University at Albany

David F. Andersen is a retired professor of public administration and information science at the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, University at Albany--SUNY. He holds an AB in Mathematics and Social Sciences from Dartmouth College and his PhD in Management from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Ben Keller has worked for the New York State Office of Fire Prevention and Control since 2002, focusing on fire prevention and life safety education, code enforcement, and disaster response. He has worked up thru the ranks of Fire Protection Specialist, Deputy Chief, and Chief. He holds an AAS in Fire Science from Onondaga Community College, BS in Fire Service Administration from University of New Haven, and a MPA from Marist College. He is an active volunteer firefighter/EMT and has served all ranks including Chief of Department in Upstate New York.

Captain Pickett has 22 years of experience as an NYS Forest Ranger.  Rangers, as police officers, wildland firefighters and wilderness first responders, are prepared to protect the state's forests and the people who use these great natural resources from all kinds of dangers.  Captain Pickett is nationally qualified as a Type 2 planning section chief for wildfire.  He is also an Incident Commander on the NYS Incident Management Team.

My professional and academic work revolves around two different concepts of "systems." My first profession was as a business systems analyst, designing and developing information technology solutions for complex problems. During my reincarnation as an academic, I have studied organizational and individual behavior through the lens of system dynamics, a perspective that uses causal structures, feedback, and information delays to understand outcomes. Much of my current work applies the latter to the former: What can we learn about IT-enabled change and its effects through the application of systems thinking? During the last few years, this path has included stops in Knowledge Management, Information Security and Decision Analysis.

April M Roggio coordinates a multi-institution research team focused on food system localization. Her recent work addresses issues of municipal interest in foodshed localization; participatory guarantee systems; collaborative governance; agricultural taxation policy; and cannabis legalization in New York State. She earned a MA in Public Policy and a PhD in Public Administration from the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs at the University at Albany, exploring the intersection of judgment and decision sciences using system dynamics modeling. She is a mother, activist, and scholar, pursuing strategies to attain a more food-secure, regenerative, and prosperous world.

Jeannette Sutton, Ph.D., specializes in disaster and risk with a primary focus on online informal communication, and public alerts and warnings disseminated via short messaging channels. Much of her research investigates the evolving role of information and communication technology, including social media and mobile devices, for disaster preparedness, response, and recovery.  Her current work centers on message design and testing across a range of hazard contexts including atmospheric, meteorological, geological, technological, biological, and human-induced threats for communication via Wireless Emergency Alerts and other alerting channels.  She is employed at the University at Albany, SUNY, as an Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security.  She is also the director of the Emergency and Risk Communication Message Testing Lab.