Jay M. Cohen, undersecretary for science and technology at the Department of Homeland Security, will deliver the keynote address at the "
Interoperability for Informed Emergency Response" conference being held in Washington D.C., on March 15, 2007. The conference includes technical and policy discussions, and culminates with a demonstration of voice and data interoperability technologies on Capitol Hill. It is co-hosted by COMCARE, the American Red Cross, and the Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium.
"Under Secretary Cohen has been a very vocal proponent for improved emergency response communications," said Richard Taylor, COMCARE Chair and Executive Director of the North Carolina Wireless 911 Board. "His statements promoting innovative solutions like radio over IP to link currently incompatible radio systems reflect the forward-looking perspective he brings to DHS. We're very happy to have Under Secretary Cohen as an ally in our push for interoperable voice and data communications."
Undersecretary Cohen is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy. From 1991 to 1993 he served as commander of the USS L.Y. Spear (AS 36), which was deployed in the Persian Gulf in support of Operation Desert Storm. Cohen was promoted to the rank of rear admiral in October 1997 and in June 1999 assumed duties as director of the Navy Y2K Project Office responsible for transitioning all Navy computer systems into the new century. He then spent five-and-a-half years as Chief of Naval Research. He was sworn in to his current position at the Department of Homeland Security on August 10, 2006.
The "Interoperability for Informed Emergency Response" conference will be an informative day of discussions about the importance of modern information technology and interoperability for informed emergency response. To do their jobs as effectively as possible, responders and other practitioners involved in emergency response efforts need easy, rapid access to essential data, and to be able to share that data with other agencies. The goal of the conference is to help accelerate the knowledge acquisition and sharing process in order to provide more timely, accurate and efficient response. That means an approach that crosses domains, allowing responders to access the information they need from other agencies and organizations and the private sector when they need it.
