Chris Bennett, Florida Monthly’s Most Intriguing Floridian (2006), is the Founder and CEO of both OneStorm, a free hurricane planning tool, and Ah-Ha! Media, an e-learning company. He is a graduate of Harvard University’s Technology, Innovation, Education master’s program, ranked first in the world for its kind. At Harvard, Chris focused on the design of e-learning environments, making the important connections between theory, design and practice. His expertise lies in the creation of online training and professional development programs, where he has over ten years of hands-on experience as the former CLO of Virtual Advisor.Prior to his learning experience at Harvard, Chris studied management and marketing at The Wharton School of business, graduating first in his class. Chris took a specific interest to e-business at Wharton where he gained the skills necessary to later create web-based educational programs timed accurately with market needs. During his three-year appointment as the Multimedia Design Program Manager for The Chubb Institute, Chris achieved over 13 professional certifications, including Certified Technical Trainer (CTT+).
Mark Sudduth is the founder and operator of both HurricaneTrack.com, a hurricane preparedness web site, and the Hurricane Intercept Research Team, a mobile field unit that observes and records various tropical cyclone measurements. He has been studying hurricanes for over 12 years.
He has worked with Lowe’s Home Improvement stores as their hurricane preparedness expert, and Sprint has sponsored Mark’s research efforts since 2001. Sprint provides Mark and his team with cutting edge mobile-broadband technology, enabling them to send live weather video and up-to-the-minute weather data.
Among numerous other awards and recognitions, Mark won the Project Impact Award from FEMA in 1999, from his work to educate North Carolinians about hurricanes and hurricane preparedness. Click here to read Mark’s full autobiography.
Heidi VanderVelde is a graduate of the University of South Florida, holding a B.A. in Literature and Writing with a minor in Biomedical Sciences. She plans to continue her education further, as she currently takes additional courses in creative writing, psychology, and English. Her professional background is mainly in education, however, her passion has always been for writing. She has work published in USF’s literary journal, “The Thread,” and is currently working on several creative projects.
As a contributing editor of OneStorm, her mission is to inspire people to prepare for hurricanes and disasters. Her interest in hurricanes comes from personal experience: at age 9, her home was flooded by the No-Name Storm. The house then caught on fire due to an electrical shortage, and everything was ruined by soot, water, or fire. Her family had done little to prepare for storms, and had they been prepared, her home may have been saved. Luckily, everyone in her family was unharmed by the flood and fire, but as she grew older, she began to realize that preparation is key to many things in life.
Tags: chris bennett, onestorm
