Pre-Conference Speaker Bios

Rick Emery is president, Emery & Associates, Inc. He specializes in response training and consulting for municipal, government and industrial concerns in North America and overseas. He has over 43 years experience in fire and emergency response. Rick retired from the fire service in 1993 as a career Fire Captain, including 10+ years as Coordinator of the Lake County Hazardous Materials Response Team. He validated as a Subject Matter Expert for the DoD Domestic Preparedness Training Program in 1997, instructed in the FBI’s hazmat training program and the Center for Domestic Preparedness. Rick is a principle member of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Technical Committee on Hazardous Materials Response and a member of the International Association of Fire Chiefs Hazardous Materials Committee. He is a member of the Department of Homeland Security’s Stakeholder Panel on Agent Detection Assays (SPADA) to develop performance criteria for methods for the detection and identification of biological threat agents. Rick received the prestigious “Level A” award from the International Association of Fire Chiefs in 2012 for having made significant contributions to the hazardous materials emergency response profession, and was presented with the Level A award at the Hot Zone in 2013.

Gregory Socks is Captain (Ret), Montgomery County MD Fire & Rescue Services. He served as a Fire Fighter, Sergeant, Lieutenant, and Captain. His staff assignments included Hazardous Materials Training Officer, Station Commander, Hazardous Materials Officer, and Shift Commander. Greg began his fire service career in 1977 in the National Capital Region of Suburban Maryland. He holds a degree in Fire Science Technology. He was a lead hazardous materials instructor at Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Academy. Greg has presented Hazardous Materials programs to municipal, industrial and military clients throughout the country. He retired with over 33 years of service. Greg has served on numerous State of Maryland committees and focus groups for new technology. Greg has also assisted with the development of Hazardous Materials training programs.

Barry Lindley is a Senior Emergency Response Specialist with the DuPont Company in Belle, WV. He is a NBFSPQ Hazardous Materials Technician, Branch Officer, and Branch Safety Officer. He is a NBFSPQ Fire Instructor Level I and II and has been a DuPont HAZMAT Responder since 1985 and Instructor since 1988. Barry is a Member of NFPA 472 Committee and has worked on IFSTA's Hazardous Materials publications.

Precon#3 - New Technologies for Hazmat Response and Training

Dr. Christina Baxter is the Program Manager for the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosives (CBRNE) subgroup at the Technical Support Working Group (TSWG).  TSWG is a program element within DoD’s Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office (CTTSO).  The TSWG CBRNE subgroup works closely with the interagency user community from all levels of Government and with various international partners to provide timely solutions in the areas of CBRN attribution, protection, detection, consequence management and information resources. She is currently the chairperson of the NFPA Hazardous Materials Protective Clothing and Equipment Technical Committee and a member of the NFPA Technical Correlating Committee on Fire and Emergency Services Protective Clothing and Equipment, the NFPA Technical Committee on Hazardous Materials Response Personnel and the ASTM International Technical Committee on Protective Clothing (F23).  Christina is also a member of the InterAgency Board for Equipment Standardization and Interoperability.  She has over 19 years of Fire and Hazmat experience.