 Dominic “Nick” Gragnani, C.E.M., Executive Director: After spending 30 years with the St. Louis County Police Department, where he retired as the Deputy Director of the Office of Emergency Management (OEM), Nick decided to start a new career with the East-West Gateway Council of Governments. During his tenure as an emergency management professional, Nick has responded to several disasters and emergency sites including floods, severe weather and hazardous materials incidents; to include clandestine drug labs. His operational planning and response experience includes the Ivan Browning earthquake scare, the Great Flood of 1993, the Presidential Debates in 1996, 2000 and 2004. He is a professionally Certified Emergency Manager (CEM) certified by the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) as well as a certified Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) and International Fire Service Accreditation Congress (IFSAC) Fire Fighter I instructor. - As Executive Director of STARRS, Nick is responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of STARRS. This includes supervising STARRS’ staff, managing the grants and contracts administered by STARRS and maintaining relationships with public safety agencies, hospitals, healthcare providers and other agencies involved in planning for emergency response in the bi-state St. Louis metropolitan region.
 Terry Sofian, Operations Manager: Terry comes to STARRS with a background in emergency planning and response from fire service, military, industrial and healthcare fields. A Master’s degree in biology adds academic rigor to field experience as an active military reservist, volunteer firefighter and hazardous materials technician. Prior to accepting the Operations Manager position at STARRS Terry worked preparing healthcare institutions for major disasters by developing and implementing procedures and training programs.
 Eric Hammonds, Public Safety Administrator: Eric comes to STARRS from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP) in Anniston, Alabama, where he was a Weapons of Mass Destruction Instructor. Prior to his three years at the CDP, Eric spent twenty years in law enforcement. Eric worked as a Deputy Sheriff in Alabama and before that a Criminal Investigator in the United States Marine Corps. In addition to his law enforcement background Eric was a volunteer firefighter and EMT.
 Julie Sackman, Public Safety Administrator: Julie received her B.S. in Agriculture with an emphasis in Natural Resources from Lincoln University. She has coursework towards a Master’s in Public Administration. Julie has a diverse career background with several years of internship experience with U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Geological Survey, Utah State University at the Berryman Institute, Colorado State University, City of Chesterfield and The Alliance of Edwardsville and Glen Carbon. She is a co-author of two scientific publications on the Big Muddy Lisbon Bottoms. Julie has worked for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources in the Enforcement Section of Air Pollution and for the City of St. Louis Health Department in Air Pollution Control Program Permitting Dept. She comes to STARRS with four years of experience in procurement, estimating, marketing and accounting. In her current position, Julie is working on health care grants including the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), and Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) Medical Surge target capabilities for the St. Louis region.
 Hilda Chaski Adams, MPH, Public Safety Administrator: Hilda comes to STARRS after a 30 year career in public health with expertise in epidemiology, environmental health, disease surveillance, outbreak investigation and emergency preparedness and response. These emergency preparedness and response activities include developing emergency preparedness plans for state and local health departments (Missouri, Portland OR and the City of St Louis) and responding to events such as the Great Missouri Flood of 1993, the Portland OR Flood of 1999, the national measles outbreak in 1989 and numerous other regional disease outbreaks in the St Louis region. Hilda has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology from Manhattanville College, Purchase NY and a Masters in Public Health from Yale University in New Haven CT. She is the author of numerous journal publications. Her primary role at STARRS is over seeing the implementation of Gateway ESSENCE, an early warning surveillance system to detect natural and man-made disease outbreaks in our bi-state region. Gateway ESSENCE will be used by the region's local public health departments and hospitals. Hilda is adjunct faculty at the Saint Louis University School of Public Health where she teaches Infectious Disease Epidemiology.
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