Michael Curry
Jackson County, MO Emergency Preparedness Manager

Michael has been involved in disaster relief in Nassau – Bahamas, Curacao – Dutch Antilles, Belize – Central America and Anchorage, Alaska. He received his certification as Emergency Management Specialist from NASP. He served 3 years as the Chairman of a Special Secret Federal Grand Jury called to investigate organized crime in Missouri and served as an advisor to the US Attorney General for 2 years. He has a BS in Psychology from CSU, is married with 2 children and 5 grandchildren.

Mark Widner
Independence, MO Emergency Preparedness Manager

Joseph *Mark* Widner is involved in developing the City's many public outreach programs and instrumental in developing the City's Citizen Corp's volunteer programs, rated as one of the top 5 in the country. Mark has over 25 years of direct experience in the fields of Emergency Management, EOC Design and Testing, Emergency Medical Services & Education, Public Safety, Broadcast Engineering, Satellite Communications, Corporate Marketing/Finance and Health Benefit Administration. Mark is a certified instructor of many safety professions, including firefighters, paramedics and hazmat.

Frank Goetzfridt
Independence, MO Volunteer

Frank has been active with local ARES groups since 1990 and Independence RACES since 2005. Was the Chief Operator for Amateur Radio at the National Weather Service at Pleasant Hill, MO during and after the move from KCI. He continues his education thru SEMA and FEMA course’s and has completed all three levels of the ARRL Communications Course. He is married and has two grand children.

Jim "JR" Plante
Independence, MO Volunteer

Jim has been involved as an active member of ARES, and Independence RACES since 2005 as an amateur radio operator, net control operator, and storm spotter.. He has been trained as weather spotter, and radar interpretation by National Weather Service, and is actively training in National Incident Management Systems. In the past 2 years he has participated in multiple city, regional and state emergency exercises. In the private sector he has worked in disaster recovery specifically recovering business sites in Houston Texas from Hurricane Ike.

Matt Friel
Independence, MO Volunteer

Matt has been a volunteer for the City of Independence for 2 years and is trained as an Amateur Radio Operator, Severe Weather Spotter, and is working on the FEMA EMI Professional Development Series.  Matt professionally is a railroad signaling and communications engineer contracting to the Regional and Class 1 Railroad markets and has been working in the railroad industry for 15 years.

Ted Hatfield
Independence, MO Volunteer

Ted is a Veteran of the United States Air Force, and spent a majority of his military career (enlisted and civil service) in Minot, North Dakota. Ted has been a licensed amateur radio operator since 1993, and currently holds an Amateur Extra Class license.  He has been active in RACES both in North Dakota and is an active Volunteer Examiner for amateur radio working with the W5YI testing group. Ted also volunteers as a 1st Lieutenant in the US Civil Air Patrol in the Cass County Composite Squadron in Harrisonville, MO.  He is serving as the Communications Officer and is active in the Squadron, Group, and Missouri Wing Communications activities.  And assists in providing training and activities for the Cadets in the Squadron.

Therese Williamson
Independence, MO Volunteer

Therese has been a member of the Civil Air Patrol, the official Auxiliary of the United States Air Force, for 19 years. She holds the rank of Major in the Civil Air Patrol. She has worked numerous Air Force assigned SAR missions and City, County, State and National level disasters. She is currently the Commander of the Harry S. Truman Composite Squadron, the local Civil Air Patrol unit. 
Therese has many qualifications including operating as a Ground Team Member, Ground Team Leader and Ground Branch Director in Search and Rescue/Disaster Relief.

John Slayton
Independence, MO Volunteer

John P Slayton, RN, BSN, LNC has 20 years working in ICU, CCU, ER, and Cardiac Cath units.  Other skills, include ACLS, BCLS, Safety Liaison, Emergency Prepardness Coordinator, Ham Radio Operator, Storm Spotter, CERT, RACES, ARRL, Medical analyst, Stake leader for Emergency Prepardness in Church, and presently EOC Management Team for City of Independence, Missouri. Hobbies also include historian, author, cycling, bird watching, and genealogist.

Bert Isaacks
Independence, MO Volunteer

Bert is or has been involved with the following organizations;
IFD EJC EOC Operations Team member, Amateur Radio Extra grade operator, W5YI Testing, Trained NWS Skywarn Net Responder to the Pleasant Hill Headquaters, and a seasoned WX Spotter. Bert is also involved with RF and WX Installations and also provides knowledge support to the city in areas of planning, designing, engineering, electrical, rigging, welding, and other types of installations. Currently Bert is (or was) retired...

Michael Coldwell
Independence, MO Volunteer

Michael is a computer technician from the Lake of the Ozarks with about 16 years experience in multiple areas of the technology industry. Moving to Independence in 2005, Michael became very active as a volunteer and is currently a trained weather spotter using amateur radio while working along side RACES, and is also the C.E.R.T Information Technology Coordinator. August of 2007, Michael started designing and creating the ReadyToHelp.org project, and in early 2009 formed Volunteer Supplies, Inc.

Jim VanScoy
Independence, MO Volunteer

I have been a "Ham" now for 1 year and it has opened my eyes to another world full of friendships and new experiences. Participating in events like: Santa Cali-Gon, SETs, RACES, apartment fires, CERT and additional training events, has broadened my knowledge and thus increases my "responsibilities" to our community and the City of Independence, Missouri.

Being on the EOC Management Team and sharing ideas has its rewards. But, planning for "Disasters and Resiliency Response" is a whole different ball game because each event is different. It is my hope and prayer that we won't experience any disasters but being prepared for them is a leap in the right direction.