Our Team

Mr. Sean M. Griffin is founder and Chief Executive Officer of Disaster Technologies Incorporated. Sean served as Director for Incident Management Integration Policy on the US National Security Council at the White House, and is an active duty veteran of the U.S. Navy and Naval Nuclear Power Program.

During his White House term (under two US Presidents), Sean led the Executive Office of the President and inter-agency policy coordination for major disasters and incidents.

Additionally, Sean led emergency management, training, and exercise programs at the U.S. Department of State, Defense Logistics Agency, & National Institutes of Health. He also volunteered time to Chair the Federal Sector Emergency Managers Caucus for the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM), and is a leading member of the Private Sector Committee for the National Emergency Management Association (NEMA).

Follow the red link below to read Sean's full bio.

Chris Okerberg is a Full-stack Software Engineer at Disaster Tech. He has previous experience in developing software for asset sharing marketplaces, online training courses, and interactive museum experiences.

With a background in user experience and interaction design, Chris is fascinated by the intersection of society and technology. Chris has used his over 8 year long career in software development to gain a first-hand understanding of the manner in which technology continues to shape how people view themselves, their possessions and the world around them.

Chris is delighted to contribute to the mission of Disaster Tech, and to pursue the next step in the arc of his interest in the positive impact of technology on human life.

Dr. David Wild is a leader in the fields of data science, informatics and crisis technologies. He led one of the largest and most innovative graduate data science programs in the country at Indiana University, and has over 25 years' experience in data science and computing in industry and academic roles as well as extensive experience in emergency management and emergency medical services.

In his role as Associate Professor in the Luddy School at Indiana University, Bloomington, David oversaw the growth of the graduate Data Science program to over 600 students including highly innovative online and residential curricula that are helping define the field. He has published research in fields as diverse as pharmaceutical drug discovery, crisis and emergency response, and data science practice and process, with over 100 research publications in total. He founded the Integrative Data Science Laboratory (ISDL) and the Crisis Technologies Innovation Laboratory (CTIL), bringing in over $5m in academic research funding. In 2012 he cofounded Data2Discovery, Inc., a company pioneering completely new ways to find new disease treatments using artificial intelligence and machine learning. 

Nikko Mitrano Schaff is a Software Engineer at Disaster Technologies Incorporated. Nikko is finishing his final semester of his Masters of Engineering in Computer Science at Cornell University, where he is pursuing disaster communications research with the All-Hazards Preparedness and Response Education Program.

Previously, Nikko worked for the Cornell College of Human Ecology as an Applications Developer, serving the diverse needs of over one-hundred faculty members and external clients such as the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Follow the red link below to read Nikko's full bio.

Andrew Foster is a Platform Engineer with an academic background in astrophysics, systems administration, and satellite data management.

Previous to his work at Disaster Technologies, Andrew was a graduate student at Cornell University’s Department of Astronomy and Space Sciences, where he used the Cassini spacecraft’s Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer to study the carbon cycle on Saturn via the use of starlight occultation modeling. Andrew was selected as one of NASA's FINESST grant recipients for this work.

Follow the red link below to read Andrew's full bio.

Dana Nottingham is the Chief of Staff for Disaster Technologies Incorporated. Prior to her position with Disaster Tech, Dana worked as a Legislative Assistant at a small government affairs firm, specializing in municipal and county affairs. Through this position she helped to advocate the needs of cities and counties across the country, on issues such as infrastructure, police and firefighter funding, and disaster recovery. She had previously interned in the House of Representatives with Congressman Jared Polis of Colorado.

Follow the red link below to read Dana's full bio.

Carlos Torres spent more than 30 years at Consolidated Edison, retiring as Vice President of Emergency Preparedness & Business Resiliency, where he oversaw emergency management and storm restoration efforts, including the utility’s response to major storms like Super Storm Sandy and Hurricane Irene, and emergencies like the September 11 attack at the World Trade Center and the 2003 Northeast Blackout.

Roger Coleman is the CEO of Coleman Group Partners, LLC, where he leads deal sourcing and evaluation of mid-to-late stage private equity investment opportunities and facilitates comprehensive industry and company market analyses and valuations to determine return on investment and potential risks. Prior to his current role as CEO, Roger was a managing director for Morgan Stanley from 1989 until 2016. Currently, Roger is President and Chief Strategy officer for Disaster Technologies, Inc.

On October 16th, 2019, Barron’s elected Roger into the Hall of Fame for Financial Advisors. This exclusive grouping of top executives exemplifies Roger’s professional and personal acumen as it is the highest honor in the financial services industry to be named to the Barron’s Hall of Fame.

While at Morgan Stanley and its predecessor firms, Roger’s expertise resulted in his management of more than $26 billion. With demonstrated achievement in identifying and securing new business, implementing large-scale corporate services assignments, and developing a successful high-net-worth asset management practice, Roger has proven himself an expert in relationship management, raising assets, financial modeling, valuation, and analysis for various investment opportunities and for supporting clients in meeting their financial goals.

Outside of his presence as a business executive, Roger is also known for his impact and philanthropy in serving the community. He has been associated with the Plandome Fire Department since 1994, having served as the fire chief between 2005 and 2007, and remains a lifetime member. Roger is also a founding chairman, board member, mentor, and advisor for Tuesday’s Children which was founded to promote long-term healing in all those directly impacted by the events of Tuesday, September 11, 2001. Our mission today is to keep the promise to those children and families while serving and supporting communities affected by acts of terror worldwide His charitable spirit extends to many other important causes including Tisch MS Research Center, Plan International , The Children’s Aid Society, and the renovation and completion of a 14 acre multi use park and athletic facility named Manhasset Valley Park.

Follow the red link below to read Roger's full bio.

Katherine is an Energy Resiliency and Sustainability Analyst at Ecology & Environment, a Member of WSP, where she serves as the co-lead on developing clean energy and climate change resiliency projects in New York State. She is a broadly trained geoscientist who develops municipal solutions for the increasingly complex resiliency challenges which must be addressed by local governments, such as future proofing public infrastructure and preparing vulnerable populations for extreme weather events. 

Follow the red link below to read Katherine's full bio.

Io Flament is part of the engineering team at Disaster Tech. She has a background in developing data-driven and AI-powered solutions for research institutions, governments and nonprofit organizations addressing critical social, economic and environmental issues. Prior to joining DTI, she worked as a machine learning engineer at the University of California San Francisco’s Center for Intelligent Imaging, developing AI diagnostic tools to aid medical experts detect musculoskeletal diseases, and optimize diagnostic workflows. 

Io is driven by initiatives harnessing the power of technology in the service of society and science, and is an advocate for open-source data and software. She is a member and a former fellow of the Data Science for Social Good Foundation, and actively volunteers for non profit organizations DataKind and Medic Mobile, building open-source digital health solutions that help community health workers in underserved communities identify health risks, optimize resource use, and improve health equity.

Ms. Flament completed a Masters of Science in Neuroscience at the University of Amsterdam, and a Bachelor of Science in Biology at the University of Utrecht. 

Nitin has more than 20 years of experience leading homeland security, emergency response, public health, healthcare, and environmental initiatives at the local, state, and federal levels. His professional career includes service as deputy assistant administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Office of Land and Emergency Management; as director of critical infrastructure policy on the National Security Council; and as the leader of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Critical Infrastructure Protection, Continuity of Operations, and Response Logistics Programs. He began his career as a first responder for 13 years, including service as a flight paramedic. Nitin holds a bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York and a master’s degree from the United States Naval Postgraduate School, and graduated from the Executive Education Program at Harvard University’s National Preparedness Leadership Initiative.

Christine Larsen is the chief operations officer (COO) for First Data, where she leads the company's global operations. Her previous positions include service as the executive vice president at JPMorgan Chase & Co; COO for Treasury and Securities services at JPMorgan Chase & Co; managing director at Citigroup; and senior technology manager in Accenture's New York Financial Services practice.

Christine earned a master's degree in information management from Syracuse University and a bachelor's degree in English from Cornell College. A passionate advocate of educational access for all, Christine led programs such as JPMorgan Chase's collaboration with Syracuse University and the University of Delaware, developing cross-disciplinary curriculum to train students for large-scale computing in global enterprises. She co-founded Citigroup's Global Transaction Services Women's Council and founded First Data's Women's Leadership Council, which both provide educational and business sponsored programs to help women succeed.

Bio coming soon!

Lou lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife Mary Jo. They are both avid volunteers having run a youth lacrosse program for over twenty-five years as well as serving on the Board of the Carl E. Sanders, YMCA, United Way of Atlanta, Georgia Lacrosse Foundation and Free Bytes.  Lou is a member of the United Way Tocqueville Society, First Society of US Lacrosse and an Inductee of the Georgia Lacrosse Hall of Fame.  Lou attended Marist College and has a BA in Communications.

Brian Barnier brings a long history of experience in emergency management, communications and business continuity. He is currently the director and head of analytics at ValueBridge Advisors (US) and Burnt Oak Capital (UK) and a Senior Advisor for Disaster Tech.

In his telecom career, Brian was the representative of his local exchange carrier to public safety communications centers from New York City to California. This included the exchange carrier’s connections to emergency centers and providing managed services to customers. He then led product management for the 9-1-1 group at Lucent Technology with its roots in the creation of 9-1-1. There, he led teams to 6 patents for emergency and location-based calling. Brian also led product management for services in the IBM Business Resilience organization. He holds a US FEMA Incident Command Certificate with the hospital specialty.

Beyond this, he has worked to bridge business continuity with other areas of managing risk in business operations including as the author of The Operational Risk Handbook, from Harriman House in the UK and a contributor to the book Risk and Performance: Guide for Government Decision Makers published by Wiley. Additionally, he served on the team that created ISACA’s Risk IT based on COBIT for their 100,000 members and was the public face of that initiative in North America and led the sub-team for business continuity for the Shared Assessment Program criteria used in the outsourcing industry.

As a part time academic, Brian has taught graduate operations management at the University of Detroit Mercy and currently teaches graduate data analytics at the City University of New York.

Burt Walsh is a principal software engineer at Disaster Tech with over twenty-five years of information technology and management experience in both state government and private industry.  He has had many roles involving defining and managing the implementation of strategy and standards including the data standards and enterprise architecture standards for the State of Florida when Mr. Walsh was the Chief Data Officer of the State of Florida.  Mr. Walsh also architected numerous systems that included adherence to law and statute including the various core parts of the criminal history system for the State of Florida, the Sexual Predator system for the State of Florida and the Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten System for the State of Florida.  Mr. Walsh has also built key systems for financial institutions such as Bank of America. 

Nivi Achanta is a social entrepreneur and former technology consultant from the San Francisco Bay Area. Through her startup, Soapbox Project, she helps busy millennials fight climate change from their inbox in 3 minutes every week.

Previously, when she worked as a consultant at Accenture, Nivi led Northern California's disaster technology efforts. She led a team of 8 consultants to Butte County after the 2018 Camp Fire, the most destructive in California history. They spent a month researching community-powered disaster response and understanding how it can be boosted with a stronger alliance between tech, government, and non-profit.

In 2019, she shared a stage with Accenture CEO Julie Sweet to discuss empathetic leadership in times of disaster. Nivi's work at Accenture culminated in Summer 2020, when she hosted a tactical cross-industry wildfire workshop with leaders and input from the California Office of Emergency Management, Google, Splunk, the Moore Foundation, Disaster Tech, and more. Under her leadership, these organizations worked together to uncover how they could support safe evacuations for Californians with access and functional needs.

After leaving Accenture, Nivi is working full-time on Soapbox Project, finding new ways to civically engage corporate employees and make it easier for them to give back. In her free time, she takes classes at Circus Center, spends time with friends, explores new places, and tries not to kill her plants.

Daniel Zaragoza is a retired utility executive with over 40 years of extensive electric operations experience, specializing in electric transmission and distribution operations, emergency management and fire risk mitigation.

Prior to retiring in early 2017, Zaragoza was Director of Emergency Management for San Diego Gas & Electric, one of Sempra Energy’s regulated California utilities serving 3.6 million customers in San Diego and Southern Orange Counties. In this role, Zaragoza was responsible for managing and executing the utility’s response to major emergencies that had the potential to cause severe customer and infrastructure impacts to the gas and electric system in San Diego – the second largest city in the state of California.

Zaragoza managed both the Fire Coordination and Meteorological teams to ensure operational decisions were made using data and expertise from weather and fire mitigation experts. As part of the company’s commitment to keeping the communities it serves safe, Zaragoza was instrumental in developing one of the most comprehensive and robust fire risk mitigation programs in the industry designed to improve grid resiliency. This included significant strategic investments to fire-harden the power grid, increase situational awareness, update operating protocols and enhance the region’s ability to respond to wildfires. Under his leadership, Zaragoza launched the Meteorology team which continues to play a critical role in identifying mitigating solutions to the challenges of a dramatically changing climate.

Zaragoza has an extensive background in the electric sector, a rapidly changing industry that is currently undergoing a major transformation as power providers try to meet stringent state goals to reach renewable energy mandates. As a former director of electric distribution operations, Zaragoza managed a power grid serving millions of people, pioneered the launch of technologies and programs that would enhance employee and public safety, reliability and help reduce climate and weather-related risks and vulnerabilities, such as wildfire. Under his leadership, SDG&E was recognized as a best-in-class, award-winning reliability program enhancing customer satisfaction.

During his tenure, Zaragoza helped lay the foundation for a more resilient grid by partnering with the public and private sectors, academia and government agencies to accelerate investments in technologies, practices, and policies. Some examples include the development and deployment of America’s largest utility-owned weather network, deploying major capital projects, and working to become the first utility in the nation to obtain FAA approval to test fly Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (drones) in select test areas.

Emily McClellan is the Media and Marketing Manager at Disaster Tech. Prior to Disaster Tech, Emily spent four years sharpening her strategic communications skills at Inkhouse Media + Marketing, a fast-growing and award-winning PR agency in San Francisco. Emily has a strong background in media relations, executive thought leadership, data storytelling campaigns and social media programs. Her experience also stretches across a diverse array of companies and industries, including enterprise tech, marketplaces, consumer tech and venture capital sectors.

Emily is also deeply passionate about social good projects, and most recently helped launch a crowdsource fundraising campaign called Field of Genes which seeks to spread awareness for rare and undiagnosed diseases. 

Jessica brings more than a decade of design and user research to the Disaster Tech team, with previous clients such as MIT, Cornell University, and the California Academy of Sciences. Her focus is the development of streamlined interfaces for data visualization and collaborative decision support, in disaster and resource management settings.

Prior to joining Disaster Tech, Ms. Decker led a real-time crowdsourcing effort to map community resources during Hurricane Harvey, which quickly scaled to 700 volunteers and gained national media attention. This project was a successful use case in the power of collaborative data, and inspired Ms. Decker to pursue further development of next-generation systems that anticipate the evolving hazard landscape.

To this end, after previous degrees in design theory and science communication, Ms. Decker is currently completing a Master of Science thesis at Lund University, Sweden, in the Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change Adaptation program. This work is focused on optimizing decision support systems in the emergency management environment, and furthers the Disaster Tech mission to provide clear and concise situational awareness.