People

Ms. Srinivasan is the Founder and President of VPC, a result of her passion for organization, creation, and purpose. In 2006, she founded VPC to provide personalized services to all levels of government with the goal to reduce risk in communities across the United States. She directs all planning, outreach, disaster management, grants management, and web design work for VPC, and oversees the marketing, business development, internal organization, and accounting aspects of the firm. She has recently established operations in India to cater to the need for innovative, integrated, and streamlined disaster management services in Southeast Asia.

Ms. Srinivasan has over 25 years of experience in policy consultation, project development/ implementation, community/land use planning, stakeholder engagement, and public outreach. Ms. Srinivasan’s expertise lies in managing complex programs with federal, state, and local clients with the goal of improving disaster resiliency in communities. Ms. Srinivasan has served as Project/Program Manager for over 35 projects in the last five years.

Ms. Srinivasan is a Certified Planner with the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) and a Certified Floodplain Manager (CFM). She is a graduate of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Program.

Mr. Pathade serves as Chief Technology Officer and has over 35 years of experience of providing software solutions that leverage his strong engineering background. Pat has extensive experience in putting together teams, designing, and building IT systems, and managing technology projects from initial conception through final deployment and customer acceptance. His expertise stretches over a wide variety of leading-edge technologies and enterprise application development platforms. 

He is a certified Salesforce Cloud Consultant and Drupal Consultant and specializes in enterprise architecture. He has developed a business practice to provide comprehensive business and technology consulting services including long and short-term IT planning and strategy development, workflow and business process optimization, requirements analysis, systems integration, project management, and systems and network assessment.

Mr. Pathade is an expert in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and multiple languages and platforms including Alfresco Digital Business Platform, Drupal, Salesforce, Talend, Open EdX, the semantic technology stack, and other open-source products.

Ms. Samonisky serves as the Project Manager, Lead Emergency Management Planner, and the Marketing and Outreach Coordinator for VPC. She has over 10 years experience with a Public Safety and Emergency Management background. She specializes in Hazard Mitigation Planning, Emergency Operations Planning, Continuity Planning, Post-Disaster Response and Outreach, and Special Events Planning. Her planning products are focused on multiple levels of stakeholder engagement and extensive inter-departmental coordination.

Ms. Samonisky has an eye for combining design with functionality, and has created one-pagers, checklists, pocket guides, and flow charts for a variety of purposes and clients. She breaks down complex processes or information into easily digestible bites. Ms. Samonisky has also designed and developed websites for VPC, MSGIC, and other clients.

Ms. Samonisky recently served on the Maryland Heritage Areas Program Grant Review Panel. She also served as the Outreach Subcommittee Chair for the Maryland State Geographic Information Committee (MSGIC).

Mr. Estrain serves as a Resiliency and Recovery Planner, Hazard Mitigation Specialist, and QA/QC Specialist for VPC. Mr. Estrain has a Master's Degree in Geography with a focus in Regional Planning. He has over 6 years of experience with a Community Planning background. He provides his expertise in Hazard Mitigation Planning, Land Use Planning, Emergency Management Planning, and Historic Preservation Planning.

Mr. Estrain has a true interest in getting to know, and working with, local communities. He has worked in a wide array of communities of different sizes to develop hazard mitigation plans, based on the local knowledge and experience of community residents, businesses, and organizations.

Mr. Estrain has worked with Federal partners on resiliency and recovery activities by developing materials to streamline the disaster recovery deployment process, including helping to develop: Strategic Communications Plans, Field Operations Manuals, Deployment Guides, and other useful documents. Mr. Estrain is currently a member of the American Planning Association – Maryland Chapter.

Dr. Colmenares has a 25-year track record of successfully improving the strategic planning, operations, and project/program management practices of disaster management agencies, businesses, and university research centers. He serves as VPC’s hazard mitigation and grants management Subject Matter Expert. Dr. Colmenares is recognized for his ability to work across cultural, sectorial, and professional barriers. He is bi-lingual (Spanish - English), and has extensive hazard mitigation experience in the US, Latin America, and the Caribbean. He is an expert in qualitative research, including program evaluation and policy analysis.

Dr. Colmenares serves as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) on natural hazard mitigation for FEMA’s Community Engagement and Risk Communication Program (CERC). He is a team member of CERC’s Mitigation Core Team developing and implementing Pilot programs for community outreach and mitigation capability assessments throughout FEMA’s 10 regions. He has developed training modules, white papers, and strategic guidance for client communities to build resiliency by removing traditional barriers to mitigation action.

Dr. Colmenares is a member of the Natural Hazard Mitigation Association, the Society for Applied Anthropology, and the International City Managers Association.

Mr. Henry serves as a planner for VPC and has over four years’ experience in emergency planning, coordination, threat analysis, and organization. Mr. Henry assists clients with the development of Continuity of Operations Plans, Technical Plans, meeting facilitation, and After-Action Reports from a variety of disasters, including natural and human-caused hazards. He has experience in developing and facilitating tabletop exercises, and drafting Emergency Operations Plans and Hazard Vulnerability Analyses.

Mr. Henry recently supported the Department of the Interior’s Office of Environmental Policy and Compliance. He supported the Environmental Response and Recovery (ERR) Team and assisted in the development and maintenance of new policy and guidance. 

Mr. Henry is familiar with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Emergency Preparedness Rule, and volunteered as an exercise evaluator for the 2017 Susquehanna Health / City of Williamsport full-scale Exercise in central Pennsylvania.

Mr. Yin serves as a Data Analyst for VPC. He specializes in data manipulation, data cleansing and visualization techniques, enabling the transformation of raw data into actionable information for decision-making purposes. One of his primary areas of expertise lies in Google Apps Script, a tool that allows for custom automation and the creation of tailored solutions within the Google ecosystem. He has extensive experience in developing scripts and automating processes in Google Sheets, enabling teams to save time and improve productivity by automating or eliminating repetitive tasks, generating reports, and creating interactive dashboards.

Mr. Yin is currently working with the General Services Administration (GSA) for the Federal Leasing Branch. He helps to maintain App Script stability as well as developing bespoke and ad hoc App Scripts and functions for multiple projects on Google Sheets, allowing the team to have faster access to data for visualization, reporting, and presentation.