## Members of Blue Ribbon Panel on Aerial Wildland Firefighting

*The Panel was commissioned by Chief of U.S. Forest Service and Director
of Bureau of Land Management to identify facts and key issues pertaining
aviation safety and operational performance in support wildland
firefighting on August 15, 2002.*

## 

## James E. Hall (co-chair)

Jim Hall is a leading expert on transportation safety and security,
crisis management and government relations, having served government and
private clients for more than 35 years.

He served as counsel to the Senate Subcommittee on Intergovernmental
Relations and a member of the staff of U.S. Senator Al Gore, Sr. He
joined the administration of Tennessee Governor Ned McWherther as a
member of the governor\'s cabinet and served as director of the state\'s
Planning Office for five years. He returned to Washington, D.C. to serve
as chief of staff for Senator Harlan Mathews. President Clinton
nominated him to serve as a member of the National Transportation Safety
Board, in 1993 and was named N.T.S.B. chairman from 1994 to 2001.

As N.T.S. B chair, Hall oversaw a period of unprecedented activity as
the N.T.S.B. investigated numerous major aviation, rail, pipeline and
maritime accidents in the U.S. and assisted in many international
accident investigations. Under his leadership, the safety board issued
landmark safety studies on commuter airlines, the air tour industry, the
performance and use of child restraint systems, the dangers to children
from passenger‑side airbags in automobiles, personal watercraft, transit
bus operations and railway passive grade crossings. In 1996, President
Clinton named Hall to the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and
Security. Hall is currently serving on the National Academy of
Engineering\'s Committee on Combating Terrorism and the Aviation
Institute Advisory Board of George Washington University.

**James B. Hull (co-chair)**

### Jim Hull is the State Forester and Director of the Texas Forest Service in College Station, Texas

He is a 36-year veteran of the Texas Forest Service, having graduated
from the School of Forestry at Stephen F. Austin State University in
Nacogdoches, Texas. He has extensive experience in all areas of
forestry, especially forest management, policy, wildfire protection and
administration. In 1996, Mr. Hull was selected by The Texas A&M Board of
Regents to become the 7^th^ State Forester of Texas. The Texas Forest
Service was established in 1915 as part of this Land Grant Institution.
As Director of Texas Forest Service, the Texas Legislature made him
responsible for all matters pertaining to forestry in Texas.

Mr. Hull provides leadership on numerous forestry boards and
organizations at the state, regional and national level. He serves as
chair of the Fire Protection Committee of National Association of State
Foresters and as the NASF representative on the National Wildland Fire
Leadership Council. He was elected as a Fellow in the Society of
American Foresters in 1988 and has received a number of other
prestigious honors and awards throughout his career.

#### KEN JOHNSON

KEN JOHNSON received a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University
of British Columbia and later qualified as a Certified General
Accountant. He qualified as a pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force and
gained advanced flying experience as a civilian pilot and in the Air
Force reserve which included arctic surveillance, transport, search &
rescue and fighter duties. In 1967 he joined the Department of Transport
as a civil aviation inspector. In 1972 he became the planning manager
for the Department's Central Region in Winnipeg. Following an assignment
as a policy advisor with the Arctic Transportation Agency, in 1975 he
became Regional Manager, Airports, Pacific Region, responsible for the
operation and development of twenty-five airports, including Vancouver
International. In 1978 he became Director of Airport Policy, Planning
/Programming at headquarters in Ottawa.

In 1982 he became the Director of the Department's Aviation Safety
Bureau. In 1984 he was appointed Executive Director of the new,
independent Canadian Aviation Safety Board. He led that organization as
its senior public servant and contributed to the conceptual planning for
a multi-modal safety board to encompass the air, marine, rail and
pipeline modes of transport. In 1990 he was appointed Executive Director
of the newly established Transportation Safety Board of Canada. He was
the TSB's chief operating officer as it developed national and
international capabilities in safety investigation until his retirement
from the public service in 2001. He has an airline transport pilot's
licence and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Transport.

##### **Earl H. McKinney JR**

Earl McKinney of Bowling Green, Ohio, is an Assistant Professor in the
Business School at Bowling Green State University. Prior to assuming
that position, he served in the United States Air Force. His military
career included 2500 hours of flying time as an aircraft commander and
instructor pilot in T-37, T-38, F-4, and TG-7 aircraft. He also attended
Air Force Safety School and served as a Wing Flying Safety Officer. He
has an undergraduate degree from the Air Force Academy, a Masters of
Engineering from Cornell University, and a Ph.D. from the University of
Texas. He served on the faculty of the Air Force Academy for 9 years.

Dr McKinney has published a number of articles on aviation safety. He
has examined the role of flying experience on crisis decision making,
the impact of the familiarity of pilots on crew performance, and the
role of communication on early flightdeck team development. He received
a grant to study flightdeck communication and performance from the Air
Force Air Mobility Command, riding with crews flying refueling missions
during Red Flag exercises at Nellis Nevada. He continues to fly, holding
a commercial license. Dr McKinney's has consulted on a number of
aviation projects. He has worked on extending Crew Resource Management
training to ground controllers for a major carrier. He also contributed
to a multi year Air Force study that considered employment options for
new technologies such as Uninhabited Air Vehicles (UAVs).

**William B. Scott**

William B. Scott is the Rocky Mountain Bureau Chief for Aviation Week &
Space Technology magazine, based in Colorado Springs, CO. In 18 years
with Aviation Week, he also has served as Senior National Editor in
Washington, and in Avionics and Senior Engineering Editor positions in
Los Angeles. Focusing primarily on advanced aerospace technology,
business, flight testing and military operations, he has written more
than 2,500 stories for the magazine, and has received ten editorial
awards.

Scott is a Flight Test Engineer graduate of the U.S. Air Force Test
Pilot School and a licensed commercial pilot with instrument and
multi‑engine ratings. In 12 years of military and

civilian flight testing‑‑plus evaluating aircraft for Aviation Week‑‑he
has logged approximately 2,000 flight hours on 53 types of aircraft.
Scott holds a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from California State
University‑Sacramento.

*Consultant to the Blue Ribbon Panel*

# 

**Albert C. Hyde**

Al Hyde is a senior staff consultant on public management innovation for
the Brookings Institution\'s Center for Public Policy Education. Mr.
Hyde led Brookings' management consulting and training efforts for an
agency wide major reengineering and reorganization effort with the U.S.
Customs Service (1993-1994), and has worked on reengineering projects
with the National Library of Medicine, the National Park Service, and
the National Security Agency (1995-1997). Currently he is working with
the U. S. Forest Service on several projects involving strategic
thinking for Fire & Aviation Management.

As a private sector consultant in the early 1980's, he has over a decade
of experience working with petrochemical, construction, and engineering
firms designing quality, customer service, and performance measurement
systems both in the United States and Germany. His academic career
includes being a visiting professor at the American Univer­sity's
Department of Public Administration, in Washington, D.C from 1992 to
1997. Previously, he was the chair of the Policy and Public Management
Departments at the University of Pittsburgh and at San Francisco State
University, and has held faculty appointments at the University of
Colorado at Denver and the University of Houston-Clear Lake. Prior to
his academic career, he was a foreign-service officer in the U.S.
Department of State and a senior program evaluator with the New York
State Legislative Commission on Expenditure Review.

Mr. Hyde received his Ph.D. in political science from the State
University of New York at Albany.