Angelique "Angel" Gingras is a Journalism and History double-major at the University of Maryland, where is a contributing writer for the Mitzpeh. She previously interned at the Bay Weekly in Annapolis, Maryland as a feature writer. She began her internship at Homeland Security Today through The Fund for American Studies in Summer 2021.
Kyle McPhee is Hagerty’s Director of Preparedness Programs and an experienced management professional who has worked with international, national, regional, state, local, and private-sector organizations in the areas of emergency management, homeland security, business continuity, and public health preparedness. His expertise includes project management, planning, facilitation, and evaluation related to various topics including catastrophic incidents, mission ready packages, mass care, and evacuation.
Ricardo Vazquez Garcia is a Journalism major with a concentration in Photojournalism & Political Science minor at the University of North Texas. He previously served as the visuals editor for the North Texas Daily from 2020-2021. Ricardo started his internship at Homeland Security Today in 2021.
Associate Chief Lucas Lopez is a uniformed federal civilian working for the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection. He is currently a graduate student at the Oettinger School of Science & Technology Intelligence, National Intelligence University, in Bethesda, Maryland. Chief Lopez has over 24 years of experience in homeland security issues. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration with a concentration in Leadership from American Military University and a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Information Technology Management from American Public University.
Dr. Mark Bailey is the Chair of the Cyber Intelligence and Data Science Department, as well as the Co-Director of the Data Science Intelligence Center, at the National Intelligence University. Prior to that, he worked as a data scientist on several AI programs within the U.S. Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community. Dr. Bailey is also a Major in the U.S. Army Reserve. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Michael Crouse is the Director, Enterprise User and Data Protection for Forcepoint Global Governments and Critical Infrastructure. He works with organizations to achieve a cybersecurity paradigm shift focused on dynamic user and data protection with adaptive risk mitigation. He has more than two decades of experience supporting commercial and federal organizations, including the National Security Agency (NSA). He holds degrees from the University of Akron and Johns Hopkins University, as well as program management certifications from the Project Management Institute and the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute.
An Emmy-Award Winning documentarian, Christopher Allan Smith lived in Paradise, California, with his family until the Camp Fire consumed his home in November 2018. Since then, he has been conducting interviews and research into the history of the fire as well as the lessons taken by first responders, civilians, government officials and private disaster planners, with an eye toward producing multiple projects based on those lessons. He also acted as a Field Producer for Ron Howard’s REBUILDING PARADISE as well as the writer/director of the PBS broadcast documentary A HIGH AND AWFUL PRICE: LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE CAMP FIRE. He is the owner and founder of RocketSpots.tv, a video production company that produces a wide range of documentary, promotional and online projects.
Lee Mayfield is Hagerty’s Response Director and is a proven emergency management leader with over 13 years of experience in disaster planning, response, and recovery – specializing in state and local coordination, training and exercise, mass care, evacuation prioritization, and crisis response. Prior to joining Hagerty, Lee served as the Director of Public Safety and Emergency Management for Lee County, FL where he oversaw and supported the county’s response to and recovery from Hurricane Irma in 2017.