California Earthquake Early Warning Advisory Board Members

Bryan Cash joined the California Natural Resources Agency in 2005. As Assistant Secretary for Administration and Finance, he oversees 26 department finances. Bryan also serves as the Secretary’s designee on the State Coastal Conservancy, the California Catastrophe Response Council, and in other venues. Before working at the Agency, he worked for the California Department of Finance and the International Telecommunication Union in Geneva, Switzerland. Bryan holds a Bachelor of Arts in French and a master’s in international business. In his spare time, Bryan likes to hike, garden, try to play the guitar, and spends time with his family.

In November 2019, Giles Giovinazzi started as Senior Advisor to the California State Transportation Agency. Since February 2018, Giles served as the Chief of Staff and Federal Transportation Liaison at the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans). Giles had been serving as the Federal Transportation Liaison for Caltrans and the California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) since 2014. In 2016, he chaired the California Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act) Implementation Work Group and played a key role in Caltrans’ statewide FAST Act and Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) implementation efforts. He also oversaw CHSRA’s management of its $3.5 billion Federal Railroad Administration grant agreements, and he has drafted written testimony and coordinated witness preparation for U.S. Congressional hearings.

Prior to starting state service, Giles spent 15 years in Washington D.C. working with transportation, infrastructure, and economic development issues. From 2002 to 2014, he served as Democratic Staff Director to the U.S. House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, Aviation Subcommittee. Giles also served as Legislative Counsel to Congressman James P. McGovern (D-MA) where he had primary responsibility for the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee (Highways & Transit, Aviation and Water Resources Subcommittees) and the Natural Resources Committee. Giles earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Columbia University and a Juris Doctor from Tulane Law School. He’s also a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve, and he served in Afghanistan.

Melinda Grant was appointed Undersecretary at the California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency in January 2019. Previously, she served as deputy legislative secretary in the Office of Governor Gavin Newsom in 2019 and in the Office of Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. dating back to 2016. Before that, she was deputy director of legislation and policy review at the California Department of Consumer Affairs from 2014 to 2016 and an advocate at Platinum Advisors from 2006 to 2014. She was a legislative aide in the Office of California State Senator Kevin Murray from 2003 to 2006 and was a legislative analyst at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees from 2001 to 2003.

Grant is a member of the California State University Sacramento Governmental Alumni Association and Leadership California. She earned a Master of Arts degree in public administration from the University of San Francisco.

Lupita Sanchez Cornejo is the Director of External Affairs for AT&T overseeing legislative and community affairs for the Greater Los Angeles region. She is responsible for executing local strategies that achieve corporate legislative and regulatory objectives, presenting company positions to external stakeholders in key issue areas and managing community partnerships with non-profit organizations, philanthropic and corporate social responsibility, and consumer advocacy communities. She heads a team that works with policymakers across the Los Angeles region on AT&T’s new technology deployment and infrastructure investment. For 16 years, she has been a valuable part of the AT&T family company coordinating major modernization projects, delivering collaborative results in support of the company’s public policy agenda, and facilitating crucial broadband network investment and upgrades during a time of unparalleled transformation and tremendous growth.

Prior to joining AT&T, she served as a senior legislative strategist in the Riordan mayoral administration serving as Assistant Deputy Mayor for Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs, where she was a member of the mayor’s executive team. In her role as Assistant Deputy Mayor, she was responsible for oversight of the mayor’s local legislative agenda, city council relations, community affairs as well as key liaison to the Latino community. Lupita’s public service career began while she was in high school beginning with an internship for then-Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley.

David Briggs is the EBMUD Director of Operations & Maintenance. In this capacity he manages the operation and maintenance of water facilities and power generation facilities and serves as the Emergency Operations Director. Prior to joining EBMUD he had similar managerial duties for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from UC Davis and master’s degree and Ph.D. from Stanford University, also in mechanical engineering. He is a registered professional engineer and lives with his family in Oakland.

Jeff Toney served with the state overseeing its response to the deadly Woolsey Fire in Los Angeles and Ventura counties and the Montecito mudslides in Santa Barbara County, both in 2018. He even helped with the recovery phase of San Diego County’s Lilac Fire in 2017.

Toney, who most recently worked as the Southern Regional Administrator for the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, helped lead the state’s disaster response for 11 counties that included San Diego. He said the overall mission of the agency to help with planning, response and recovery during disasters is what attracted him to this field, and he noted Cal OES has done “a lot of good work over the years.”

Jenny Novak is an award winning, Certified Emergency Manager, with over fifteen years of experience. Her specialties include disaster recovery, exercise development and higher education emergency management. In 2020, Jenny was selected as the first systemwide Director of Emergency Management and Continuity for the California State University system. Previously, she worked in response for the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services and at the local level.

Jenny’s academic background is in Hazards Geography. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Geography from Humboldt State University in 2007, studying earthquake and tsunami preparedness along the Cascadia Subduction Zone. Jenny went on to pursue graduate level disaster research at the University of Southern California, earning a Master of Arts Degree in Geography in 2012. She is also a 2022 graduate of the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense & Security’s Executive Leaders Program.

Jenny currently serves as Vice President of the California Emergency Services Association Southern Chapter. In 2016, Jenny was honored at the White House for her innovation in preparedness training development for higher education. She loves living in Long Beach, CA with her husband and two young daughters

Amina serves as co-planning lead for the UC Health Coordinating Committee, chaired by Dr. Carrie Byington, Executive Vice President of UC Health.  In this role, Amina supports centralized decision-making and coordination and helps provide health-focused guidance and support to all UC medical centers and campuses during the pandemic. She led the effort to develop a systemwide COVID-19 situational report and is part of the team that creates a systemwide email digest with pertinent updates about the coronavirus — from infection and hospitalization statistics to news and research developments. She collaborates with subject matter experts throughout the system to help inform locations and find opportunities to coordinate a unified response. “It’s been an amazing opportunity to meet with doctors and researchers throughout the university — all leading experts in their fields — who are coming together to combine their wisdom and knowledge to support UC,” Amina says.