Ben Podsiadlo Ben is a state homeland security official overseeing programs that build and sustain core capabilities to address antiterrorism in the Commonwealth.  As a career paramedic and EMS Chief for major EMS systems, he was the COVID-19 Incident Commander and Vaccine Coordinator for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security testing and vaccination contractor, including to the Massachusetts State Police.  He has been the Incident Commander at numerous Mass Casualty Incidents and was the ranking tactical medical provider on a regional law enforcement SWAT team that responded to major high threat law enforcement and anti-terrorism missions.  He has extensive and eclectic national, state and local leadership, policy, legislative, planning, innovation, and education experience in mass casualty incident management, regional systems development and response improvement programs.  This includes active shooter hostile event response (ASHER), CBRNE response, opiate crisis response, homeland security / antiterrorism, time sensitive disease bundles (STEMI, Stroke, Trauma, Sepsis), advanced airway management and rapid sequence intubation, community and health care emergency management, and pandemic / public health emergency preparedness.  Most recently, he has supported the introduction of prehospital blood transfusions as an advancement in Homeland Security capabilities provide multidisciplinary response to mass casualty attacks as well as for enhanced force protection for specialty response teams.

Dr. David King  Dr. King received his medical degree from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, with board certification in general surgery, trauma surgery, and surgical critical care.  He is an Associate Professor of Surgery at the Harvard Medical School and an attending Trauma Surgeon at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He specializes in the medical and surgical care
of warriors wounded or injured in combat. He serves as a Colonel in the US Army with 22 years of forward combat experience in the Special Operations community with Tier 1 Special Mission Units. In 2016, he was awarded the Air Medal and is credited with the greatest “save” in United States military medical history, performing open heart surgery on an injured Ranger on a direct action mission. He is a prolific researcher and has over 100 peer-reviewed publications in the scientific literature along with continuous research funding from the Department of Defense over the past 15 years. He is also a super endurance athlete and has completed over 80 marathons and 12 Ironman Triathlons, including the IRONMAN World Championships in 2023.

Dr. Karen Dull is a full-time pediatric emergency trained physician at Boston Children’s Hospital and South Shore Hospital with 25 years of experience in pediatrics. She enjoys clinical practice and education of faculty, fellows, residents and medical students through simulation training. Dr. Dull holds a medical degree from SUNY at Buffalo, completed a pediatric residency at Pittsburgh Children’s Hospital, and completed a pediatric emergency medicine fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital. She is the mother of 3 current college students and one high school student, and loves to play racquet sports in her free time.

Daniel Perenick  Dan retired as a Sergeant with over 33 years of service with the Winchester, Massachusetts Police Department, 15 of which was as a School Resource Officer (SRO). He was the law enforcement co-chair of the Winchester Public School District Incident Management Team (IMT) and played an instrumental role in initiating, organizing, and training the Rescue Task Force (RTF) with the Winchester Fire and Police Departments. He was a founding member and former commander of the North Eastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council (NEMLEC) School Threat Assessment Response Systems (STARS), a forty plus member task force comprised of law enforcement officers, educators, fire service members and mental health professionals. He commanded this “one in the nation” task force that coordinates violence prevention, threat assessment and response efforts to provide a safe, orderly, and secure environment conducive to learning in over 500 of the region’s schools.

Dan was a member and a past President of the Massachusetts Juvenile Police Officers Association (MJPOA). He was also a member of the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO) where he held the national certification of Practitioner. He is a certified American Heart Association Basic Life Support (BLS) instructor and owner of Heart Start CPR & First Aid. He is the Senior Public Safety Liaison for BeSafe Technologies. He also proudly served six years with the Massachusetts Army National Guard as a Military Police Officer.  He earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Salem State University.

Dan has extensive training and experience in school and workplace safety and is a partner in A.C.T. for Safety, LLC consulting. He has worked with schools and private industry in creating safe school/workplace plans, implementing safety drills and exercises, building strong partnerships with local public safety agencies.