WITH HIS COMBINED EXPERIENCE IN PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION AND CRISIS MANAGEMENT Gleason has emerged as a national leader in transit emergency preparedness. His firm, Communiqué, is an NCI affiliate that provides training for transit agencies, transit associations and departments of transportation across the country.

Recent projects include “Transit Emergency Planning Guidance” for the State of California – a guideline for emergency preparedness, prevention, response and recovery – and the “National RTAP Threat and Vulnerability Toolbox”, an interactive DVD and training workbook on transit system threat assessment.

Gary Gleason has worked in emergency management since 1998, having served as a public information officer for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and his local volunteer fire department. He has worked on more than 20 national disasters including hurricanes, fires, floods, tornadoes, and severe winter storms.

Assignments of note include work on the National Interagency Wildfire Prevention Education Team in 2000 and 2002, media liaison work for FEMA's Urban Search and Rescue Task Forces at Ground Zero following the attacks on the World Trade Center, and subsequent crisis communications planning for the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City.

Prior to working in emergency management Gleason spent six years as the director of marketing and planning for the Roaring Fork Transit Agency in Aspen, Colorado, and served as president of the Colorado Association of Transit Agencies.

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