Leadership

Bruce Binder has almost 40 years’ experience in emergency management leadership. His career began as an assistant hospital administrator in 1974. Beginning in 1979 he became involved in developing the early principles of health care-based emergency management. In 1983 he made the transition from hospital-based management to full time federal health and medical emergency management assisting hospitals, state health departments and state emergency management agencies. Bruce has broad experience is healthcare, public health, inclusive emergency management, managing disaster response and recovery activities at the local, state and federal levels.

Bruce has developed many emergency operating plans for different types of health care organizations, state health departments and national ESF8 programs. He has developed and presented training on all phases of emergency management and health and medical emergency management both within the United States and overseas. He has developed, conducted and evaluated numerous exercises and drills that are tabletop, functional or full field in nature.

Bruce as responded as a leader within Federal ESF 8 from 1979 through 2000. In these roles, he has been the ESF 8 Deputy Team Leader, Primary ESF8 liaison to the state health officer, and leader of field teams ranging from 35 to 120 people. After retiring from full time federal employment in 2001, he joined FEMA as a Disaster Assistance Employee (now known as FEMA Reservist). During that time, he has deployed to major disasters as Unit Chief within the Planning Section, Planning Section Chief, DFO and AFO Chief of Staff, Staff Assistant to the FCO, Liaison to both the NOLA City EOC and Office of the Senior Federal Official and as a consultant to the Chief, Public Assistance Branch to coordinate the rebuild of the medical infrastructure in a 5 county area including development of a temporary hospital build specifically to ensure that local providers could stay in business.

Bruce was one of the three founders of Global Vision Consortium in 2003. Through GVC, Bruce has worked with clients throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. Bruce has been a major contributor to many of these projects but likes to work in consortium with others who are also major subject matter experts in their fields. Projects have included development of EOPs for specific large and small hospitals, EOP templates for urban, rural and frontier clinics, helped native American tribes develop emergency response infrastructures and programs, business resumption and continuity programs, operational plans for a number of state emergency response programs, worked with communities to develop an inclusive emergency management program as well as understanding and use of HICS by healthcare organizations.

Through the years, Bruce has been Chair of the Federal Health and Medical Training program (four years), editor of a professional journal for emergency managers (five years), and a IAEM CEM Commissioner (three years). He has published several professional articles on emergency management.

Cheryl Starling has more than 30 years of leadership experience. As a registered nurse and director of emergency departments and trauma centers across California for many years, Cheryl has broad experience in healthcare and public health, emergency medical services, ambulatory care services, disaster preparedness, and grant management.

In 2000, Cheryl transitioned from the hospital setting to government disaster planning at the California Emergency Medical Services Authority, or EMSA. While at EMSA, her accomplishments included directing the Hospital Incident Command System (HICS) Program and conducting trainings, , managed the annual statewide medical and health exercise and conferences and directed and enjoyed the role of administrator of the first Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) grant for California to combat bioterrorism and terrorism.

Cheryl joined California Department Homeland Security to lead the Terrorism Training and Exercise Program in 2005, leading the statewide terrorism preparedness and exercise program, including development of a HICS-compliant scenario and exercise for hospitals participating in the exercise.
In 2006, Cheryl worked with the Kaiser Permanente National Office in Disaster Management. During that time, Cheryl was Co-Director of the HICS Center for Education and Training, assisting with the revision of HICS and development and update of HICS materials. Over two years, Cheryl led the HICS training program, coordinating and conducting HICS training in locations across the nation.

From 2008 to 2018, Cheryl worked for the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) in the Center for Infectious Diseases as a Nurse Consultant. While at CDPH, Cheryl was active in infectious disease emergency response and recovery, including serving as the CDPH Incident Commander for the 2009 H1N1 Influenza Pandemic, was the CDPH Ebola Coordinator for the State, and worked on the Zika virus response. Cheryl has developed infectious disease guidance documents, health alerts, procedures, and policies for State and local public health and healthcare entities (e.g., hospitals, LTC, clinics).

In September 2018, Cheryl transitioned to the private sector as the Chief Operating Officer at Global Vision Consortium, a consulting group that offers emergency management, continuity planning, grant management, and infectious disease planning and exercising across the nation.

Paul Penn’s experience in emergency management and healthcare spans three decades; beginning at the local level (charter member New Paltz [NY] Rescue Squad, Managed Emergency Services, Emergency Medical Services, Hazardous Materials, and Hazardous waste in the nation’s most seismically active county) and progressing to regional and state organizations (CA Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, California Conservation Corps), and healthcare delivery systems. From 1975-1985 Paul was a fully certified professional ski patroller in the Sierra Nevada and served as Vice President of the Donner Summit Public Utility District (sewer, water, fire, ambulance) and a Nevada County Planning Commissioner.

Many of his efforts have become the standards of the industry. He is one of the creators of HazMat for Healthcare™ and has been delivering that training and Hospital Incident Command System (HICS) programs throughout the United States and internationally for more than a decade with his firm EnMagine. In 2016, EnMagine merged with GVC.

His HICS and hazardous materials work builds on his experience developing the hazardous materials Incident Command System module for FIRESCOPE, serving on the National HICS Advisory Committee, authoring the California Hazardous Materials Incident Contingency Plan, project manager for the USEPA funded manual and video “A Guide to Developing Hazardous Materials Exercises,” managing the nation’s largest hazardous materials emergency planning and community right-to-know program, his long term relationship with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Worker Training Program, and in charge of environmental health and safety at a major Kaiser Permanente hospital. Paul was a major contributor to the Transportation Research Board’s NCHRP 769 A Guide to Public Transportation Pandemic Planning and Response.

In 2014, Paul was recruited by the California Environmental Protection Agency to manage their Emergency Management and Refinery Safety Program where he was integrally involved in the response and recovery for every major California disaster (e.g., fire, earthquake, flood, dam failure) until his retirement in November 2018 where he resumed his role at GVC.