Disaster Readiness Specialists

Meet our team of Disaster Readiness Specialists who will be providing expert guidance, education, and resources.

Engage directly with these experts who will introduce our newest phase, then listen to your current needs and challenges regarding disaster readiness. Your input will be crucial to ensure this Initiative provides meaningful support to address your needs. Together, we can work towards building strong disaster preparedness capabilities within our gardens and foster a culture of disaster resiliency. We look forward to your participation and valuable contributions.

Contact our Specialists: disasterready@publicgardens.org

Charles Brown

Environmental Sustainability/ Plan Development

Charles Brown is a strategic safety and sustainability leader with 12+ years of experience developing, managing, and implementing environmental health and safety programs within a diverse variety of industries including oil and gas, large-scale healthcare systems, manufacturing, and commercial real estate. Charles specializes in high-reliability program development by forecasting environmental health and safety needs and identifying sustainability trends to develop comprehensive and resilient programs.

Santonio Hoke

Plan Development/ Training Updates

Santonio has 10+ years leadership and program implementation experience in emergency management, public health, and the U.S. Army. Santonio develops comprehensive plans through technical documentation development, data analysis, industry benchmarks, and funding support through grant writing and submission. He is experienced with diverse stakeholder groups through his work integrating military installations into county level preparedness planning.

Amber Johnson

Project Manager

Amber Johnson is a Certified Emergency Manager with 10+ years of experience in local, state, and national emergency management and business continuity program development. She is dedicated to helping organizations enhance and maintain their disaster resilience. Amber’s experience in disaster response leadership encompasses coordinating organizational responses for events such as the COVID-19 Pandemic, Hurricane Harvey, Winter Storm Uri, and the West Houston Chemical Explosion.

Evan Koepke

Workshop Leader/ Training Updates

Evan Koepke is a data driven emergency manager with 12+ years of experience building high-performance organizations to address complex emergency management and business continuity challenges. Evan is passionate about leading initiatives which build sustainable solutions and empower stakeholders and drive strategic goals.

Bill Pepler

Workshop Leader/ Plan Development

Bill Pepler is a seasoned emergency management and business continuity professional with 40+ years of experience in emergency management, public health, training, and corporate security leadership. Bill specializes in developing and facilitating presentations, training, and stakeholder mentorship. He is a board certified Fire and Emergency Instructor, and served as Adjunct Faculty for the National Fire Academy. Bill is a longtime member of the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, AZ.

Ashley Slight

Deputy Manager

Ashley Slight is a Certified Emergency Manager with 10+ years of experience in emergency management, public health, healthcare policy planning, stakeholder engagement, and project management across the
country. Ashley specializes in synthesizing diverse stakeholder groups to spearhead ground-breaking disaster resiliency projects.