Universities of Wisconsin Emergency Management Conference

Dr. John Achter
Senior Director of Student Success and Wellbeing, Universities of Wisconsin

Dr. John Achter joined the Office of Enrollment & Student Success in August 2020 as the UW System’s first Student Behavioral Health Coordinator. From Sept. 17, 2021, to June 14, 2023, he served in a dual role as Interim Associate Vice President for Enrollment & Student Success and Director of Student Behavioral Health.

In his ongoing role as Senior Director of Student Success and Wellbeing, he supports student behavioral health initiatives and accessibility services, working with counseling, health, and disability services professionals at all of the UW System’s campuses. He is a licensed psychologist with over 20 years of experience in higher education as a behavioral health practitioner, counseling center director, and student affairs administrator. He was a staff psychologist for 5 years in the Counseling Center at Concordia College-Moorhead before serving for 13 years as Counseling Center director at UW-Stout. Just prior to joining UW System, he served for 5 years as Associate Dean of Students at UW-Stout, where he chaired the behavior intervention team, was a Title IX investigator, and had supervisory oversight of counseling, health, and TRIO programs. John is passionate about serving students from all backgrounds and draws on positive psychology and trauma-informed approaches in his work.

John earned both M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Counseling Psychology from Iowa State University, and a B.A. in Psychology and Philosophy from Concordia College-Moorhead in Minnesota. His leisure interests include spending time with family, traveling, and many forms of exercise, especially outdoors.

Meg Hamilton
Sergeant, UWPD

Sgt Meg Hamilton is a supervisor at UW-Madison Police, and previously worked for the City of Madison Police from 2007-2023. Meg was Krista’s direct supervisor during the 2022 period in which Krista experienced acute crisis. Meg speaks about her own trauma recovery journey, specific to the death by suicide of her Academy classmate (2020) and critical incidents she has responded to in her 19-year police career. She is a traveler, reader, writer, wife, and mom to 5-year-old Pip.

Lisa Hamp
Safe and Sound Schools

Lisa Hamp is a survivor of the Virginia Tech shooting that took place on April 16, 2007. With her classmates, she built a barricade to prevent the shooter from entering their classroom. She struggled for a long time after the shooting. Eight years later, she sought counseling and began her recovery. Today, Lisa speaks and writes about her experience surviving and recovering from the Virginia Tech shooting to help others. She shares a raw and powerful personal story, as well as lessons learned from Virginia Tech Tragedy, to first responders, psychologists, counselors, teachers, students, and many others. Her work has been published in the Washington Post, Huffington Post, Campus Safety Magazine, and the Domestic Preparedness Journal. Lisa has a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from Virginia Tech, a Master’s degree in Operations Research from George Mason University, and a Master’s degree in Economics from John Hopkins University.

James Imoehl
Lieutenant, Madison Police Department

Jimmy Imoehl is the Emergency Management Lieutenant and SWAT Crisis Negotiation Team commander for the Madison, WI police department. He previously coordinated department-wide professional development training, including active threat response, and currently teaches Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events (CRASE) and Active Shooter Incident Management (ASIM) courses. Jimmy served in the Navy Reserve for 14 years before leaving as a Senior Chief Petty Officer in an Emergency Preparedness Liaison Officer unit. He is currently a Ph.D. student exploring the role of leadership in novel adversarial critical incidents.

Ed Lawson
Emergency Management Specialist, UWPD

Ed Lawson attended the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 1980, graduating from UW-Whitewater in 1985 with a degree in History and a commission as an Officer in the US Army. He served on active duty for ten years. His duty assignment included border operations in West Germany, training foreign troops in Europe and the Middle East, and deploying to the Gulf War. Ed became a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agent in 1995. He conducted national security investigations in the Chicago FBI Office and the Madison, Wisconsin Resident Agency. He retired in 2018 from the Madison office of the FBI and started with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department (UWDP) as an Emergency Management Specialist. He is the Active Threat Response Coordinator for the UW-Madison campus. He is responsible for providing emergency management consulting to the 12 other UW System universities and their affiliated two-year campuses. He designs, drafts, resources and facilitates training exercises, provides guidance on emergency management planning and is one of the UW-Madison Emergency Operation Center (EOC) managers. He earned his Master’s in Criminal Justice from UW – Platteville in 2019. In the last two years, he completed all the requirements and earned the Wisconsin Certified Emergency Manager-Basic and Professional Certificates. Ed is also a state qualified instructor in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) courses. He is active with the American Legion and as a K9 handler/evaluator with an Animal Therapy group in the Madison area visiting the VA Hospital. He has been married for over 41 years, has two children and six grandchildren.

Deputy Josalyn Longley
Dane County Sheriff’s Office

Deputy Longley graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in 2000, where she played softball for four years and received a BA in Criminal Justice.  She has been with the Dane County Sheriff’s Office since November 2000, when she started working in the Dane County Jail.  In 2005, she was promoted to a Community Deputy and worked out of the West Precinct. She worked closely with other agencies and the community to problem-solve issues in the community and with families. She also gave many community presentations on drug and internet safety.

In 2016, Deputy Longley was asked to create and take on the role as the Dane County Sheriff’s Office Emergency Preparedness Coordinator and is conducting presentations, training, and meetings on Active Assailant Preparedness.  Within the first year, Deputy Longley presented to approximately 4700 people on Preparedness for Active Shooter and Violence within the Workplace and Community, and has trained over 39,000 people in the Dane County area.

Deputy Longley has been awarded the National Sheriffs Association Medal of Merit, the Wisconsin American Legion Law and Order of the Year award, and the Dane County Chiefs of Police Community Policing Award.  She has presented at many conferences, including the Badger State Sheriff’s Conference, the Wisconsin Emergency Management Conference, and the National Sheriffs Conference.  She is the Vice President of the Wisconsin Active Threat Training Association Committee and a member of the Wisconsin Active Threat Integrated Response Conference.  She is a certified Instructor for Stop the Bleed, ALERRT Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events, Active Shooter Incident Management, and ALICE active shooter training.  She has been a member of the Dane County Sheriff’s Office Hostage Negotiation Team since 2013.

Ellen Marks, PhD
Director, Mental Health Services, University Health Services

Ellen is an East Coast transplant who joined UHS as a doctoral intern in 2016. Since then, she has served in multiple roles providing counseling and behavioral health services.

As a clinician, Ellen takes a collaborative approach that balances space for exploration with supportive structure. She emphasizes the therapeutic relationship, meaning-making, and living in alignment with personal values, while attending to life experiences and cultural identities as central to understanding ourselves.

As a director, Ellen approaches student mental health holistically, considering its intersections with academics, identity development, relationships, culture, and physical wellbeing. She is committed to building a campus-wide community of care and values opportunities to connect with staff and students to strengthen student wellbeing.

As a human, Ellen is a parent of two young children, plays the violin, enjoys reading (mostly audiobooks these days), and has recently taken up pottery and candle-making.

Carrie Meier
Dane County Emergency Management

Dane County Emergency Management Assistant Director Carrie Meier started her career in Physical Therapy and volunteering in EMS. Soon she found her passion for Emergency Medical Services and started in the role of EMS Specialist in 2005 for Dane County Emergency Management. In that time, she has received her Wisconsin Emergency Management Certification and has moved into the role of Assistant Director. Meier is known for her ability to bring partners to the table and solve problems, improve systems and develop new programs. She is a CPR Instructor Trainer thru AHA, Stop the Bleed Instructor, Emergency Vehicle Operations Instructor and ASIM trainer. She has worked closely with the public safety partners to develop the Active Threat Coordinated Incident Guidance Document. She is also a member of the Southwest Incident Management Team and Dane County Critical Incident Response Team.

Teresa Miller
Counseling Services Director, UW-Platteville

Teresa Miller has been with University Counseling Services at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville since 2013 and is currently serving as Assistant Director and Counselor. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with experience treating mood disorders, anxiety, ADHD and trauma. She graduated from Illinois State University in 2006 with her BS in Sociology with a Psychology minor. Feeling a push to continue helping others using the values of compassion, acceptance and social justice, she earned a Masters in Social Work from University of Chicago in 2009, working in Chicago Public High School as a counselor helping with the transition to college. Teresa is grateful to now be supporting the mental health of students at UW-Platteville. She enjoys helping others find solutions to what’s happening in their lives and believes no one should feel bad for seeking out ways to better themselves, and that counseling is a brave way to focus on making positive change.

Deanna Schuette
United Way, Manager of Partnerships & Outreach

Deanna Schuette serves as Manager of Partnerships & Outreach with United Way of Wisconsin where she’s worked since 2020. In partnership with local United Ways and through 211 Wisconsin, she manages outreach to expand community-based connections, connecting people to each other and to supportive resources. Initiatives focused on digital access, Community Health Worker workforce development, volunteerism, coordinated disaster response, caregiving, and transportation access. She serves as a United Way of WI representative with WI Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (WIVOAD). As a volunteer, she supported Louisiana flood response efforts in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina, and in Iowa in 2008.

Sara Vogt, PhD
Interim Director of the Center for Students with Disabilities, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

Sara earned her PhD in Disability Studies from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Sara draws from years of experience working with students with disabilities in inclusive education, accessibility, and advocacy with a strong commitment to the social justice model and intersectionality as they relate to service provision in higher education.

Seth Wilson
La Crosse County Sheriff’s Office Emergency Management

Seth Wilson is the Emergency Management Coordinator for the La Crosse County Sheriff’s Office in La Crosse, Wisconsin. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Emergency Management & Disaster Science from North Dakota State University. Seth coordinates countywide planning, training, and exercise activities across all four phases of emergency management, and works closely with local, regional, and state partners on emergency planning and mass care initiatives. His recent work has focused heavily on community assistance center and school reunification planning, including establishing a School Emergency Planning Work Group that brings together leaders from K-12 school districts across his county. This work stemmed from the Campus Assistance Center operations and the multi-agency full-scale exercise he facilitated for UWL in August 2025.