Podcasts about assistant deputy director

Joining the Exchange is Jim McDougald, Assistant Deputy Director over Community Wildfire Preparedness and Risk Reduction at CAL FIRE.

In this episode of NucleCast, host Adam speaks with Lieutenant Colonel Gary Glover about the evolving landscape of the Air Force, particularly in relation to nuclear force design and modernization efforts. They discuss the importance of advanced education for military officers, the implications of hypersonic weapons on nuclear command and control, and the broader national security challenges facing the United States.Lieutenant Colonel Garrett Glover is the Chief of AFGSC Futures Division, Air Force Global Strike Command, an Assistant Professor of Political Science at USAFA, and a Senior Fellow with the Institute for National Security Studies.Colonel Glover was commissioned from the United States Air Force Academy in 2009. He has held key positions within the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile community, including Instructor, Evaluator, Flight Commander, and Assistant Director of Operations. As Executive Officer for the Office of Defense Programs at the National Nuclear Security Administration, he played a pivotal role in the successful execution of a $5 billion Stockpile Stewardship Program, supporting $25 billion in nuclear sustainment initiatives. He served as a Presidential Nuclear Strike Advisor and Assistant Deputy Director of Operations at the National Military Command Center, translating presidential intent into nuclear strike options and leading a joint inter-agency team focused on both nuclear and conventional global military operations. In this role he oversaw the execution of the National Military Command System on behalf of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Additionally, he served as Executive Assistant to the Deputy Director for Nuclear and Homeland Defense Operations (J-36) on the Joint Staff at the Pentagon. He spent a year as a DoD Nuclear Technical Lab Fellow at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, CA. Prior to his current position, he served as the Chief Nuclear Strategist of Headquarters, Air Force Global Strike Command.Chapters00:00 Introduction to Global Strike Command and Force Design07:29 The Importance of Advanced Education for Officers15:23 Hypersonics and Nuclear Command Control25:50 Wishes for National Security and EducationSocials:Follow on Twitter at @NucleCastFollow on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/nuclecastpodcastSubscribe RSS Feed: https://rss.com/podcasts/nuclecast-podcast/Rate: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nuclecast/id1644921278Email comments and topic/guest suggestions to NucleCast@anwadeter.org

The Texas army veteran who rammed a truck into a New Orleans crowd of New Year's revelers likely acted alone and pledged his support to the Islamic State, according Christopher Raia, Assistant Deputy Director of the FBI's Counter Terrorism Division. He said the suspect, Shamsud Din Jabbar, was shot dead at the scene after firing at polie.

East Orosi hasn't had safe drinking water in over 20 years. The water is full of nitrates, runoff from industrial agriculture, which is harmful to human health. The community has taken action to find a solution, from lobbying at the state capital to working with neighboring towns.  And they may finally have one. New California laws, passed in the last five years, have opened up funding to build water infrastructure in small towns like East Orosi. But even as laws and funding develop, implementation has been challenging.  We visit East Orosi and talk to Berta Diaz Ochoa about what it's like living without clean drinking water and the solutions on the horizon. This is part one of a two part series.  Making Contact digs into the story beneath the story—contextualizing the narratives that shape our culture. Featuring narrative storytelling and thought-provoking interviews. We cover the most urgent issues of our time and the people on the ground building a more just world. EPISODE FEATURES: This episode features Susana De Anda -Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Community Water Center; Berta Diaz Ochoa -East Orosi community member and organizer;  Cristobal Chavez - member of Community Water Center; Janaki Anagha - Director of Advocacy, Community Water Center; Jessi Synder - Director of Community Development, Self Help Enterprises; Andrew Altevogt, Assistant Deputy Director of the State Water Resources Control Board. MAKING CONTACT: This episode is hosted by Salima Hamirani. It is produced by Anita Johnson, Lucy Kang, Salima Hamirani, and Amy Gastelum. Our executive director is Jina Chung.  MUSIC: This episode includes “Blue” by  Komiku; Monet's Water Lilies; Dark Rainy Day; Water Drops, Sad Slow Piano Background; Mother Womb piano; Guracha Sonidera Cumbia Loops De Bateria Series II Learn More: Community Water Center: https://www.communitywatercenter.org/ Self Help Enterprises: https://www.selfhelpenterprises.org/ State Water Resources Control Board: https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/

Today we are talking with Jimmy O'Dea about his career path and current role. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Puget Sound in Chemistry and his Ph.D. in chemistry from UC Santa Barbara. Previously, he worked as a research associate at Cornell University, a science and engineering congressional fellow, a vehicle analyst for the Union of concerned scientists, and was the deputy director of trucks for Calstart. He is now the assistant deputy director of transportation electrification at Caltrans. We discuss: 0:51: Why he wanted a Ph.D. in chemistry and what his original career interests were 2:51: The biggest similarities and differences between his previous roles 3:41: What he learned the most important qualities in a job are for him  5:14: How he got his current role 6:29: The prerequisites to get his current role 7:27: How he found his current role 8:38: Overview of his role 11:23: His roles and responsibilities using examples of projects he works on 12:42: What the team structure looks like 13:55: How social the role is 15:15: Opportunities for moving up 16:59: What the training looks like 18:40: What a typical day is like 19:51: How his goals are set  23:17: A detailed example of the steps of a project proposal  24:15: Advice 

James Scullary, Broadcast and Media Relations Branch Chief for Covered California and Yingjia Huang, Assistant Deputy Director for the Department of Health Care Services, discusses changes coming to Medi-Cal. 

Alt-tech social networks have exploded in popularity in recent years. And thanks to lax content moderation rules, these communities have become havens for criminal groups and other bad actors. This creates new challenges for security teams. On the one hand, many professionals may not even be aware of some of the new channels where people conjugate online. So as a result, organizations gathering open-source intelligence online could overlook serious threats to their operations. On the other hand, alt-tech social networks present new opportunities to discover and investigate threat intelligence. This is especially true in forums and communities with relaxed content moderation guidelines. So where should investigators and security practitioners get started? In a recent webinar, our very own Director of Strategy and Partnerships Neil Spencer hosted a panel to explore how to collect intelligence, investigate threats, and mitigate security risks facing your organization using new alt-tech social networks. In particular, the group decided to focus on some of the largest and fastest-growing of these communities, namely Telegram, Chan Boards, and TikTok. He was joined by Head of Intelligence at Securitas SIU, Mike Evans; Assistant Deputy Director, Intelligence Operations at Secure Community Network, Nathan Otto; and the Director of Research and Analytics at 2430 Group, Lindsay Wright. Learn more: * 5 Tips for Conducting OSINT on Alt-Tech Social Networks Never miss an episode by subscribing to the show on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to episodes.

In the fourth and final installment of our 2023 series with Self-Help Enterprises, Michael chats with the following rural water, housing, and health experts: Tami McVay, Director of Emergency Services at Self-Help Enterprises; Meghan Tosney, Assistant Deputy Director at California's State Water Board's Division of Financial Assistance; Eddie Ocampo, Program Director with the Community Sustainability Department at Self-Help Enterprises; and Paul Gosselin, Deputy Director for Sustainable Groundwater Management at the California Department of Water Resources. Together, they discuss emergency services and response work in California during a period of drought, the nonprofit role in the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, helping families find viable solutions for safe and affordable drinking water, and much more.  This episode, and the entire series, is sponsored by Self-Help Enterprises. For more information, visit www.selfhelpenterprises.org.  The views stated by podcast guests do not necessarily reflect those of our sponsors.

In this episode, we are joined by Steve Hawks, who has dedicated over three decades to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE). Steve's impressive career began as a firefighter and eventually led him to serve as the Assistant Deputy Director of CAL FIRE's Office of the State Fire Marshal's Community Wildfire Preparedness and Mitigation and Fire Engineering and Investigations Divisions. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Forest Resource Management from Humboldt State University and has served on various CAL FIRE Incident Management Teams for 13 years. After retiring in December 2022, Steve returned to the CAL FIRE – Office of the State Fire Marshal's Community Wildfire Preparedness and Mitigation Division and has also taken on the role of Director of Wildfire Policy for the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS) team. During our conversation, Steve shares his insights on community wildfire preparedness and mitigation strategies, including defensible space home hardening, fuel reduction projects, grant funding, and other programs implemented by CAL FIRE's Community Wildfire Preparedness and Mitigation Division. He also provides a detailed analysis of the impacts of Assembly Bill 38 on homeowners living in high fire hazard zones, which mandates defensible space compliance inspections and proof of passing. Join us as we dive deep into the world of wildfire preparedness and mitigation with Steve Hawks. You can listen to the episode on our website, or on your favorite podcast platform, such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts. And don't forget to subscribe to our show and follow us on social media to stay up to date on all things wildfire. Thank you for your time and I hope you enjoy this episode.

Dr. Edward A. Kaplan is Dean of the School of Strategic Landpower at the U.S. Army War College. In this role, he is responsible for facilitating the education of senior officers in the Army, other services, partner nations, and senior civilians. Dr. Kaplan is a 1994 graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy. After being awarded his master's degree in History at the University of Calgary in 1997, Dr. Kaplan attended Intelligence training at Goodfellow Air Force Base, in Texas, where he was a distinguished graduate. He served in various intelligence roles at Beale Air Force Base, California, and deployed to directly support U-2 aircrew at overseas locations. In 1998, he became a Watch Officer and Flight Commander at the Misawa Cryptologic Operations Center, where he directed the mission of a joint Army, Navy and Air Force team. Following his time in Japan, and a NATO deployment in support of U.S. operations in Kosovo, Dr. Kaplan reported for duty as an instructor in the History Department at the U.S. Air Force Academy. During his three-year tour, Dr. Kaplan deployed to Sarajevo for six months, was promoted to Assistant Professor, taught World History and advanced courses in American Foreign Policy and the Cold War, and directed the core Military History course. Dr. Kaplan then became the Readiness Flight Commander at the 607th Air Intelligence Squadron at Osan Air Base, Korea. Dr. Kaplan then returned to the University of Calgary where he received his Doctorate in History. In 2007, Dr. Kaplan arrived at the Directorate of Intelligence on the Joint Staff, where he served as a strategic planner, an Assistant Deputy Director for Intelligence in the National Military Command Center and as the Executive Officer for the Director for Intelligence. During that assignment, Dr. Kaplan deployed to Camp Victory, Iraq where he was a speechwriter and strategist for the Commander of Multi-National Forces-Iraq, before returning to the position of Senior Editor for the daily intelligence briefing prepared for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of Defense. In the summer of 2010, Dr. Kaplan returned to the Air Force Academy History Department as an Assistant Professor. He acted as the Deputy for Military History, Deputy Department Head, Acting Department Head, Director of the Dean's Commander's Action Group, and Professor and Head of the History Department, U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado. Dr. Kaplan retired from active duty in April 2020, in the rank of Colonel. He assumed the role of Professor of Strategic Studies in the Department of National Security and Strategy, until he assumed his present position in July 2021. He is the author of two books – To Kill Nations: American Strategy in the Air-Atomic Age and the Rise of Mutually Assured Destruction, and The End of Victory: Prevailing in the Thermonuclear Age, both from Cornell University Press.

The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association. During this episode, Eliot Jardines describes the world of Open Source Intelligence (OSINT), publicly available information (PAI), and why it matters to national security. Research Questions: Eliot suggests interested students and researchers take a look at the following questions: The growing prevalence of artificial intelligence (AI) content on social media and other publicly available information (PAI) sources represents a challenge for open-source intelligence (OSINT) practitioners – what new tradecraft (or tactics, techniques, and procedures) is required? Does the experiential nature of the virtual reality environment (such as Meta) differ sufficiently from traditional social media that different exploitation tradecraft (or tactics, techniques, and procedures) is needed? Resources: OSINT Foundation WSJ Article: Rise of Open-Source Intelligence Tests U.S. Spies Link to full show notes and resources https://information-professionals.org/episode/cognitive-crucible-episode-129 Guest Bio:  Eliot Jardines is the founder of the OSINT Foundation and serves as the Director of Operations and Treasurer. He is President of Gnosis Solutions, Incorporated, a veteran and minority owned small business focused on training and intelligence consultancy. Prior to Gnosis, he was a Senior Consulting Director at Oracle, and Chief Knowledge Officer of CENTRA Technology, Incorporated. In late 2005, Dr. Jardines was appointed as the inaugural Assistant Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Open Source. As the senior open-source intelligence official, he was responsible for developing a strategic direction, establishing policy, and oversight of fiscal  resources for social media monitoring efforts across all 17 intelligence agencies. In addition, he served as the Intelligence Community's senior document and media exploitation (DOMEX) officer, as well as provided oversight to the Open Source Center, the National Media Exploitation Center and the National Virtual Translation Center. From 1996 to 2005, he was founder and President of Open Source Publishing, Incorporated. The firm provided open-source intelligence support to the military, law enforcement and intelligence communities. The company was the 2002 runner-up for the George C. Marshall Award, and subsequently acquired in 2005. Dr. Jardines served eleven years in the US Army (Reserves and on active duty), including assignments at the US Army Intelligence Center and School, US Central Command, the National Ground Intelligence Center and the Defense Intelligence Agency. He was deployed to the 66th Military Intelligence Group in Augsburg, Germany in support of Operation Joint Guard during the late 1990s, where he served as the unit's first OSINT coordinator. He has testified before the US Congress on intelligence and homeland security issues. He has been published or featured in a number of professional journals, national newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and the Washington Post. He has done numerous media appearances to include C-SPAN and the CBS Evening News. Dr. Jardines graduated from the University of New Mexico with a dual degree in political science and Latin American studies. He received a Master of Arts in international studies from the University of Connecticut and a Master of Science in strategic intelligence from the National Intelligence University, where he was recognized with the NCOA award for excellence in leadership and academics. He holds a doctorate in human and organizational learning from the George Washington University. Heavily involved in the community, Dr. Jardines is head coach of a USA Shooting club which trains athletes in the 25-meter air and sport pistol Olympic events, and coordinator of the Clarke County Sheriff's Office reserve deputy program. He was recently appointed to the Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation board of directors. He resides in Loudoun County, Virginia with his wife Teresa and their three sons. About: The Information Professionals Association (IPA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring the role of information activities, such as influence and cognitive security, within the national security sector and helping to bridge the divide between operations and research. Its goal is to increase interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars and practitioners and policymakers with an interest in this domain. For more information, please contact us at communications@information-professionals.org. Or, connect directly with The Cognitive Crucible podcast host, John Bicknell, on LinkedIn. Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, 1) IPA earns from qualifying purchases, 2) IPA gets commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Miles is joined by colleagues from the Health and Life Events team to explore how data is good for our health. Within the diagnosis: the Health Index, dubbed “the GDP of health”; the impacts of Covid-19 as well as an ageing society; and the increasing importance of linking data from numerous sources to generate complex insights that inform decision-making.    TRANSCRIPT    MILES FLETCHER  Welcome again to Statistically Speaking the Office for National Statistics podcast. This time we're taking the pulse of the nation's health and exploring the role of public data in making it better. Of course, we would say that statistics are good for you. We recommend at least five a day, but more seriously, what do the ONS figures say about the state of our health now? And what are we doing to create new and better statistical insights to support a healthier population in future?   With us to examine all are ONS colleagues, Julie Stanborough, Deputy Director of Health and Life Events, Neil Bannister, Assistant Deputy Director of Health Analysis and, later in the podcast, Jonny Tinsley, Head of Health and Life Events Data Transformation.   Julie to start with you. The World Health Organisation defines health as a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Now, the ONS has begun a major project that seeks to capture the key elements of that in one place and to a certain extent in one single number. Can explain what that is, and what it's all about?    JULIE STANBOROUGH  Yes, so that will be the Health Index, and as you say, it is kind of regarded as the GDP of health. And at its simplest, it allows the health of England and local authorities to be tracked over time, which allows greater understanding of the relationships between the drivers of health and health outcomes. So the index starts in England in 2015. And we've got data up to 2019, which is available online, but we're going to be publishing 2020 figures very shortly.    MF  So tell us about the nuts and bolts, what are the data sources here and how have they been put together?    JS  We've got a huge number of different data sources that go into the Health Index. We've grouped them into three different themes, that we have healthy people, healthy lives and healthy places. And we use data sources from within ONS, but also from across government, and more broadly, to give that really in-depth breadth of all the data that goes into health.    MF  What sort of factors, what sort of elements are we looking at? People living without serious health conditions?    JS  Yeah, so it's a whole range of things. For example, looking at child poverty through to access to green spaces, life expectancy, a whole range of different factors which contribute to whether a particular area is deemed to have high health index or a low health index.    MF  Is there particular value - because you can understand wanting to understand disparities at local level and we'll talk about that a bit a bit later - but boiling it down to a single reading, a GDP. That's a very ambitious thing. How useful, how relevant, is that figure going to be? Is it something that the future will look to us regularly and take as seriously as a big number like GDP?    JS  I'd really hope so. And I think because the complexity of health is so complex, if we can boil it down to one number and be able to track that over time, at a national level, or at a local level, that really helps people understand what's going on and helps them to engage, but equally because it has all the different data sources in there, it allows those policy makers in local authorities to be able to go into that data and explore what really is happening in their particular area.    MF  More than simply measuring the outputs or successes of the health services, it's about understanding a much wider range of factors as well as the environment in which people live and their socio-economic position as well.    JS  That's right. I mean, there are so many different aspects to it. And that's why the Health Index has so many different data sources in there. But because of that complexity, it makes it really difficult for people to understand what they should be doing to improve the health in their areas. So you need that breadth, but then the ability to aggregate it up into a single number helps with the accessibility.     MF  So the index will provide this big reading of this multi factor estimate of health but perhaps it'll be the case that it isn't so much what the index says at any given time, but how it changes over time, that'll be its real value.    JS  That's right. And it's being able to track that at a national level. And at a local level. We're going to be publishing 2020 results, but we're going to have to be quite careful with those results because it'd be the first year with the pandemic and so we'd expect to be seeing some changes as a result of the pandemic. But equally, some of the data collections will have changed as a result of not being able to interview people in the same way because of lockdown. So we're going to have to monitor that data over 2020 / 2021 and further to really see the impact of the pandemic.    MF  And provide also perhaps some measure of people's changing economic circumstances at a time when there's so much concern obviously around the cost of living.   In the meantime, because this project the Health Index is still in its relative infancy of course we have a wealth of other data already that the ONS generates and brings in from elsewhere and works with. Of course the number one indicator of a nation's health is our life expectancy - how long we might be expected to survive. Tell us what's been happening - the broad picture - as far as life expectancy is concerned.    JS  Life expectancy, if I just explain what that is, is a statistical measure which estimates the average number of years a person can expect to live. So male life expectancy at birth in the United Kingdom for the years 2018 to 2020 was 79 years, and that compared to 83 years for females. And during the past two decades life expectancy has grown, but much faster growth appeared in the naughties, and during the 2010s. We've seen that life expectancy pretty much slow right down and flatten.    MF  As well as this obviously the key measure of life expectancy. There's another important dimension here and this is particularly relevant if we're talking about health and that of course is healthy life expectancy because it's all very well to be alive, but if you have not got a great quality of life, well that brings all sorts of other issues and it brings problems for the health service as well of course. Tell us about healthy life expectancy. What is that as a statistic, how is that measured? What are the characteristics that inform healthy life expectancy?     JS  It's slightly different to life expectancy. Healthy life expectancy is a measure of the average number of years someone can expect to live in good health or free from limiting illness, and in 2018 to 2020 male healthy life expectancy at birth in the UK was 63 years, which meant that you had 16 years of life in not good health. In contrast for females, they had 64 years of healthy life expectancy, which meant that they had 19 years of life in not good health.    MF  That's fascinating and obviously begs the question, has that period of healthy life expectancy been going up in line with overall life expectancy, or have people simply been living longer in poor health?     JS  Yeah, so between 2011/13 and 2018/2020, both males and females, there was no improvement in health and life expectancy.    MF  That goes some way to explaining some of the current pressures on the National Health Service.    JS  That's right. I mean, if you've got more people that aren't in good health and have limiting conditions that's going to have increasing pressure on our health services and our GP services.    MF  And it does mean also that people are dying from different things, and they might have died younger from different conditions. They're living longer, but perhaps in poorer and poorer health in many cases, and in the end, actually dying from different causes. What are the data saying?    JS  So there's a range of different factors which are associated with a healthy life expectancy, and things that you'd probably think yourself. So when we looked at areas across the country with the lowest healthy life expectancy, 29% of males aged 30 to 49 smoked compared to just 17% of those that were in the highest healthy life expectancy areas. So smoking is clearly one of the drivers. We've also looked at whether people are overweight, and more than one in eight children in the lowest healthy life expectancy areas became overweight between entering primary school and starting secondary school. In contrast, those in the highest healthy life expectancy areas, it was just one in every 10. So there's a number of different factors there that we can see are driving it.    MF  If any justification was needed on why public health campaigns tend to concentrate on issues like obesity and smoking that's starkly revealed in the numbers.   So that's the big picture. That's what's happening at a national level. But tell us about the differences from place to place because the local variations are quite significant too, aren't they?    JS  That's right. So to commit those geographical variations, Ribble Valley in Lancashire is ranked the healthiest out of 307 local authority areas in England, and that's using the Health Index.  MF  And the least healthy?  JS  So we do have all those rankings, but we do try to not think about the scores in a sort of ranking capacity. The whole point of having this information put out there is for local authorities to be able to compare themselves with similar local authorities or their nearest neighbour and see how different aspects of health are given the different policy initiatives that they're implementing in their local areas.    MF  Because lo and behold, whenever these league tables – and I do emphasise that we don't claim them to be league tables, they're often seen as such - when they appear of course, people want to know where is top. Whereas, surprise surprise, normally it goes with socio-economic status doesn't it. To put it bluntly, the better off areas see the highest life expectancy and healthy life expectancy?    JS  Yes, that's right. And even for those areas, you'd want them to be perhaps comparing themselves to other similar areas with the same sort of socio demographics and then to think about where different aspects of, whether it's smoking prevalence or childhood obesity, how are those different areas responding, what are the policies that they're putting in place to try and improve those statistics.    MF  Because again, it's not a matter of stating the obvious, which is self-evident, isn't it? Health outcomes tend to be better in more prosperous areas. This has been well known for some time, although we opened a local paper the other day writing up some of these numbers and saying certain towns in the West Midlands have been named and shamed as having the worst health locally. This is emphatically not about naming and shaming areas, neither is it about stating the obvious. As you say it's about informing better health outcomes, so resources can be better targeted.    JS  That's right. I was actually looking at a Coventry Marmot city review, and they have been using a whole range of different public health measures to try and improve the outcomes in that area. And one of the key measures they use is healthy life expectancy. They're comparing the outcomes after a number of years in their area to what's been going on nationally. So it's helping them benchmark the initiatives that they've been putting in place    MF  As with the overall Health Index itself, it sets the standard doesn't it. Puts in numbers what is clearly self-evident, but useful numbers because they give you that sense of the scale of the issue at the local level. That's at least as far as England is concerned, but also we've been working with the devolved administrations around the United Kingdom as well, and what do we know about that picture?    JS  So on the Health Index, that's actually one of the areas that we were looking to expand. So the Health Index at the moment covers England – we would really like to develop them for Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales and then create a UK wide one as well. So that's something that we're looking to develop in the future.    MF  That's a work in progress, and a ‘watch this space' then for forthcoming publications, both of the Health Index and of data being compared across the UK as well.    So Neil, people are living longer, but with that experiencing a whole range of health conditions. Tell us what we're picking up in the data and what's changing.    NEIL BANNISTER  That's right Miles. So age is a very big important social determinant for health and an ageing society places a big burden on the health and social care systems in the country. Recent Census analysis from the 2021 Census showed that nearly one in five people in England and Wales was over 65 now, with the fastest increase happening in the 85 plus age group. So there really is a fundamental kind of growth in the ageing population, and that leads to increases in certain disease types. So for example, we know that being in an elderly age group you can experience being more disabled and having more multiple chronic and complex health conditions as well as there being an increase in dementia and Alzheimer's disease. So for example, with dementia, we know that around about 900,000 people in the UK have been diagnosed with dementia and by 2025 it is expected to reach around about 1 million people in the UK. In terms of how we look at it from our data within ONS, we know that 12.5% of all deaths that we record are caused by dementia and Alzheimer's, and it is the leading cause of death in age groups over 80 plus within England and Wales.  MF  That is a relatively recent development.   NB  That's right. So that's happened really over the last three to five years, we've seen this increase in the dementia and Alzheimer's as a leading cause of death in England and Wales.    MF  And is the rate of increase showing any sign of abating?     NB  Well, if you take away the COVID pandemic period, no, it doesn't. It looks like it's actually on track to continue to be the leading cause of death and with the new figures that we have in from Census showing there is an ageing population, and the age is increasing, we would expect there to be a continued increase in the number of deaths from dementia and Alzheimer's and, as I said, the number of diagnoses as well.    MF  Yes, that's a stark finding and something you'd suspect we're going to be hearing quite a lot more about.    NB  It's not just within the UK that this is occurring though. When you look across other economically developed countries. So looking at the data from the OECD, for example, we can see that Japan, Italy and Greece - these are countries with well-known elderly populations - they have a very high prevalence of dementia. The UK out of the 44 OECD countries UK is 15th highest in terms of the prevalence of dementia, which is equivalent to where Denmark is as well in terms of comparability.    MF  And that speaks loudly to some of the challenges the health system is going to face in future, and the social care sector as well, which is already under pressure in some respects. Tell us about the potential impacts there, what are we seeing?    NB  What we found during the pandemic is that there are big gaps in data around social care statistics and being able to understand that population within our society and that group in society.    MF  Is that because the sector is diverse, and it's sprawling and it's uncertain and in places it's quite informal?    NB  Absolutely. There are different types of social care. There's social care that happens within care residences, and there's also social care that happens within the home. There's a big private industry there as well as the public sector being involved. And trying to pull together information across that diverse and complex landscape is very difficult.    MF  What are we doing to try and close some of those gaps?    NB  So we're working very closely with the Department of Health and Social Care. They have a large programme of work to try and collate data and improve data collections across the piece. What we've been doing, we've been looking at particular areas. So we're looking at trying to understand more about self-funders - individuals who fund their own social care, as opposed to those who have the state to fund it for them. And other areas of what we're doing is to look also at the workforce in social care, which is very hard to track over time and to understand the size and scale of that workforce. So that's another area of work that we're doing.    MF  And this is just part of a much wider body of work going on across the ONS to try and shed new light on health inequalities in particular.    NB  Yes, that's right. So we are going to be using the Census, the 2021 census data, to really look in more detail at social care once that data becomes available. But what we have been able to do though, during the COVID pandemic, is use the 2011 census data to link to other sources to really understand how, for example, the COVID pandemic had impacts across a number of different groups in society. We were able to produce statistics for the first time looking at the impact that COVID had on particular ethnic groups, on religious groups, and on the disabled groups in society.    MF  And what did we discover about the unequal impacts of COVID?     NB  Yeah, so when we're looking at ethnicity for example, since the start of the period where the Omicron variant was more prominent, we found that the Bangladeshi ethnic group of males had the highest rate of death of COVID-19, as opposed to the white British group. And we also found that for females, the Pakistani ethnic group had the highest rate of death involving COVID-19, which is 2.5 times higher than that of the white British group    MF  On the topic of ethnicity, was it factors such as the nature of the occupations undertaken by those groups, or perhaps socio-economic status, living conditions and so forth? Or was there something, by the very nature of their ethnicity, that was actually contributing towards higher mortality? Have we got to the bottom of that?    NB  It's very hard to know that, Miles. What we've done is some complicated modelling to understand, and we've taken into account certain social demographic groups and economic factors, but we still do find that certain ethnic groups have a higher rate of death, even when taking into account those factors. Things that it could be, but we don't know the detail yet, could maybe be how people in those ethnic groups live in terms of having multi-generational households, for example, and maybe that was a contributing factor, but to understand that in more detail much more work is needed to be done.    MF  Another area where research remains in progress. And also more recently, we've gone into partnership with one of the world's great philanthropic organisations to try and uncover what's going on behind some of these inequalities.    NB  That's correct. So there's a piece of work that we're doing working with the Wellcome Trust and the Race Equality Foundation. And what we're trying to do is to understand that there are different sources of ethnicity data within the health system and also with our Census data as well. What we know is that there are different qualities of how that data is recorded. What we're doing with the Wellcome Trust is to really understand the quality of the data across the different sources so we can provide a better understanding of the analysis that can be done with those data sources, which is really important as its data itself, which is a fundamental building block of any analysis that we can undertake. And the quality of that.    MF  It's quite hard to disentangle the effects of the pandemic at the moment, and it's probably worth discussing those. Are we in a position yet to know how life expectancy has been affected by COVID?    NB  At the moment, we have some indication. So the last publication we produced for healthy life expectancy covered the period of 2018 to 2020, which has a period of a COVID pandemic within that analysis, and that did show that there has been a drop in healthy life expectancy both in England, Wales and Scotland. But what we don't know for certain yet is the full impact of that because we haven't had the data to analyse for the entire pandemic period. And that's work that's ongoing within the office.    MF  So we will in due course then be able to get a much better understanding to what extent life expectancy might have been impacted by long COVID. But in the meantime, other ONS data suggest that a lot of people at least say or think they are suffering long term effects from it.    JULIE STANBOROUGH  That's right. We estimate over 2 million people in the population are experiencing long COVID. And it is self-reported long COVID. So we collect this data from the COVID Infection Survey, which was started at the beginning of the pandemic and people are reporting whether they're experiencing a whole range of different symptoms, which are associated with long COVID. And we've been monitoring that on a monthly basis to see whether those numbers have been increasing or decreasing and which types of people in the population are more likely to be experiencing long COVID.   MF  And what's been the pattern of those numbers?  JS  It's actually been broadly stable, a slight upward trend but broadly stable over time, and you would hope that over time it will start to drop down, but we're not in that situation at the moment.    MF  So the data at the moment is seeming to suggest that - so obviously, we know a lot of people have been infected - a lot of people seem to be suffering symptoms for a protracted period afterwards, but at least as far as the data are concerned, they will tend to imply a lot of those people are getting better.    JS  So we measure whether people are experiencing long COVID after a set number of weeks. So there's a significant proportion of people that still experiencing long COVID At least 12 months after their first infection – it is a small group but it is a significant number of people. But of course it has impacts on their ability to go about their day to day lives. Look after family, go to work, study. So it does have a significant impact on people   MF  And what sort of effects are they reporting?   JS  So it can be a range of things from fatigue, breathing difficulties to perhaps more severe symptoms. So a whole range of different symptoms.     MF  What further analysis are we doing on the impacts of COVID generally? We've explored differences in ethnicity, other characteristics as well. Tell us a little about that work and what's up next for this programme of research.    JS  As you say, yes, we've done a whole range of different analysis to support the COVID pandemic. A lot of the analysis that we have produced has gone into the COVID Insights tool, which is on the ONS website. And that brings together a range of different data and analysis around hospitalizations, infections and deaths but also tries to put it into a sort of societal context, in terms of wellbeing, and employment as well. It's actually one of the most looked at on the ONS site.    MF  So even though the pandemic subsides - as at least we hope it will - a lot of work will continue to assess its full impact.    JS  That's right. It will be trying to understand in more depth what happened during the pandemic as well as monitoring the long-term effects, either on employment or in terms of people experiencing long COVID.    MF  The ability to link data to provide complex insights, of course, is such an important area of research at the moment.   And that brings us to Jonny Tinsley. Jonny this is very much your area of expertise.   And with that in mind, tell us about the Public Health Data Asset. What is that and how does that bring together data in that very useful way?    JONNY TINSLEY  During the pandemic data became incredibly important to understand what was going on and a lot of data sources in the health space exist. The NHS collects an awful lot of information about people and a lot of other organisations produce analysis, including the NHS themselves of that data. But one of the things that is unique to ONS is its access to non-health data and in particular, the Census data. By bringing in some of that health data from the NHS, which we're able to do for statistical purposes, we were then able to link that with the Census 2011 data and also our mortality data and create what we call the Public Health Data Asset. And what that effectively gives us is a huge cohort of people that were here in 2011, at the Census and then in combination with that mortality and health data able to analyse, giving it such a huge cohort of people. It allows us to have quite a lot of power and the statistics we can produce and pick up. Some of the differences that Neil was talking about actually, because the Census data includes things like ethnicity, religion, and disability status. We're able then to look at differences across those groups for things like COVID-19 mortality.    MF  So we can track essentially, as I understand it, we can track what's happened to individuals' health over that period of time, from the information supplied to Census and from their interactions with the NHS and other public services?    JT  To give a specific example, what we can do is for these different groups, so the Census effectively allows us to separate out the groups. For example, it shows that these people are of this ethnicity whereas these people are of this ethnicity, and then for those groups we will then know which people have died and when and what was the cause, in particular during the pandemic obviously, whether that cause was COVID-19. And then the main thing the health data has allowed us to do so far is look for what we would call comorbidities. So who has pre-existing conditions that put them at risk of poor outcomes from conditions such as COVID-19 in this particular case,    MF  And that will help the health services to be more predictive of the sort of conditions people are likely to face?    JT  Yes, to a degree. So some of that was already known. But what it allows us to do is if a particular ethnic group tends to suffer from certain conditions more than another, by taking those co-morbidities into account, we can do what we would probably, in layman's terms, call ‘control' for them in the models, and therefore effectively discount them. And if any differences still remain after that, between different ethnic groups, then something else must be going on. And as Neil says, one factor for example could be the multi-generational households impacting how likely it is for transmission to happen.    MF  And as well as differences by ethnicity and other characteristics it allows this to be done at a very, very local level as well, because of the sheer scale of these databases.     JT  From a data point of view, that's a really interesting question, because we have the COVID Infection Study, which Julie mentioned earlier, and whenever we do a survey we try and make it as representative as possible. So obviously it's not everyone. It might still be several hundred thousand people, as it is with the COVID infection study, but ideally it's made to be as representative of the population as possible, such that if 2% of the sample are infected with COVID-19 that week, it probably means that 2% of the whole population of England and Wales also are. But one of the downsides to doing a survey is even if you have a large number of participants, the statistics you're able to produce are at a really low level, this isn't as good because the number of people you have available in a small area that are actually in your study can be really, really small. And it can also make it more difficult to pick up these differences between groups, such as ethnic groups. Whereas when you've got the Census data, because you've got a much larger sample of people in your study, it gives you more statistical power and you can pick up the differences more easily, and produce lower-level statistics more easily. The downside, because there's always upsides and downsides when it comes to data quality, is that the 2011 Census data is now somewhat out of date. And the cohort, the kind of study population we had available to us, by definition excluded anyone who's been born since 2011, and anyone who's immigrated to the country since 2011. Because you know, they weren't here for us to pick up in the Census in 2011. So there's some work we've done to think about just how representative what we're calling the Public Health Data Asset is in terms of who is included and who isn't, compared to the people that are actually here in the country right now and have been during the pandemic, if that makes sense.    MF  Potentially, this is an incredibly valuable resource, but primarily who is it for and what are they going to use it for?    JT  To an extent they were for the general public of course, but also important stakeholders - decision makers during the pandemic like the scientific advisory group for emergencies (SAGE). Listeners will probably be familiar with people like Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer, and so these sorts of decision makers were finding everything we were doing really useful and at times even commissioning us to produce particular statistics or analysis using this really powerful dataset that we had available to us.   I mean, one aspect of this that I think is really important to talk about is data protection, confidentiality and kind of ethical uses. So to be clear that we take our responsibilities when it comes to the Census data really seriously and as many people know, we don't release Census data until 100 years after it's been collected. And when we get in other data for statistics that's of a sensitive nature, like the health data, we have all sorts of processes in place to secure that in our secure data systems and ensure that only highly trained security cleared staff can access it. So primarily, we're talking about substantive ONS employees who are specially trained using this data for statistical purposes. We will then use the data to produce the statistics that our users are telling us they need the most.    MF  Yes, it's well worth emphasising the data protection side there because obviously we are talking about vast amounts of highly sensitive data. And if anyone's interested in finding out more about how we approach those issues at the ONS, do please have a listen to our podcast on data ethics, where we explore that topic in some detail.   Overall then, a lot of ground-breaking work going on, a lot of new data coming in and we have to say that it has actually been picking up some prestigious awards.    JT  That's right Miles. Some of the work we've talked about has won a number of awards, probably the most prestigious being the RSS Campion award for official statistics.    MF  After hearing a lot of really quite sombre detail over the course of our conversation today, it's good perhaps to end on a relatively upbeat note. At least people can be assured that so much work, so much research, is going on to try and anticipate some of these problems before they manifest fully. And we hope of course to contribute to improving health outcomes over the longer term.   So that's it for this episode of Statistically Speaking, I'm Miles Fletcher. Thanks very much to our guests Julie Stanborough, Neil Bannister and Jonny Tinsley. Thanks very much to you for listening once again.  You can subscribe to new episodes of the podcast on Spotify, Apple podcasts and all other major podcast platforms. Thanks again to our producer at the ONS Steve Milne for this episode and, until next time, goodbye.    ENDS 

Meet Wyoming County District Attorney Joe Peters Joe Peters rose from street cop to serving two presidents as a leader in the efforts tocombat drug trafficking and battle international terrorism.As a Federal Prosecutor, Joe's accomplishments include the convictions of Philadelphia Mob Boss “Little Nicky” Scarfo, his underboss, and 16 mob soldiers in a 3-month trial before an anonymous and sequestered jury. Conducted by Joe and four other Federal Prosecutors, this trial resulted in one of the most significant Mafia family convictions in U.S. history. As a result, Joe received the U.S. Department of Justice's John Marshall Award. The Associated Press called Joe and his fellow prosecutors the “Modern Day Untouchables.”Joe has presented and consulted to law enforcement officials and others in Israel, Italy, the UK, Dubai, Kuwait and Qatar and has trained military and civilian personnel in Panama.A resident of Lake Winola, Joe has devoted his career to public service: he served for more than 15 years in the Pa. Office of Attorney General, rising from an intern to become the state's top drug prosecutor. In the White House he served as Assistant Deputy Director for State & Local Affairs in the Drug Czar's office.Joe's expertise on terrorism and related intelligence and prosecution issues has beenrecognized by Fox News  where he serves as a commentator as well as televisionnetworks as far away as London and Italy which have asked for his expert on-aircommentary.He graduated from King's College and later the Dickinson School ofLaw. He is a member of the International Assoc. of Chiefs of Police, where he served on its Terrorism Committee for 10 years. Joe is the oldest of five children of Gene and Peg Peters and is the proud father of his son Max. His father Gene served two-terms as a GOP Mayor of Scranton. In 2004 Joe was the Republican nominee for Pennsylvania Auditor General.For more INFO on LETI visit wyoming county at  https://wycopa.org/Support the show Stop by our Apple Podcast and drop a Review! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/allbetter/id1592297425?see-all=reviewsSupport The Showhttps://www.patreon.com/allbetter

AFIO Now presents Eliot Jardines, former Assistant Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Open Source (ADDNI/OS).  In this episode, Jardines discusses Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) and how publicly available information can provide actionable intelligence and directly impact current events. Recorded 29 June 2022. Interviewer: Jim Hughes, AFIO President and former CIA Operations Officer. 

Learn about the COVID-19 Detection Dog program—a collaboration between the California Department of Public Health and Early Alert Canines—which is introducing a new, less invasive, and more fun method of testing to schools across the state.  Dr. Carol Glaser of the CADoH and Carol Edwards of EAC tell the story. Carol Edwards began her career in dog obedience training at the age of 13 and since then has immersed herself in the behavioral science of dog training. Dr. Carol Glaser is the Assistant Deputy Director in the office of the State Public Health Laboratory Director and medical officer for the infectious disease laboratories at the California Department of Public Health. Dr. Glaser is also the Laboratory Director for the California Department of Public Health K-12 School Antigen Program. For full episode transcription, visit Contagious Conversations.   Key Takeaways: [1:14] Dr. Glaser talks about her background and about her role at the California Department of Public Health. [2:35]  Carol Edwards shares details about her background and talks about the mission of Early Alert Canines. [3:30] Dr. Glaser speaks about the COVID-19 Detection Dog Program. [5:15] Carol Edwards discusses her early conversations with Dr. Glazer about the ability of dogs to detect COVID-19 in humans. [6:28] What are the benefits of using dogs in schools instead of more traditional swab tests? [7:32] Dr. Glaser talks about the environmental impact of this program. [8:50] Carol Edwards discusses the positive reaction of children when they see the dogs coming to school. [10:35] Carol Edwards talks about two dogs, Rizzo and Scarlett, trained for this program. [11:26] How are dogs selected and trained to detect COVID in humans?  [12:28] Has a program like this ever been implemented before? [13:55] What makes using dogs to detect COVID particularly unique and effective? [14:23] Carol Edwards shares her experience with this program and her favorite part of it. [15:19] Dr. Glaser talks about the opportunities she sees arising for this kind of project during future pandemics or outbreaks. [16:38] Carol Edwards talks about the future of this program and the roles dogs can play during future pandemic or outbreaks.   Mentioned in This Episode: Early Alert Canines CDC Foundation

Yingjia, who serves in the role of Assistant Deputy Director, Health Care Benefits and Eligibility for California's Department of Health Care Services, joins the show to share how the significant eligibility adjustments shown during the pandemic (ie public health emergency) will be unwound and what that means to some of the millions of Californians on Medi-Cal.

YIMBYs in California advocate for laws to address the housing shortage and housing affordability crisis, but what happens after the Governor signs them? Housing law enforcement is an important but often less flashy part of the process of making housing abundant and affordable. Housing law enforcement is possible because of volunteers, organizations like YIMBY Law, the CA Department of Housing and Community Development, and the Attorney General's office. Working together, we're able to hold cities accountable to the laws that are passed, including dozens of California cities that don't have housing plans that are compliant with state law. In this episode, Louis Mirante from California YIMBY sits down with David Pai, Deputy Attorney General in the Housing Strike Force, and David Zisser, the Assistant Deputy Director in the HCD Housing Accountability Unit. They talk about what housing law enforcement looks like at the state level and when they intervene. Special thanks to our friends at California YIMBY for hosting this event! To get involved and support housing law enforcement in California, become a watchdog! https://www.fairhousingelements.org/volunteer Links:Watch the video on YouTube (with all the slides mentioned): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWveuGw7C3kBecome a housing element watchdog: https://www.fairhousingelements.org/volunteerLearn more about housing elements: https://www.fairhousingelements.org/explainerLearn more about California YIMBY's work: https://cayimby.org/Learn more about YIMBY Action: https://yimbyaction.org/Follow YIMBY Action on Twitter: https://twitter.com/yimbyaction/Follow YIMBY Action on Instagram: https://instagram.com/yimbyaction/Follow YIMBY Action on Facebook: https://facebook.com/yimbyaction/

Welcome to the Manager Minute. Joining Carol Pankow in the studio today is Susan Pugh, Deputy Director of the Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation with the Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities. Susan has worked within the agency in a variety of capacities including, VR Counselor, Assistant Area Manager, and Assistant Deputy Director.   In this episode, Susan discusses Ohio's rapid engagement process and the Lean approach that has reduced onboarding time and ushered in more customers. Susan and Carol cover a lot of the initiatives that Ohio has implemented to enable them to speed up the process so that customers are trained and employed as soon as possible.   Listen Here   Full Transcript   VRTAC-QM Manager Minute: Get in and Get er' Done! How Ohio Makes VR Work for Customers!   {Music} Speaker1: Manager Minute brought to you by the VRTAC for Quality Management, Conversations powered by VR, one manager at a time, one minute at a time. Here is your host Carol Pankow.   Carol: Welcome to the Manager, Minute. Joining me in the studio today is Susan Pugh, Deputy Director of the Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation in the agency called Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities. Now that's a mouthful. Susan has worked within the agency in a variety of capacities, including VR counselor. She's been an assistant area manager and assistant deputy director. Susan, it's so great to have you here today. How are things going in Ohio?   Susan: Things are great. I appreciate the opportunity to talk with you today.   Carol: All right. Well, today's topic is covering this idea of rapid engagement and the idea behind that is getting customers in and moving as quickly as possible. So they are successful in your agency has been using that lean process to completely revamp many of your processes and procedures. And I know that private industry has successfully used Lean for many years to improve manufacturing processes. But I know sometimes it doesn't always translate over to VR because we don't make widgets, after all. But we do work with people, and I know VR often creates really complicated processes to help individuals move through the VR system. So when I was in Minnesota, our governor had brought forward the idea of using lean throughout state government with some pretty successful results. I remember our license bureau for when undergoing a huge overhaul and where it would take weeks and months to get license plates and get your license. They were able to get that down to a matter of days, and so that was excellent. I know we also had to have a lean coordinator in each of our agencies that would report up to the governor on a quarterly basis, and we really put a lot of effort into that and you were able to get exposed to this same concept through your agency director Kevin Miller. And I remember talking with you a little bit ago that you really done a lot to examine your agency's processes and practices so you can do more for individuals with disabilities. So let's chat about this. Can you talk to me a little bit about your introduction to Lean and how it works in your agency?   Susan: Yes. Our director, Kevin Miller, joined O.D. back in January of 2011, and one of the first things that he did was establish a division of performance and innovation for the agency, and now that that division is called our Division of Employer and Innovation Services, and that deputy director was tasked with bringing lean into the organization. And like you mentioned in Minnesota, we have a lean Ohio office that provides all kinds of resources and support for state agencies who want to do this. So the way we kind of started out was members of executive team went to something that was called at the time, a champion training and where we learned and we were briefly exposed to all the different aspects of lean and learned how to champion lean processes within the organization. And after that, we started sending staff because within lean, there are belts like within karate. And so we've had people that have become green belts and black belts in lean processes. Now all of our supervisors and managers and some of our program specialists also receive yellow belt training, which is comparable to the to the champion training that I was mentioning. So now it's really kind of ingrained into all of the aspects of what we're doing. We've done tons of different lean events, which I'm going to talk about here and a little bit, and it's just more ingrained into our culture 10 years later.   Carol: Well, I like the word that you used in grain because you really do have to make it become part of the agency's culture. Otherwise it ends up being this thing that sits over here on a shelf, you know, and employees are like, Well, whatever, you know, here's the latest and greatest. I wondered, though, did you have some skepticism about the process in the beginning? And was there any kind of pivotal moment when staff went, Oh, you know what? I kind of do get this. I see where we're going.   Susan: Yes, One hundred percent at first it was really and I think you mentioned this earlier. It's kind of hard for our staff to think about our processes in these way. We've been trained that our processes all individualized and that's a good thing to meet the needs of the people that we serve. And it was really hard for them to think about standardizing that process as really a good thing. It was really counterintuitive to how we've always operated the program. Know, I think one of the other things that was kind of pivotal was looking at informed choice and how we could look at that differently. That informed choice isn't really free choice to where everybody has to have their path. We can kind of have some lanes. So to speak, that people are going into that will really help them meet their individualized objectives. So staff started participating in these lean events and despite that skepticism, once they really got involved, they were all in. For example, in these events are staff are empowered to make decisions. So it really uses frontline staff and also customers to help redesign these processes. And that really helped staff with buy in and then that team rolls it out to their peers. And so that in really helped, first of all. And then I would say the second thing was once we really started experiencing success and seeing these processes really result in the desired effects that we were looking for, then people were totally in, you know, they saw that it worked and then they wanted to do more of it because it makes things easier for our customers, but it also makes things easier for our staff. That's super   Carol: Cool. I like that about Lean. You know how it involves all these different layers of folks in the process. So it isn't just like some group over here is deciding a thing again, and then they're telling us what we're going to do. You know, I like that. I always remember all the little sticky notes up on the wall, churning out the whole process. And when you start moving sticky notes around and you go, Oh my gosh, great. We have like forty two steps to do this one thing, it is completely eye opening. Now I know when you and I had chatted, there were so many terrific projects that you had done and I'd like to break those down so our listeners can get a sense of what each is about. So can we start with the front door your process for getting rid of the waiting list? Can you tell me about that?   Susan: Yes. So this was back way in 2012, our first Kaizen event. So Kaizen means, I think, roughly break for the better or something like that. And it's really about process, like uncovering what is your process and fixing it. So at that time, as an agency, we averaged 127 days to eligibility from the start of the process to eligibility. And that was really the first piece of this was we didn't really know that that was our number before this happened because it is very data driven kind of activity. And I think we all would agree that 127 days is just unacceptable. And so staff really were like, Wow, no, this can't be we have to do better for the people that we serve. And so then our director said, I know that the federal standard is 60, but we're going to do 30 and our staff, myself included, I will freely admit we all looked at him like he had two heads. This was not possible. There were all the reasons, good reasons that we were at 127 days. We all knew we could do better, but to do 30 days was mind blowing. It just felt like an impossibility. So this team came together and they made all kinds of recommendations. The first thing was they realized we didn't have a process for doing intake and eligibility. We had like 88. So we have 88 counties in Ohio. Every county had their own process, and so this group was tasked with creating something new. And so some of the main things that they did was, first of all, they eliminated a whole pre-application process. We used to have a referral form that was even before the application. They were like, Get rid of that. And that already took off like 20 something days just right off the bat. Like that easy. We also had designated counselors at the time to determine eligibility, which had helped us get more consistent with our eligibility decisions. But they said we have a 4 lane highway and we need an 8 lane highway. We can't do it this way anymore. And so we moved away from that designated eligibility counselor model. And then they developed a process and they put time frames for each step like you have to do this within certain days and this within certain days. And it just helped reframe the pace at which we were taking all of these steps. And there were a whole bunch of other things. But those are some of the examples of what this team had recommended, and our commitment to the team was whatever you recommend, we're going to do. And so we did it. And over the years, we continued with a continuous improvement mindset. We started looking at different kinds of tools for tracking. We eliminated unnecessary assessments. I mean, we had people that were doing psych about us when we had a diagnosis just to figure out the functional limitations when the counselor can do an interview and figure out the functional limitations, right? So there's all kinds of things like this, and this really improved dramatically. And we have been at 23 1/2 days to eligibility for the last 4 fiscal years. And I'll tell you what I. Up for sure, during this pandemic, those numbers were going to go up. Our staff have just done a tremendous job with reducing these days to eligibility, and so all of these timeframes that reduce result in our being able to process cases quicker, get people to their employment goal quicker, which allows us then to have a space for the next person and serve more people. And this, like you mentioned, this was key in our eliminating our waiting lists. In 2014, we had been on order of selection for 25 years.   Carol: That's incredible. I mean, that is incredible.   Susan: Yeah, and in 2014, thanks to this and some other Lean processes, we were able to and we still are off of the order of selection.   Carol: I love that you talked about the data because, you know, it is a data driven world today, but you guys were looking at the data back when maybe not everybody was really looking at the data. So you're ahead of the curve. So WIOA wouldn't have thrown you as big of a curve ball when WIOA, as it did for maybe some other states, I think that's terrific. Now I know fast tracks another project that your agency is well known for. And in fact, it was the project that had me contacting you for more information. And then I found this really great treasure trove of all the cool things you were doing, and we have to talk about all of them, of course. So can you tell us about fast track?   Susan: Yeah, Fast Track was another result of a Kaizen that we did back in 2017. So this was implemented in April of 2017. And really the impetus was, you know, we'd have people come in and they didn't need as much. Maybe they'd worked before. Maybe they only needed something to help them save a job, you know, some equipment or something like that, and we had to take them through the whole thing every time. And our director said we need a fast like an express checkout at the grocery store sort of a thing so that people that are coming in that we can just quickly serve them and get them to their outcomes. And so we brought a team together to take a look at this. And they determined like if somebody needed three or fewer services or services that were likely to take no more than three months, they didn't need lots of assessments or things like that, then they would be a good candidate for this fast track. So we implemented it and they did a fantastic job. We were able to just really get people into a plan super quickly. But let me tell you what happened is that it really begs the question if we can do it quickly for people who are on this fast track, why can't we do that for everybody? And so it really kind of took us down a path with looking more now at time from plan to eligibility and the overall customer service, because we know when people come to see us, they are coming for us to get them a job in six months. They want to get them a job now or they want to get involved with training now. They don't want this long, convoluted process and complicated process. And so this was just a really great project that our field staff kind of designed and came up with. So last year, we had about 153 people use that fast track model. And I'll say that's kind of officially because our timeframes are so quick anymore that really a lot of people are getting rapidly into these jobs. So of those 153 last people, 105 of them are closed successfully. So we really have a strong success rate when we look at that model, which is really again about engaging rapidly people, they stay engaged. They get to that employment outcome at a greater percentage than individuals who were not so intensively moving forward as quickly.   Carol: I love that you're always like challenging your thinking and your processes and taking a look and like, All right, how does this apply to, you know, a different situation? I mean, if you think about how VR typically operates, if those folks that needed to come in and they really only needed like three months or less the services and they were waiting for eligibility, you know, 60 days and then you're going to do a plan in 90 days and maybe in six months, you get around to the first service gets provided or something. It's done like if they were going g to lose their job right, their job is gone. It's done. So this just plain makes smart business sense to do this.   Susan: Yeah.   Carol: So let's see, where do we go next? How about your IPS model and how those principles have leaked out to serving other populations?   Susan: Yeah. So this is another area of focus for us. We've enjoyed a wonderful partnership with our Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services for years and the IPS model individualized placement and support. It's a true evidence based practice model, and there are several different philosophies or aspects of the model things like rapid engagement, which we're talking about today. Open to everyone who wants to work, it's integrated with treatment, all of those things, and so the practice really measures fidelity to that model. We have really been working with mental health and addiction services. I'd say, I think over the last 15 years, but in particular, I'd say over the last 5 or 6, really good traction with implementing this model to improve our outcomes for individuals that we serve with severe and persistent mental illness. We've done some things like we've given accreditation waivers for mental health providers who deliver individualized placement and support models. We've established a supported employment services on our fee schedule that has a 25 percent enhancement in the rate over traditional job development rate that we did back in 2017, all to really help build capacity for this model. And IPS has been around for a long time. And I can remember 15 years ago this conversation, it just was really different. I think we had concerns in the VR system about some of these aspects of fidelity to the model at the time, when we talked about rapid engagement and we had all these processes, we're like, Yeah, that's not the way our system works, right? It's really open to everyone who wants to work. We would say, Yeah, but what about this situation? Are we really going to, you know, whatever? And I think we're just in a totally different place as a system now, and the language barrier between the two systems has been erased. So when they talk about zero exclusion, we're talking about a presumption to benefit. It's really the same concept. And I think as our system has evolved, we've been providing much better customer service to individuals with mental illness, and that has helped our partnership with mental health, which then in turn helped improve the outcomes for the people that we serve.   Carol: I love that, you know, a lot of times people forget to talk about customer service in government. You know, you think, Oh, like you can't have good customer service and government, but we can't afford to not have good customer service. I mean, as a system, when you look at all of the graphs like RSA will come to CSC and put up their graphs, what's happening nationally, you know, you see all these numbers tanking and people not getting into employment. We have to rethink like everyone has to rethink. And so it's exciting to listen to you because I think it will spark ideas and other folks as they're thinking about what they're doing in their own states. Now your state is an employment first state and we are as well in Minnesota. Can you tell me about your counselors working with the most significantly disabled population and being embedded in colleges? I know the stats say you are 4th from the bottom regarding median wages and what are you doing to move the needle on that?   Susan: Yes, we are in employment first state and we have a very robust employment first partnership agreement with our Department of Developmental Disabilities and yes, Minnesota Senate delegation years ago when we were early within that partnership to take a look at what we were doing. And you sent some of your VR staff and some of your partners also came to visit Ohio. That employment first partnership agreement with DOD started back in 2013 and really has been about helping people move from segregated settings into community employment. But in addition, we really recognize that we hadn't been serving individuals with disabilities who are going to college like we had many years ago, and there were part of that was being on order selection impacted that we have financial needs testing for training and a lot of the schools just kind of had written us off, to be honest with you. And we were serving some students, but not a lot. And so we have a program called Ohio College to Careers. This initiative was a part of our governor, Mike DeWine's vision for making Ohio a disability inclusion state and model employers for individuals with disabilities. When he came into office within literally minutes of taking his oath of office, he signed this executive order about this vision for services to individuals with disabilities in our state, which was wonderful. So as a part of the furtherance of that vision, we have Ohio college to careers and it embeds a counselor in the Disability Services Office or the career service officer. Kind of both. At 15, what started out is 15 Ohio State colleges and universities. So in 2019 we started at 15 colleges. 4 of those are 2 year schools and 11 of them are 4-year schools. And in 2021. Just this past year, we expanded to the two historical black colleges and universities in Ohio, Wilberforce and Central State. So now we have a total of 17 schools participating in this program, so it's a real, career focused model, we do obviously pay for students tuition and those investments are important for people with disabilities that we serve. But the most important thing that I think our counselors offer is that career focused model, how to help them get into internships, how to get the job placements once you're done with school, how to give you the technology that you need to be successful in your studies, the additional support and wraparound services, whether that be interview clothes or a computer or whatever those things are, that you need to be successful in your school. And when we talk to the colleges, that was something that they saw as missing, that they saw that sometimes their students with disabilities are the people that they had the most difficulty finding an internship placement for, and they welcomed our business relations staff. So this has in addition to our dedicated counselors, there are two career development specialists that focus on kind of the business relations end of the program. They do employer spotlights career education. They have an internship dashboard. They do specialized hiring events. All those things that really kind of just help those students achieve their career success. It's not going to do anybody any good to get a degree and then not actually achieve the employment that they were looking to obtain   Carol: Exclamation point on the end of that. So I know your kind of earlier on in this project, are you starting to see some like what's the data telling you about it?   Susan: Yeah, definitely. We see a broader array of employment goals that were helping people to achieve definitely higher wages, obviously with people that are getting those credentials, those degrees. And I think that's really kind of you'd mentioned median earnings. We did a great job of getting people into jobs, but we do really need to focus on increasing the wages and the hours and thusly the median earnings of the people that we serve. And so that's really about helping them attain credentials and degrees that are going to move them into those higher wage occupations.   Carol: When you're really living into the spirit of the whole WIOA process, really, I mean, that speaks exactly to what Congress is trying to do back in 2014. I think that's great. So switching gears again a little bit when you and I visited, you know, a month or so ago, there are so many intriguing things that you talked about, but one of them that has really piqued my interest was your team's work with a drug courts, and I really hadn't heard of anything like that. So why don't you tell us and the listeners a little more about that?   Susan: Yeah, this is another great program in partnership that we have achieved. Again, this is part of Governor DeWine's vision and was part of his budget in the last biennium. That kind of established this partnership with Recovery Ohio, our Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. The Supreme Court of Ohio is a big player with this because they manage all these specialty dockets and our Office of Workforce Transformation. And so we had a successful model that had been developed in our Butler County, where we had a dedicated counselor that worked as a member of that drug court team to assist that person in their recovery. And when that person was ready to get started with employment, they would engage our counselor and they would work to help them figure out what kind of job and help them get that job. And then eventually we added an internal job developer that really helped again with that rapid engagement. You know, we're right there as part of the team. We're engaging them rapidly when it's time and we're quickly getting them into employment and that helps support the individual's recovery. This was a real successful model, and one of our governors important initiatives is to really focus on recovery and substance use disorders. And so this was just a great fit for us to expand. So in 2018, we expanded. So this is called jobs for recovery, And so we expanded into 7 counties. And right now we're expanding further into an additional 8 counties. This has been just a great partnership. I think when we talk to the courts, they have lots of people on these teams to support people in their recovery and avoiding the criminal justice system, and this really helps them have a dedicated resource. This was like a gap that they had identified, and people need to get work. Work supports recovery, but they didn't have an expert on the team around employment, and that's what OOD really brings to the table. And so we use that rapid engagement model, we place them into employment. We also can do some of those extra services. Get them transportation that they need to job interviews or again, interview clothes or other things that they didn't have resources for in the past. So it really filled a gap. So this has been just a great program in Ohio and it's still in the kind of ramping up phase, and it's just been a really positive and highly successful model.   Carol: What a difference it makes when you have elected officials that are like putting investments into this area with employment and people with disabilities, it's pretty amazing. I mean, I kind of wonder then where do you guys think you would be if that hadn't happened, if you didn't have Governor DeWine that had some of these initiatives?   Susan: Yeah, you know, I think we really tried hard. We think of our participants as our customers, business partners, our employer partners, but also our state agency partners, our customers. And so we want to be a part of the solutions to help them reach their goals. So whether it's a drug court that needs to help people get into employment to support their recovery, whether it's a developmental disabilities agency that is trying to move people from segregated settings into community employment, we can be a part of that solution.   Carol: I love it. It's exciting. I like to follow you guys. I know I get regular updates through one of my colleagues, Kristine Johnson, who lives in Ohio and subscribes to newsletters and said she's always sending me things she's like. Read this This is like amazing the work that they're doing, so I'm going to switch again a little bit to the pandemic, of course. So the pandemic, I know it's been brutal on VR. And when you look at the numbers over the last two years, it's been really, really tough. However, your agency, again, you're engaged in jobs now. So what is that all about?   Susan: So this was another cousin back in September 2018, we did a cousin to improve our job and candidate sourcing model. We have now more than six hundred and 50 employer partners that we are actively working with. And what this is, is really kind of identifying high demand positions within our employer partners and we make a searchable list available. Then we establish a process for quickly getting a person into placement with that employer partner. So when I rewind years ago and I was a counselor, people would come and say, I just want a job now, and I would say, Well, that's not how it works. I don't have a bank of jobs. We have to do our process and we're going to do a good job so that we know it's a good fit and so on and so forth. And that's just malarkey. You know, if somebody comes in and says, I need a job now, we need to say we're going to get you a job now, and we have six hundred and fifty business partners that we work with. There's not a reason that we can't do that. And so that's really what this was about is how do we as quickly as possible do that match? Still, because that's what our business partners, our employer partners appreciate about working with us is we're going to do that screening, but renew it quickly so that the needs of the business partner are met and the needs of our participant. So initially, that was called job. Now we pivoted a little bit with this when the pandemic hit and we moved to an urgent hiring list because soon after we went home back in March of 2020…   Carol: eons ago!   Susan: yes, yes, we learned quickly from our employer partners that they had just some urgent needs to fill spot. And so we like to say don't ever waste a crisis. So we really moved in a different direction with that. And so we started publishing and doing active candidates sourcing for these urgent hiring needs of our employer partners. And so we moved into doing virtual hiring events to directly source these candidates. So at these hiring events, we're actually doing interviews with the employers for open positions that they are actively recruiting for. And this has been a great model. We've had some that have been for us. We've done them for specific employers statewide. We've done some around certain industries, we've done some targeted for specific groups. We tried doing one for transition students last year, for example. We're about to do our second work from home virtual hiring events that are just employers who have work from home opportunities that are people really can benefit from. So that has been kind of an evolution over the last 5 years or so of this candidate sourcing model that we've had, and we've been tremendously successful with that. In fact, while our numbers are down a little bit with applications, eligibility, new plans, our placements and closures are comparable to or better than pre-pandemic or last year's numbers, with placement really pleased with the work that our staff have been doing to do these virtual hiring events. And continue to place people in light of the pandemic.   Carol: I was going to ask that I'm glad you said that about your numbers because I was curious. I know a number of you, probably in just a cohort with a few that are experiencing good placement numbers. I know a lot of folks it's kind of taint the last two years, so that sounds pretty creative with the virtual hiring and the remote work from home. A lot of people are interested in that, and it really can take away some of those barriers that some of our customers face with transportation and all that. Hoo ha. Right. When you can work from home, which is incredible, I love it. So when you look back and you analyze the impact of all this work you've done. How have the numbers looked for your customers as you reflect back kind of on the value overall of all of these projects that you've worked on?   Susan: Well, number one, getting off of order of selection has been a game changer for us. That's never a good situation to have to sit across the desk for somebody and say, we can't help you. We know we could, but we can't. And so that has been just a huge deal for us. But as I mentioned earlier, we've been averaging 23 1/2 days to eligibility for the previous 4 fiscal years. And we've really seen with all of these things our time from eligibility to plan trending down over the last fou4 years or so ago, we've been from about 60 days to about 49 days. And so that also has been just a tremendous benefit, customer service wise to the people that we serve. I just mentioned our placement and closure numbers. Those have been really great. And so kind of our next steps within the organization is really just to focus on the quality of the employment outcomes that we're achieving the credentials, getting more people into credential programs so that we can help them kind of move out of poverty and increase those median earnings for the program.   Carol: So for our listeners out there, what would you recommend, Susan, as some, you know, tips from yourself as far as if somebody is looking and thinking, we need to do our processes differently, like where do you even start? You guys have been doing this now for over a dozen years, and you have a lot of good learning experiences under your belt. What advice would you give to others?   Susan: I think I mentioned a few minutes ago, but don't waste a crisis. A crisis can really spur innovation. I know, for example, we have been trying to get remote counseling going for years, and it just never took off. But now remote counseling has been going great. Our participants love it. That wouldn't have happened without this pandemic. And so that's just one example. But Lean really is a great tool. It can't make the decisions for you, but it can give you the tools for looking at data and doing the process improvement to help make the right decisions for our customers. Another thing I would mention is just really listening to the voice of the customer, and that's an important component or concept within lean processes. And really looking at things through the lens of that customer experience really helps build a system around the needs and the preferences of the people that we serve, which is critical to our success. And then I think really thinking of ourselves as a workforce agency, we're not necessarily as much of a social service agency and really kind of looking at these processes and how they can raise those bar of expectations for the people that we serve. It's a great tool.   Carol: So I'm sure that there's going to be folks that want to reach out to you for a little advice or some assistance. How would folks best contact you?   Susan: Yeah. So I would welcome a conversation with anyone who wants to talk more about this so you can reach me by email. Probably the best way, Susan, S U S A N dot Pugh at OOD.Ohio.Gov is my email. Yes, please reach out. You can also see my contact information on our website as well, if you would like to reach out.   Carol: I sure appreciate your time. This has been really exciting and I'm sure you're going to get some contacts. I really thank you for your time today and I really wish you much success and everything you're doing, and I definitely will circle back with you down the road as you keep creating new and groovy things that you're doing in Ohio.   Susan: Thanks much. Thank you. I appreciate the time to share the good news about what our staff is doing out there. It's been a great ride.   Speaker1: Conversations powered by VR, one manager at a time, one minute at a time, brought to you by the VR TAC for Quality Management. Catch all of our podcast episodes by subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening!

We are joined by team members from the New York Transit Museum in Brooklyn, NY. Jason Weiss has worked at the museum since 2015, he is an education associate now working the floor, meeting museum guests and more! Sarah Thompson is the Special Education and Access Manager, Jennifer Kalter is the Assistant Deputy Director for education and public programs. The museum has many NEW virtual offerings including: online events, adult & school programs, and parties. You can learn more about these changes and when to visit in person by tuning in or visiting: www.nytransitmuseum.org/  

Hosted by Mizterkool- Join us for this episode as Kool Discusses Tom Delonge, To The Stars academy, UFOs identified in America? UAPs? and much more. CIA releases the entire collection of UFO-related documents. More than three decades' worth of government UFO records are now available. The massive data dump includes more than 2,700 pages of UFO-related documents declassified by the CIA since the 1980s. (The U.S. government also calls them "unidentified aerial phenomena or UAP). According to The Black Vault — an online repository of UFO-related documents operated by author John Greenwald Jr. — the documents were obtained through a long string of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests filed over the last quarter-century. Over time, so many requests piled up that the CIA created a CD-ROM full of declassified documents, known as "The UFO collection." The documents cover dozens of incidents, including the 1976 account of the government's then-Assistant Deputy Director for Science & Technology being hand-delivered a mysterious piece of intelligence on a UFO, to the description of a mysterious midnight explosion in a small Russian town. "Although the CIA claims this is their 'entire' [declassified] collection, there may be no way to entirely verify that," Greenwald wrote in a statement on The Black Vault website. "Research by The Black Vault will continue to see if there are additional documents still uncovered within the CIA's holdings." The data dump arrives months before officials from the U.S. Department of Defense and intelligence agencies are due to appear before Congress and spill their guts on everything they know about UFOs, the New York Post reported. The former Blink-182 member is taking part in an upcoming six-part History Channel series, Unidentified: Inside America's UFO Investigation, which discusses the government's secret UFO program. The new 16-second promo features former military intelligence official Luis Elizondo, who, since his resignation, has joined DeLonge in his aerospace research company, To the Stars Academy of Arts and Sciences. “With this show, the real conversation can finally begin," DeLonge said in a statement, according to Radio.com. Visual Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21cdH1kk5W8 #podcasting #tomdelonge #blink182 #audio #network #content #aliens #ufo #trending #channelofkool #update

Brandon Butler, Assistant Deputy Director of the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, came to educate us about the many abuses that happen with agricultural workers and what their rights are. He encouraged the community to report abuse and your immigration status is not a barrier. Our colleagues from Labor Law are also available to support individuals who work in agricultural labor. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/rafael-vazquez7/support

Welcome to Accessible Housing Matters!   In today's episode, I welcome Branden Butler    Branden Butler is the Assistant Deputy Director of Education and Outreach for the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH). Prior to joining DFEH in 2019, Branden was the Senior Attorney of the Fair Housing Center of the Legal Aid Society of San Diego, Inc. (LASSD), where for nine years he was instrumental in creating the first fair housing services program at LASSD that provides education, outreach, testing, and enforcement of fair housing laws.  Branden began his career as a Housing Advocate at Communities Actively Living Independent and Free, a disability rights organization in downtown Los Angeles where he advocated for housing rights for persons with disabilities.    Listen to find out more about:   [00:01 - 04:20] Opening Segment I welcome Branden Butler to the Show Bio Branden talks about his work at California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH)   [04:21 - 12:21] Protecting your Housing Rights Housing Discrimination  Branden talks about housing discrimination complaints Fear of Retaliation and How to Deal with It Filing a Housing Discrimination Complaint Who is under the DFEH's jurisdiction? Federal Housing Act Branden shares a farmer's discriminatory experience   [12:22 - 20:19] Housing Discrimination Source of Income Discrimination Branden talks about lending cases Complaints from People with Disabilities and Housing  Harassment Prevention Guide for California Housing Providers Branden shares their impactful action on a disability harassment case Housing Discrimination Cases in 2019   [20:20 - 22:40] California's Department of Fair Employment & Housing DFEH is the place to go Continued Education for Housing Providers Our Work is a Push and Pull Branden talks about DFEH's resources in preventing housing discrimination   [22:41 - 27:40] The Next Step in Housing Discrimination “We are always here for you.” Housing Discrimination: How to Report and Ask for Assistance The Process of Filing a Complaint There is due process and mediation   [27:41 - 31:51] Closing Segment See links below to know more about Branden Butler Final word Tweetable Quote/s:   “Housing is so scarce, they don't want to lose their housing, they don't want to fight it.” - Branden Butler   “There's always gonna be that push and pull of having complete resources to do this.  That's why I focus on my job so much on prevention.” - Branden Butler   You can connect with Branden through visiting https://www.dfeh.ca.gov/keepcaliforniafair/ and find out more about protecting your housing rights.   To learn more, share feedback, or share guest ideas, please visit our website, or contact us on Facebook and Twitter.    Like what you've heard?  Please review us! That helps let other people know about the podcast. Accessible Housing Matters is dedicated to raising awareness about important issues around accessibility and housing, and getting conversations going. I'd love to learn more about what's on your mind, and get your feedback about the show. Contact me directly at stephen@accessiblehousingmatters.com to share your thoughts or arrange a call.

The pandemic has got some in a pinch.... SOme are unable to pay thier rent. The Consumer Service and Housing Agency of California announced the CA COVID-19 Rent Relief program for eligible households and landlords. COVID-19 has exposed the African American community's long history of housing instability and this program will provide much needed equitable assistance for our most vulnerable California communities that have been impacted. And so we lsit with Some housing professionals as we welcome Geoffrey Ross is Deputy Director of the Division of Financial Assistance – Federal Programs at the California Department of Housing and Community Development, where he has served as Assistant Deputy Director of Financial Assistance since 2020. Ross was Executive Director of the Sonoma County Community Development Commission from 2019 to 2020. He served in several positions at the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency from 2007 to 2018, including Assistant Director of Development and Federal Programs and Redevelopment Manager/Federal Programs Manager. He was an Administrative Analyst II at the Redevelopment Agency of the City of Pittsburg from 2006 to 2007 and was a Community Planning and Development Representative at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development from 2002 to 2006. Ross served in the U.S. Marine Corps as a Corporal from 1994 to 1998. He is a member of the California Association of Housing Authorities, National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials, National Community Development Association, the American Legion, Urban Land Institute, and the American Planning Association. He earned a Master of Planning degree in urban planning from the University of Southern California.A native Angeleno, Tunua Thrash-Ntuk is the Executive Director of Los Angeles Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LA LISC). She is a seasoned community and economic development practitioner of more than 15-years with both non-profit and private sector experiences. Her strengths range from community advocacy to asset and real estate development around neighborhood revitalization. She has already led a number of important urban initiatives in Los Angeles focused on affordable housing and commercial development as well as transit-oriented projects. Prior to joining LISC, Tunua served as Executive Director of West Angeles Community Development Corporation, during her tenure she was responsible for the asset management and oversight of the WACDC real estate portfolio valued at $150 million. Tunua led the growth of WACDC's real estate portfolio, in part by brokering a breakthrough in the development, construction and opening of West Angeles Plaza, a 24,000 square foot commercial office project.Tunua was named LA's 2021 Impact Makers to Watch by Stratiscope and received the Wells Fargo Diversity, Inclusion and Equity Award by Los Angeles Business Journal. She serves as a board member or advisory board member to many entities

In the latest episode of Nerd Out, Dave and his merry band of nerdies, Bridget, Travis, and Joe, look at the latest news around the reopening and what organizations need to be on guard for as crowd sizes and capacity limits will test the ongoing health pandemic. Then the group looks at the way threat actors may respond. Will it be a target of opportunity or will new security measures be disruptive enough. Next, the panel looked at recent protests, and the potential for future protests (did people really forget about May Day!) and what ways they may change in a reopened world. Finally, what is the future of conspiracy theories and the movements that were charged over the past several years? The group then lightened it up a bit and went through some lightning round questions and discovered that the Snyder Cut really isn't a thing because no one particularly cared for it in the first place to even know it was a thing. Dave Pounder is a Senior Risk Analyst for Gate. Twitter: @dpounder; email: david@gate15.global Joe Levy is the chairman of the International Associate of Venue Managers (IAVM) Venue Safety and Security Committee. In addition, Joe is the Chief Operating Officer at the Usdan Center for the Creative & Performing Arts. IAVM website https://www.iavm.org/ Venue Safety and Security committee contact information: vssc@iavm.org; LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelevy1/ Travis Moran is the Assistant Deputy Director, Critical Infrastructure Protection & Physical Security. Twitter: @dronin_on; email: tmoran@securecommunitynetwork.org Bridget Johnson is the Managing Editor for Homeland Security Today. In addition her contributions on Homeland Security Today (hstoday.us), they are also running a series of webinars (Webinar signups, https://www.eventbrite.com/e/le-only-anti-government-extremists-who-they-are-how-to-combat-them-tickets-144507635227?aff=ebdsoporgprofile). Twitter: @BridgetCJ

In the latest episode of Nerd Out, it was a five star day for Dave. First, you can hear him open up with his "Warrrrshington" versus President's Day poll (did you see what I did there), followed by the group getting into a discussion about behaviors and indicators of hostile events related to recent arrests and incidents in Singapore, Norway, and Minnesota, and the role that mental health plays a role into it. The team then looks at reporting such instances, before getting into the Florida Water breach and the ramifications as it highlights the various ways blended threats can have an impact to organizations. Unfortunately a real-time weather event prevented the group from getting into their lightning round (no pun intended considering the weather event), but not before Bridget was able to share her true feelings for a certain seven time Super Bowl winning quarterback. Joe Levy is the chairman of the International Associate of Venue Managers (IAVM) Venue Safety and Security Committee. In addition, Joe is the Chief Operating Officer at the Usdan Center for the Creative & Performing Arts. IAVM website https://www.iavm.org/ Venue Safety and Security committee contact information: vssc@iavm.org; LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelevy1/   Travis Moran is the Assistant Deputy Director, Critical Infrastructure Protection & Physical Security. Twitter: @dronin_on; email: tmoran@securecommunitynetwork.org   Bridget Johnson is the Managing Editor for Homeland Security Today. In addition her contributions on Homeland Security Today (hstoday.us), they are also running a series of webinars (Webinar signups, https://www.eventbrite.com/o/homeland-security-today-30028526516). Twitter: @BridgetCJ

In episode 36, Justin Haan interviews Mr. Robert Richer, currently a senior partner at International Advisory Partners. Mr. Richer served for over 40 years in the national security apparatus as a Marine officer and in the CIA. He retired in 2004 as the Assistant Deputy Director of Operations for the CIA after 20 years in the national clandestine service. Mr. Richer has been an advisor to every President since Ronald Reagan and remains actively engaged in the formulation and execution of US foreign policy in the Middle East. Connect with him here on LinkedIn.

In the latest Nerd Out podcast, Bridget, Joe and Travis join Dave to discuss the continued fallout from the 06 January events at Capitol Hill and what it means post-Inauguration. Here's a hint, we still need to be prepared for domestic terror groups and how they may spin events for their benefit. The group then looks at what 06 January means from a security perspective moving forward and what lessons can be learned.  Joe Levy is the chairman of the International Associate of Venue Managers (IAVM) Venue Safety and Security Committee. In addition, Joe is the Chief Operating Officer at the Usdan Center for the Creative & Performing Arts. IAVM website https://www.iavm.org/ Venue Safety and Security committee contact information: vssc@iavm.org; LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelevy1/  Travis Moran is the Assistant Deputy Director, Critical Infrastructure Protection & Physical Security. Twitter: @dronin_on; email: tmoran@securecommunitynetwork.org  Bridget Johnson is the Managing Editor for Homeland Security Today. In addition her contributions on Homeland Security Today (hstoday.us), they are also running a series of webinars (Webinar signups, https://www.eventbrite.com/o/homeland-security-today-30028526516). Twitter: @BridgetCJ

In this year end Nerd Out Security Panel Discussion podcast, the gang takes a look at the events of 2020 and the impacts they had on individuals and organizations and attempted to pull out lessons to be learned as we get ready to kick off 2021. But before digging into the topics, Bridget shared some personal news related to the impacts of COVID. The group then built upon Bridget's moving account and discussed that while COVID obviously dominated the news, there were other security issues that caused disruptions and may have gone overlooked - or maybe not. The discussion then took a detour and went into some lighter, jovial discussions around food choices around the perfect holiday meal, the team passes out some security resolutions and reminders to focus on in the hope of starting 2021 on a better foot. Thanks to all the listeners and followers - 2020 gave us the opportunity to kick off this podcast channel and we look to keep security at the forefront of these discussions in 2021 and beyond! Happy holidays! Bridget's article can be found here: https://www.hstoday.us/subject-matter-areas/emergency-preparedness/my-mom-died-of-covid-19-and-disinformation-was-the-virus-accomplice/ Joe Levy is the chairman of the International Associate of Venue Managers (IAVM) Venue Safety and Security Committee. IAVM website https://www.iavm.org/ Venue Safety and Security committee contact information: vssc@iavm.org; LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelevy1/ Travis Moran is the Assistant Deputy Director, Critical Infrastructure Protection & Physical Security. Twitter: @dronin_on; email: tmoran@securecommunitynetwork.org Bridget Johnson is the Managing Editor for Homeland Security Today. In addition her contributions on Homeland Security Today (hstoday.us), they are also running a series of webinars (Webinar signups, https://www.eventbrite.com/o/homeland-security-today-30028526516). Twitter: @BridgetCJ

This week's guests are Jennifer Kalter and Sarah Thompson from the New York Transit Museum!  The museum is located in Brooklyn, NY and was founded by transit workers in the 1970's. Jennifer is the Assistant Deputy Director for Education & Public Programs. Sarah is the Special Education and ACCESS Coordinator.  The museum offers many different programs dedicated to honoring the strengths of people with disabilities. One in particular - Subway Sleuths - is a program that uses shared interest in trains among grade school students on the autism spectrum as a means to encourage social interaction between peers. Tune in to learn more! Visit https://www.nytransitmuseum.org/ for more information.

The Road Home has a bonus interview for you this week, which adds some context to the full-length episode we released last week. The bonus interviews are intended to give further insights from the experts, hear more in-depth about funding sources, clarify any questions you all may have about the method for implementation, and draw more of a direct connection between the feature developments and NCHVs long-standing community-level efforts. In this week's bonus interview, we continue our discussion on Permanent Supportive housing in Arizona. We are joined by Jeanne Redondo, the Rental Programs Administrator, and Ruby Dhillon-Williams, the Assistant Deputy Director of Housing & Community Development for the Arizona Department of Housing. *Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your pods. It means a great date to the show and it will make it easier for potential listeners to find us.* Thanks! Search #NCHV on social media to find us and email us here at info@nchv.org.

Every resident in long-term care is entitled to quality, individualized care. But what does quality care look like? What are the warning signs of poor care? What red flags should you be looking for in a facility? And what can you do when you see them? Join us for a conversation with Eden Ruiz-Lopez, Assistant Deputy Director at the National Center on Elder Abuse, as we discuss putting a stop to poor care and how to advocate for the quality care guaranteed to all residents under federal and state law.

Christopher was born in Hollywood Fl. Christopher graduated from Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina, where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Education, and then later matriculated to South Carolina State University, where he earned his Master of Science Degree Individual and Family Development and masters in Professional School Counselor. He is employed at Bamberg Job Corps Center as the Assistant Deputy Director, where he makes an impact on the lives of youth ages 16-24. Recognizing that his job is not the only venue in which he can contribute to the success of young people all over, he is actively involved in the community, where he continues to have a positive impact on the lives of young adults from all walks of life. He is the youth minister at Victory Tabernacle; Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, in Orangeburg SC. Christopher is a member of the Delta Zeta Lambda Chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated and a member of the Orangeburg Branch of the NAACP. He served on the board of directors for Bamberg County First Steps, Bamberg County Chambers of Commerce, and Lower Savannah Council of Government. He was featured on the SC Educational TV website as an American Graduate Champion, featured on WACH FOX News, ABC Augusta, and the Wall Street Journal, the edition of Who 's Who among Executive and Professionals and Sheen Magazine. Christopher is a facilitator, speaker, community activist, and youth panel member for various churches and community centers for the State of South Carolina; concentrating on topics geared toward the positive growth and development of young adults. Christopher is the founder of Open-Mind Mentoring, a non-profit organization, which gives him the opportunity to further mentor and positively influence the lives of young people. He is a community activist, a community organizer and philanthropist. He has organized and hosted many events geared towards the development of youth in the community. He has partnered with many agencies to help build and motivate the lives of young adults. Christopher is the author of a book in titles “Mentoring At Its Best, Stories of young men who triumphed over adversity” and co-author of a book in titles, “20 Courageous Men, True stories of triumph, hope and the audacity to succeed”. Christopher is married to Sabrina Green and they have one beautiful daughter, Harper Christian Green. https://www.openmind-mentoring.org

Show Notes: On this episode of The GOHSEP Get A Game Plan Podcast, we speak to Kevin James, the newly appointed Assistant Deputy Director of Homeland Security and Interoperability for GOHSEP. He will examine some of the improvements being made in the state's cyber security and emergency communications fields. We also speak with East Baton Rouge Emergency Preparedness Director Clay Rives. He will update us on the ongoing recovery efforts following the 2016 flood and explain how Baton Rouge is taking a new approach to emergency response and recovery in the future.

This CSIS podcast series, funded by FireEye, interviews cybersecurity experts from different sectors to explore the effectiveness of cyber red lines and the different roles the government and private sectors have in cybersecurity policy. John Nagengast is Director of Government Solutions at AT&T. Prior to joining AT&T he worked for the National Security Agency for almost 38 years. At NSA he held several senior positions including Principal Director of Corporate Strategy and Assistant Deputy Director for Information Security. In 1987 he was appointed as a member of the Senior Executive Service.