennsylvania. Dr. Scala held a tenure track appointment at Millersville University of Pennsylvania where he also served as the Associate Director of Millersville’s Center for Disaster Research and Education.

Dr. Scala holds a B.S. degree in Biology and Geology from the University of Rochester, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Environmental Sciences from the University of Virginia. Dr. Scala began his professional career at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center where he focused on the observation, and numerical modeling of storms.

Dr. Scala serves on the Steering Committee of the Central PA Integrated Weather Impacts Team and on the Weather Advisory Council of the Event Safety Alliance. He maintains a close working relationship with the National Weather Service by collaborating on research projects to improve operational forecasting and assisting with surveys of tornado and severe storm damage.

Dr. Mary Schoenfeldt, is an Emergency Management Professional who has spent her career with people around the world. She works with schools, government, businesses, tribal leaders and communities. She responded to high profile communities such as Littleton Colorado, New Orleans, Haiti and Newtown Connecticut. She traveled to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting to work with the school and community. She stayed when her assignment was over to study the impact of a community crisis on Emergency Management and the community as a whole.

She values all stakeholders.. young, old, educated, uneducated, professional, lay person. She was recognized by the International Association of Emergency Managers for her emergency preparedness campaign, Who Depends On You? She developed a model of volunteer/professional integration for a large city festival and parade that resulted in a collaborative Incident Command System that acted as a recruiting event for CERT programs and added a sophisticated element of training to all… professional and non professional participants.

She has held various positions within activated EOC’s … Deputy EOC Coordinator, Communications Coordinator, Public Information Officer, Section Chief, Mental Health Coordinator, and Recovery Director.

Her work has won awards from the International Association of Emergency Managers, she was inducted into the HALL OF FAME of the International Network of Women in Emergency Management, was honored by The International Critical Incident Stress Foundation and is Board President of the Disaster Mental Health agency, Green Cross Academy of Traumatology. Mary volunteers with humanitarian organizations and is active in her Rotary club where she earned the Service Above Self award for not only local but also international projects.

Valued leader with 28 years of experience in military operations and interagency (IA) coordination with an emphasis on project and emergency management (EM) as well as planning and exercises. 18 years AK-specific Guard, EM and DoD experience. IA expert, accomplished EM professional, Exercise planner, Joint Staff Officer, Commander and Command Pilot in multiple aircraft. Exceptional managerial abilities, diverse high-level liaison skill and proven leadership; experienced facilitating relationships among diverse organizations - mediating interpersonal conflict as well as interagency disputes. Operational expertise from Squadron to Joint Task Force level, planning experience at 11th AF HQ & Alaskan Command, exercise and policy-building at AK National Guard HQ.

Dr. Henry H. Smith is a native of and has spent most of his life in the Virgin Islands where passage of tropical storms and hurricanes is a common occurrence. His formal training in marine and environmental science and hydrology has provided him with the scientific background to fully understand the theory behind the life cycle of these systems. He has been a leader on hurricane preparation and recovery teams and that has given him ample practical experience in preparing for and responding to the effects these systems. Additionally, as a lifelong sailor he has maintained a particular sensitivity to and respect for severe tropical weather. Dr. Smith has spent most of his career as a member of the research faculty and administration at the University of the Virgin Islands. He holds a doctorate degree in Civil Engineering from Colorado State University and a law degree, with a focus on environment a law, from the University of Dayton.

Tafi is an Associate in Booz Allen Hamilton’s International Management Team and supports the Global Threat Mitigation Program. He currently serves as the Deputy Program Manager for the client delivery team supporting U.S. Army Pacific, Asia Pacific Counter Improvised Threat Fusion Center. He is also the Contractor Training Lead responsible for four Joint Service Home Station Training Teams located across Alaska and Hawaii and forward deployed to Korea in support of U.S. Forces Korea. Prior to his current role, Tafi was the lead for an Explosive Ordnance Disposal training team responsible for training the only U.S. Army EOD Battalion outside of the Continental United States. He provided mentorship to young EOD technicians to assist with developing skills critical to the safe mitigation of explosive and chemical hazards. His team’s exceptional support and creativity in scenario designs and custom threat devices for the annual USARPAC EOD Team of the Year resulted in back to back first place honors at the annual Department of the Army EOD TOY competition. Tafi helped develop the Army’s first Intermediate Tactical Site Exploitation Course under the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization and led a Mobile Training Team in support of unit rotations at Combat Training Centers in CONUS and Europe. Tafi leveraged his experience as an EOD technician to inform curriculum development and constantly tailor scenarios for deploying warfighters. Tafi served six years in the U.S. Air Force as an EOD technician and also spent several years supporting U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects for explosive hazards remediation.

Kevin T. Sur is the Director of Communications / Public Information Officer (PIO) for the State of Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA) and in the External Affairs Cadre at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (DHS/FEMA) in Washington, DC. Kevin was awarded the Ohio American College of Emergency Physicians’ EMS Star of Life Award for his deployment with the State of Ohio Task Force to Louisiana’s Lower 9th ward during the 2005 Hurricane Katrina/Rita in St. Bernard Parish. Kevin served in the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) during Hurricane Sandy, 2016 World Series, 2017/2018 NBA Finals, and 2016 Republican National Convention. In September 2017, Kevin was deployed with FEMA for the Hurricane Irma response as the PIO responsible for the entire Florida Keys leading FEMA’s External Affairs for Branch 5 and then Hurricane Maria response/recovery as the FEMA PIO responsible for the US Virgin Islands. In 2019, Kevin was deployed as the primary PIO and acting FEMA External Affairs Officer covering the State of Nebraska for the flooding response and statewide recovery operations. In 2020-2021, Kevin was deployed as the FEMA PIO and Joint Information Center Manager to FEMA Region-1 covering Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont for all COVID Operations and Federal COVID vaccination efforts. And again in 2021 as the Joint Information Center Manager for the response/recovery for New York for Hurricane Ida. In 2014, Kevin was invited to the White House for the Innovation for Disaster Response and Recovery Initiative and has been named Cleveland’s Top 10 Most Interesting Tweeps on Twitter from WKYC / MetroMix (NBC affiliate). Additionally, he has received numerous awards including Fire Officer of the Year and a Unit Citation award for Excellence in EMS care.