The University of Texas at Arlington and Dallas

Dr. Abraham David Benavides is a professor of public administration and management at the University of Texas at Dallas in the Public and Nonprofit Management Program in the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences. Previous to his appointment in 2022, Dr. Benavides taught for 20 years at the University of North Texas. Over the years, Dr. Benavides has written a number of academic journal articles, book chapters, and practitioner-oriented pieces, that have addressed issues facing local governments. He has delivered national and international presentations on various topics and is one of the top teachers/instructors in the field. Dr. Benavides’ biggest interest is assuring that the next generation of public servants are well prepared to serve the people.

Rusty Henley is a Battalion Chief with the City of Farmers Branch Texas Fire Department and the Fire Chief of the Nocona, Texas Volunteer Fire Department. His 25 years of experience encompasses a large spectrum of emergency responses from urban to rural including numerous major wildfire incidents. He holds a Master Firefighter certificate from the Texas Commission on Fire Protection, a Bachelor’s Degree in EMS Management from Texas Tech University, and is a graduate of the National Fire Academy.

Chief Lee is the fire chief in Garland, Texas where he has served the department, and the community, since August 2016.  Prior to that date, Chief Lee was the fire chief in Murphy, Texas where he served two years as an assistant chief and eight years as the fire chief.  His career began in Lewisville, Texas with the Lewisville Fire Department.  His service in that community began in May of 1979.  His wife and kids would share that his passion is one of service and a motto of “Can’t Never Could” to which he strives to remind himself daily of that motto.

Dr. Maribel Martinez-Mejia has over 16 years of experience in Emergency Management and has coordinated responses for numerous incidents, declared disasters, large-scale special events, and COVID operations to include hospital/mass fatality coordination, COVID mass testing, and mass vaccination operations.  She is currently the Director of Emergency Preparedness for the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) where she works with professional emergency managers to enhance the protection and resiliency from natural disasters and terroristic events. Dr. Martinez-Mejia is an International Association of Emergency Managers Certified Emergency Manager and has been a remote instructor with the West Texas A&M University Emergency Management Administration Degree Program.  She currently is appointed as the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Advisor for the International Association of Emergency Managers Region 6 Executive Board and has served as an Emergency Management Association of Texas Board member and on the State of Texas Emergency Management Professional Development Committee.  Dr. Martinez-Mejia a co-host for The Current of EM Podcast, aims to address issues facing Emergency Managers today.

Dr. Dhriti P. Stocks serves as Senior Director of Development for Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas, overseeing corporate partnership and engagement and government giving to build girls of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place. Dr. Stocks has spent more than a decade in nonprofit fundraising, overseeing corporate giving, individual membership, and grants and foundations relations for organizations such as the Children’s Medical Center Foundation, the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, and Junior Achievement of Dallas. She began her nonprofit career as an AmeriCorps member serving with VolunteerNow. Dr. Stocks has spent her adult life in the Dallas area, following a move from Sydney, Australia, and is a proud graduate of Austin College and the University of Texas at Dallas with her PhD in Public Affairs. She has also earned her CFRE designation and is a graduate of the CCC Leadership Program and the Communities Foundation of Texas Emerging Leaders in Philanthropy