PRESENTER BIOGRAPHIES
Lisa LaDue is the co-founder, former Director, and currently Training Consultant for the National Mass
Fatalities Institute in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She has been providing clinical social work and mental health
services for over 30 years to those who have been impacted by traumatic events. Lisa lectures
internationally on topics related to disaster response, trauma, terrorism, and mass fatalities, with the
unique perspective of providing services to individuals, families and communities as an integral part of the
emergency/disaster response system.
After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Lisa served as an American Red Cross Disaster Mental
Health Coordinator at the Pentagon and the Pentagon Family Assistance Center. In November 2001, she
coordinated Red Cross disaster mental health services on New York’s Staten Island. Lisa has coauthored articles and contributed to a textbook on topics related to the disaster mental health response to
the attack on the Pentagon.
In January, 2005, Lisa responded to the Indian Ocean Tsunami, working for three weeks in Khao Lak,
Thailand with a team of trauma specialists sponsored by the Foundation for Human Enrichment. She was
the co-leader of a team of trauma specialists to Tamil Nadu, India, in June 2005, providing trauma
recovery training and services for tsunami survivors suffering from persistent post traumatic stress
symptoms. Both teams taught and demonstrated trauma intervention techniques to local human services
providers based on Somatic Experiencing.
Lisa responded with the Iowa-1 Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) after Hurricane Katrina to Bay
St. Louis, Mississippi where the team established and maintained a field hospital for hurricane survivors.
In February 2006, she traveled to New Orleans with a Trauma Outreach Team providing Trauma First
Aide training to crisis counselors, outreach workers, and New Orleans Fire Department peer counselors
involved in disaster response to Hurricane Katrina.
Following Hurricane Gustav in August, 2008 Lisa responded with the Oklahoma-1 DMAT as a
Supervisory Mental Health Specialist to Louisiana where the team assisted in staffing a Medical Special
Needs Shelter.
Lisa was the co-coordinator of the China Earthquake Relief Project sponsored by the Foundation for
Human Enrichment and the United Family Hospitals and Clinics of Beijing to provide training for
healthcare providers, teachers and others working directly with trauma associated with the Sichuan
Earthquake of May 12, 2008. She led the first team of trauma specialists for this project to Sichuan
Province July 18, 2008 through August 5, 2008.
Biographies - 1
PRESENTER BIOGRAPHIES
Arbie Goings, Jr. is the Director of Mass Fatality Planning and Response Services for SNA
International based out of the Washington D.C. Area. He served as the Director of the Louisiana Family
Assistance Center that operated for a year in Baton Rouge following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Mr.
Goings speaks around the country on the subject of the Louisiana Family Assistance Center and
regarding planning for family assistance centers as related to mass fatalities. He also provides funeral
home consulting.
Mr. Goings began his funeral service career in 1981 working for Rabenhorst Funeral Home in Baton
Rouge. Earning his Associates Degree in funeral service at Delgado Community College in New
Orleans, he worked for Rabenhorst until 2006, participating in every aspect of funeral service. This firm
responds to over 1200 calls yearly, affording Mr. Goings the opportunity to serve thousands of Louisiana
families in their time of need and gain much valuable experience pertaining to the funeral industry.
Recruited by DMORT (Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team) in 1998, Mr. Goings began his
association with this federal agency. He was deployed by DMORT to not only Katrina/Rita relief efforts
but also after the New York 9-11 attacks, and the American Airlines Flight 587 crash shortly thereafter in
Queens, New York. He also deployed to east Texas for the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster, working
out of a volunteer fire department building in Hemphill, Texas and went recently to Lexington, KY for the
Comair 5191 incident where he closely worked with the NTSB, airline representatives, Coroner’s office,
Medical Examiner’s office, hotel employees, Douglas Mortuary and the families of the victims.
Mr. Goings served over two months as one of two DMORT supervisors assigned to the Data Entry unit of
the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) in response to the 9/11 attacks on the World
Trade Centers. There he participated in the daily operations and development of administrative policies
and procedures for the OCME as it supported relief efforts for the World Trade Center destruction. He
worked closely with OCME in developing short and long range timelines and an exit strategy for DMORT
operations. Mr. Goings coordinated with the White House in providing legal next of kin information for the
President and with the Japanese Consulate in providing information on Japanese nationals as they were
identified.
In response to the Flight 587 crash, he directly supported setting up operations for the Family Assistance
Center and general operations center. He procured staff and equipment to establish the FAC for the
crash response. Additionally, he developed and implemented procedures for the timely and effective
interviewing of family members of crash victims and served as the liaison officer between the FAC and
the OCME.
Biographies - 2
PRESENTER BIOGRAPHIES
Working in Texas with the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster, Mr. Goings participated in and led search
teams as they combed the rugged east Texas countryside for shuttle debris and human remains. He
worked closely with various local, state and federal agencies to include, FBI, NASA, USAR, Texas State
Police, Texas Forestry Division, and others.
During the hurricanes Katrina/Rita disaster, Mr. Goings was deployed on day one by DMORT and was on
the ground in Baton Rouge, St. Gabriel, Carville and New Orleans. For the first three weeks, he worked
with strike teams in New Orleans, coordinating their recovery efforts and assisted in establishing transfer
sites throughout the city, working daily with the U.S. Coast Guard, various branches of the military, and
other governmental and private agencies. After three weeks in the field, Mr. Goings was assigned to the
family assistance center and was later appointed Deputy Incident Commander with responsibility for
supervising the entire DMORT staff and operations at the FAC until DMORT was demobilized in March of
2006. On a daily basis he worked closely with Louisiana state agencies, FEMA, NDMS, USPHS, the
State Corner’s Office, Federal Protection Service, DNA experts, Victims Relief Ministries, local temporary
employment agencies, volunteers, and the Louisiana State Police Crime Lab. He then made the
transition from DMORT to working with Anser Analytical Services, a private company contracted by the
federal government to continue the family assistance operations once the federal resources were
demobilized. Mr. Goings served as the Deputy Director from March 2006 until June 2006 then as Director
from June 2006 until the center closed in late August 2006.
In February of 2009 he was deployed to Buffalo, NY in response to the Continental 3407 crash to assist in
the establishment and operations of the DMORT Family Assistance Center operations. Working with the
NTSB, local authorities and Continental staff members, the DMORT team was responsible for the
collection of ante mortem information to include DNA family reference samples for the purposes of
identification of those who perished.
Biographies - 3
PRESENTER BIOGRAPHIES
Chuck Smith has over 20 years of leadership experience in international deployment in human
remains recovery, disaster response planning, mass fatality management, and facilitation of training in
these areas. He provides emergency planning and consultative services to personnel and public service
organizations worldwide. Mr. Smith is a certified death investigator, an international educator and a
sought after resource for terrorist prevention tactical planning and disaster recovery initiatives. He
develops and facilitates critical, collaborative training seminars for First Responders with primary focus on
law enforcement agencies.
Mr. Smith is the Vice President of Blake Emergency Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Airline
Training Associates and international response organization that contracts for disaster services with
airlines, cruise lines and governmental jurisdictions in preparedness, training and response to mass
fatality events. Blake Emergency Services is headquartered in Combs, UK. In this position Chuck Smith
was:
 Recruited to build a Emergency Response Team for North and South America, successfully hiring
and training 100 team members in 18 months.
 Deployed to Douala, Cameroon for 5 weeks in response to Kenya Airways Flight 507 that
crashed on May 7th, 2007 resulting in 114 deaths.
Chuck Smith has been a member of DMORT Region VI (5-state region including Texas, Louisiana,
Oklahoma, Arkansas and New Mexico) since 1994 and the Deputy Commander of the team since 1999.
He was deployed by the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) to Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita,
New York World Trade Center, Oklahoma City Federal Building, Atlanta Olympic bombing, Oklahoma City
Tornado; and Kenya Airways Flight 507, 2001 American Airlines Flight 587, TWA 800, Swiss Air 111,
Egypt Air 990, Alaska Air crashes and Peruvian Airline Flight 990. These deployments included the
following responsibilities:

Served as Deputy Incident Commander for Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, in charge of forward
operations. Promoted to full Incident Commander 21 days post landfall and until completion 3/3/2006.

Assigned to Chief Medical Examiner Office for 3.5 months to direct the Identification Section in
response to September 11th New York City World Trade Center Attack.

As part of World Trade Center team, reviewed and revised identification standards and verified
remains prior to release, resulting in saving integrity of process and assuring release of correct
remains.

Oversaw body identification, release and other response measures for November 12th, 2001
American Airlines flight 587 that crashed in Queens.
Biographies - 4
PRESENTER BIOGRAPHIES

Deployed to Denver as part of nationwide top-off exercise to simulate a chemical attack, which
resulted in creating “best practices” for future emergency response.

Responsible for search and recovery in response to May 1999, Oklahoma City Tornado that killed
44.

Developed highly effective tools and techniques of locating missing persons in 1995 Oklahoma
City Bombing, which predicted most probable recovery locations, reduced recovery time to 16
days and significantly decreased tax-payer dollars.
Mr. Smith has been a faculty instructor with Louisiana State University Academy of Counter Terrorist
Education in Baton Rouge, LA since 2002. This program is sponsored by the Office of Justice Programs
for State & Local Domestic Preparedness Support to provide critical training and terrorism awareness to
emergency response personnel in all 50 states and 6 U.S. territories. In this position he was:
 Selected to develop training and teach classes for nation’s emergency response community
through Center for Domestic Preparedness and National Domestic Preparedness Consortium.
 Certified in and teaches numerous Department of Homeland Security classes including Law
Enforcement Response to WMD, Emergency Response to Domestic Biological Incidents, Public
Safety Sampling of Biological Incidents, Prevention
Biographies - 5