Below are the workshop presenters for this year's conference. A listing in alphabetical order can be found within the right-hand menu. Click on an individual's name to jump to their bio.

Speaker Bios

Bernard Chomilier
World Food Programme (WFP)
Head of Logistics Development Unit

Bernard Chomilier has lead humanitarian responses for most of the major crises around the world over the last 25 years. He is currently working as the Head of the Logistics Development Unit at World Food Programme. Previously, Mr. Chomilier worked as the Head of Logistics for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. He also served as Head of Mission on several occasions and worked as the General Manager of Logistics at Medecins Sans Frontieres.

William R. (Ray) Doyles
Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA) & Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI)
Senior Research Scientist

William R. (Ray) Doyle is a Senior Research Scientist in the Information Technology and Telecommunications Laboratory of the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI). Doyle is currently responsible for a number of homeland security projects for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency - Office of Homeland Security, including those in the areas of strategic planning, training, and exercises.

In addition to the work above, Doyle has performed research on a dry solar latrine for use in areas unsuited for traditional pit latrines. As a part of this project, he was a member of a GTRI/Emory team that traveled to La Paz, Bolivia, in 2007, where two experimental latrines were built with the assistance of a group of students and a local NGO. Suitability testing for these latrines is still underway. Also, following Hurricane Katrina, Doyle was part of a GTRI team that traveled to the Gulf Coast on several occasions to provide construction safety training to the influx of unskilled workers who came to the area to take part in rebuilding after the storm.

Along with his work at GTRI, Doyle has spent more than 20 years as a consultant to the US EPA. In this role, he has managed emergency response and remedial assessment/action contracts in Regions 4, 5, and 10 and provided technical support for similar projects in Regions 1, 3, and 6. Through these contracts, his team of scientists and engineers responded to numerous chemical and oil spills associated with transportation and industrial incidents across the country. Outside of routine spills and fires, his teams’ responses on behalf of EPA included events of national importance such as Hurricane Andrew, Tropical Storm Alberto, the anthrax and WTC attacks of September 2001, and the Shuttle Columbia disaster.

Mr. Doyle received his B.A. and M.S. in biology from the University of Louisville, and is a P.O.S.T. certified trainer in drug enforcement. He teaches aspects of clandestine drug laboratory response to law enforcement personnel at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center and has presented papers on methamphetamine and its hazards to first responders and other groups impacted by the manufacture of this illegal substance.

Paulo Goncalves
Humanitarian Logistics and Management Master, University of Lugano
Associate Professor & Academic Director

Paulo Goncalves is Associate Professor of Management and Academic Director of the Advanced Studies Master in Humanitarian Logistics and Management at the University of Lugano, Switzerland. He is also research affiliate at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He obtained his Ph.D. in Management Science and System Dynamics from MIT Sloan School of Management and his M.Sc. degree in Technology and Policy from MIT. He has won the 2004 Doctoral dissertation award given annually by the Council of Logistics Management.

His work focuses on understanding behavioral aspects of common operational decisions. Current research interests include the development of supply chain experiments for understanding and improving managerial decision making. His work combines a number of techniques such as simulation, optimization, econometrics and non-linear dynamics. He teaches courses in operations management, project management, decision models and system dynamics, at graduate (MBA and PhD) and executive levels. He has published in the areas of supply chain management, behavioral operations, and nonlinear dynamics. His publications appeared in Production and Operations Management, Journal of Business Logistics, System Dynamics Review, Sloan Management Review and California Management Review.

Dan Stowers
Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA) & Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI)
Planning Director

Dan Stowers joined GEMA in August of 2007 and became the Planning Section Director in April of 2008. He came to GEMA after serving as the Deputy Director for Chatham Emergency Management Agency in Savannah, Georgia for nine years and Assistant Fire Chief for the City of Pooler. Prior to entering his public safety career, Dan served ten years in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps, with assignments worldwide to include Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

While serving as the Deputy Director for Chatham County, Dan held numerous titles and filled many challenging roles. In 1999 he was designated as the evacuation coordinator for Chatham County and spearheaded the general population evacuation of Savannah and Chatham County for Hurricane Floyd, which at the time was the largest evacuation in U.S. History. In 2003, Dan was appointed as the lead planner for Chatham County and oversaw planning efforts for the 2004 G8 Summit, a Level I National Special Security Event.

Dan’s military and public service experience includes key planning and operational leadership positions in large-scale responses to hazardous material incidents, mass evacuations, residential and commercial structure fires and high level criminal investigations. Dan operated an administrative logistical operations center for Desert Shield and combat operations in Iraq during Desert Storm in 1991.

Dan holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Criminal Justice Administration. He has completed numerous programs at the National Fire Academy and Emergency Management Institute in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Dan has served as an assessor for the Emergency Management Accreditation Program and completed assessments of numerous emergency management programs. As an Incident Command System instructor, Dan has been asked to teach ICS courses for municipal government and non-government organizations all over the United States. His enthusiasm in the classroom, broad experience in emergency management and natural desire to help organizations prepare and respond to all types of disasters, have made him a popular outside instructor to assist organizations in implementing the principles of the National Incident Management System.

Dan was raised in Derry, New Hampshire. He is married to Nichole Stowers, formerly of Seymour, Indiana. They have two sons and one daughter. They reside in Henry County, Georgia and are actively engaged in supporting youth athletic and church programs with their children.