Bill Ahrens, BSBA
Senior Account Manager, Cannon Cochran Management Services, Inc. (CCMSI)
Bill is a senior account manager with CCMSI and has 33 years of experience in the insurance industry. In his career, Bill has worked in technical claim roles as an adjuster, claim supervisor and claim manager. He was also a member of CCMSI's Corporate Claim Committee for 14 years. This select group is comprised of claim experts who are responsible for technical direction and development of CCMSI's corporate claim best practices as well as acting as a technical liaison to various levels of management. For the last seven years, Bill has served as an account manager. This position is ultimately responsible for all aspects of the relationship between CCMSI and its clients.
Tiffany Allen, ARM-P, PS-MESH
Senior Territory Manager, Travelers
Tiffany has worked in the risk and insurance field for 33 years. She credits her understanding of insurance and risk management to her early career experience as an underwriter and more recent 14 year adventure in risk management for multiple government agencies in North Carolina. In 2014, Tiffany left her county family and joined an insurance family. From 2014-2020, Tiffany served as a senior risk control consultant for public sector services. Tiffany now serves as the territory manager for public sector services in the mid-Atlantic region. During Tiffany’s public sector career, she’s seen firsthand what a difference a robust fleet safety program can have on an organization’s experience.
Randy Anderson, CSP
Independent Training Consultant, E3 Professional Trainers
Randy Anderson is co-founder of E3 Professional Trainers, a Texas-based training firm that provides customized training, keynote presentations and personal coaching. The goal of E3 is to help people become more engaged in their work, be better equipped to do their job and feel empowered to live a more fulfilling life that will count for something after they’re gone. Before starting E3 in 2005, Randy spent 20 years in sales and sales management. Most of that time was spent in media sales, which gave him the opportunity to work with virtually every type of business and in every industry. His clients included small businesses as well as large corporations, and were spread all across the United States. It is from that experience that he draws the ideas and strategies to help his clients improve their performance in the workplace and to achieve their maximum potential in life.
Fernando Branco, MD, FAAPM&R
Chief Medical Officer, Midwest Employers Casualty
Fernando is chief medical officer at Midwest Employers Casualty (MEC), a Berkley Company. He has over 30 years of experience in clinical practice and is board certified in physical medicine and rehabilitation, pain and addiction medicine. He is the former medical director of a multi-disciplinary rehabilitation pain center for treatment of chronic pain cases – a center of excellence recognized by the American Pain Society. In his current role at MEC, Dr. Branco leads a team of medical management consultants handling complex workers’ compensation claims with the goal of helping employers and injured workers achieve better outcomes.
John Chino, ARM-P, ARM-E, CSRM
Area Senior Vice President, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.
John is enjoyed 40 years in the industry, all with Gallagher and has spent nearly his entire career in the public sector. He currently serves self-insured pools and large sophisticated self-insured public agencies. In addition, he is on the advisory board for the USC Risk Management Minor Program and frequently serves as a guest lecturer. John is a member of the faculty of the National Alliance of Insurance Education and Research where he teaches the Certified Scholastic Risk Management Program (CSRM). He is a course instructor for The Institutes and helps students to pass ARM exams.
Dean Coughenour, ARM
Risk Manager, City of Flagstaff, AZ (Ret.)
Dean is the retired risk manager for the City of Flagstaff, AZ and directed their risk management department. He oversaw a comprehensive risk and safety program that included reducing risk factors and grass-root integration of the risk management decision matrix, safety, insurance, litigation management, workers' compensation, training and facility inspection programs. Dean has over 30 years' experience in proactive risk management and has served on various boards and associations, including Arizona Risk Retention Board and City of Scottsdale Loss Trust Fund Board. He is also a past board member of PERI (Public Entity Risk Institute), past lost trust fund board chair for the City of Scottsdale, AZ, past president of PRIMA National and has held various other community leadership positions. He is a frequent speaker on risk management topics both at national and local conferences. Dean serves on PRIMA's national speakers bureau and is a champion for risk management and the employment of the risk management decision matrix in day-to-day operations of public sector entities through effective consulting.
Tina D’Andrea, RN, BSN, MBA, CCM, MSCC
Medical Management Consultant, Midwest Employers Casualty
Tina is a certified case manager and Medicare set-aside certified consultant. She has over 25 years of experience in workers’ compensation case management, including experience providing telephonic case management for employers, physicians and attorneys. In her current role, Tina offers a unique perspective to the identification and management of high-risk workers’ compensation cases and helps develop ways to achieve the best resolution possible for both the injured worker and their employer.
Kristin Danner, CSP
Former Corporate Safety Manager, City of Kansas City, MO
Kristin is the former corporate safety manager for the City of Kansas City. She spear-headed
the implementation as well as the continued maintenance of the city's telematics program.
Terri Evans
Vice President, Employer Advisory Services
Terri spent most of her career with the City of Kingsport, starting in 1984 and joining the Risk Management department in 1986. While with the city, Terri performed all risk functions within the department including benefits, self-funded health insurance, on-site wellness center installation/management, self-funded workers’ compensation, pooled liability with a large self-insured retention, and safety programs and training. Terri was promoted to risk manager in January, 2001. On June 1, 2020, Terri joined Employer Advisory Services (EAS) as vice president.
Terri proudly served as the 2016-17 President of Public Risk Management Association – PRIMA - and served as the national conference planning chairperson for PRIMA-Houston 2015. Terri served as co-Chair of PRIMA Institute in 2018 and 2019. She has also been involved in the leadership of the Tennessee Chapter of PRIMA, serving as Vice-President, President, Director and conference planning committee member since 2006. Terri received the TN-PRIMA Risk Manager of the Year award in 2012 and the Abbie Hudgens Distinguished Service Award in 2016.
Michael Fann, ARM-P, MBA
President/CEO, Public Entity Partners
Michael has more than 30 years’ experience in providing risk management consulting and training for local governments, school systems, universities, state governments, and associations. He is a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University (Finance & Political Science) and Ole Miss (MBA - Management). He has participated in international public risk management exchanges with colleagues from the United Kingdom, China and Australia. Michael is a former two-time member of the board of directors of the PRIMA, and formerly served (2013-2016) on the board of directors of the Public Entity Risk Institute (PERI). In 2020, Fann was the inaugural recipient of PRIMA's Pioneer Excellence Award. Further, in 2019, he was conferred with the honor of "Fellow in Professional Practice" by the University of Tennessee's Master of Public Policy & Administration (MPPA) Program "to recognize accomplished & experienced professionals whose careers exhibit the highest standards of performance excellence…" by a vote of the MPPA faculty. In 2014, he was presented with PRIMA's highest honor as only the 11th recipient of its Distinguished Service Award. He has also received TnPRIMA's Abbie Hudgens Distinguished Service Award (2012), and the Southeast Loss Control (SELC) Group's Distinguished Service Award (2016).
Temo Garcia
Assistant Vice President & Team Leader, E&O/Cyber Broking, Aon
Temo is an assistant vice president and team leader within Aon’s Cyber Solutions Group, part of the Commercial Risk Solutions team located in Chicago. Prior to joining Aon in 2018, Temo served as an underwriter/broker within the wholesale division of Arthur J. Gallagher, leading the Chicago Binding team, handling property and casualty risks with underwriting authority from multiple carriers. He began his insurance career in 2006 as an account manager at Brown & Brown Insurance in El Paso, TX, transitioning later to an account executive, and then commercial marketing leader for the San Antonio and Austin markets.
In addition to his broking duties, Temo is a national chair of an Aon Business Resource Group. He dedicates time to working with colleagues within Aon’s Apprenticeship Program, and took part in Chicago United’s Corporate Inclusion Institute, completing the program as part of Cohort IV.
Dorothy Gjerdrum, ARM-P
Senior Managing Director, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.
Dorothy joined Gallagher in 1999. For the ten years prior to joining Gallagher, she was a risk manager of a county pool in New Mexico. Dorothy has been an ERM champion since 2003 and an international expert, established author, editor, trainer and curriculum adviser. In 2022, she organized and led the first multi-sector symposium on SAM and authored the symposium report Transforming the Trend - Preventing Child Sex Abuse.
Lori Gray
Assistant Director of Finance for Risk & Wellness Services, Prince William County, VA
Lori has over 30 years of risk management, safety and loss control experience. As risk manager for the county for over 22 years, Lori has succeeded at building an outstanding risk and wellness program from scratch after the entity had previously outsourced the function. She oversees the administration and management of the Prince William Self-Insurance Group (PWSIG) and is chairman of the board of trustees for the PWSIG. Through her successful strategies and risk control techniques, the PWSIG has recognized dividend payments totaling over $20,000,000. During her tenure, Lori has implemented 22 award-winning programs recognized by PRIMA, National Association of Counties (NACo) and the Virginia Association of Counties (VACo). Before joining Prince William County in 1999, Lori was with the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA).
Lori holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Old Dominion University. She is currently a member of Risk and Insurance Management Society, Inc. (RIMS) and serves on the PRIMA and PERI board of directors. She was recognized as PRIMA’s Risk Manager of the Year in 2008 and Business Insurance’s Risk Manager of the Year in 2013.
Shannon Gunderman, CPCU, ARM, AIS, CWCP
Executive Director/Senior Consultant, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.
Shannon is an executive director and senior consultant at Arthur J. Gallagher, where he divides his time between enterprise risk management consulting and Gallagher’s public sector & K-12 education practice. Shannon has over 22 years of risk management experience. His areas of expertise include project management, enterprise risk management, process improvement, predictive analytics, strategic planning, data analytics and visualization, litigation support, safety and HIPAA compliance, and claim management.
Prior to joining Gallagher, Shannon served as the administrative services director for Yuma County, AZ, where he managed the county’s property, liability, unemployment and workers’ compensation insurance programs. He also designed the county’s award-winning enterprise risk management program using ISO 31000. The ground-breaking initiative involved leading and managing the project, conducting workshops, drafting training materials and forms, communicating with elected officials and employees at all organizational levels, and integrating the program with the county’s strategic planning and budgeting processes.
As a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt practitioner, Shannon has led several process improvement projects in the areas of administrative records management, customer service and the criminal justice system. His efforts identified significant programmatic inefficiencies and resulted in the implementation of several improvement plans.
Shannon is a certified public manager through Arizona State University and holds the CPCU, ARM, AIC and CWCP designations.
Geoffrey R. Jones, Esq.
Senior Claims Counsel, Midwest Employers Casualty
Geoffrey is a senior claims counsel for Midwest Employers Casualty, where he has worked throughout the United States for the past 12 years providing claims/legal oversight and recommendations. Geoffrey has had a positive impact on an assortment of challenging catastrophic and presumptive claims. One of Geoffrey's strongest assets is his ability to mitigate and resolve high exposure claims, which has led to millions of dollars in savings. In that capacity, he has handled mediation/settlements in over 30 states. When not settling claims or aiding the management of catastrophic cases, Geoffrey may be found working with MEC's advanced analytics unit and clients to ensure positive outcomes.
Amy Larson, Esq.
Risk & Litigation Manager, City of Bloomington, MN
Amy has been the risk manager for the City of Bloomington, MN for more than 23 years, including the past 13 years as the risk and litigation manager. She is responsible for the overall planning, management, administration, organization and coordination of the city’s risk management program; review and negotiation of city contracts; and litigation management. Amy is a licensed attorney in the state of Minnesota and a frequent presenter for many national PRIMA events, including PRIMA Institute, the national conference and speaker's bureau. Amy is the current chair of the PRIMA Institute and has been actively involved with PRIMA Institute since 2013. She also served on the national PRIMA board of directors from 2012-2019, including serving as the national PRIMA president from 2017-2018, and serving as a member of the Public Entity Risk Institute (PERI) Board of Directors from 2012-2017. Amy is also very active in the Minnesota chapter of PRIMA and currently serves as its past president.
Tracie Lemus
Medical Management Consultant, Midwest Employers Casualty
Tracie has over 25 years of experience in workers' compensation case management, including experience providing telephonic case management for employers, physicians and attorneys. In her current role, Tracie provides a unique perspective on the identification and management of high-risk workers' compensation cases and helps develop ways to achieve the best resolution possible for both the injured employee and their employer.
Mark Morgan
President, Sherrill Morgan
In his 30 years at Sherrill Morgan, Mark has accumulated a wealth of experience in establishing and managing employee benefit plans. As the founder of Sherrill Morgan's group health division, he paved the way in developing a systematic approach to healthcare benefits for governmental clients and has personally managed over 150 of them. He is a licensed agent and consultant and, per Sherrill Morgan policy, is up to date on the latest healthcare rules and regulations. Understanding that an innovative approach is necessary to stay ahead in the healthcare industry, Mark has helped Sherrill Morgan develop its partial self-funding division which allows employers (especially government agencies) to have a measure of control over their healthcare costs. Mark is a leading proponent for transparency in healthcare costs and is regularly invited to speak at human resource conventions on health benefits and health care reform. Mark is also an active community supporter, having served on the B]boards of numerous organizations including Kids Helping Kids, the Steinford Toy Foundation and Kentucky Health Purchasing.
Jess Osborne
Attorney, Bullard Law
Jess is a shareholder at Bullard Law, a boutique management-side labor and employment firm based in Portland, OR. She represents private, public, and non-profit organizations in relation to employment and labor law matters. Jess has extensive experience litigating issues in both administrative and judicial proceedings. Jess also advises on clients on a myriad of issues, including compliance with employment law statutes, organizational change challenges and guiding employers through organized workforce questions.
Carleen C. Patterson, ARM-P, CIC, ARM
First Vice President & Practice Leader, Alliant Insurance Services, Inc.
Carleen joined the Alliant Insurance Services team in 2020. Carleen is the national public entity and higher education practice leader. She works with higher education and public entity clients across the United States providing insurance brokerage and risk management expertise. Carleen’s expertise includes the design and negotiation of client insurance programs, evaluation and analysis of alternative risk transfer plans including captive plans, risk management evaluations, and the creation of complex property risk and insurance programs. She has been in the insurance industry since 1988. Prior to Alliant, Carleen served in a similar role for a large, international broker. She has risk management, claims, and insurance brokerage experience; and has spent the last 21 years specializing in self-insurance and insurance brokerage and consulting for higher education institutions as well as large public entity clients. Her expertise is in the design and implementation of large property and casualty insurance programs. Carleen earned her BS in Education from the University of South Dakota. She is licensed as an insurance agent/producer in many other states and holds the Associate in Risk Management, Associate in Risk Management for Public Entities, Certified Insurance Counselor and Certified Risk Manager designations.
Mark Pew
Provost & Founding Partner, WorkCompCollege.com
Mark is an award-winning international speaker, author and jurisdictional advisor in workers' compensation. He has focused on the intersection of chronic pain and appropriate treatment since 2003. Mark created "Qualified Medical Intervention" that won a 2012 Business Insurance Innovation Award, received WorkCompCentral's Magna Comp Laude award in 2016, IAIABC's Samuel Gompers Award in 2017, named "Top 100 Healthcare Leader" by IFAH in 2021 and received the Health 2.0 Outstanding Leadership award in 2022. He is co-founder of The Transitions and is on the advisory boards of Simple Therapy, Harvard MedTech and Goldfinch Health.
Courtney Ramirez
Senior Vice President, Alliant Insurance Services, Inc.
Courtney joined Alliant in 2006 and her expertise is in the public entity sector. She has been heavily involved in finding solutions to address some of the unique needs of many of Alliant’s public entity clients. This includes establishing a platform to control costs for state lottery agencies and developing the Alliant Deadly Weapons Response Program (ADRWP) for active shooter coverage. Courtney works with public agencies across the nation including state risks, cities, counties, airports, transit agencies, K-12 and higher education institutions. Courtney enjoys educating others and is proficient in reading contracts and providing recommendations for insurance requirements to mitigate risk for her clients.
Courtney received a Bachelor of Science degree in business management and leadership and has earned her Associates in Risk Management (ARM), Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC) and Certified Insurance Services Representative (CISR) designations. Courtney was named Power Broker by Risk & Insurance Magazine for the public entity sector in February 2020 and a Rising Star by Risk & Insurance Magazine in May 2020.
Patty Reinecke, RN, BSN, CCM, MSCC
Director of Client Consults and TPA Relationships, Midwest Employers Casualty
Patty has over 28 years’ experience in the workers’ compensation industry. She provides a unique healthcare perspective to identify high-risk claims early and develop solutions that help employers and injured workers achieve better outcomes. In her current role, Patty works to ensure quality claim handling within the MEC Claims Department and as a liaison to facilitate positive working relationships with partners and claim administrators.
Amy Robinson
Partner and Chair of Employment Labor Relations Team, Miller Nash
Amy is a partner and chair of the employment and labor relations team at Miller Nash. In this role, she represents public and private employers throughout Washington, Oregon and Alaska in a range of legal issues and compliance challenges that span the entire employment life cycle from hiring to separation. This includes employee classification, employment agreements, policies and handbooks, wage-and-hour issues, employee leaves and protected absences, workplace accommodations, discrimination, retaliation, and harassment prevention. Her clients range from small businesses with a single location to large employers with multiple locations in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
Matt Simmons
Director, Public Sector and K-12 Education, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.
Matt is responsible for providing risk management and insurance brokerage services to municipalities, counties and K-12 school districts. As the Georgia director of the practice group, he is charged with business development, client service and strategic planning throughout the state. Working with clients to reduce their total cost of risk, Matt leverages the Core360 platform to not only provide comprehensive and competitive insurance brokerage options but also to bolster, develop or transform impactful risk management programs for his clients. With his breadth of knowledge of risks throughout the state, Matt is able to leverage understandings of immunity, client experience and similar programs to customize his approach for the client.
Matt has experience in roles ranging from client service to brokerage. In addition to his role as practice director, he also works specifically with risk management accounts on cyber risk consulting. In the ever changing landscape, he works with clients to bolster their cyber security programs to protect against intrusion and to position each account as strongly as possible for underwriter reviews.
Margaret Spence
Founder, The Inclusion Learning Lab
Margaret has been a transformational keynote speaker, author, business strategist and visionary for over two decades. She is known for her ability to help businesses achieve their goals and create sustainable change. Her business-advisory firm specializes in human resources compliance, talent development, diversity and inclusion, and women’s leadership development. Margaret has spent her award-winning career working with organizations to develop internal diversity strategies and build more inclusive cultures. With over 23 years of experience in strategic human resources consulting, she knows that it takes more than good intentions to drive change – it takes action.
Jason Stoddard
Director of School Safety and Security, Charles County Public Schools (MD)
Jason is the director of school safety and security for Charles County Public Schools. He is responsible for sustaining a safe learning and work environment for over 28,000 students and nearly 4,000 staff members. Since serving the schools in July of 2018, he has created the Office of School Safety and Security and has been awarded a number of state-of-the-art programs and technologies that have enhanced school safety for students and staff. Prior to joining the schools, he retired as a lieutenant with Charles County Sheriff’s Office.
Sherri Swain
Director of Enterprise Risk Management, Maricopa Community Colleges (Ret.)
Sheri recently retired in January 2023 as the director of enterprise risk management for Maricopa Community Colleges. She is a seasoned risk professional with over 30 years of experience in commercial lines insurance and public entity risk management. She is ready to branch out to assist public entities to help grow their risk management programs.
Scott Thomason
Regional Director, Public Sector, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.
Scott leads Gallagher’s Southeast efforts working on large self-insured governmental entities, large schools, small schools, public entity risk pools, charter schools, and other public sector accounts. The Gallagher team is led by Scott, who is the primary coordinator of all Gallagher resources to public sector clients. Scott will have the ultimate responsibility to ensure the city receives exceptional service and expertise from the Gallagher network.
Scott works hand-in-hand with other team members to ensure effective execution of the entire team. Scott brings over 30 years’ experience to the Gallagher team with expertise in risk financing, risk analysis, risk innovation and creative program design. Scott has converted over entities to self-insured programs, brought in alternative risk financing solutions and provided industry leading risk analytic reports. Scott is a member of the Gallagher public sector leadership team, bringing insights and solutions to the entire country.
He is considered one of the leading public entity and educational risk experts and brokers in the Southeast and has been speaking to various clients, groups, and industry associations for many years, most notably for public entities on elected officials training, risk financing and retention level analysis, and general risk management procedures. Scott is also an active participant in national associations such as ASBO, PRIMA, and AGRIP and many of the state chapters.
David Weightman
Risk Control Manager, Public Entity Practice, The PMA Companies
David is a risk control manager for PMA Companies and is currently responsible for managing the risk control services provided to public entity clients. With more than 30 years of experience, David has held various field and management positions with PMA where he has managed and delivered safety and risk control services for both the traditional insurance market and self-insured clients.
Ya’Sheaka C. Williams
Partner, Quintairos, Prieto, Wood & Boyer, P.A.
Ya’Sheaka is a partner in the Tampa office of Quintairos, Prieto, Wood & Boyer, P.A. Her practice involves the representation of employers, self-insured employers and insurance carriers in all aspects of workers’ compensation claims in Florida and appears before judges of compensation claims throughout Florida. Ya'Sheaka became recognized as an expert in workers’ compensation law by the Florida Bar when she became board certified by the Florida Bar Board of Legal Specialization and Education. She is also a certified workers' compensation law instructor by the Florida Department of Financial Services and has presented numerous classes and seminars to employers and claims adjusters throughout Florida. Ya'Sheaka has extensive experience in settlement negotiations, claims resolution, contract negotiations, mediation and litigation. She has attained an AV Preeminent® designation rating from Martindale Hubbell Law Directory, which is the highest possible rating for legal ability and ethical standards. She received her Juris Doctor from Stetson University College of Law, Gulfport, Florida in 2003 and a Bachelor of Arts from Brenau University Women’s College in 2000, graduating with majors in conflict resolution and pre-law.