Nebraska Disaster Behavioral Health Conference

In addition to chairing the Department of Emergency Medicine at the NYU School of Medicine, Dr. Goldfrank is the medical director of the New York City Poison Control Center and chairs several Institute of Medicine (IOM) committees on preparedness. He is the principal investigator on numerous preparedness grants and has written extensively on both toxicology and emergency medicine.

Dr. DeMartino is a nationally recognized leader in the field of the behavioral health consequences of weapons of mass destruction terrorism. He is also the SAMHSA representative to both the Secretary’s Emergency Response Team (SERT) and to the TOPOFF 2 Large Scale Game and Full-Scale Exercise. He serves on the SAMHSA disaster matrix workgroup leading federal planning for the behavioral and psychosocial consequences of bioterrorism.

Dr. Scalora serves as consulting psychologist with both the United States Capitol Police and the Nebraska State Patrol. He is a member of the behavioral health risk communication cadre for Nebraska. His research interests include risk assessment, sexual offenses, and clinical decision-making related to treatment decisions and risk of violence. He is collaborating with law enforcement on additional research assessing the predictive risk factors of individuals who stalk and engage in threatening approach behavior toward their victims.

The Reverend Lockwood was the 9/11 disaster response coordinator for the American Baptist Churches of Metropolitan New York. She is a well-respected and skilled mitigation education and preparedness training practitioner with faith communities and is certified by ICIFS in Pastoral Crisis Intervention.

Ms. Naturale is a licensed, clinical social worker. In addition to her work with the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, she is the former statewide director for Project Liberty, the Crisis Counseling Program launched by the New York State Office of Mental Health in response to the World Trade Center attacks of 9/11/01. She provides training regarding disaster response and planning in the U.S. as part of the Disaster Technical Assistance Center’s (DTAC) cadre of trained consultants and has provided training in the UK, Portugal, and India on disasters. She is currently working on the response to Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma.

Mr. Hight is the managing editor of The Oklahoman. He is also the president of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, an international organization based at the University of Washington. He has co-authored a booklet, Tragedies and Journalists, which has been distributed to over 30,000 journalists worldwide. Mr. Hight was the victims’ team leader of The Oklahoman’s coverage of the Oklahoma City bombing.

Dr. Caldwell’s research areas include mental health utilization disparities, African American men’s health, cultural competence, and adolescent mental health. He has published and spoken nationally about the need for more culturally consistent human services for underrepresented and underserved populations.

Dr. Gibson is a consultant for the National Center for PTSD. She was the invited co-chair of a working group convened by the National Institutes of Health in 2003 to create best practice guidelines for mental health interventions subsequent to mass violence and disasters. She is the co-author of a manualized treatment for prolonged post-disaster distress that is grounded in evidence-based principles. She has trained and consulted with therapists on the implementation of the manual subsequent to both hurricanes and the 9/11/01 attacks.