After a serving in myriad of roles in both government and industry emergency response, Billy joined EMSI in 2015 and currently serves as our Vice President of Operations. His responsibilities include marketing and business development, oversight of service delivery, client relations, and management of the subject matter expert cadre, IMT Gear, and the EMSI All-Hazards IMT.

Prior to joining EMSI, Billy spent almost a decade with Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU)/Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) as a Senior Operations Planner where he managed preparedness and incident management projects for the Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration’s (DOE/NNSA). This included training development and delivery, exercise support, policy and procedures development, and response. As the subject matter expert on all issues related to incident management, Billy coordinated ICS and incident management training. Well versed in the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP), he designed realistic exercises that evaluated NIMS principles, such as command and management (ICS and MACS), to improve DOE/NNSA responses, while responding to real-world incidents and special events with DOE/NNSA.

Preceding his work with DOE/NNSA, Billy worked at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) National Integration Center (NIC) during the initial roll of out of National Incident Management System (NIMS). An integral part of the NIC, Billy assisted in the national implementation of NIMS, advising local, state, federal, tribal, private sector, and non-governmental stakeholders on NIMS adoption and implementation.

A field operator at heart, Billy started his career in emergency management as a firefighter and emergency medical technician in New York and Virginia. Since then, he has responded to incidents of every level around the world. Significant incidents include the Northeast Power Outage in 2003 (New York), Station Fire in 2009 (California), Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 (Gulf Coast, USA) and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident in 2012 (Japan). As part of the U.S Government response to the Fukushima Daiichi incident in Japan, Billy earned awards including the Department of Energy Secretarial Honor Award and the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Agency for International Development Meritorious Award. Following his experience at the Deepwater Horizon and Fukushima Daiichi incidents, Billy authored a paper on the complexities of both incidents, compared to domestic nuclear or radiological incidents. He has also lectured on the topic to a wide range of audiences including the National Radiological Emergency Preparedness Conference (NREP) and the Health Physics Society (HPS).

Billy is still active in the nuclear/radiological response community. As a contributor to the FEMA Radiological Operations Support Specialist (ROSS) program, he has served as a primary author for all three ROSS job aids. Billy has also worked with the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP), contributing to NCRP Report 179 – Guidance for Emergency Response Dosimetry.

Billy holds a Masters of Public Policy from George Mason University and a Bachelors of Arts (dual majors of Public Policy and Economics) from Hamilton College. He is a certified NFPA Fire Instructor II, NIMS/ICS instructor, and a HSEEP instructor. He also holds ICS qualifications as a Resources Unit Leader and Situation Unit Leader.