Eric Holdeman and Associates has a team of professional emergency managers who have experience working in government and as consultants to all sectors of our society. These experts bring a wealth of knowledge and diversity of experiences to any project we tackle. First and foremost the associate members of EHA have technical expertise and also a commitment to customer service. Our goal is to make your project a successful one. We do that by working hand-in-hand with you and the other members of your government, company or nonprofit.
John has over 20 years of senior line management experience in a variety of public sector disciplines including transportation, information technology, and solid waste management. As a consultant, he has conducted strategic planning engagements in a variety of organizations, developing action plans for implementing key recommendations, and tracking results to ensure adherence to management objectives. He is well qualified in all facets of leadership including strategic planning, business alignment, organizational design and change management, process improvement, and human capital development.
While at King County’s Office of Emergency Management, John supervised the Planning and Program Management staff (responsible for regional planning, training, and Emergency Coordination Center planning and activation). John was extensively involved with Emergency Coordination Center activations including the 2006 fall and winter storms.
As the Assistant Division Director, King County, Information and Telecommunications Services Division, John served as principle liaison to the County’s Emergency Coordination Center and coordinated the division’s emergency management planning and activation activities. John was also King County’s representative in the development of the TOPOFF 2 Cyber Exercise involving representatives from the City of Seattle, King County, and Washington State information technology, business unit, and emergency management personnel.
While at Gartner, a global leader in information technology research and consulting, John was project manager or lead consultant in a wide variety of engagements typically involving strategic planning and operational reviews with public sector agencies in the United States (multiple California State agencies and King County) and Canada (multiple provincial government agencies in British Columbia).
John served in a variety of management positions in the City of Seattle including Deputy Chief Technology Officer; Information Technology Director for Seattle City Light; Resource Management Director for the Transportation Division; and Collections, Customer Service, Finance and Contract Administration Director for the Solid Waste Utility.
Jeannie Beckett has 30 years of experience in port management, rail facilities, agricultural transfer facilities and economic analysis. Ms. Beckett co-authored Washington State’s 2010- 2030 State Freight Rail Plan, is the current Marine Group Chair for the Transportation Research Board and is an on-call expert to the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT). Prior to taking the lead position at The Beckett Group, Ms. Beckett was Director of Operations for the Port of Tacoma. Ms. Becket has also held several other senior roles including, Sr. Director, Inland Transportation, Sr. Director, Budget and Business Planning and Director of budget and Internal Audits. Ms. Beckett earned a B.A., Economics, with a Transportation Emphasis from the University of California, Berkeley and an M.B.A., Finance Emphasis, from San Francisco State University.
Wayne Dauphinee is a qualified emergency management and health services executive with over four decades of experience in the field. His academic qualifications include both physical education and health services administration.
While with the Ministry of Health, Wayne was responsible for providing leadership in the implementation of a strategic planning process for emergency management, including maintaining the momentum which BC has displayed in leading numerous pan-Canadian public health preparedness initiatives. In this regard, he was been instrumental in promoting the need to develop a framework for the provision of both psychosocial services and support for vulnerable populations in disasters. As a Contract Service Provider, he assisted in guiding British Columbia health sector planning for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, including the Healthy Games Initiative. He was also instrumental in the creation of the Pacific North West Border Health Alliance fostering improved dialogue and collaboration in the management of bi-national cross- border public health preparedness.
Prior to joining the Ministry of Health, Wayne served as a Policy Analyst and later Director of Policy and Plans with the Provincial Emergency Program. During this period he led the provincial Y2K preparedness initiative and revisions to the Emergency Preparedness Act and Regulations.
Currently Wayne serves as: the Executive Director, Pacific NorthWest Border Health Alliance, a cross border collaborative comprised of five US states and four Canadian provinces/territories focused on public health preparedness; and Senior Advisor, Canada-US Pan Border Public Health Preparedness Council.
Wayne is a former co-chair of the Pan Canadian Public Health Network Emergency Preparedness and Response Expert Group and the Federal/ Provincial/Territorial (F/P/T) Pandemic Preparedness Health Operations Working Group and was a member of the National Pandemic Influenza Committee. He also served for three years as chair of the F/P/T Council of Health Emergency Management Directors.
Prior to joining the British Columbia Public Service, he spent 35 years with the Canadian Forces (CF) as a Health Services Officer and is a graduate of the Canadian Forces Command and Staff College.
Betty Lochner is an experienced professional, speaker and trainer. She is also the author of Dancing with Strangers: Communication skills for transforming your life at work and home.
Betty has developed, administered, and improved programs, and has provided leadership and communication skills training to agencies and organizations for over 25 years. She has worked with several programs in Washington state emergency management and served as a PIO and State Liaison during state activations. She received a Governor’s award for her development of the state’s first citizen phone team. She has also served as a participant and evaluator for local and state exercises.
Betty has been the keynote speaker at state and national conferences including the National Conference of State Legislators, the National Association of State Treasurers, and the Association of Washington Cities. Her presentations are on topics related to communication effectiveness and leadership. Topics have included interpersonal communication, team building, conflict strategies, working with different generations, performance coaching, mission and vision statements and more. Betty is also sought after as a skilled facilitator and mediator for small and large groups.
Betty is President of Cornerstone Coaching & Training She earned both her Bachelor’s Degree in Speech Communication, and her Masters of Education from Western Washington University. She is a certified emergency manager from the National Institute for Emergency Managers and was selected to be a trainer at the Institute. She is a graduate of the Cascade Public Executive Program from the University of Washington and is professionally certified in Performance Coaching and the Interact Personal Strengths Profile.
From her on-the-ground reporting of natural disasters as an award-winning television news reporter to developing cutting-edge approaches to emergency and crisis communications, Rochelle Ogershok brings more than 30 years of practical major market media and public affairs expertise in planning for and responding to incidents that can damage the image and reputation of any organization.
As a government public affairs manager and emergency communications coordinator, Rochelle has developed numerous joint information and crisis communications plans, directed public information response to local, regional and national emergencies and training exercises. She has also led efforts to develop innovative communications approaches to keep the public informed during emergencies. Rochelle’s strategic planning, emergency and crisis communications expertise has included:
- Managing public affairs and crisis communications response for King County Metro Transit, one of the largest transit agencies in the U.S., King County International Airport, in addition to road and water taxi operations.
- Effectively working with local and national media covering disasters and high-profile events.
- Co-creating and managing the Regional Public Information Network, a nationally recognized website and emergency notification service.
- Developing joint information and crisis communications best management practices.
- Creating strategic communications plans utilizing multiple tactics and disciplines, including multimedia and social media tools.
- Serving as spokesperson for high-visibility emergency situations such as transit and aircraft incidents, storms and floods.
- Developing communications approaches that minimize legal risk.
Rochelle also enjoys working with students considering careers in public relations, emergency and crisis communications and has participated in academic case studies in emergency crisis communications response.
Diane Newman has worked in the Emergency Management and the public safety field for a total of 38 years. Her 24 years of emergency management experience comes from working for both the City of Seattle and King County in programmatic and leadership positions.
Her expertise in emergency management includes planning, disaster response, training, disaster exercises and administering disaster recovery programs. This experience was gained by serving as the Deputy Director for both the City of Seattle and King County Offices of Emergency Management, along with other progressively responsible program positions. Previously she served as a 911 call taker, dispatcher, and supervisor.
Her disaster experience includes Washington State disasters and other regional and national events. She served as the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) Supervisor for federally declared disasters in King County including flooding, winter storms, windstorms, the WTO Riots, and earthquakes. Diane has assisted other jurisdictions when they experienced disasters including the Snohomish County EOC during their response to the SR 530 mudslide and the Washington State EOC during a major wildland firestorm. For national disasters, she deployed to the Mississippi State EOC in response to Hurricane Katrina.
Diane was an assessor for the Emergency Management Accreditation Program (EMAP) participating in emergency management program assessments for three states and a city. She was the Accreditation Manager for the City of Seattle as they prepared for their EMAP Accreditation. She also worked as co-project lead for development of the Seattle Disaster Recovery Framework and developed and coordinated plans and products produced under the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Grant Program (RCPGP).
While at King County, Diane participated as a member of the design team for a new $30M facility that housed the King County Sheriff’s Office Communications Center and the King County Office of Emergency Management. Besides her knowledge, her strengths include facilitation, project management, team building and the ability to work with people from all levels of governmental and non-governmental organizations.
Her consulting work during the past two years includes development and writing a Continuity of Operations Plan for a local city and three After Action Reports for discussion-based disaster exercises.
For the past four years, Ms. Newman has worked on regional catastrophic disaster planning for an eight county Puget Sound region and worked with consultants to develop the Seattle Disaster Recovery Framework. Her strengths include facilitation, project management, team building and the ability to work with people from all levels of governmental and non-governmental organizations.
Jaime Quick is the Founder & Director of ChangeUp Advisors, a Public Relations and Communications firm that helps businesses and organizations that play a vital role in our collective future recognize ruts and move into grooves through timely, smart, and relevant PR and communications. ChangeUp helps clients develop and implement smart, deliberate, and digestible communications strategies that deliver key messages to the audiences.through four primary service lines: Public Relations, Media Productions, Internal & External Communications, and Crisis Communications.
Prior to founding ChangeUp, Jaime was Vice President at Scoville Public Relations where he led media relations and account management for several of the firm’s innovative cleantech clients. Jaime honed his crisis communications skills as the Public Information Officer for the King County Office of Emergency Management, where he had responsibility for crisis communications, coordinating multi-agency/multi-county responses to natural disasters and other public crises. He helped cooridinate King County’s emergency response and communications during the Hanukkah Eve Wind Storm of 2006 in which over 1.8 million residences and businesses without power. In 2010, Jaime produced a series of media injects for the Sound Shake 2010 earthquake exercise, and played a role in testing the region’s joint informaiton center and media relations during the exercise.
Jaime has also spoken and facilitated breakout sessions at a vareity of conferences on topics of media, public relations, and social media including the 2012 Global Washington Annual Conference and the 2011 Fuel Ethanol Workshop. He graduated Cum Laude from Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon with a degree in Education and earned his Master’s of International Relations – Asian Politics from the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia.
Barbara Thurman is an award winning public educator, author and speaker, delivering presentations and training across the United States. Barbara has worked at the state and local levels of government for 23 years providing training to emergency managers, military personnel, schools, Fire Districts, Law Enforcement, EMS, and private businesses.
Barbara has been the keynote speaker at conferences increasing awareness, effectiveness and collaboration in the area of Emergency Management, School Safety, Diversity, Harassment, Bullying and Discrimination. She has authored numerous books, pamphlets, and brochures.
Barbara’s presentations and trainings include immediately transferable, practical strategies presented in an engaging, memorable and humorous style. She is also an expert facilitator for small groups tackling a variety of difficult topics.
Barbara is President of Thurman Consulting. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree from Texas Christian University and her Juris Doctor from Seattle University School of Law.
