2007 LEPA Award Winners

Dedication Awards 

Randall Chaney

Chief of HazMat, Bossier City Fire Department

Mr. Chaney has been involved in acquiring grants and training props related to emergency preparedness.  He has developed home security awareness and trained, encouraged, and arranged others to be trained in homeland security related subjects.  Mr. Chaney works well in fostering relationships between emergency agencies. 

Marcia Fries & Asha Green

Louisiana Hospital Association/HRSA Grant Coordinators

Ms. Fries and Ms. Green have worked closely with the Department of Health & Hospitals and the Louisiana Hospital Association to bring about a “mission impossible” task– to bring about closer coordination and collaboration between public and private sectors. The litany of achievements of DHH, LHA and ESF-8 is considerable– all brought about because of their humbleness of attitude.  They ensured accuracy and accountability for over $7 million in HRSA grant dollars being distributed to hospitals across the state.  They demonstrated hard work and effort in maintaining a system of lead hospitals and coordinators (primarily a volunteer based system).  Their efforts facilitated Regional Medical Trainings for over three years.  They were instrumental following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in organizing intelligence, facilitating evacuations of hospitals, and coordinating the needs of hospitals along with the Louisiana Hospital Association.  

Jeffrey Giering

Governors Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness

Mr. Giering has been instrumental in recent deployments of the GOHSEP Preliminary Damage Assessment Team to various areas within the State of Louisiana.  His tremendous work ethic helped successfully establish Area Commands for each deployment. These deployments have taken Mr. Giering away from his wife and two young children for long periods of time; however, his motivation and desire to provide first class service to the citizens of Louisiana never wavered. This road has not been an easy passage; Mr. Giering, along with fellow employees had little to work with, but were able to cohesively come together as a team to make these deployments successful.  His dedication and loyalty to service has been exemplary.  Mr. Giering’s professionalism, integrity, and personal commitment to this agency has been recognized statewide.  

Louisiana State University National Center for Biomedical Research and Training

LSU-NCBRT is a national leader in the development of emergency management and homeland security related training curriculum. Their training programs range from law enforcement response, CAMEO for WMD, Catastrophic Healthcare Management, and specialized training programs relating to the Target Capabilities.  This program has been a supporter of LEPA through the years, and continues to provide emergency management and WMD training  programs on a national level, and more importantly to the first responder and emergency management community of Louisiana.  As a member of the National Domestic Preparedness Consortium, LSU-NCBRT is a leader on the national level in the development of national strategies to prepare, protect and respond to a multitude of natural and man-made events.  The strength of LSU-NCBRT can be attributed to the use of seasoned and experienced first responders.  Many of these instructors are natives, and are personal or company members of LEPA. 

Anthony Summers

West Baton Rouge Parish Homeland Security and 9-1-1

Mr. Summers began his career in Emergency Management as a Junior Volunteer Firefighter in 1994.  He became a full-fledged volunteer member with the Port Allen Fire Department in 1996, and in 1999, became active in Emergency Management in West Baton Rouge Parish.  He started out as a volunteer amateur radio operator and eventually worked full-time with the Parish Office of Homeland Security Emergency Preparedness and 9-1-1.  One of his biggest accomplishments is the Triparish Emergency Preparedness Handbook, an important publication and educational tool.  Mr. Summers explored distribution techniques for the handbook before approaching the Iberville and Point Coupee parishes about a joint distribution effort in all three parishes through the Sunshine Pages Telephone Directories.  He obtained a grant from Dow Chemical to include the handbook insert in 36,000 copies of the telephone directory distributed to the three parishes.  Mr. Summers has been successful in keeping the booklet in circulation for three years, and is dedicated to keeping programs such as these available for the residents of West Baton Rouge Parish. 

East Baton Rouge Parish Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness 

Jonathan Adams, Alexa J. Andrews, Nicholas Barber, Mary Barrett, Ashley Cox, Sanita Evans, Scott Hodgins

Mayor Melvin “Kip” Holden, Tuesday Mills, Walter Monsour, JoAnne Moreau, Peter Newkirk, Jared Sandifer

and Norman Ryan.

Lifetime Achievement Awards

Gerald Falgoust

Director of Emergency Preparedness, St. James Parish

Mr. Falgoust retired in 1992 from Gulf/Chevron after 24 years in the field of Accounting, Finance and Management.  He has served as Director of Emergency Preparedness since 1993.  Mr. Falgoust is currently an Advisory Board Member for Louisiana Technical College, an Executive Member of the South Central Planning Safe Community Task Force, and an Executive Board Member for Region 3.  He is a past chairman and current member of the Southeast Hurricane Task Force.  He was the recipient of the 1998 LEPA award for dedicated and outstanding service, the 2002 LA Emergency Response Commission award for outstanding commitment to public safety, and the 2005 LEPA Leadership award.

Bob Hayes

Louisiana State Police, Retired

Mr. Hayes worked in the Right-to-Know Unit of Louisiana State Police for over 19 years.  His job classification was Environmental Project Specialist 3 and his responsibilities included reviewing hazardous materials incident notifications made by regulated industries to the State Police Hazardous Materials Hotline, initiating enforcement action involving civil penalties, developing rules and guidance documents for incident reporting, working with other departments of state government on hazardous materials-related issues, presenting at state and national conferences on Louisiana's Right-to-Know regulations, and handling telephone and written inquiries on the above subjects. Bob handled responsibilities of administrative matters for the LERC as a member of the Commission beginning in 1992. He served as Vice-Chair of the Commission and Chair of the Public Information Committee until his retirement in 2007. Bob received his Louisiana Emergency Manager (LEM) Certification in 2003. He received the National Notable Achievement award in 2005 from EPA and the LEPC Meritorious Service Medal award from the Greater Houston Local Emergency Planning Committee in 2005.  Bob promoted the vision of right-to-know throughout the state.  Every person in Louisiana with even a limited involvement with right-to-know programs knew Bob.  Bob's energy and knowledge were exemplary.

Valor Awards 

James Saucier

Lafourche Fire Protection District #1

On August 20, 2004, at approximately 1:22 p.m., Lafourche Fire District No. 1 Volunteer Fire Department was dispatched to a house fire with a handicapped subject still in the residence.  Mr. Saucier arrived on the scene, found the rear door of the house, and opened it.  Smoke filled the house from the ceiling to about three feet from the floor.  There were no visible flames.  Mr. Saucier noticed a lady lying on the floor.  He crawled into the home and attempted to pull her out.  He was unable to move her alone, and summoned a deputy on the scene to assist him.  They removed the lady from the residence.  Mr. Saucier then retrieved her wheelchair.  She was transported to the hospital and later released. 

Roland Guillot & Bridgett Rupe

Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office

On December 5, 2006, Deputies Guillot and Rupe were shot while attempting to arrest a subject in a stolen vehicle.  Deputy Guillot was shot in the back and had to have debris removed from his wounds.  His life was saved by the protective vest he was wearing.  Deputy Rupe was shot in the left arm and underwent an eight-hour surgery to restore blood flow to her lower arm. 

Mr. Guillot is a native of Thibodaux and an Army veteran, having served overseas in both Operation Desert Shield/Storm in 1989, and in Korea in 1994.  He worked as a road deputy with the Lafourche Parish Sheriff's Office from 1996-2001, and then rejoined again in 2004.  He is currently a Field Training Officer for the Sheriff’s Office.

Ms. Rupe is originally from Gretna and served in the United States Air Force in Kansas before returning to Louisiana.  She graduated from the Lafourche Parish Regional Training Academy and worked in the Patrol Division.

Presidential Award

Andrew Mosher