skip to main content

Instructor Biographies


NDPTC's cadre of instructors are of the highest caliber, very well-respected in their fields and disciplines. Many have advanced degrees in science, engineering, planning, and architecture, and years of practical experience as leaders within their field of expertise.

Click on an alpha to filter by last name:

Photo of Barker, David

David Barker

David Barker has served with the Idaho Falls Police Department since 1992; was certified to serve as a Law Enforcement Officer (LEO) at the Idaho Falls Regional Airport from 2008 to 2019, and currently serves as the Department’s Logistics Officer, Training Coordinator, Quartermaster, and UAS Assistant Team Lead. David has been involved with radio control (R/C) model aircraft and a member of the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) for over 30 years and has served as President of the Red Baron R/C Modelers, a local R/C aviation club. In 2010 David began researching UAS technology for use in public safety, and their related regulations, and once officially approved, worked to build the department's UAS program from the ground up. David is a certified instructor for Idaho Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST), focusing on UAS, is an FAA certified Remote Pilot, is TOP Operator Level-1 certified by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, serves on the UAS Technical Advisory Committee for Idaho State University, is an instructor for FEMA’s AWR-345: UAS in Disaster Management course, as administered by the National Disaster Preparedness Training Center (NDPTC) at the University of Hawaii, is a Technical Advisor for DRONERESPONDERS, an instructor for DARTdrones, serves as the Administrator of the Idaho Public Safety UAS Council, is a Steering Committee Member for the Law Enforcement Drone Association (LEDA), and most recently, became an FAA Safety Team (FAASTeam) Representative and Drone Pro.

Photo of Bobel, John

John Bobel

Currently, Bobel serves as a Public Information Officer with the Division of Emergency Management in Lexington, Kentucky. He handles day-to-day public information duties for the division, including social media outreach. Bobel serves as a member of the ten-county Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP) public affairs team which manages education, information and emergency response public information for the CSEPP program. Prior to joining government service, John Bobel worked in broadcast and on-line journalism and public affairs. His career extended through every aspect of news, broadcast station operations, media relations, emergency and conventional public information and social media systems. He was Managing Partner of MediaVentures – a national communications consulting firm. His clients included CNN, Faith and Values Media and Blue Grass Airport. He also served as the Manager of Program Operations for the Massachusetts Corporation for Educational Telecommunications (MCET) where he upgraded program production standards, techniques and overall operations. Bobel was Vice-President and News Director of WKYT-TV, supervising the day-to-day newsgathering efforts and long-term planning for the news department. Prior to WKYT-TV, Bobel was an account executive for McHugh and Hoffman, Inc. As a broadcast news consultant, he has worked with television stations and other broadcasting companies to improve their editorial content, market position and image. Bobel has worked in television newsrooms in Indianapolis, Boston, Baltimore and Denver. He is co-founder of KCOU-FM and founder and President/ CEO of Travelago, a streaming video and information provider to the Internet travel industry. Bobel graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

Photo of Bogart, Thomas

Thomas Bogart

Thomas Bogart was the Fire Chief/Emergency Management Director of the Lynnfield, MA Fire Department. Thomas served thirty years in the fire service. Bogart graduated from the United States Fire Administration's Executive Fire Officer Program at the National Fire Academy and received his EFO designation in 2011. He holds the Chief Fire Officer Professional Designation from the Center for Public Safety Excellence's Commission on Professional Credentialing. He was chosen to be a Member of the prestigious Institute of Fire Engineers, he is allowed to use the honorific post-nominal subscript of MIFireE. Bogart was also credentialed as Fire Chief by the Massachusetts Fire Service Commission.

Thomas has the following degrees: • Master of Arts- Fire Science and Administration, Anna Maria College • Bachelor of Science- Fire Science Administration, Salem State University • Associate of Science- Fire Protection and Safety Technology, North Shore Community College

Bogart graduated from the Donohue Institute of the University of Massachusetts’ Chief Fire Officer Management Training Program.

Thomas taught and served on the Instructional Staff of the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy for over twenty years. He is an Instructor for the U. S. Fire Administration’s National Fire Academy. He is an Adjunct Faculty member of Bunker Hill Community College, North Shore Community College, and Anna Maria College. He is a former President of the Massachusetts Institute of Fire Department Instructors.

Chief Bogart is a member of the International Association of Fire Chiefs/Federal Emergency Management Incident Management Response “Go Team” representing FEMA Region I.

Photo of Borchardt, Lenora

Lenora Borchardt

Lenora G. Borchardt is the owner/founder of EPTEC Inc., an emergency management (EM) consulting firm in Sun Prairie (WI). She first became interested in EM when, as a young child, Hurricane Eloise forced her family to spend several nights in a Niceville (FL) school gymnasium. Ms. Borchardt built an EM career from the bottom-up starting as an EMT and firefighter. She progressed to a position in security/emergency preparedness at Meriter Hospital (WI) while finishing her BA in Geography (Physical Geography-Climatology; People/Environment Interactions) and a certificate in Environmental Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Ms. Borchardt led Radiological Emergency Preparedness at Wisconsin Emergency Management while completing her MBA and a Graduate Certificate in School Safety from Colorado State University. Ms. Borchardt was also the EM Director of Adams County, WI. In 2003, she opened EPTEC, Inc., which afforded opportunities to work more closely with public and private sector agencies. Ms. Borchardt is experienced in all the mission areas, having participated in response and recovery efforts for several federally-declared disasters. She is a FEMA Master Exercise Practitioner (MEP) and an accomplished preparedness practitioner who regularly instructs FEMA courses as an Adjunct Instructor at the Emergency Management Institute (MD). She has written numerous state and local-level emergency operations and hazard mitigation plans and regularly works exercises on various topics across the United States and internationally for all levels of public and private agencies. Ms. Borchardt is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Homeland Security/EM Department at Pierce College (WA).

Photo of Bothwell, Phillip

Phillip Bothwell

Dr. Phillip Bothwell is a meteorologist with over 37 years of experience in the National Weather Service. He worked at the National Severe Storms Laboratory as well as local and regional Weather Service Offices. The last 25 years of his work with the NWS was as Senior Development Meteorologist for the Storm Prediction Center. Phillip developed new computer applications used in forecasting for severe weather, winter weather and fire weather, and periodically conducted training on forecasting techniques. In addition, he worked the SPC forecasting desks. This included issuing forecasts for severe and other hazardous weather across the lower 48 states.

His degrees are from the University of Oklahoma. Before his retirement from the SPC, Phillip’s work included using and evaluating a wide variety of the computer forecast models, satellite and radar systems and numerous other observing systems used by forecasters. He also assisted in incorporating this data into the computer workstations used by the meteorologists. He has been heavily involved with the major lightning observing systems in the U.S. and has developed techniques for the prediction of lightning including authoring and lecturing on articles related to lightning.

Since retiring, Phillip has continued his interest in following daily weather events. He returned part time to the National Severe Storms Laboratory to assist in a study of lightning and satellite data related to severe weather. He also enjoys interacting with students and other instructors in a variety of FEMA classes.

Photo of Buehner, Ted

Ted Buehner

Ted Buehner retired from the National Weather Service (NWS) after a more than 40 year career from 1977 to 2018. His last position for 23 years was as the NWS Seattle Warning Coordination Meteorologist, a key customer liaison position, providing decision support services in working toward enhancing the “end-to-end” forecast and warning system by more closely tying the agency's mission of protecting lives and property, and enhancing the region’s economy, with its partners and customers, such as emergency managers, the media, and the marine community.

Now in retirement, he continues these efforts to make a difference in helping protect his community through various local committees such as the Washington State Emergency Communications Committee (Vice-Chair), and the Partners in Emergency Preparedness Conference Committee. He also works with Emergency Management Group – Washington, who supported the 2018 Special Olympics USA Games in Seattle and Seafair events with pre-event exercises and operating in the EOC in a weather support role.

In addition, he works with the two Everett radio stations doing commute time traffic and weather, sports reporting, and producing weather minute Podcasts. He also volunteers with Snohomish County DEM and is also a licensed amateur radio operator with the Snohomish County ACS. His TornadoTed business permits him to assist other organizations with training, exercises, and other activities.

Ted has a Bachelors of Science degree in Atmospheric Sciences from Oregon State University. Go Beavs!

Photo of Bujak, David

David Bujak

David "Dave" Bujak, CEM, MPA serves as a Senior Planner in emergency management. He is a Certified Emergency Manager (CEM) by the International Association of Emergency Managers. With over 25 years of experience as a professional emergency management practitioner, Dave has served in healthcare (Akron Children's Hospital, University of Rochester Medicine / Strong Memorial Hospital), higher education (University of Rochester, Florida State University), state government (Florida Division of Emergency Management), local government (Confidential IEM Client) and non-governmental organizations (American Red Cross, Samaritan's Purse, Lakeshore Community Church). Dave is considered a subject matter expert in severe weather (hurricanes, floods, wildfires, severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, wind storms and winter storms), emergency notification and warning, safety technology and innovation, evacuation and risk sheltering (building, campus and regional), and standards (Emergency Management Accreditation Program and The Joint Commission). Dave is a certified National Weather Service Skywarn Spotter, StormReady supporter, Weather Ready Nation Ambassador, and CoCoRaHS observer. Dave received his graduate certificate in Project Management from Cornell University, Masters of Public Administration from Florida State University and Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Dave has been an active NDPTC instructor since 2016.

Photo of Burdiss, Marc

Marc Burdiss

Marc Burdiss CEM MEP M.Ed serves as the President of Preparedness Solutions, Inc. He specializes in helping others prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies and disasters every day through exercises and consulting. He routinely meets with local, state, federal, and tribal emergency managers to train, plan, and exercise for emergencies. Marc has earned the International Association of Emergency Manager’s designation as a Certified Emergency Manager (CEM). Mr. Burdiss is also recognized as a FEMA Master Exercise Practitioner (MEP) and has experience designing and facilitating exercises ranging from county, state, and federal level, to military and Major League Baseball exercises. Prior to starting his own consulting company, Marc worked as the Director of Emergency Management for Northern Arizona University. He has served as the Director of Homeland Security and Emergency Management for Shelby County, Ohio as well as one of eight Field Liaisons for the Ohio Emergency Management Agency. Mr. Burdiss has a Bachelor’s degree in Emergency Management and Planning and a Master of Education in Educational Leadership.