The NAPSG Foundation is governed by a Board of Directors. The Board meets in-person approximately twice per year and meets virtually once per fiscal quarter. The Board is responsible for making important decisions about the operations and strategic direction of the Foundation.
Executive Board of Directors
The Executive Board is composed of the primary officers responsible for providing oversight and high level leadership in all aspects of the organization.
Keith Richter - Chairman
(Fire Chief, Orange County Fire Authority)
Keith Richter currently is the Fire Chief for Orange County, California. Prior to joining the Orange County Fire Authority in 2009, Chief Richter was the Fire Chief for the Contra Costa Fire District for 11 years. He has more than 30 years of experience in the fire service. His career started with the Tucson Fire Department in 1977 as a firefighter. He is also the past President of the Metropolitan Fire Chiefs Association. Richter has a Masters of Science degree in Fire Administration and is a graduate of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.
Rand Napoli – Vice-Chairman
(Florida State Fire Marshal ret.)
Rand Napoli is the former Director of the Florida State Fire Marshal’s Office. He has more 36 years of operational command and administrative experience in fire protection, emergency medical services, hazardous-materials response, domestic security, arson investigations and emergency management. He is a co-author of the Florida Statewide Fire-Rescue Emergency Response Plan and for over 10 years was Florida’s Emergency Coordinating Officer for fire and search and rescue disaster response. Napoli has served as a Governor’s appointee on the Florida State Emergency Response Commission for Hazardous Materials, as a member of Florida’s Domestic Security Oversight Board and on the Florida Violent Crime and Drug Control Commission. Napoli was assigned command of Florida’s initial emergency response in support of the State of Mississippi following Hurricane Katrina. This response numbered over 6,000 Florida professionals over the duration of the mission.
Paul Brooks – Treasurer
(Executive Director, Center for Public Safety Excellence)
In 2008 Paul Brooks became the Executive Director for the Center for Public Safety Excellence (CPSE) in Chantilly, VA – a public charity organized under Section 501 (C)(3) of the IRS code. He previously managed the CPSE Office of Strategic Planning and Information Systems. And during his more than 34 year career, he has held positions in every division and section of CPSE. In addition to serving as Chairperson of the Commission on Fire Accreditation International, he has been a member of CPSE/CFAI technical working groups for Categories & Criteria, Hazard Risk and Value Analysis & Standards of Response Cover, and Technical Advisement, as well as being a member of the faculty for CPSE training courses. Brooks formerly served as an Assistant Fire Chief with the Greensboro, NC Fire Department – among the first five accredited departments in 1997 and the thirteenth fire department in the nation to receive a Class 1 ISO rating.
Clark Kimerer – Secretary
(Deputy Chief of Police, Seattle Police Department)
Clark is the chief of staff and second-in-command of the Seattle Police Department in Washington state. A twenty-five-year veteran, Chief Kimerer oversees all administrative functions of the department, including the 911 Communications Center, Training, Finance/Budget, Human Resources, and Information Technology, and is director of the City of Seattle Emergency Operations Center. Chief Kimerer was planning commander and Seattle point-of-contact for TOPOFF 2 and a subject matter expert and mentor for TOPOFF 3. He serves as an instructor and subject matter expert at various universities and professional institutions in the United States and Great Britain, is part of the Naval Postgraduate School’s Urban Area Mobile Education Team (MET), and participates in numerous project and analysis teams covering a broad range of public safety and homeland defense issues for DOJ, DHS, and the intelligence community. Chief Kimerer holds a bachelor degree in classics and liberal arts from St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland, and has completed postgraduate and professional certification work at various institutions, including the Harvard Negotiation Program at Harvard Law School. He is also a graduate of the National Executive Institute.
Directors
Charles Werner – Fire Chief, Charlottesville Fire Department (Virginia)
Charles Werner is a 34 year veteran of the volunteer and career fire rescue service. He celebrated his 30th year with the Charlottesville VA Fire Department and presently serves as its fire chief. Charles serves on the Virginia's Statewide Interoperability Executive Committee (first and former 2 term chairman), the International Association of Fire Chief's (IAFC) Communications Committee, and the Digital Problem Working Group Chair. He serves on the Charlottesville-Albemarle-University of Virginia Emergency Communications Center Management Board. Chief Werner serves as the SAFECOM Executive Committee Chair which serves in an advisory nature to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on national communications and interoperability issues. He is also the Co-Chair of the DHS Virtual USA GIS Working Group. Chief Werner is a nationally published author with over 70 published articles. He is the only three time recipient of the Virginia Governor's Award for Fire Service Excellence. In August, 2008, Chief Werner was selected as the Fire Chief Magazine National Career Fire Chief of the Year. In November 2008, Chief Werner was awarded the Richard DeMello Award by the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council.
Manny Rios – Senior Vice President, P&C Underwriting, USAA Insurance
Manny Rios joined United Services Automobile Association (USAA) in June 2007 as the senior vice president and chief underwriter for P&C Underwriting. He leads a team of professionals who develop insurance policies and coverages to meet the unique needs of the USAA membership. Stewards of the association, these professionals help keep USAA financially sound and help members protect their families and property from threats to personal safety and livelihood.
Rios has 24 years of property-casualty experience. Prior to joining USAA, he spent eight years as the vice president of underwriting and marketing for the Homesite Insurance Group, a startup company based in Boston, Massachusetts. In October 2006, Rios won the Best Effusion Award for best in class underwriting and pricing. Homesite is now the 40th largest writer of homeowners' premiums countrywide. Rios began his insurance career at the Allstate Insurance Company, where he spent 14 years in various leadership roles.
Rios has a bachelor of arts in business administration from the Benedictine College and is currently pursuing his master's degree at the University of the Incarnate Word. He served in the Army National Guard and ROTC. Rios also serves on the board of the San Antonio Opera and on the board of the Respite House.
Chris Diller - Geospatial Coordinator, Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs (Wisconsin)
Chris Diller is the Geospatial Coordinator for the Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs, home to the Wisconsin National Guard and Wisconsin Emergency Management. For over eight years he has overseen and coordinated the department’s mapping activities including support for the State Emergency Operation Center and National Guard Joint Operation Center. Chris is responsible for overseeing all IT-related functions of GIS. He has been active in Wisconsin geospatial activities for the past 18 years which involves ongoing coordination with Federal, state, local and tribal government agencies. Chris has been an active member of the National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC), lead the activities of their geospatial Preparedness Committed, and served on its Board of Directors from 2009 until 2011. He is a graduated from the University of Wisconsin – LaCrosse with a Bachelor of Science degree in Geography.
Romano De Simone - Director Hazardous Material System, CSX Transportation Inc.
Romano has thirty two years experience in the Railroad Industry. He started his career with Consolidated Rail Corporation working in Freight Damage Prevention then served in the Automotive Service Group and latter in the Hazardous Material Field Services department. In his present role, Romano manages the Hazardous Material Field Services team providing regulatory compliance, emergency management, training and education and customer and community outreach programs.
Romano is Chairman of the American Association of Railroads, Bureau of Explosives Hazardous Materials Steering Committee and is a certified Operation Lifesaver® presenter. Romano enjoys volunteering and communicating transportation safety for railroad tracks and trains.
Jim Bueermann, ret. Chief of Police, Redlands Police Department (California)
Jim Bueermann joined the Redlands (CA) Police Department in 1978, serving in every sworn capacity before being promoted to Chief of Police and Director of Recreation, Housing and Senior Services in 1998. He served as Chief until his retirement in June 2011. He is currently an Executive Fellow at the US Department of Justice and a Senior Fellow at George Mason University' Center For Evidence Based Crime Policy.
Jim sits on the advisory boards of the Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy (CEBCP) at George Mason University, Cambridge University’s Police Executive Programme, and the Prisoner Reentry Institute of John Jay College in New York City. He also serves as a member of the Strategic Resource Group advisory committee of the US Department of Homeland Security’s Virtual USA. He is also one of five national technical review team members for the US Department of Justice’s study “Advancing Knowledge and Practice in Policing: A Longitudinal Platform for National Research.” He is also a charter member of the Society of Police Futurist International and has done extensive work in the use of GIS in policing, public education, community analysis, risk and protective factor analysis and other broad applications throughout the criminal justice system.
He holds a dual-bachelor’s degree from California State University at San Bernardino and a master’s degree from the University of Redlands. He is also a graduate of the FBI’s National Academy (NA) and its Law Enforcement Executive Development Symposium (LEEDS) in Quantico, Virginia and the California Command College.
In 2007, he was named an Honorary Fellow of the Academy of Experimental Criminology. In 2009, he was the first inductee into CEBCP's Evidence-Based Policing Hall of Fame. Also in 2009, Jim was admitted to the first class of the California State University College of Social and Behavioral Sciences' Hall of Fame.
