Meet the Team

Carol Christians is the Principal Office Specialist with the Metro Health and Medical Preparedness Coalition. Her work in support of the Coalition includes grant invoicing, MNTrac training and account set-up, event logistics, fit-test training work, contracts, and support of the planning, response, and recovery activities of the Coalition. Carol has been employed in healthcare for many years and her past experience includes clinic management and operations, provider relations, revenue cycle operations, compliance, emergency management, workplace violence mitigation, critical incident stress debriefing, and AHPCP certification for healthcare business continuity. She also served as a hospice volunteer for many years. Carol graduated from Metropolitan State University with a BA in Human Services and a minor in psychology.

Ken Combs is the Metro Region Exercise & Training Coordinator.   He will focus on Exercises and Training for the Metro Health & Medical Preparedness Coalition. This includes updating and writing the Metro Coalition plans. Ken has over 20 years of experience in Emergency Management and Healthcare. Ken most recently worked at Children’s Minnesota as their Emergency Preparedness Program Manager. Prior to contributing at Children’s Minnesota Ken was with Mayo Clinic Health System as their Regional Emergency Preparedness Manager in Southwest Minnesota. He was also closely connected with the Emergency Management community as a Senior Advisory Committee Member of the South Central Healthcare Coalition. Ken is a certified Emergency Manager (CEM®) with the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM), has earned his Basic Emergency Management Certification through Homeland Security and Emergency Management (HSEM), and is trained in FEMA’s Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP) Program.

John L. Hick is a faculty emergency physician at Hennepin Healthcare and a Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical School. He serves as the Deputy Medical Director for Hennepin County Emergency Medical Services and Medical Director for Emergency Preparedness at Hennepin Healthcare. He is also Assistant Medical Director for LifeLink III. He served the Minnesota Department of Health as the Medical Director for the Office of Emergency Preparedness from 2002-2014 and as the Manager for the COVID-19 Statewide Healthcare Coordination Center. He also currently works part-time for US Health and Human Services (HHS/ASPR) as an Advisor to the National Hospital Preparedness Program and as lead editor for the ASPR Technical Resources, Assistance Center, and Information Exchange (TRACIE) website. He is an expert on hospital preparedness and crisis standards of care issues and has published over one hundred peer-reviewed papers dealing with hospital preparedness for contaminated casualties, disaster standards of care, and surge capacity. He has co-chaired or been a member of multiple National Academies of Medicine committees.

Emily Moilanen is a Regional Healthcare Preparedness Coordinator with the Metro Health and Medical Preparedness Coalition. Through the Coalition Emily works with long term care, home care, and hospice agencies to coordinate planning, response and recovery activities critical to an effective response to an event or emergency with public health and medical implications. Previously, Emily spent five years at the Minnesota Department of Health in the Center for Emergency Preparedness & Response. Her work there focused on emergency planning for populations with access and functional needs as well as community engagement. Emily graduated from Hamline University with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and from the University of Minnesota with a Master of Public Health degree.