Elizabeth, the founder of NEMRC, is an emergency management consultant specializing in Special Needs planning, disaster human services and related issues through her firm EAD & Associates, LLC in New York. 

Ms. Davis received her JD from Boston University School of Law and her EdM from Boston University School of Education with a degree in the Socio-Bicultural Study of Deafness and American Sign Language. She holds an undergraduate degree with a major in Sociology and a minor in Political Science from Barnard College at Columbia University.

After many years as an advocate in the disability community, she began public service after law school with the NYC Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities as Assistant to Counsel and Senior Policy Advisor. Due to her role as Incident Commander in the Deaf Mexican Nationals slave-ring case in Queens, she was transferred to the NYC Office of Emergency Management as Special Needs Advisor. There she was responsible for ensuring that all elements of planning, response and recovery incorporated the unique needs of the disability community, senior population, and medically dependent persons. She functioned in this capacity overseeing the Board of Education Y2K planning; planning for city-wide sheltering operations; coordinating transit strike/disruption responses; coordinating the public information lines during the West Nile virus outbreaks and throughout the events of September 11th.

Ms. Davis now consults for public jurisdictions and agencies, private businesses, home based care agencies, residential health care organizations. She retired as the first Director of the National Organization on Disability's Emergency Preparedness Initiative but remains an advisor to DHS and FEMA, sits on several national advisory boards, has been a court appointed subject matter expert, participates in many major conferences and web forums and has had materials published on the subject of Special Needs emergency preparedness and is a guest instructor to several emergency management graduate programs in addition to the recipient of several awards and commendations. Ms. Davis is the co-chair of the National Hurricane Conference Health Care/Special Needs Committee, chair of the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) Special Needs Committee, and served a two-year term as appointed chair of the FCC's CAC Homeland Security Committee, is an appointed member of the FEMA National Advisory Council's Special Needs Subcommittee, to list a few active roles she maintains. 

As a Senior Project Manager and consultant for EAD & Associates, Ms. Hansen works nationwide with clients including governments, non-profits and private entities. Her professional emphasis is the integration of special needs and human services issues into emergency management standards, planning and practices. In her field she has developed and conducted several training sessions for public health and emergency management professionals. During the response and recovery phases of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in Louisiana Ms. Hansen worked as a subject matter expert on one of four Rapid Assessment Teams deployed by a national disability organization. She presently serves on a select special needs advisory group to The Road Home, Louisiana's housing recovery program. Ms. Hansen was recently selected as an instructor with the CUNY Graduate Center, a partner with NYC OEM, to carry out coastal storm training to NYC employees to prepare them for leadership roles in evacuation centers and hurricane shelters.
 
From 2000-2003 Ms. Hansen served as the Assistant Director of Government Relations for the Greater New York American Red Cross (ARC) and as their primary disaster planner and liaison to the New York City Office of Emergency Management. In that role, directly working with NYC OEM, she helped lead the initial and long-term human services response to the World Trade Center terrorist attack including assisting with sheltering, food provision, service coordination, outreach, and other aspects of the complex response system. She collaborated with government and non-profit organizations in disaster preparedness and planning activities to address critical human needs issues. At ARC Ms. Hansen managed and trained a team of 20 volunteers to respond to the ARC, OEM, NYPD, or other Emergency Operations Centers activated within the ARC jurisdiction prior to, during, or after disasters. In addition she initiated activities to increase membership, develop infrastructure, and increase response capability of member organizations, as vice chair for the New York City Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (NYC VOAD).

Prior to the American Red Cross Ms. Hansen worked for the New York City Office of Emergency Management for three years. Her responsibilities included assisting with the development of the NYC Sheltering plan; coordination of human services activities during activation of New York City's Emergency Operations Center; development and facilitation of interagency workshops, classes, table-top and full-scale exercises to test existing disaster plans, agency roles and resource allocation and management (topics included human services disaster response, Y2K planning and response, the Coastal Storm Plan, and the Emergency Operations Center information management tool); management of the NYC Emergency Hotline; planning activities relating to the NYC Water Disruption Plan, the NYC Heat Plan and the NYC Coastal Storm Plan; and, serving as the lead emergency manager for Y2K contingency planning with the Department of Environmental Protection, the Department of Information Telecommunication and Technology and the Administration for Children's Services.
 
Ms. Hansen received a Bachelors of English from the University at Albany and earned a Masters degree in Social Work from the Hunter College School of Social Work. She is affiliated with the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) and the National Association of Social Workers (NASW).

Kelly Rouba was only 19 years old when she was thrown into the fast-paced world of news reporting. While still in college, Ms. Rouba took a position as a stringer for the Trenton Times, marking the start of her career in professional writing.
 
Ms. Rouba, who has juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, recently authored a book called Juvenile Arthritis: The Ultimate Teen Guide, which is being published by Scarecrow Press. For the past few years, she has written for numerous magazines and Web sites. In addition, she is co-producer of mobilewomen.org and a member of the site's Advisory Committee.
 
Presently, Ms. Rouba is working full-time for EAD & Associates, an emergency management consultancy. She is also a DAE with the Dept. of Homeland Security/FEMA Region II. In the past, she has handled emergency preparedness issues relating to special needs populations for the region. She also sat on the NJ Special Needs Advisory Panel.
 
Recently, Ms. Rouba had the pleasure of working for Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein. She also worked for the Pennington Post as an editorial assistant, and she handled public relations projects for Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital at Hamilton and Deutsch Communications Group in Princeton on a freelance basis.
 
Ms. Rouba is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors. She is also a member of the Event Media Committee for the Disability Pride & Power (Presidential) Inaugural Ball. Throughout her career, she has interviewed numerous notable personalities ranging from Dr. Ruth Westheimer (psychosexual therapist) to Duane Chapman (Dog the Bounty Hunter) to Elisabeth Hasselbeck (The View). In 2006, she was honored by the State of New Jersey's Department of Labor for her outstanding work ethic and success in the workplace as a local journalist and woman with a disability.

Ms. Rouba is a 2008 Governor's Volunteerism Award recipient. In 2008, she was also named the first "Ag Femme" by Ag Apparel and a "Superstar" by CreakyJoints.org for her achievements. Ms. Rouba is a member of Project Freedom's Board of Trustees and Hamilton Township's Advisory Commission on the Status of Women. For several years, she has been the public relations chair for both the Central New Jersey Kappa Delta Alumnae Association and the Kappa Delta Chapter Advisory Board at The College of New Jersey. And, she has also assisted with public relations for the Granville Academy, which has schools worldwide.
 
In addition, Ms. Rouba is a member of the Arthritis National Research Foundation's Advisory Board. She also has been publicity chair and a key organizer of the Arthritis Foundation's Mercer County Arthritis Walk for three years and the Middlesex County Arthritis Walk for one year. At last year's walk, Assemblywoman Greenstein presented Ms. Rouba with a proclamation recognizing her community service efforts and role as a journalist.
 
In the past, Ms. Rouba was publicity chair of the Trenton St. Patrick's Day Parade & Scholarship Committee for several years. In 2007, she served on the planning committee for the NJ Governor's Conference on Employment for People with Disabilities and was chair of the public relations sub-committee. She also served as emcee and a panelist at the conference.
 
From December 2006 through February 2008, Ms. Rouba held the title of Ms. Wheelchair New Jersey. She has also served as state program coordinator. To date, Ms. Rouba has been featured in numerous publications and television programs, from NJN News to Live With Regis & Kelly. She was also interviewed on ABC's Perspective New Jersey, WZBN News, and Disaboom Radio. In addition, she was featured in two commercials and has modeled for Ag Apparel. Presently, Ms. Rouba is being filmed by Agency New Jersey for two documentaries, and she is hosting and writing for a new NJ-based television show called Breaking Barriers.
 
Ms. Rouba earned her BA from The College of New Jersey in 2002, where she majored in Journalism/Professional Writing and minored in Communications.