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.

Alvin Migues, AEM has served in his current position as EDS Director for the Salvation Army Texas Division since 2011. He is responsible for the planning, preparedness and response for The Salvation Army in Texas. His background in disaster work began as a volunteer in 2005 and he responded to numerous incidents including Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Ike, Super Storm Sandy, Moore Oklahoma Tornadoes as well as serving as Incident Commander for Salvation Army responses to Hurricanes Michael, Florence, Harvey, Ida and Ian.

Kathy is the Associate Director for The Salvation Army’s Emergency Disaster Services department for Texas. She has 12+ years of disaster relief experience in all phases of disasters. Kathy has served in numerous Texas VOAD executive roles since 2015. Kathy served as the Chair of Texas VOAD starting in 2018 and now holds an ex-Aficio non-voting position as the past chair.

Michelle Tubbleville is the Special Projects/Communications Coordinator in the Orange County Office of Emergency Management and Executive Director for Orange County Disaster Rebuild serving Orange County, Texas. She is the 2022-23 1^st Vice President of the Southeast Texas VOAD, serves on the local Salvation Army Advisory Board, is a member of the Center for Resiliency External Advisory Council for Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas and serves Texas Division of Emergency Management on the Disaster Recovery Task Force.  Michelle lives in Orange, Texas with her husband of 27 years, Kyle Tubbleville. Together they have three children.

Jessica Debalski has a background in nonprofit management, community and volunteer engagement, planning, and program development. She currently serves as the Division Disaster State Relations Director for the American Red Cross in Texas, a nonprofit leader in disaster response. In her role, she is responsible for coordinating with federal, state, and nonprofit partners for Preparedness, Response and Recovery. Jessica grew up in Georgia, and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Georgia.