Free webinar with 3 state emergency officials Oct. 28

Three emergency management leaders from the State of Oregon will share their insights at a free online webinar Oct. 28 from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Speakers will include:

• Peter Mackwell, Medical Surge Planner, Oregon Health Authority
• Ed Flick, Emergency Management Director, Oregon Department of Human Services
• Sonya McCormick, Public/Private Partnership Program Manager, Oregon Office of Emergency Management

The webinar is sponsored by a Bend non-profit, PathFinderEX. to bring together community members and experts to discuss disaster awareness and preparedness topics. The schedule is as follows:

5:00 p.m. – 5:05 p.m.: Introduction

5:05 p.m. – 5:25 p.m.: NETs in Disasters / Hurricane Katrina best practices and lessons learned. Mr. Peter Mackwell will discuss the importance of NETs in Disasters and share his experiences & best practices learned from Hurricane Katrina in 2004. Mr. Mackwell is a thirty-year veteran of EMS/Fire and Disaster response, and a member of the Oregon State and the Federal disaster response system. He has served as the Operations Section Chief on the Incident Management Team for IMT-West, overseeing Emergency Support Function 8 (ESF-8).

5:25 p.m. – 5:45 p.m.: Oregon’s Wildfires: A look back, and what can we expect in the future. Ed Flick will discuss what has happened to the areas throughout Oregon that were impacted by wildfires over the past few years. Mr. Flick is the Emergency Management Director for the Oregon Department of Human Services. In his role he organizes, coordinates, and prepares Emergency Support Function 6 (ESF-6), Mass Care, for the state of Oregon. He has decades of experience in disaster risk reduction and preparedness from his time as an Army Special Forces officer to his experience as a county emergency manager.

5:45 p.m. – 6:05 p.m.: Public & Private Partnerships: The importance of working with state agencies.  Sonya McCormick will discuss the importance of working with state and local agencies prior to, during, and following a disaster. Ms. McCormick is the Public/Private Partnership Program Manager for Oregon Office of Emergency Management, in Salem, Ore. She has worked for local and state governments in the fields of epidemiology, environmental health, and emergency management.

6:05 p.m. – 6:20 p.m.: Open forum: question & answer session. Closing remarks.

This event is supported by the Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons of Oregon (OPSO).

You may register for the event at: https://www.pathfinderex.org/event-details/pfx-summit-neighborhood-team-response-in-an-emergency-2

PathFinderEX invites all neighborhood residents to join the first of many virtual discussion series called PFX Summit.  The group organized the online series after the spike in COVID-19 cases in September 2021 forced cancellation of in-person training at Amazon Park.