RMP Key Personnel

Synopsis of Key Personnel

Maria G. Monge - Owner/Principal Consultant

Ms. Monge has 25 years of experience in the health and safety field. Ten years were spent at Duke Medical Center in Durham, NC and Forbes Medical Center in Pittsburgh, PA. Since 1995, Ms. Monge has been a Principal of Risk Management Professionals Inc., which provides general risk management and loss prevention support for industry: e.g., petroleum (production, refining, offshore), chemical, power generation, waste repository / storage / processing, water and wastewater, and aerospace.

In addition to salient project experience, Ms. Monge's 10 years of experience in being directly responsible for the day-to-day Management and Administrative activities associated projects such as the one being proposed. She is ideally suited for challenging project management assignments. Many of the specific activities (e.g., project management, fiduciary control, regulatory program compliance, safety program management) associated with her job responsibilities reinforce her value to this important project. She is accustomed to working under pressure and managing important projects, while meeting critical client project deadlines.

Ms. Monge has been involved in a variety of activities associated with HMP & PDM Project Grant Applications and Notice of Interest (NOIs) submittals, the development of Security Vulnerability Assessments (SVAs) utilizing the RAM-WSM methodology for numerous water facilities, Urban Area Response Plan Development /Assessment, Emergency Response Plan development and updates, Urban Water Management Plans (UWMPs), process safety, and risk management. Ms. Monge supported these projects with a high degree of professionalism. She has been the acting Project Manager for 8 SVAs and has been instrumental in the development / update of numerous Emergency Response Plans, Fault Tree Analyses, Facility Prioritization, Facility Characterization, (including Scenario Identification and Analysis (SIA)), and Risk Assessment.

Ms. Monge has a deep understanding and extensive experience with the development of CalARP, PSM, and RMP Programs for a wide variety of facilities. As part of the development for these programs, she has been a key member of teams that have developed, for many clients, PHAs, OCAs, ERPs, Operating Procedures, PSSR, Recommendation Tracking, and Walkdowns. The majority of the CalARP/RMP Program development activities that Ms. Monge has participated in involved facilities in Southern California, working with the agencies that encompass the jurisdictions that include parts of this effort.

Ms. Monge's Risk Communication/Public Relations experience along with her organizational skills have been instrumental in organizing several major Workshops, Seminars, community forums, and public meetings. These efforts have included events for Risk Management Professionals, clients, and professional organizations.

Steven T. Maher, PE CSP - Principal Consultant

Mr. Maher has over 25 years of experience in safety, involving both qualitative and quantitative risk assessment. For the past 22 years, he has been responsible for the project management and technical performance of a broad spectrum of process safety, risk management, security vulnerability assessment, emergency preparedness, and loss prevention projects for the following systems:

petroleum (production, refining, offshore)
chemical
potable water treatment and distribution systems
wastewater treatment and distribution systems
chlorination systems
anhydrous ammonia systems
power generation
waste repository/storage/processing
aerospace

Mr. Maher is actively involved in the development and implementation of key safety and security programs. He has published and presented numerous technical papers to the safety community, a list of which is provided in this resume. He has also authored/co-authored process safety books and technical manuals/guidebooks.

Retired Chief R. Scott Adams

Retired Scott Adams had a twenty-eight year career in the fire service in Southern California -- the last eleven years as Fire Chief - CEO of the City of Torrance Fire Department. He possesses significant experience in evaluation, decision-making, and management of the delivery of fire suppression, prevention, emergency medical, and specialty emergency services, in an urban/industrial – suburban/residential environment.

Ester M. Brawley-Roehl

As part of her seven years of training and experience as a licensed engineering officer, Ms. Brawley managed and maintained shipboard plants. She is a trained first responder. Ms. Brawley has developed SEMS and NIMS compliant Emergency Response Plans for chemical facilities and municipalities. In addition, Ms. Brawley's experience with Hazardous Materials includes full Process Safety and Risk Management Plans and California Accidental Release Prevention (CalARP) programs for a variety of facilities containing hazardous substances. Ms. Brawley is also currently assisting with water supply contingency plans as part of the Urban Water Management Plan requirement in the State of California.

Ms. Brawley has led roundtable discussions analyzing various facilities' vulnerabilities, including but not limited to vandalism, sabotage, theft, and terrorist acts. All have taken into account the likelihood of causing an offsite impact by a hazardous material. Ms. Brawley utilizes a risk-ranking methodology in order for the facility owners and operators to objectively determine risk. Along with input provided by Ms. Brawley on industry standards, prior events, and dispersion modeling calculations, the roundtable develops recommendations in order to mitigate the threat to the surrounding areas and employees. Ms. Brawley's emergency response and hazardous materials background allows her to lead the team to understand the risks posed by WMD incidents and make useful recommendations to mitigate the event.

Ms. Brawley is currently the Deputy Project Manager for the Los Angeles Urban Area (LAUA) Response Plan which consists of the City of Los Angeles, 16 contiguous cities, and the County of Los Angeles. This plan includes analyzing the Los Angels Urban Area's capability to affectively respond to a WMD event including chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, high explosive (CBRNE) and improvised explosive device (IED). As part of this project Ms. Brawley was directly involved in analyzing the LAUA's levels of capabilities, creating the organization and assignment matrix, implementation plan, and needs assessment for the entire LAUA.

Ms. Brawley maintains a clientele of over 24 facilities and agencies. Her relationship with her clients involves a broad spectrum of tasks. Not only does Ms. Brawley write technical reports and procedures, she also prepares submittals to various regulating agencies. Ms. Brawley's client management involves tracking and keeping her clients informed of upcoming submittal deadlines, new federal and state regulations as well as applicable grant programs. She then assists her clients in both administering and implementing their programs.

Teresa A. Marion (formerly Buckingham)

Ms. Teresa A. Marion provides project management and high level technical support to Project Teams completing a wide spectrum of projects, including the development of Emergency Response Plans and Incident Response Field Guidebooks for water utilities, Hazard Mitigation Plans for special districts and municipalities, and California Accidental Release Prevention (CalARP) Programs, Risk Management Plan (RMP), and Process Safety Management (PSM) for hazardous chemical facilities.

In addition to these projects Mrs. Marion has also facilitated Process Hazard Analysis (PHA) using HAZOP and What-if? techniques for a variety of facilities, assisted in development of water infrastructure grant applications, and has provided significant support to completion of Sewer System Maintenance Program (SSMP) Compliance Assessments and development of SSMP Development Plans. Additionally, Mrs. Marion has experience completing Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasures (SPCC) planning documents to mitigate hazardous material releases into public sewer system.

Mrs. Marion has completed detailed water/wastewater/chemical facility Hazard Profiles, which includes a detailed assessment of a municipalities natural hazard risks by compiling the damage history and assessing the potential for future events through GIS mapping and evaluations of hazard intensity and frequency. Additionally, this planning experience includes developing public presentations to communicate the results to the public in a straight-forward, clear and concise format.

Mrs. Marion’s experience further includes completion of CalARP/RMP/PSM Compliance Audits for a variety of facilities, which includes facility walkdowns and familiarization with the regulated covered process, reviewing Prevention Program documentation in order to identify deficiencies that would result in citations from the applicable regulatory agencies, developing a line item report that lists the specific deficiencies, and meeting with facility personnel in order to identify any other needs or services they may require.

Bob Canfield

In 1989 Mr. Canfield was selected to fill Los Angeles’ first full-time emergency management position. He played a prominent leadership role in developing recommendations and implementing the consolidation of emergency preparedness functions from five city departments into one major division in the Office of the City Administrative Officer (CAO) in 1996 and the creation of a separate Emergency Preparedness Department in 2000. In 1994, Mr. Canfield was nominated by Mayor Riordan to be a member of the Emergency Preparedness Commission for the County and cities of Los Angeles. Mr. Canfield co-led and managed city preparedness planning efforts for the Year 2000 (Y2K) and the 2000 Democratic National Convention. Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Mr. Canfield co-led the city’s response to the War on Terrorism and an exhaustive year long assessment of the city’s emergency response needs and capabilities, developing dozens of recommendations adopted by the Mayor and City Council. He then continued in this capacity until August 2003 retirement, culminating more than 40 years of government service. Additionally, as EPD’s Assistant General Manager, managed and directly supervised professional employees responsible for the department's four functional divisions (response and recovery planning; training/community preparedness; facilities; and administrative and personnel services). Mr. Canfield annually led the development and execution of the city's Emergency Operations Workshop, a multi day executive-level training session that brings together the city’s most senior elected and appointed mangers and lead emergency management personnel.

Retired Assistant Fire Chief Dean E. Cathey

Assistant Fire Chief Dean Cathey dedicated over 33 years to the Los Angeles Fire Department, retiring in January 2004. During his career he promoted through virtually all the ranks to Assistant Chief, including 19 years experience as a Chief Officer and over six years in a recent assignment as the Assistant Bureau Commander for the Bureau of Emergency Services.

Retired Chief Kennith M. Hall

Kenneth M. Hall retired from the City of Torrance Fire Department with forty three years experience in all phases of the Fire Service. At the time of retirement, Chief Hall held the rank of Battalion Chief and was serving as the Fire Marshall for the City of Torrance, California. His expertise includes Fire Prevention, Hazardous Materials regulation / Administration, Fire Investigation, Code Development, Fire Suppression and Management. He also has extensive experience assisting the public and industry in Fire Service. He interacted on a daily basis with all departments within the city, and he is well versed in human relation skills.

Kristin D. Hocket-Swihart

Ms. Kristin D. Swihart provides project management and high level technical support to Project Teams completing a wide spectrum of projects, including the development of Hazard Mitigation Plans for special districts and municipalities, Urban Water Management Plans for water systems, development of Security Vulnerability Assessments and Emergency Response Plans for water utilities, development of Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams for a variety of process facilities, and California Accidental Release Prevention (CalARP), Risk Management Plan (RMP), and Process Safety Management (PSM) for hazardous chemical facilities. Ms. Swihart has experience managing significant projects and understands the necessary planning to coordinate large, involved projects and has extensive experience establishing and maintaining schedules, closely monitoring project progress and budgets, and implementing the formal quality control and security program.

Ms. Swihart has contributed to the development of over 30 Security Vulnerability Assessments for water facilities, serving a combined total population of over 2.0 million residents. The Security Vulnerability Assessments included a thorough analysis of the likelihood of attack, consequence of attack, and effectiveness of existing safeguards which combined to yield a prioritized list of recommendations for security enhancements. The second phase of the Security Vulnerability Assessments required water facilities to update their Emergency Response Plans to account for the findings of the SVA. Ms. Swihart implemented critical emergency response recommendations associated with security issues and hazards precipitating from malevolent acts into the Emergency Response Plans, in addition to ensuring compatibility with the Standardized Emergency Management System (SEMS) and National Incident Management System (NIMS) requirements. In addition, Ms. Swihart developed a training program to implement the emergency response plan, which included emergency response plan orientation, development of a comprehensive tabletop exercise, and exercise debrief with recommendations for improvements. As part of the training program, Ms. Swihart has developed tabletop exercises involving earthquake, flood, and hazardous materials scenarios, and has provided SEMS/NIMS/ICS training to over 250 students, and is scheduled to perform this training for an additional 200 students.

Ms. Swihart utilized her risk assessment experience to apply FEMA guidance documents to the development of Hazard Mitigation Plans for compliance with the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000. Her HMP efforts included the development of a baseline understanding of the natural hazard risks, determining ways to reduce those risks, and prioritizing mitigation recommendations for implementation. An open, public process was used to verify candidate hazards, determine the full impacts throughout the planning area, interface with partner agencies to determine existing mitigation measures, develop possible approaches to projects which will reduce the impacts, and prioritize them for implementation. The analysis of current vulnerabilities and potential threats resulted in a prioritized list of recommended improvements and the estimated costs of implementing the improvements. The combination of these efforts has resulted in FEMA-approved hazard mitigation plans.

In addition, Ms. Swihart has broadened her emergency response experience by completing Hazardous Materials Area Plans for Fire Departments that are considered Administering Agencies for the CalARP Program. The Area Plan describes the emergency organization, assigns tasks, specifies policy and general procedures, and provides coordination of planning for all phases of emergency planning for a hazardous materials incident or emergency. Ms. Swihart has also applied her emergency response planning experience to developing city-wide emergency response plans that address the role of the city in a broader context than developing specific response procedures.

Edwin Olweny

Mr. Edwin Olweny has over 10 years of extensive experience in the field of seismic risk based analysis and design of structures, equipment and equipment supports during his career at Hopper Elmore and Associates. He has been the lead engineer in various RMPP, RMP and CalARP seismic assessment projects at local petrochemical, nuclear, food processing and other chemical and manufacturing facilities. He has performed seismic assessments of structures and piping systems containing hazardous materials including radioactive materials, hydrogen sulfide, ammonia and MTS to name a few. Included in these assessments are facilities that use ammonia refrigeration systems.

Mr. Olweny experience in the field of seismic risk and earthquake engineering have made him astute in the process of identifying critical or vulnerable equipment and structural systems during physical inspections. It has also provided him with insight and efficiency in developing solutions to seismic issues. He has a keen understanding of the objectives and requirements of the seismic assessments for the CalARP, RMP, and RMPP programs. He is experienced in the use of state-of-the-art computer programs to solve complex engineering problems with the consideration of non-linear and dynamic effects.

Benjamin M. Simkin

Mr. Benjamin M. Simkin provides project management and high level technical support to Project Teams completing a wide spectrum of projects, including the analysis of process safety and risk management for the following types of systems:

Mr. Simkin has been involved in several projects that have used high-end quantitative risk analysis techniques for decision-making, and where risk communication issues were paramount to the success of the projects. He has served as the facilitator for a number of Hazard and Operability (HAZOP) Studies.
Mr. Simkin has also been involved in the development of Pre-Disaster Mitigation (PDM) Grant Programs for water systems and California Accidental Release Prevention (CalARP) Programs, Risk Management Plans (RMP), and Process Safety Management (PSM) Programs for hazardous chemical facilities. Mr. Simkin has experience managing projects and understands the necessary planning to coordinate large, involved projects and has experience establishing and maintaining schedules, closely monitoring project progress and budgets, and implementing the formal quality control and security program.

Affiliates

Creation World Safety

Risk Management Professionals utilizes the services of Creation World Safety for Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) Health and Safety training, including OSHA 10-Hour Certification, HAZWOPER Fit Testing, Fire Extinguisher, First Aid, Hazard Communication, Bloodborne Pathogens, Lockout/Tagout, and Confined Space Entry training, as well as additional Injury and Illness Prevention Program topics customized for each facility.

The O'Brian's Group

The O’Brien’s Group is an emergency management and preparedness firm that specializes in actual responses, as well as planning, training and exercises. With over 200 actual emergency responses each year, The O’Brien’s Group team has developed expertise un-like any other response management firm in the world. They have been involved in some of the largest, most complex emergencies involving natural disasters, fires, civil disturbances, and pollution responses and have worked with government and industrial response teams at the local, state, federal and even international levels. In order to compliment our technical engineering expertise with physical emergency response experience, Risk Management Professionals partners with The O’Brien’s Group for emergency response planning, analyses, and training program development for our clients.

Winefield and Associates

Winefield & Associates, Inc. is an environmental, health and safety consulting firm with an extensive range of expertise and a deep understanding of the specialized needs of industrial and business clients. Risk Management Professionals periodically partners with Winefield and Associates in an effort to compile a customized team to meet the specifications of each project.