Mr. Wagner is a Co-Founder and CEO. A nationally distinguished emergency response, planning consultant with over 30 years of professional experience in both private and public sectors. He leads all business and growth strategies at Early Alert. Mr. Wagner retired with 23 years of fire service where he served as the City of Marathon’s Fire Chief and Emergency Manager. He is a noted authority on Fire Service Command and Control, Strategies and Tactics, and the Incident Command System.

Mr. Wagner has first-hand experience responding to some of the largest catastrophic disasters in our lifetime going back to Hurricane Andrew. He drew upon that experience during other Hurricanes such as George, Irene and recently serving as the emergency manager for hurricanes Charley, Frances, Jeanne, Ivan, Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Wilma and most recently Harvey and Irma. In addition, he has worked in many other emergency operations centers and command posts where he has participated as the Incident Commander, Operations and Logistics Chief.

Mr. Wagner is also nationally recognized for his work as a fire instructor. He has shared his experience with other fire departments, health systems, county and municipal governing agencies, non-profits and volunteer organizations and including the private sector.

William A. Wagner, III is President and a principal owner of Early Alert, Inc.  Mr. Wagner is a nationally recognized senior public and private sector executive with more than 40 years’ experience public administration, managing and administering emergency management, business continuity, incident command, strategies and tactics, emergency medical and mass casualty, fire rescue operations, fire prevention, fire investigation, and several successful entrepreneurial businesses. His subject matter expertise includes project management, administering all operational, planning and training for emergencies and disasters regarding emergency preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation.

During Hurricane Andrew, he established the command post at Florida City where more than 150 firefighters began search and rescue in the first forty-eight hours following the storm where he managed a Unified Command System including over one hundred law enforcement personnel, several relief agencies and members of the Florida National Guard. He served as Incident Commander for numerous large-scale incidents and disaster including Hurricanes George, Katrina, and Wilma in the Florida Keys. He served as a recovery technician at the Value Jet disaster in the Florida Everglades. His experience includes such posts as Emergency Manager, Incident Commander, Planning Section Chief, Operations Section Chief and Logistics Section Chief. Most recently commanded and coordinated incident management support team deployments for 2017 Hurricane Harvey and Irma thought out South Florida and 2018 Hurricanes Florence and Michael.

In addition to his appointment to the elite Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Hurricane Liaison Team, Mr. Wagner also served on the International Association of Fire Chiefs – Emergency Management Committee – Sub-Committee for Education and Training. Additionally, he has served as an Emergency Management Coordinator for the Florida Keys and the County Coordinator for the Florida Disaster Response Plan. Mr. Wagner served as the Florida Fire Chiefs’ Association: State Emergency Response Team – FEPA Liaison, South Florida – State Incident Management Team as the IC or Operations Chief, Member of the AHIMTA Interstate Incident Management Team Qualifications System (IIMTQS) Committee and the Emergency Interoperability Consortium.

Special awards include Fire Chief of the Year for Monroe County, Phoenix Award for Life Saving, Special Rescue Award, Firefighter of the Year Monroe County, FL., FEMA’s Outstanding Achievement award for Region IV. and the National Hurricane Conference – Distinguished Service Award.

John Copenhaver is a licensed Georgia attorney since 1979 and holds both the Member of the Business Continuity Institute (MBCI) and Certified Business Continuity Professional (CBCP) professional certifications. He was President Clinton’s appointee to the Directorship of FEMA Region IV, its largest regional office, from 1997 to 2001, and has since served in a number of senior executive management roles, including President and CEO of the DRI International. He was elected to the Disaster Recovery Institute International Board of Directors in 2001, and then served as their Chair from 2003-2005. As well as serving on the Editorial Board of “The Journal of Emergency Management” and formerly “The Journal of Business Continuity and Emergency Management,”.

John has held many distinguished appointed positions, including one to the Advisory Board of the Journal of Emergency Management, which he now holds; to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce National Security Task Force from 2007 – 2010, and to the FEMA National Advisory Council Private Sector Subcommittee from 2008 – 2010. John’s disaster operations experience ranges in scale from small (less than $20 million in assistance and fewer than 100 people involved in recovery operations) to massive (over $1 billion in assistance and over 1,000 people involved in response and recovery operations).

He directed implementation of the United States’ largest disaster recovery / housing buyout and relocation program after Hurricane Floyd in eastern North Carolina, involving purchase of over 1,100 homes in flood prone areas and relocation of occupants to safer homes outside known floodplains; Federal dollars spent in this program exceeded $400 million. John directed the hazardous materials programs for the Southeastern U.S., including oversight of the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP) and the Radiological Emergency Program (REP), both involving multimillion-dollar budgets and considerable Congressional oversight.

Billy Wagner has served for over 40+ years in public administration and management, and has gained extensive experience over his 40-year career in emergency management disaster response and planning, particularly with tropical cyclone and severe weather events. In his current position with Early Alert, he is responsible for public affairs and oversight of the emergency management team, which includes disaster mitigation, planning, response, and recovery.

Billy’s actual disaster response experience includes many severe weather events, tornados, tropical storms, hurricanes, floods, oil spill response, mass immigration and urban search and rescue. Billy had the direct responsibility for the coordination of the response to over 50 Tropical Cyclone/Typhoon events. More significantly, he directed the response and recovery of 1992 Hurricane Andrew, 1996 Hurricane Bertha, 1996 Hurricane Lili, 1998 Hurricane Georges and TS Mitch, 1999 Hurricane Floyd, 2004 Hurricanes Charlie, Frances and Ivan, and 2005 Hurricanes Dennis, Katrina, Rita and Wilma. Other related experience and practices include direct coordination with the Tropical Prediction Center/National Hurricane Center and World Meteorological Origination and Committee Team Leader for the FEMA / Corps of Engineers Hurricane Georges, Bertha, Opal & Fran Response Assessment. Billy is the only Emergency Management representative on the American Society of Civil Engineers Task Committee, which is developing a set of guidelines on wind damage investigation, for publication as an ASCE Manual of Practice.

Billy is one of the original founders of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Hurricane Liaison Team (HLT). This select group of Emergency Management professionals with hurricane experience is specially trained to serve in the National Hurricane Center (NHC). The primary role of the HLT is to provide support to federal, state and local officials whenever a tropical cyclone threatens the United States and its territories in the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Gulf of Mexico basins. The HLT ensures that the emergency management community has the information needed to take proper actions in responding to the event. Billy spearheaded the development of the position of HLT coordinator, responsible for contacting the state and local emergencies managers assuring that they have received all the NHC products pertaining to the event and briefing them on any changes which may take place regarding the system between advisories. This position also has the responsibility of setting up the conference calls between the NHC and the emergency management community and high-level officials being affected, including Puerto Rico and the American Virgin Islands. He also handles any calls made to the NHC that are emergency management related.

Chief Adviser to the MET Team, Kermit’s advanced studies and degrees in both meteorology (B.S., North Carolina State University, 1976) and psychology (B.A., East Carolina University, 1968) provided the foundation for a nearly 30 year NWS career that emphasized winter and severe storms, forecast operations, applied research, professional development, critical decision making, and science outreach. Kermit began his NWS career in 1977 at Fort Worth, Texas in the tornado prone region of North Texas.

In 1983, he was assigned to the forecast office in Raleigh North Carolina as a Lead Forecaster. From 1993 until his retirement in 2006, Kermit served as NWS Raleigh’s first Science and Operations Officer, in charge of the infusion of science into forecast operations and the professional development and training of forecasters. Through several awards, NWS, NOAA, and the AMS have all recognized Kermit for his leadership in shaping, promoting, and guiding productive collaborations between NWS and North Carolina State University – a collaboration that has been funded by NOAA for sixteen consecutive years. During this time, Kermit was the chief architect for pioneering joint winter and severe storm operations with selected faculty and students, developing a university credited NWS internship course, and establishing effective protocols for conducting successful university collaborations.

Kermit has co-authored and published several articles sharing the collaboration’s success in developing and implementing improved forecast techniques and protocols for critical weather hazards that included: winter storms, sound side flooding, cloud to ground lightning, tornadoes associated with tropical cyclones, inland effects of land falling tropical cyclones, and cold air damming. In 2002, Kermit was recognized by NWS Eastern Region for his expertise in winter storms and for shaping the Region’s best practices for predicting winter storms.

Ms. Wagner has been in the emergency management profession for over 15 years in municipal lead and department head positions. Most recently, she served as the Municipal City Clerk for Islamorada, Florida, responsible for project management, public outreach, and records retention.

Kyrie has participated in emergency management planning (COOP & Mitigation), numerous Emergency Operation Center exercises, and municipal Emergency Operation Center activations during disasters. As an EA team member, Ms. Wagner is responsible for client management, social network marketing, planning, and onsite liaison and coordination. Her experience in emergency management deployments consists of hurricanes, severe weather events, oil spills and other disasters, in both private to public sector emergency management coordination. She is proficient with a number of software programs, and leads our social network marketing efforts.

Kyrie is an extremely self-motivated and collaborative team member. Her project management, planning and communication skills are broad; moreover, her organizational skills and her ability to work well with people are an asset to projects in which she assists and leads. Kyrie possesses the necessary skills to effectively and efficiently plan projects from concept to completion.

Global Enterprise Solutions Professional with over 25 years’ experience offering unique, customized risk and operational solutions to clients around the world…

Pat Cunnane is a Global Enterprise Solutions Professional with over 25 years’ experience offering unique, customized risk and operational solutions to clients around the world.  Extensive business travel at client request (USA, Canada, Bahamas, Barbados, Ireland, United Kingdom, Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Uruguay, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Thailand).

Expertise and Certifications include:

• FEMA IS-00700.b An Introduction to the National Incident Management System
• FEMA IS-00200.c Basic Incident Command System for Initial Response
• FEMA IS-00100.c Introduction to Incident Command Systems
• National Weather Service SKYWARN Storm Spotter
• Association of Continuity Professionals (ACP)
• University of Delaware, Bachelor of Science (BS), Consumer Economics & Human Resources

Pat was born in Philadelphia into a hard working family that taught him the values of a strong work ethic, honesty and integrity. These values are what drives Pat each and every day in supporting Early Alert clients.

Relocating multiple times from PA, CA, WA, AZ, Costa Rica, CO, FL and having traveled globally for business Pat has acquired hands on experience and diversity which enable him to provide Early Alert clients a custom fit solution that fits their business requirements.

Bryan Blankenship is a professional with more than 35 years of comprehensive experience in meteorology and oceanography, physical and life sciences, weather management and operations, emergency management, research, education and technical training. He retired from the U.S. Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command in 2010 as a naval officer following a distinguished 30-year military career.

During his tenure he served in a variety of positions of increased responsibility and complexity throughout the world both ashore and afloat. Significant duties included tours on five Flag Staffs, two aircraft carriers, amphibious carrier and the command of three Fleet Weather detachments. Following his naval career he has worked as a government technology consultant as a cybersecurity analyst. Bryan holds a bachelor’s degree in Natural Science and Mathematics from Thomas Edison State College and is a certified Department of Labor Journeyman Meteorologist and certified Navy Meteorological and Oceanographic Analyst-Forecaster.

He has operational forecasting experience throughout the United States, Central and South America, Caribbean, Asia, Western Pacific, Indian Ocean, Middle East, Europe, Mediterranean, and Polar Regions. While serving as a Naval Aircrewman, on the Naval Ice Reconnaissance Team, he accumulated over 1000 flight hours while operating in the Arctic and Antarctic. Bryan has also been certified as a Navy and National Weather Service aviation, synoptic, maritime, upper air, radar, climatology, oceanographic observer since 1982 and is a graduate of numerous Navy and Air Force schools.

Lisa has worked in local, state and federal government ranging from local municipalities to the Governor’s Authorized Representative for the State of Florida to impacted counties and FEMA’s Disaster Field Office.

Primary functions have included the following: Incident Commander during many disasters (hurricanes), Planning Section Chief and Operations Section Chief for the State of Florida’s Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee. Formal higher education from colleges and universities include: Advanced Incident Management & Unified Command, Company Officer, Fire Service Instructor, Command & Control of Major Operations, Disaster Control/Emergency Readiness, Emergency Response/Haz-Mat, Emergency Planning, and Emergency Program Manager to name a few.

She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration with strong emphasis in planning and management, and holds an Associate of Science in Emergency Services.

Robert ‘Bob’ Koenig has been working with Early Alert, Inc. since 2010, serving as a principal member of our instructional team — as SME, Lead Instructor, Project Manager, before becoming Director of All Hazard Training in 2013. Bob is currently a member of the Southern Area Red Type 1 Incident Management Team, a Planning Team Manager and Logistics Section Chief with Texas Task Force 1, Urban Search and Rescue. Bob also serves as an Adjunct Instructor with the Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX), Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas in the enhanced incident management – unified command program.

In 2005, he retired from the Texas Forest Service after serving as the State Incident Management Team Coordinator and Chief of Incident Response Training. Bob was responsible for oversight of 17 All-Hazard Type 3 Incident Management Teams strategically located throughout the State of Texas for state and national response. In addition, Bob was a member of the Texas Forest Service Lone Star State Type 2 Incident Management Team, and co-authored the revision to the current “USFA Type 3 Incident Management Team—Instructor Guide.” Bob served as Chair of the National Incident Management Support Team (IMST), National Integration Center (NIC), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Prior to joining the Texas Forest Service, Bob worked for three years as Program Manager for the Texas Engineering Extension Services’ (TEEX) Urban Search and Rescue Division; for 19 years as an Internal Affairs Officer, Management Auditor and Agency Risk Manager for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice; and was the agency’s representative to the State Emergency Management Council.

Professional Experience

Bob has met all instructor qualification regarding National Incident Management System (NIMS): Training Program (NIMS) and U.S. Coast Guard All-Hazard National Incident Management System (NIMS) Incident Command System (ICS) Performance Qualification Standards, and in his 35+ year career has instructed over 30 All Hazard Incident Management Team O-305 courses, more than six Command and General Staff for Local Incident Management Team courses, and over 40 command and general staff position specific courses. He also has been an Exercise Leader and Exercise staff member. Bob’s emergency response deployments include numerous natural and man-made incidents including:

• as Incident Commander, Liaison Officer and Planning Section Chief for Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Ivan, Dolly and Ike;
• as Planning Section Chief to the Space Shuttle Columbia explosion and the World Trade Center incident with Texas Task Force 1;
• in a variety of command and general staff positions including Incident Commander, Operations Section Chief, Planning Section Chief and Logistics Section Chief to numerous tornadoes, floods, and law enforcement related incidents, including the Yearning for Zion Ranch incident in 2008 involving Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints;
• in incident management positions to NFL Super Bowls and Major League Baseball World Series events, as well as political conventions; and
• most recently commanded and coordinated incident management support team deployments for 2017 Hurricane Harvey and Irma thought out South Florida and 2018 Hurricanes Florence and Michael.

Bob’s was as the state’s incident commander on the Bastrop County Complex Fire Unified Command in September 2011, the most costly fire in Texas history. Bob has planned, facilitated, and written final reports on 12 After Action Reviews, including AARs for Hurricane Ike and the Bastrop County Complex Fire. Bob is also an NWCG qualified Liaison Officer and Training Specialist.

Rusty Cook has over 15 years of successful planning and response experience at the tactical, operational and strategic levels within the state and federal sectors. His subject matter expertise includes, but is not limited to, disaster preparedness and response, incident management, systems integration, information sharing/work flows, data management and spatial analytics.

Rusty’s emergency management career started as a member DOD’s Homeland Response Force for FEMA Region 3. With 15 years of military service, he has worked around the globe in support of the United States’ operational and strategic objectives abroad. His latest assignment was in the Southern hemisphere where he planned and executed over 50 joint special operations missions across Latin America, South America and the Caribbean. Rusty developed and institutionalized a comprehensive methodology that drove the planning and targeting processes throughout the region. He was also the emergency management/disaster response subject matter expert and responded to over 20 contingency operations/disasters throughout Central and South America. He continues to serve in the Army Reserves as a Civil Affairs Officer.

Rusty spent six years with the Oklahoma State Department of Health as the Emergency Operations Coordinator. He redefined how disaster related information was collected, collated and shared across the health and medical community. As a certified NIMS/ICS instructor, Rusty has delivered numerous classes and trainings across the state to a variety of different public safety audiences. He is also a Master Exercise Practitioner (MEP) and has developed and administered several full-scale exercises.

Rusty’s emergency management and disaster response and recovery experience is robust. He currently serves as a Planning Section Chief on the Oklahoma Incident Management Team (IMT), the Oklahoma Forestry IMT and the Southern Area Gold IMT. He has deployed a number of times across the country to support State and Local response and recovery efforts.

Actual disaster management, response and recovery experience includes volcanic eruptions, public health outbreaks, terrorist incidents (interdiction, disruption and response), aviation accidents, mass casualty incidents, dam failures, tropical systems, severe weather events, floods, tornados, wildfires, manhunts, and civil unrest.

Additional expertise includes NIMS/ICS, Emergency Operations Planning, Advanced Incident Management and Unified Command, Geographical Information Systems (GIS), Information/Knowledge Management, Systems Integration, Public Health Emergency Preparedness & Response, Continuity of Operations, Critical Infrastructure Protection and Exercise Design and Implementation.

Jake graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 2019 where he began his young professional career as a Broadcast Meteorologist before pursuing a career in Emergency Management. Throughout his studies and short professional career, he has gained multiple years of experience in Public Speaking, Physical, Human, and Urban Geography, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), GIS Applications, Advanced GIS and Spatial Analysis, Digital Image Processing, Spatial Statistics, Cartography, Data Analysis, News Writing & Storytelling, Electronic News Gathering, Television News, Natural Hazards, and Research.

Additionally, Jake has participated in emergency management projects and an Emergency Operation Center activation. His experience in emergency management deployment consists of Hurricane Ida in the summer of 2021. Most recently coordinated wildfire and tropical cyclone situational awareness during the 2021 Wildfire and Hurricane seasons. Furthermore, Jake has recorded over a year of planned protest and civil unrest data mining and analysis experience which started in the Fall of 2020.

As an Early Alert team member, Jake is responsible for Situational Awareness, a 24/7 Watch Office which requires continuous monitoring of relevant sources of information regarding actual incidents and developing hazards. He manages and maintains the tools, software, and dashboards used to carry out daily operations.

Professional Accomplishments

IIn addition to holding a Master’s degree in Geospatial Technologies, Bachelor’s degree in Geography and two minors, Jake has experience using ESRI ArcGIS products such as ArcMap, ArcGIS Pro, and ArcGIS Online. This expertise and knowledge have contributed to the following projects:

• All Hazard Analysis Tool, used to perform analysis and risk assessment
• Special Hazard Reports, used to provide critical information on hazard and provide personalized maps/charts
• Dashboards/Hazard Queues, used to visualize data and trends (i.e. COVID, Civil Unrest, and Risk)

A passionate and self-motivated team member with broad leadership, management, planning, and communication skills, Jake’s ability to be adaptable and versatile, along with the willingness to learn new methods and meet demanding standards, is an asset to the Situational Awareness Unit in which he leads.

Susan Cunnane is a detail oriented and self-accountable leader with 20 years of business experience. Susan has a reputation for leadership that motivates others who understand and respond to clear expectations and accountability measures. Proven success in communications with all levels of personnel and clients. She is skilled at developing the right action plan for each of her client’s unique needs and committed to helping them choose the best products and services. Throughout her career, Susan has earned the trust of several national and international companies and maintained strong client relationships that generate repeat business. She attributes her success to her ability to listen to customers and put their needs first. Most recently, Susan was the Executive Director of the Stuart Airshow where she was responsible for planning, organizing and executing a 3 day event with over 50,000 attendees.

Susan has participated in emergency management planning (COOP), and Emergency Operation Center activations during disasters. Her experience in emergency management deployments consists of hurricanes and severe weather events and other disasters, in private sector emergency management coordination.

As an Early Alert team member, Susan is responsible for client management, growth and retention of existing accounts and onsite client liaison and coordination. Susan is particularly effective in analyzing situations, fostering client relationships, and driving results.

Areas of Experience:

• Project Management
• Planning
• Online and Social Media Marketing
• Client Relations

PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATIONS

Certificates in many FEMA Independent Study courses:

• FEMA IS-00700.b An Introduction to the National Incident Management System
• FEMA IS-00200.c Basic Incident Command System for Initial Response
• FEMA IS-00100.c Introduction to Incident Command Systems