Innovative Approaches to Disaster Response

Speakers

• Jeffery Marino

  Director, Office of Data and Innovation, Government of California

  United States

• Cristóbal Mena

  Former Deputy Director of the National Emergency Office of Chile

  Chile

• Dr. Nicole Dawkins-Wright

  Director, Emergency, Disaster Management & Special Services, Government of Jamaica

  Jamaica

• Jeffery Marino, Jeffery Marino was appointed Director of the California Office of Data and Innovation in January 2024. He began his state service in April 2020, working as a volunteer on the COVID-19 Data Insights Working Group, playing a pivotal role in developing a digital engagement program that increased the equitable delivery of the COVID-19 vaccine to underserved communities. He was hired as ODI’s Deputy Director for Service Innovation, leading the UX Design and Engineering practice, and was most recently Deputy Director of Strategy, overseeing government and legislative affairs teams, as well as communications and ODI’s training division, CalAcademy. Jeffery’s team at ODI is focused on enabling statewide innovation through human-centered design, driving data-driven decision making, and upskilling the state workforce in the skills they need to provide equitable and exceptional services to all Californians.

• Cristóbal Mena, is a leading voice in disaster risk reduction, emergency management, and international development, bringing over a decade of experience. His work is driven by the conviction that disasters are not natural events, but a direct outcome of human decisions that shape the resilience and sustainability of our communities. Cristóbal strongly advocates for the use of innovation and proper risk communication to foster resilient societies. His career includes pivotal roles such as Deputy National Director at the Chilean National Emergency Office (ONEMI) and his current capacity as a Senior Disaster Risk Management Consultant for international organizations, including the World Bank and the private sector. Through these positions, he has consistently delivered, spearheading strategic planning and implementing transformative policies for effective risk governance, such as the law for Chile's national disaster risk management system.

• Dr. Nicole Dawkins-Wright, Dr. Nicole Dawkins-Wright was appointed as the Director for Emergency, Disaster Management and Special Services in the Ministry of Health & Wellness, Jamaica in 2018. She has been a public servant since completing formal education as a Specialist in Emergency Medicine in 2003. She began her career in public health as a practising Emergency Physician in a rural regional hospital that included the responsibility for Disaster Management Activities for the hospital, while also participating as a national trainer for emergency responders in resuscitation skills, incident command systems, mass casualty management and emergency operations centre management. Since then, disaster management has been a progressively increasing area of responsibility as a Practitioner in Public Health. She therefore has over twenty years of experience in Disaster Management in the Health and Public Sectors, from the perspective of facility and local operations to managing the disaster risk management programme at the policy level in the Ministry of Health & Wellness, which includes steering the health sector’s response to climate change, and now directing the Emergency and Disaster Management programme that includes being the National Health Disaster Coordinator. She has had this latter responsibility when the country dealt with the COVID19 pandemic and that was preceded by an atypical protracted dengue outbreak, as well as the recent passage of the Hurricane Beryl that devastated the southern part of Jamaica in 2024. Attaining and manifesting Resilience in the Health System is the key goal driving her commitment to continue working in this field in the face of increasing challenges.