Staff

Cheri Hummel is the Vice President of Disaster Preparedness at CHA and Program Director for CHA’s Hospital Preparedness Program. Prior to joining CHA, she worked at the California Emergency Medical Services Authority Disaster Medical Services Division and the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development. She has a background in healthcare and has worked at acute care hospitals and outpatient clinics.

Ms. Hummel serves on various state and national emergency preparedness committees and work groups representing the interests of California hospitals. She is influential in establishing policy surrounding hospital emergency preparedness and was instrumental in the launching of the HICS IV Project. Cheri has participated in the development of the Statewide Medical and Health Disaster Exercises and has served in the State Operations Center and the Oakland Regional Operation Center during the Golden Guardian and Statewide Medical & Health Disaster Exercises.

Contact Cheri Hummel

Michele Coughlin is the administrative coordinator for the Hospital Preparedness Program. In addition to providing support the program director, Ms. Coughlin performs ongoing technical and administrative functions in support of the hospital preparedness program.

Michele is the HPP website administrator and is responsible for maintaining the online content of the website. Prior to joining CHA, Ms. Coughlin spent 8 years as marketing and data analyst in the news media industry.

Contact Michele Coughlin

Diane Akers is the regional Hospital Preparedness Coordinator for the North Bay Area region of the California Hospital Association's Hospital Preparedness Program. 

Ms. Akers has been a consultant since 1984. She works with public sector and non-profits to improve their efficiency and effectiveness through plan development, collaboration, training, communications, and problem solving. In disaster preparedness, Diane recently worked with the San Mateo Hospital Consortium to facilitate breakout groups during a pandemic flu conference. She also recently created the Sonoma County Bioterrorism Response Plan and facilitated the collaborative plan implementation.

Ms. Akers has been involved in health care since 1971. She is a registered nurse with an MBA. She spent 13 years working with Alameda County EMS District, four of those years as the Director. During her tenure she was responsible for disaster preparedness and planning and directed medical response from the EOC for the Loma Prieta earthquake and the Oakland Hills fire.

Contact Diane Akers

Bethany Boom is the Education Coordinator for the Hospital Preparedness Program. In conjunction with the CHA education department, she is responsible for managing the development and coordination of hospital emergency preparedness education programs, including the annual disaster planning conference. Previously, she was a member of the CHA education department where she managed statewide programs on HICS, IAP and NIMS/ICS.

Ms. Boom is also working closely with regional coordinator, Loni Howard, on hospital preparedness coordination efforts for the Sacramento Valley Region.
Contact Bethany Boom

Ryan is the regional Hospital Preparedness Coordinator for Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties for the California Hospital Association.

Ryan was previously with UCLA Medical Center for 11 years as the Disaster Resource Center Director, Emergency Department Clinical Manager, and Pre-hospital Care Coordinator. He was an emergency department nurse for many years as well as a flight nurse with Mercy Air and Life Flight Southern California. 

Mr. Burgess earned his master’s of science in nursing from California State University, Long Beach, (1993) in the Trauma/Emergency Clinical Nurse Specialist program. Ryan lives in Moorpark with his wife and two daughters, where he enjoys coaching youth softball.

Contact Ryan Burgess

Curt Douglas is the regional Hospital Preparedness Coordinator for the Central Valley region of the California Hospital Association’s Hospital Preparedness Program.

Mr. Douglas has been involved in healthcare for more than 30 years. After receiving his MA from San Francisco State University, he joined a hospital consulting firm in Los Angeles. Later he served as a hospital Director of Business Development in San Diego and as a Vice President of Business Development in the Central Valley. In addition, he has been Chief Operating Officer for several ambulatory healthcare companies and a consultant in hospital and ambulatory services operations and business development.

Mr. Douglas provides technical assistance in disaster preparedness to hospitals in Merced, Mariposa, Madera, Kings, Fresno, Tulare, Kern, Mono and Inyo Counties by helping them to design preparedness programs that assure their readiness in a disaster and that satisfy federal, state and Joint Commission standards and requirements. He actively participates in collaborative community planning and exercises and provides hospital preparedness planners with a variety of tools, including planning templates, examples of best practices and training.

Contact Curt Douglas

Jerry Fikes is a regional Hospital Preparedness Coordinator for the California Hospital Association’s Hospital Preparedness Program and works with hospitals in rural areas of Northern California. Mr. Fikes earned his BS and MS degrees at California State University, Dominguez Hills through the statewide nursing program and has served as and Emergency Department Nurse.

Mr. Fikes has performed in a wide range of capacities over the course of his 40-year career in healthcare—from ambulance driver to CEO of Mayers Memorial Hospital in Fall River Mills. His background includes consultant and pro bono teacher to rural hospitals and fire departments. He retired from his 25 year career as an EMT instructor at Shasta College.

Jerry has served on both the NorCal EMS board and board of the Northern Sierra Rural Health Network. He was a founding member of the Shasta County Sheriffs Office Mountain Rescue Team and established and directed the Mercy Air Ambulance and the ground ambulance program for the Mercy Redding Trauma Center. He has also served as WEC Instructor for the National Ski Patrol and has worked as part of the medical crew at Laguna Seca Raceways for AMA and MotoGP races.

Contact Jerry Fikes

Loni Howard, RN, MSN is the regional Hospital Preparedness Coordinator for the Sacramento Valley region of the California Hospital Association’s Hospital Preparedness Program.

Ms. Howard has worked as a hospital Emergency Preparedness Coordinatorin the Sacramento area for more that 10 years. She was a member of the HEICS IV Workgroup, and is currently a member of the HICS Center for Education and Training Advisory Board. Loni also raises puppies for Guide Dogs for the Blind.

Contact Loni Howard

Mary Massey, B.S.N, MA, PHN is the  regional Hospital Preparedness Coordinator for the Southern Inland region.

Ms. Massey has over twenty years experience in clinical and administrative management of hospital emergency medical services. Ms. Massey participates in multi-agency taskforces, including MMRS, UASI, and development of the Hospital Incident Command System as a member of the HEICS IV National Workgroup. She authored comprehensive bioterrorism policies addressing the medical response to weapons of mass destruction, including mass decontamination, mass prophylaxis for first responders, and pandemic response for hospitals.

Mary has deployed with DMAT CA-1 to multiple wildfire responses and hurricanes, including Hurricane Katrina. She has worked on projects with the CDC in Atlanta, a Controller and Evaluator for numerous ODP and G&T Full Scale Chemical Weapons Exercises across the country, and as a panel member on the AHRQ satellite broadcast on Bioterrorism Preparedness.

Ms. Massey has trained with the Department of Defense for weapons of mass destruction and the Department of Justice for domestic preparedness, including live-agent COBRA training and technical level Incident Response to Terrorist Bombings. She is recognized as a Department of Justice WMD General Instructor. She is a graduate from the Naval Postgraduate School where she graduated with her Master’s in Homeland Security and Defense.

Contact Mary Massey

Vol Ranger is a regional Hospital Preparedness Coordinator for the South Bay region. As an emergency preparedness consultant her recent projects have included San Benito County pandemic flu tabletop and full functional exercises, Santa Clara County hospital resources inventory and database for HRSA medical surge planning, with surge capacity report and best practices research, First Responder Awareness (FRA) and First Responder Operations (FRO) training for Alameda County hospital personnel, and Sonoma County Smallpox plan and SARS plans.

Vol has an M.B.A. in Health Services Administration. She teaches a graduate course in Health Policy at California State University Monterey Bay concurrently and is also the program lead for CSUMB’s Emergency Preparedness: Public Health and Hospitals program.

Ms. Ranger was formerly Emergency Medical Services Administrator for Santa Cruz County with responsibilities to plan, organize, and direct the EMS program and was primary Emergency Operations Center coordinator. She served as Operational Area Disaster Medical/Health Coordinator for Santa Cruz County in state Region II.

Contact Vol Ranger