Continuity of Operations (COOP) & Emergency Planning in the Government Environment Training Workshop XXIII

Veronica (Roni) M. Glass

Veronica M. Glass (fondly known as “Roni”) started her public and professional service working for legacy U.S. Customs Service24 years ago before it was bridged with the Department of Homeland Security and became Customs and Border Protection. Her body of work of 33 years in public service has exposed her to vast opportunities at all levels of management. Her experience with the changing world of IT afforded her the unique opportunity to be asked to help revitalize the CBP Continuity Program.  Previously she was the owner and Program Manager for the Headquarters Customs and Border Protection Continuity of Operations (COOP) Program within the National Capital Region (NCR). Ms. Glass coordinated and had complete COOP oversight and responsibility not only for CBP Headquarters, but CBP field locations. Recently, Ms Glass was selected for a Department level position as Chief, DHS Headquarters Section, Mission Assurance Branch, Continuity Division for the Department of Homeland Security.

At the Departmental-level Ms. Glass is responsible for department-wide coordination / integration of COOP policy and plans on all levels of contingency planning surrounding potential threat conditions.  Ms. Glass has daily COOP programmatic oversightfor at least 26 components.  She has been working in the Emergency Management field for the last nine years and has taken every opportunity with the new challenges to become as informed and trained on continuity and emergency planning as possible.  Ms. Glass has completed coursework with the Disaster Recovery Institute (DRI) and is a candidate for certificationas a Certified Business Continuity Planner (CBCP). She has also completed coursework in Information Assurance (IA) and continuity planning at the Department of Defense (DoD) Information Resource Management College (IRMC), Fort McNair.  Ms. Glass is passionate about her challenge of emergency management, working with the people she meets and championing the cause of COOP whenever and wherever she can.

Dean Gallup, MBCP, is a co-author of NIST SP800-34 Revision 1 Contingency Planning Guide for Federal Information Systems.  He has over 25 years experience in management and operation of large-scale critical information systems and Disaster Recovery and Contingency Planning for both the public and private sector.  He has IT management experience in 24/7 data center operations, including implementations, disaster recovery management and planning, IT COOP development, and risk and impact analyses for Federal and state agencies and military organizations.  His experience includes over thirty years of emergency management training and operations in both the fire service and emergency medicine.

Mr. Gallup is a Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Consultant with Advantaged Solutions, Inc., developing contingency and continuity plans for a Department of Defense agency.  He has developed COOP, disaster recovery, continuity and contingency plans for federal civilian and defense agencies for over 10 years. Additionally, he managed the installation and implementation of the Virginia Tax computer system and development of their disaster recovery strategy.  Mr. Gallup spent 17 years at the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, serving as Manager of Computer Operations, and overseeing the implementation and operation of the Statewide Automated Fingerprint Identification System (SAFIS), one of the largest automated fingerprint systems in the world at the time.

Mr. Smith entered federal civil service in January in 2009, initially serving in Disaster Operations Planning, then leading the agency’s Continuity of Operations program. Mr. Smith is currently the Senior Advisor to the Associate Administrator, who oversees FEMA’s Response, Recovery, Logistics and Field Operations Directorates. The Associate Administrator is also responsible for FEMA’s tactical communications and Doctrine and Planning. In his capacity as Senior Advisor, Mr. Smith serves as the chief strategist on program, policy, doctrine and initiatives. He advises executive leadership on readiness for and effective execution of response and recovery operations. To this end, Mr. Smith is standing up a Decision Support Group for day-to-day and crisis response analytical support to senior executives. He is also the Associate Administrator’s emissary throughout FEMA promoting programs and fostering collegial internal collaboration.

Mr. Smith is a graduate of the Emergency Management Institute’s Executive Leadership Academy and most recently he was awarded the FEMA Administrator's Award - Exemplary Emergency Manager – 2015. He deployed to Kyiv, Ukraine as member of US delegation assisting the Government of Ukraine plan for energy resilience for the 2015/16 winter season following the invasion of Crimea and Donbas region and participated in Cabinet-level exercises with the Prime Minister and Ukrainian Parliament members.

Mr. Smith is dual qualified under FEMA’s Qualification System (FQS) in Incident Support and Incident Management. In Incident Support, he is a Resource Capability Branch Director in the National Response Coordination Center (NRCC), leading five support groups covering all operations, logistics and ESFs. He has participated in numerous activations including multiple hurricanes, including Isaac and Sandy, winter storms, flooding, tornadoes and Haiti support.

In Incident Management, Mr. Smith is an FQS qualified Division Supervisor and deployed with National Incident Management Assistance Teams to Virginia for Hurricanes Irene, as Operations Section Chief on Staten Island, NY for Hurricane Sandy, and as a Division Supervisor to Georgetown County, South Carolina in 2015 and to Livingston and Ascension Parishes, Louisiana in 2016 for their historic flooding.

Prior to joining FEMA, he completed a 28 year career in the United States Air Force. His varied assignments included operational, staff and command tours in both ground and flying units. Mr. Smith was a Master Air Battle Manager and flight examiner with over 3,300 flight hours in both the AWACS and JSTARS aircraft. He deployed as a Mission Crew Commander on five combat tours to Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom in 2003-2006, with 120 combat missions and over 1,500 combat flight hours. He additionally served a wartime tour with the United Nations in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1994 and Operations Southern and Northern Watch flying 55 Combat Support missions in 1992-1996.

While serving with the Air Force, Mr. Smith responded to a number of disasters, including, as military On Scene Commander for the Murrah Federal Building bombing response, managing a shelter for over 1,000 personnel in Mississippi during Hurricane George's and volunteering with nonprofit organizations during the Hurricane Katrina response in Biloxi, Mississippi.

He is a graduate of The Citadel with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and earned a Masters of Arts in Biology from Harvard University.

Calvin W. Turner, Jr.

Director, OFCO, National Finance Center, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)

Calvin W. Turner, Jr. is the Director of the National Finance Center (NFC). Mr. Turner joined NFC in October 2011, as the Deputy Director, and most recently, he was the Acting Director. Prior to joining NFC, Mr. Turner had more than 20 years of leadership experience in the banking industry with Whitney National Bank, Hibernia National Bank, and the Federal Reserve Bank.

He was also an Associate Instructor with the University of Phoenix at the New Orleans campus, and he was the owner of two small businesses.

Mr. Turner is active in the community and frequently volunteers as on-air talent with WYES TV/Channel 12 Public Television to help raise money with their pledge drives, and he has served on the boards of numerous local community organizations. Mr. Turner has a Master’s degree in Public Administration and an undergraduate degree in Business Management and Communications.