2025 Population Health Innovation Summit

Founder and CEO of Forensic Weather Consultants, Howard Altschule has been a certified consulting meteorologist for more than a decade and leads one of the largest and most reliable weather expert firms in the country.

Using official weather records, high-resolution Doppler radar data and other data, Altschule and his team determine what the weather conditions were at specific incident and accident locations and provide expert reports, affidavits, depositions, and trial testimony. His company has been retained on more than 9,300 insurance claims and lawsuits around the country and internationally. As one of the most experienced forensic meteorologists in the nation, he has testified more than one hundred times in various courts. Altschule was previously appointed to the New York State Governor’s Panel on Homeowner Insurance Coverage.

He speaks frequently about forensic meteorology at conferences and seminars. At the Population Health Innovation Summit, he will discuss forensic meteorology and extreme weather event examples related to climate change.

Altschule is the recipient of the coveted Certified Consulting Meteorologist (CCM) designation from the American Meteorological Society (AMS), which is the highest certification a consulting meteorologist can receive. Altschule is also the former secretary and board of director of the Association of Certified Meteorologists and has been a member of the AMS for decades.

Outside of work, Altschule gives back to the community. For more than three decades, he has served as a member of local volunteer fire departments reaching the ranks of lieutenant, captain, and president and worked as a part-time deputy emergency manager with a sheriff’s office. He founded and is the chairman of the non-profit Harky’s Heroes for Kids, which provides social, financial, and community support to kids in need.

Capital Region Chamber Vice President of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Jason Benitez is responsible for assisting businesses and organizations embark on and advance their DEI journeys as well as furthering the chamber’s strategic mission relevant to DEI. These efforts collectively help to cultivate inclusive economic opportunity for all who call the Capital Region home. Benitez believes that our fullest potential is realized when DEI are the standards we use to strengthen and impact our businesses and communities.

Benitez previously worked for more than 15 years in higher education at the University at Albany, SUNY Schenectady, and Union College, where he served as associate dean of diversity and inclusion. Benitez’s efforts at Union helped the college garner recognition with the Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award (HEED), given by Insight into Diversity, for six consecutive years. In 2022, the Business Council of New York State awarded the Capital Region Chamber with the statewide Chamber of the Year award, specifically citing the chamber’s DEI efforts as a notable accomplishment.

Benitez has served on the national board of directors for the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives and as chair of their DEI Sub-Division. He is a board member for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Northeast New York Chapter. He also serves on the board of trustees for WMHT, the Capital Region’s local PBS station. Benitez earned his bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, and certificate of advanced study from the University at Albany. He lives in Slingerlands, NY, with his wife and two children.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-benitez-64a269b3/

Manny Cerniglia is the co-founder and CEO of Flyhound, a New-York-based startup dedicated to supporting public safety agencies in their mission of finding people in emergencies.

Flyhound uses advanced drone technology to help locate missing people, especially in emergencies like natural disasters. As climate change increases the frequency and intensity of weather events, Flyhound’s rapid response capabilities can save Iives, reduce health risks for those affected, and help increase communities’ resiliency in the wake of disaster.

Whether missing persons, victims of natural disasters, or criminals endangering communities, Flyhound helps find people much faster than traditional methods, saving lives, time, and money.

Prior to Flyhound, Cerniglia co-founded a travel adventure startup and held positions at AT&T helping build the smartphones that have become ubiquitous in daily life. His decade of experience in telecommunications helped integrate smartphone and drone technology for rapid response in rescue missions.

Abbey DeRocker is the team lead and director of New York Energy Research and Development Authority’s (NYSERDA) large-scale renewables group. She is responsible for executing multifaceted programs that aid in the development and effective operation of large-scale renewable generation resources to satisfy New York’s renewable energy and environmental goals. Under her leadership, NYSERDA has awarded agreements for more than 100 large-scale renewable energy facilities including solar, onshore wind, and hydroelectric facilities, totaling 8.5 gigawatts of new renewable capacity and more than $9.8 billion in investments.

During her tenure at NYSERDA, she has overseen the design and implementation of the renewable energy standard, a key component of New York State’s nation-leading advancement of renewable resources under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, and Clean Energy Standard.

For more than 20 years, DeRocker held public and private sector leadership roles in the energy sector. Prior to joining NYSERDA, DeRocker served in various management roles with Southern California Edison (SCE). She led the implementation of major initiatives including the enterprise risk management program, greenhouse gas trading, and acid rain program trading with a focus on energy trading, finance, operations, and risk. Prior to moving to Los Angeles, DeRocker served as the manager of the valuation review group for the commodities division of Morgan Stanley in Purchase, New York. In her last role, she led the North American Electricity, North American Natural Gas, Emissions and Global Oil Liquids valuation teams. DeRocker holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics with a concentration in environmental science from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. A proud native New Yorker, DeRocker is a mom to two girls and does her best to train them in her role as a level 100 NYSSRA/USSA alpine ski coach.

James Lima is the founder and president of James Lima Planning + Development, a leading urban strategy consulting firm. Since 2011, his firm has guided and advised high-impact, place-based initiatives across North America, including numerous district-scale, citywide, and regional climate resilience strategies.

Lima’s recent work includes flood mitigation, coastal protection, and equitable community development projects along 10 miles of the Lower Manhattan waterfront, as well as in the Bay Area communities of San Rafael, East Palo Alto, and Sunnyvale. Additional projects include planning for Boston’s largest climate-resilient park and downtown riverfront revitalization initiatives in Memphis, TN; Jacksonville, FL; Baton Rouge, LA; and Charleston, SC. Throughout their work, Lima and his team are committed to driving transformative initiatives that create more vibrant, equitable, and resilient places for all.

Previously, Lima was former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s appointee as founding P

president of the public entity overseeing Governors Island in New York Harbor. He also served as senior vice president for special projects at the NYC Economic Development Corporation, and as assistant commissioner at the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

Lima earned his Bachelor of Arts in architecture and urban studies and Master of Science in Real Estate Development (MsRED) at Columbia College, where he has more recently served as adjunct assistant professor. He is a frequent speaker at Urban Land Institute and other conferences, has served on advisory panels throughout North America, and has lectured internationally on urban redevelopment.

Dr. Matthew A. Nystoriak is an associate professor at the Masonic Medical Research Institute (MMRI) with a distinguished background in cardiovascular research. His work focuses on the mechanisms that regulate blood flow to the heart, how blood vessels function, and how metabolism influences circulation, particularly related to aging.

The Nystoriak Lab studies how various environmental factors affect heart health, function, and the risk of disease. By exploring how the environment and climate impact the heart on a cellular level, Nystoriak and his team help us better understand the connections between environmental exposures and cardiovascular disease, and what can be done to mitigate negative effects.

Nystoriak’s research, supported by the National Institute of Health, American Heart Association, and Federal Drug Administration, also examined how things like tobacco exposure and poor sleep impact heart health. He has helped uncover how changes in the body’s energy use and oxygen levels affect blood vessel function, which could lead to new treatments for heart disease. In addition to his research, Nystoriak is dedicated to mentoring the next generation of scientists and serves on national scientific review committees and editorial boards.

Nystoriak earned his bachelor’s degree in biology and his PhD in pharmacology at the University of Vermont, College of Medicine in Burlington, VT. He completed his postdoctoral training at the University of Washington and University of California, Davis. He has also spoken at several prominent scientific gatherings.

Joseph Pfeifer has taught senior leaders worldwide about crisis leadership, disaster management, critical decision-making, cross-sector collaboration, organizational resilience, and crisis communication for extreme events. He has an extensive professional background in these areas from serving in leadership roles with the New York City Fire Department. He is currently an adjunct associate professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, where he teaches a capstone course on climate change security to examine climate risk, adaptive preparedness, disaster response, humanitarian assistance, and community resilience.

Pfeifer was the former acting fire commissioner and first deputy commissioner of the New York City Fire Department (FDNY). In this role, he oversaw 17,000 personnel and managed the department’s day-to-day administration, including fire and EMS operations. During his career, Pfeifer responded to some of the most significant events in NYC’s history. He was the first chief at the World Trade Center attacks on 9/11, commanded the largest residential fire during Hurricane Sandy, and managed other extreme events.

Prior to this, he served as FDNY’s chief of counterterrorism and emergency preparedness,
where he promoted intelligence sharing and interagency response. He also founded and directed FDNY’s Center for Terrorism and Disaster Preparedness.

Pfeifer has used his emergency preparedness expertise to sit down and talk with government officials, including presidents, prime ministers, governors, mayors, military generals, and community leaders. He has testified before the U.S. Congress and spoken at the United Nations about the threats cities will face in the future. As a leading professional in crisis leadership, he has appeared in primetime news interviews and documentary films.

Pfeifer is also a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, where he teaches several executive education programs on crisis leadership and directs research teams to examine the preparedness and response of international cities to major events. Additionally, he is a senior fellow at the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, teaching cadets at the U.S. Military Academy.

Pfeifer has written extensively and is the author of The New York Times bestseller Ordinary Heroes: A Memoir of 9/11. He earned master’s degrees from the Harvard Kennedy School, the Naval Postgraduate School, and Cathedral College of the Immaculate Conception.

National Grid’s Director Marie Schnitzer, serves as New York distributed generation ombudsperson, and as a liaison with customers, colleagues, and regulators for technologies that generate electricity at or near where it will be used, such as solar panels and combined heat and power. Distributed generation projects can benefit the environment when they reduce the amount of electricity that must be generated at a centralized power plant/grid. Schnitzer oversees projects that are up to five megawatts, which represents large-scale energy capacities within the power industry.

Schnitzer also leads the NYS Interconnection Policy Working Group on behalf of the NY Joint Utilities, which helps guide policy issues for interconnection within New York State while attending to climate change, extreme weather, and environmental conditions. Grid interconnection ties a network of local grids together at a synchronized frequency, which allows the exchange of energy from local grids with surplus power to those having a demand higher than what they can produce locally. Schnitzer also oversees internal efforts at National Grid to improve the interconnection process.

She has spent more than 25 years in the renewable and sustainable energy industries, which span energy storage, non-wires alternatives, utility scale wind and solar, fuel cells, and hydrogen generation. She earned her Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from Clarkson University and a Master of Business Administration from the College of Saint Rose.

Augusta Williams, ScD, MPH, is an assistant professor at SUNY Upstate Medical University in the Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine. Williams currently works at the intersection of public and occupational health, sustainability, and climate change. She serves as the assistant director of the Central New York Children’s Environmental Health Center and was formerly a heat safety technical expert at the Occupational Health and Safety Administration. Williams’ doctoral and post-doctoral training were completed in environmental health at Harvard University. She earned her Master of Public Health degree from Columbia University and completed her Bachelor of Science in biology and atmospheric sciences from Hobart and William Smith.