Brant D. Mitchell

Bio

Mr. Mitchell has over 25 years of professional work experience in disaster management. As Director of SDMI, he serves as the principal investigator on all major research projects and leads SDMI's research and development of decision support tools that provide critical information to decision makers during disasters. Prior to joining LSU, Mr. Mitchell served as the Deputy Director for Interoperability at the Louisiana Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness where he also served as the Chairman of the Statewide Interoperable Executive Committee. In this capacity, he was responsible for building the nation's largest statewide 700 MHz radio system which currently serves over 100,000 first responders in Louisiana. During the 2010 response to the BP Oil Spill, Brant led the efforts to coordinate and provide the U.S. Coast Guard mission critical voice communications by establishing GulfWIN, which involved providing hardware and software connections between disparate systems in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and five separate systems in Texas. GulfWIN allowed the USCG to have seamless voice communications from Corpus Christie, Texas to Pensacola, Florida during the BP Oil response. Mr. Mitchell was selected as a member of the Federal Communications Commission's Public Safety Advisory Committee for the Emergency Response Interoperability Committee in which he assisted in developing technical specifications for the eventual nationwide build out of a broadband network (FirstNET). In addition to his other roles, Mr. Mitchell is a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves where he is currently assigned to the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). In this capacity he serves as an Operations Officer to facilitate the restoration of emergency and commercial communications for areas impacted by disasters. Prior to joining the Army Reserves, Mr. Mitchell, was a member of the Louisiana National Guard where his assignments included Network Manager for the J-6 in Joint Forces Headquarters and Battalion Operations Officers, Brigade Planner, Company Commander, Scout Platoon Leader, and Bradley Platoon Leader in the 256th Infantry Brigade (Mechanized).

Certifications

• Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP)
• Certified Emergency Manager (CEM)
• Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification - Registered Provider (CMMC-RP)

Research Interests

Mr. Mitchell's research is focused on the development of decision support tools that integrate social vulnerability, hazard mapping and operational models to include the Advanced Circulation and Storm Surge Model (ADCIRC) and the Advanced Surge Guidance System (ASGS). Mr. Mitchell has also developed a GIS based active shooter program to assist first responders in enhancing their overall response and coordination to an actives shooter event within a school. Mr. Mitchell's projects have been funded by two U.S. Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Centers of Excellence - the Coastal Resiliency Center and the Maritime Security Center. Mr. Mitchell's research in maritime security has led to the development of multiple table-top exercise scenarios for port systems to enhance their capabilities to respond to an active shooter and cybersecurity attacks.

Select Publications

Meyer, Michelle & Mitchell, Brant & Van Zandt, Shannon & Nolan, Stuart. (2020). The 2016 Unexpected Mid-State Louisiana Flood: With Special Focus on

The Different Rescue and Recovery Responses It Engendered. 10.1007/978-3-030-27205-0_10. Renne, John & Wolshon, Brian & Mitchell, Brant. (2018). Evacuation and

Sheltering: Modelling, Management and Policy to Promote Resilience. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. 31. 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2018.04.006.

Meyer, Michelle & Mitchell, Brant & Purdum, J. & Breen, Kyle & Iles, Robert. (2018). Previous Hurricane Evacuation Decisions and Future Evacuation Intentions among Residents of Southeast Louisiana. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. 31. 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2018.01.003.

Wolshon, Brian & Zhang, Zhao & Parr, Scott & Mitchell, Brant & Pardue, John. (2015). Agent-based Modeling for Evacuation Traffic Analysis in Megaregion Road Networks. Procedia Computer Science. 52. 908-913. 10.1016/j.procs.2015.05.164.

Wolshon, Brian & Renne, John & Mitchell, Brant. (2015). Planning, Modeling, and Evaluating Transportation Systems for Emergency Evacuations. Journal of emergency management (Weston, Mass.). 13. 85-6. 10.5055/jem.2015.0221.