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EAD Core Members
Elizabeth A. Davis
 Elizabeth Davis 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 an accomplished public speaker with a reputation for creative solution development, Ms. Davis is considered one of the nation’s “go-to” sources for emergency management and special needs issues. Her firm was responsible to get rapid assessment teams on the ground in four Gulf States after Katrina and provide an immediate action report for the federal authorities regarding immediate health and special needs impacts. This team model for communicating special needs information during a disaster is now being replicated across many federal agencies.
Ms. Davis grew up in San Francisco but now resides in Brooklyn with her husband and two young daughters where she remains active in community affairs.
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Rebecca Hansen, MSW
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).
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Jennifer Mincin, MPA, PhD Candidate
Jennifer Mincin is currently a Senior Project Manager and Consultant with EAD & Associates, LLC and has over 14 years of experience in disaster human services, emergency management, government and the non-profit sector. In addition to her strong, professional background, Jennifer has two degrees from Columbia University including a master’s in public policy and is currently a doctoral candidate at the Graduate Center City University of New York with a focus in social policy, vulnerable populations, and disaster human services. She is also an Adjunct Professor in the master’s program at Hunter College School of Social Work.
At EAD & Associates, LLC, Jennifer works nationally and internationally on projects regarding special needs, disaster human services, community rebuilding, recovery, and general emergency management and crisis issues. In her field she has developed and conducted several training sessions for public health and emergency management professionals as well as having served on a select special needs advisory group to The Road Home recovery program in New Orleans. Jennifer was 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. Additional client’s include: Department of Homeland Security, Department of Health and Human Services, Federal Emergency Management Agency, HUD/The Road Home Program in Louisiana (Post-Katrina recovery and housing program), Washington DC Capital Region (COG), and state and local governments. Jennifer has also served as Interim Executive Director of Families of September 11, Deputy Commissioner/Director of Human Services and Public Relations at Nassau County Office of Emergency Management, and was Manager for Project Liberty in New York City during 9/11.
While serving as Executive Director of FOS11, Jennifer had operational oversight of communications, media relations, policy and education initiatives, program development and implementation, fundraising, and staff management as well as advocating for the needs of victims on national policy issues. During her tenure at Nassau County as Deputy Commissioner, Jennifer was responsible for developing human services plans and response systems before, during and after a disaster, plan development and program implementation, network building, and responding in the field. Accomplishments included the establishment of one of the strongest and first-ever community-based response programs in New York State, the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), with currently over 600 active volunteers, as well as the co-development of the first-ever Long Island Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (LI VOAD) that included a 55-agency coalition.
During the September 11th federal response, Jennifer served as a Manager for Project Liberty and FEMA Humans Services Specialist. At Project Liberty, she had direct oversight and management of mental health agencies in Queens, Manhattan, citywide disability, and providers for uniformed services and their families. She served as the primary liaison for the disability community and uniform services (FDNY, NYPD, PAPD). Jennifer directly supervised multi-million dollar contracts, administrative rollout of the citywide disaster mental health program, technical and programmatic assistance, and on-going analysis of community needs specifically within the disability and uniform services community. Jennifer was also was assigned to the New York City Office of Emergency Management (OEM) as a Human Services and Special Needs Specialist focusing on special needs, mental health, and immigrant concerns. She liaised between federal, state, and local agencies as well as other disaster human services organizations.
Jennifer has also been an Assistant HIV Counselor at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York and Senior Policy Analyst at the New York City Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities. She has several certifications and awards including from FEMA. In recent years, Jennifer has spoken nationally and internationally at over 30 different conferences, provided trainings and workshops, and has published in the area of special needs and emergency management.
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