Ric Skinner, a Certified Geographic Information Systems Professional (GISP), is an experienced consultant and researcher whose expertise includes health geographics, hospital & healthcare preparedness, GIS and environmental monitoring and assessment. He is internationally recognized for "pushing the GIS envelope" in diverse hospital/healthcare areas: clinical/medical, health services & resources, and "hospital-land" security. He has fifteen years experience in "Health Geographics", a term he coined in the mid-1990s to recognize the application of GIS technology in hospitals and healthcare. In addition to his career in Health Geographics Ric has 23 years experience as a Certified Fisheries Scientist and Certified Environmental Professional in environmental monitoring and assessment, including fisheries ecology, aquatic bioassay/biomonitoring, state & federal environmental permitting, wetlands assessment & mitigation, and facility siting. During his Health Geographics career (1994-present) Ric has provided independent consulting services to hospitals and a national health information company, held a position as Senior Research Scientist for three years (1999-2001) with the New Jersey Dept. of Health and Senior Services, Cancer Epidemiology Service/State Cancer Registry, and served as the Health Dept.'s representative on the NJ GIS Committee. In 2001, he provided GIS support to CDC during its anthrax bioterrorism investigation at NJ postal facilities by creating internal maps of equipment, personnel areas, and ventilation system for CDC's analysis of FBI and NIOSH anthrax sampling locations. More recently (2002-2007), Ric served as Program Manager at Baystate Medical Center's Health Geographics Program (HGP; Springfield, MA) -- the only hospital-based full time GIS department in the U. S. While there, he managed the HGP team and participated in a variety of GIS projects including epidemiology, automated vehicle dispatch & tracking/GPS systems, facilities management, hospital/healthcare preparedness, Hazard Vulnerability Assessment, and medical/clinical research. He served on the hospital's Emergency Management Committee. In June 2007 he participated as a healthcare representative during the Joint Chiefs of Staff Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration, Trial 3.27 - Integrated Information Management System. He served as a Civilian Emergency Manager Role Player and provided numerous briefings to visiting U.S. and European military and defense contractors during the two week's assignment in Dahlgren, VA. Currently Ric has his own consultancy, The Stoneybrook Group LLC. It is a Veteran-owned Business based in Sturbridge, MA, and offers services to clients in hospital/healthcare preparedness, health geographics, and GIS. He has been a Role Player, Observer, and Controller in several HSEEP Table Top and Functional exercises. Ric initiated and co-chaired the International Health Geographics Conference held in 1998 (Baltimore, MD) and 2000 (Washington, DC). He co-edited the book Geographic Information Systems and Health Applications (2003) and has authored or co-authored more than 100 publications, presentations and reports on topics in hospital preparedness, Health Geographics and environmental management. He is a co-founder and on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Health Geographics (www.ij-healthgeographics.com). He actively participates in IAEM, BCPWHO, DMIS-SIG, OPEN-SIG, EIIP, Yahoo Groups Emergency Management Forum, Google Groups Hospital Emergency Management Forum, and URISA (including his role as Program Co-chair for the URISA GIS/Public Health Conf. June 2009).
