Leadership

Stephanie Duke is an attorney and Disaster Resilience Coordinator at Disability Rights Texas (DRTx).  Ms. Duke works to build resiliency for the disability community by advocating for collaboration and inclusive planning processes with local and state entities to remedy systemic barriers, via actionable cases, policy reform and provides outreach to educate the community on individual preparedness and resources to promote independence and autonomy during any event. Ms. Duke is an Equal Justice Works Disaster Fellow alumnus; Vice-Director of the American Bar Associations, Young Lawyers Division, Disaster Legal Services Team; Chair of the State Bar of Texas, Disaster Law Task Force and is an appointed member to the Governor’s Task force on Disaster Issues Effecting Older Persons and Persons with Disabilities.

Rev. Dr. Ellor is recently retired Professor of Social Work at Baylor University.  He serves First Presbyterian Church of Waco, as Parish Associate.  He has been a member of Presbyterian Disaster Assistance for over 10 years.

Amanda Bosley is the Managing Attorney of the Disaster Relief Unit at Lone Star Legal Aid in Houston, Texas and also serves as a Content Manager for DisasterLegalAid.org. Ms. Bosley began her work at LSLA in 2015 representing disaster survivors as an Equal Justice Works AmeriCorps Legal Fellow. Following that, she worked on the Foreclosure Prevention Project at LSLA but returned to manage the Disaster Relief Unit in 2019. She has represented clients after major disasters in the Houston area, including the 2015 Memorial Day and 2016 Tax Day floods, Hurricane Harvey, Tropical Storm Imelda, and the 2021 Severe Winter Storms.

Courtney serves as the TDEM State Voluntary Agency Liaison and is a member of the Disaster Recovery Task Force. The Voluntary Agency Liaison role oversees statewide volunteer and donation management, VOAD and disaster non-profit engagement in addition to creation, education, mentorship and integration of Long-Term Recovery and COAD groups.

 

Courtney began her career in Emergency Management in 2015 following the Memorial Day Flood impacting her hometown of Wimberley. She assisted in recovery operations on the local level before being hired as a contract State VAL for TDEM in 2016-2017. Courtney most recently held the role of Recovery Specialist in Hays County, joining TDEM in April 2020. She has extensive disaster response and recovery experience in both declared and non-declared disasters across the State of Texas. Courtney has been a member of the Texas Emergency Management Assistance Team being deployed in both Hurricane Harvey and Imelda.

Throughout her career she has specialized in mentoring local jurisdictions thru the response phase into long term recovery including damage assessments, DSO assistance, sheltering and feeding, GIS, public information, community engagement, volunteer reception and multi agency resource centers, creating long term recovery groups and implementing State and Federal programs. She is passionate about advocating for disaster survivors and equipping communities to build resiliency and recover more efficiently.

Justin McInnis has spent his entire professional career in the disaster/public service space helping communities locally, statewide, nationally and internationally.  After leaving his role in Emergency Management/Emergency Services, he took on the role of President and CEO at Texas Search and Rescue (TEXSAR); a nonprofit that supports the state of Texas in missing persons cases, flood and swiftwater rescue, and disaster support.

Michelle Brewer is Executive Director for Jefferson County Long Term Recovery Group serving Jefferson County, Texas. She is the 2022-23 President of Southeast Texas VOAD, is a member of the Disaster Leadership Team (DLT) serving as a volunteer disaster recovery leadership mentor, serves Texas Division of Emergency Management on the Disaster Recovery Task Force, and holds a gubernatorial appointment to the Board of Directors for OneStar Foundation. Michelle lives in Silsbee, TX with her husband of 34 years, Justice of the Peace Charles Brewer. Together they have 4 married, successful children and 11 perfect grandchildren.

As Good360 Vice President, Disaster Recovery, Jim Alvey cultivates relationships that expand Good360’s corporate donor network, increase nonprofit sector collaboration and connect government and association entities. Jim’s primary focus is gaining product donations from manufacturers and retailers to support short- and long-term Disaster Recovery efforts. He also works with local, regional, and national foundations to amplify the impact of missions they support. Jim has worked in broadcast and print media, direct marketing, data analysis, and non-profit management. He lives in Columbia, Maryland, with his wife, Cindi, 2 cats and a dog.