Below are our moderators for the panel discussions.

Moderator Bios

Nancy Brockway
American Red Cross
Chief Emergency Services Officer

Nancy Brockway was named Chief Emergency Services Officer for the American Red Cross, Metropolitan Atlanta Chapter in 2003. Previously, she was the chapter’s Director of Disaster Services.In addition to her local disaster responsibilities, Ms. Brockway serves as an advanced level disaster instructor, is a member of the National Critical Response Team and the International Response Team, and is a Level IV Disaster Relief Operation Director in the National Disaster Services Human Resource System. She has served on a number of disaster relief assignments around the country, including Director of the Red Cross relief operation for the World Trade Center Operation in New Jersey after 9-11 and Hurricane Katrina Relief Operations in GA in 2005.

Ms. Brockway started with the Red Cross as a volunteer CPR and First Aid instructor in 1982. In 1983, she joined the paid staff of the chapter as Director of the Office of Volunteers. In 1986, she was appointed Director of the Red Cross Service Center serving DeKalb and Rockdale counties.

In 1993, Ms. Brockway was "loaned" to the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games. There she served for three years as Program Manager in the Medical Services Department with responsibility for coordinating the medical care for all 11 million spectators, staff and Olympic family members at the 1996 Olympic Games. She was also responsible for the recruitment, placement, and training of 4000 medical volunteers. After completing her assignment, she returned to the chapter to assume the position of Director of Disaster Services. In 2003, she was promoted to the position of Chief Emergency Services Officer.

Ms. Brockway is a native of Baton Rouge and a graduate of Louisiana State University. She is an active member of St. Anne’s Episcopal Church. She is a founder and vice-president of Kids4Peace, USA, a faith-based non-profit organization that brings Israeli, Palestinian and American children together in a year long education for peace program.

Carladenise A. Edwards
Georgia Department of Community Health
Chief of Staff

Dr. Carladenise A. Edwards is the Chief of Staff at the Georgia Department of Community Health (DCH). DCH is the state agency responsible for health care planning, financing, and regulation. Dr. Edwards serves as the principal advisor to the Commissioner on all major issues and initiatives, including Medicaid, State Health Benefit Plan, health information technology, health care access, and health planning and regulation. DCH provides health care for approximately 2 million people with a $12 billion budget and a staff of over 450 people.

Immediately prior to her position with DCH, Dr. Edwards was the executive director of the South Florida Health Information Initiative, a regional health information organization aimed at improving health care quality, access, and efficiency through technology. She is the Founder of The BAE Company, a Miami-based health care consulting business that provides business management, strategic planning, and consulting services to health care institutions, including Florida’s Department of Health, Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration, Health Choice Network, and numerous not-for-profit and private health care entities.

Dr. Edwards has significant management experience in the public and private health care arenas, including serving as the first executive director of Florida’s Governor’s Health Information Infrastructure Advisory Board; Vice President of Operations for Williams, Stern, and Associates; a Presidential Management Intern for the Center for Mental Health Services in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Disabled and Elderly Health Programs Group of the Center for Medicaid and State Operations at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; an administrator at Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration; and a senior analyst for several health care consulting firms, including Abt Associates and The Urban Institute.

Leigh Fitzpatrick McCook
Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI)
Division Chief, Socio-Technical Systems Division, Information Technology and Telecommunications Laboratory

Ms. McCook is the Division Chief of the Socio-Technical Systems Division within the Information Technology and Telecommunications Laboratory at GTRI. Her expertise includes technology transfer, outreach, planning, and program management. Ms. McCook currently serves as Program Manager for state Homeland Security/Emergency Response programs at Georgia Tech Research Institute. In this capacity, she is responsible for activities ranging from outreach, training, exercises, planning, technology development and integration, and policy. She works closely with the State of Georgia in capacities of homeland security and emergency response, including building stakeholder consensus, developing regional response plans and enhancement plans for the State, and designing and implementing exercise and training programs. She has also served as Associate Director of Center for Emergency Response Technology Instruction and Policy. In this capacity she was charged with building consortiums of academia, government, and NGOs to support research and technology transfer activities.

Brent Woodworth
Los Angeles Emergency Preparedness Foundation
President/CEO

Mr. Brent Woodworth is a well known leader in global risk and crisis management. He has a distinguished history of working with governments, private sector companies, and non-profit organizations. In December 2007, he took his retirement from IBM after 32 years of service which included the development and management of all worldwide crisis response team operations.

Brent consults on a global basis with business leaders, elected officials and heads of state in the development and implementation of improved risk identification, disaster management, and global humanitarian relief services.

Brent is certified in disaster recovery, business continuity, incident management, disaster communication, search & rescue, and emergency medical services. He is a regularly featured speaker on radio and television broadcasts along with industry conferences, government sessions, and senior executive board meetings. Brent has written multiple articles on disaster management and has been a guest lecturer at colleges and universities including Caltech, Stanford, Wharton School of Business, Harvard, and Yale Law Schools. Brent and his team have worked for many years in cooperation with international UN relief agencies and NGO’s including WHO, WFP, OCHA, World Bank, UNHCR, World Vision International, Red Cross, and USAID.