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Media Invite to Forum on N.C.'s Preparedness for Major Oil Spills: July 29

July 29 — 9 a.m. - 4 p.m., William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education (map and directions), 100 Friday Center Drive, Chapel Hill

Media representatives are invited to a forum for public officials from throughout the state who will discuss their readiness to handle a major oil spill off the North Carolina coast, consider ways to collaborate and cooperate with other agencies, and identify any holes in preparedness plans.

Participants include representatives from the N.C. Division of Emergency Management; the U.S. Coast Guard; the Governor's Office volunteer coordination team; the National Weather Service; UNC marine science, public health, nursing and medicine faculty members; NC State College of Veterinary Medicine; N.C. departments of agriculture and environment and natural resources; public health and emergency management officials from the state's eastern counties; and tourism officials.

UNC's Gillings School of Global Public Health is organizing and facilitating the forum.

Speakers include:

  • Leah Devlin, UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health visiting professor and former North Carolina state health director
  • Rick Luettich, Sc.D., professor of marine sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences and of environmental sciences and engineering in the public health school; director of the UNC Center for the Study of Natural Hazards and Disasters and the UNC Institute of Marine Sciences
  • Darin Figurskey, meteorologist-in-charge, National Weather Service, Raleigh
  • Mike Sprayberry, deputy director, N.C. Division of Emergency Management
  • Lt. Shannon Scaff, U.S. Coast Guard
  • Julie Casani, M.D., public health preparedness chief, N.C. Division of Public Health
  • Craig Harms, D.V.M., Ph.D., associate professor, N. C. State College of Veterinary Medicine
  • Patti Fowler, section chief, N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources
  • Faye Stone, deputy executive director, Commission on Volunteerism, Governor's office
  • Joe Tullos, former New Orleans resident; owner, Gulf Rim Restaurant, Hillsborough, N.C.


For more information, visit www.sph.unc.edu/oilspill; or contact Bill Gentry, director of the public health school's community preparedness and disaster management program at wgentry@email.unc.edu, 919/966-4228.

UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, 919/966-7467, ramona_dubose@unc.edu

News Services contact: Patric Lane, 919/962-8596, patric_lane@unc.edu