Meeting Details

Loss of Electric Power Grid(s), A Nationwide Catastrophic Critical Infrastructure Event

Date: Thursday, May 22^nd, 2014

Location: SRP Information Services Building (ISB), 1600 N Priest Dr, Tempe, AZ 85281

Speaker: Kenneth Chrosniak, EMPact America

Topic: "Loss of Electric Power Grid(s), A Nationwide Catastrophic Critical Infrastructure Event"

The discussion will encompass: overall grid vulnerability, infrastructure inter-dependencies, types of Electromagnetic pulses (EMP), threats (cyber-nuclear-GMD), known risks, known mitigation techniques, actions to date, what’s not being done, what should be done, federal inaction, and individual State protective/survival initiatives. Discussion will include pending federal legislation by Trent Franks, the SHIELD and CIPA acts.

Speaker Bio:
Ken Chrosniak enlisted in the Army in 1965, and commissioned through Regular Army Officer Candidate School. He went on to complete 37 years of combined service in the Regular Army, Army Reserve, and National Guard, and was advanced to the rank of Brigadier General by New York Governor George Pataki in 2005. He has an undergraduate degree in Secondary Education from Daemen College, and a Masters in Education from Saint Bonaventure University, and is a 1990 Army War College graduate.

Ken retired from active duty in 1998 as an instructor at the Army War College, where he transitioned to civilian faculty. In 2002 he was recalled to active duty service serving two years on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, where he helped write the National Military Strategic Plan for the War on Terror. He then went on to serve in Baghdad, Iraq, as Chief of Staff of the Strategy Plans and Assessments Office, and later as Commander of the Abu Ghraib Forward Operating Base and detention facility. Upon release from active duty in 2005, Ken returned to Army War College instructor duties for one year when he was again recalled to active service for two years as Chief of Staff of the Army Asymmetric Warfare Office in the Pentagon. He is presently an Instructor in the Center for Strategic Leadership’s Mission Command and Cyber warfare Division.

He has served in varied command and staff assignments in the U.S. and overseas, including Vietnam, Bosnia, Kuwait, and Iraq. Significant decorations are the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star Medal, the Good Conduct Medal, and the Combat Action Badge. Ken is an active Firefighter with Carlisle Fire and Rescue Company, a member of the Carlisle Cumberland-Goodwill Ambulance Company, and EMPact America.