Incident Command System Leadership (May 18-19)

Sarah Laylo serves as the Chief Security and Continuity Officer for Bonneville Power Administration, a role which she has held since May 2017. Prior to accepting the role with Bonneville, Sarah worked for the Department of Defense, Defense Security Service, as a field office chief overseeing the security of classified information and programs at over 650 cleared contractor facilities in the National Capital Region.
Sarah’s career began as a Military Intelligence Officer in the U.S. Army. She served as an Intelligence Officer in the 1st Armored Division Artillery, and as a Platoon Leader, Executive Officer, and Analysis and Control Team Chief in the 501st Military Intelligence Battalion, 1st Armored Division. During the course of her military service, she deployed in support of efforts in Bosnia and Kosovo. After leaving the military in 2001, Sarah worked as a contractor supporting US Army programs, and then as an Operations Manager with Frito Lay for several years before returning to government service in 2008 with the Defense Security Service where she served in various capacities

Tim Swanson has over 38 years’ experience in the utility industry. Prior to his role as Director, Corporate Security and Business Continuity he was the Director, Information Systems at FortisBC. He is a member of Electricity Canada Security Infrastructure Protection Committee, Canadian Gas Association Security Strategic Steering Committee, Western Energy Institute, and a member of the governing body of the Evanta CIO/CISO Community.

– Chief Information Security Officer and manager of the Office of Cyber Security for Bonneville Power Administration (BPA). Gary manages a team of cyber security specialists, ethical hackers, forensics professionals, cyber threat intelligence analysts and policy wonks who work with automated technology implementers and designers to identify, detect respond and reduce cyber security threats across the enterprise.
– Gary has over 24 years of experience in implementing, testing and verifying cyber security controls to enable business, with prior work experience in both the public and private sectors. His experience runs from information assurance and cyber security gained in classified and unclassified, State Department, DoD and other federal security implementations to managing the operations of an Internet data center for a Fortune 500 company, from IT auditor at one of the largest financial institutions in the U.S. to of course CISO of a federal electric utility – BPA.
– Gary is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Networking as well as several IT industry certifications.
– Born and raised in Sacramento, California he served 13 years on active duty as an Infantry Squad Leader in various worldwide assignments, in the U.S. Army, awarded; 4 Army Commendation Medals, 3 Army Achievement Medals, an Army Superior Unit Award, the Saudi Arabian Kuwait Liberation Medal, 3 Army Good Conduct Medals, the National Defense Service Medal, Air Assault Badge, the Expert Infantryman’s Badge, Combat Infantryman’s Badge and the Southwest Asia Service Medal with 3 Bronze Service Stars, and the French Forces Commando Badge.
– After leaving the Army he settled in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. He returned to the Pacific Northwest in 2005 and has been with Bonneville Power Administration since 2007. He lives in a small town in Oregon with his wife of 24 years, and his 19 year old son who attends Oregon State University (and who he can no longer beat at Chess, video games, knowledge of history or predicative analysis of current events).

Erin Swearingen is a Certified Business Continuity Professional (CBCP) with over 20 years of experience in business continuity, disaster recovery and emergency preparedness and management. Erin has designed and implemented business continuity programs for various industries including the utility and financial industries.

Erin has been with Avista for 10 years and has implemented the Enterprise Business Continuity program which includes business continuity, disaster recovery and emergency operations response. She has also developed and implemented emergency response and life safety programs, promoting employee safety, personal preparedness and preparedness education.

Erin currently serves as Co-Chair for the Mutual Assistance/Emergency Preparedness Executive Committee for Edison Electric Institute. Erin also serves as the President of the Washington State Chapter of the Association of Continuity Professionals (ACP).

Corey has been a walking disaster since his childhood in Florida where he had his first incident response experience selling generators for cash and cleaning inches of water and debris from the Sears store he worked at in high school after hurricanes damaged the roof. Since then he has spent 13 years studying and working in emergency management and business continuity in healthcare, private and public sectors. He holds both Certified Emergency Manager (CEM) and Associate Member of the Business Continuity Institute (AMBCI) credentials. Corey loves supporting the communities he lives in and serves through preparedness, emergency response activities, and volunteering.