Board Members

• Co-Chair

Former Orange County Fire Authority Assistant Chief & Fire Marshall

Laura Blaul is retired and works with schools and nonprofit organizations that build personal and community resiliency. The focus of her career was on community risk reduction efforts. Beginning in 1985, she worked for the Orange County Fire Authority, rising through the ranks from Paid Call Firefighter to Assistant Chief and Fire Marshal. As Fire Marshal, she established the PreFire Management Section to concentrate efforts on wildfire prevention and mitigation. She also worked with Bob Roper and Ventura County Fire to create and pilot the Ready! Set! Go! Program. Laura also serves as Board Secretary for the California Fire Safe Council, a nonprofit with a mission to eliminate destructive wildfires. Laura graduated from Chico State University with chemistry and biology degrees and completed the Public Administration program at Cal State Long Beach.

• Co-Chair

Trinity County FSC Representative and Professor at Shasta Community College; Former District manager for the Trinity County Resource Conservation District.

Pat Frost was the District Manager at the Trinity County Resource Conservation District for over 12 years. He is a founding member of the Trinity County Fire Safe Council and helped establish the Weaverville Community Forest.  Currently Pat is an adjunct faculty member at Shasta Community College, teaching biology and Natural History.  He has extensive experience in natural resource conservation and management. He has worked in the field of natural resources management for over 40 years.  He has served on a number of advisory committees, including the Weaverville Community Forest Steering Committee and the Board of Directors of the California Fire Safe Council.  He also serves on Trinity Center Community Services District/Volunteer Fire Department and was the facilitator of the Trinity County Collaborative Group from 2015 – 2022.  Pat and Carol, his wife, also are the stewards of their own forestlands in northern Trinity County.

• Co-Vice Chair

Senior Counsel- Codes, Regulatory and Legislative Affairs for the California Building Industry Association (CBIA)

Chris Ochoa serves as CBIA’s Senior Counsel for Codes, Regulatory and Legislative Affairs. Chris has more than 25 years experience as an attorney and lobbyist navigating the national and state building code adoption process in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. As a practicing attorney and legislative advocate, Chris represents the CBIA before state boards and commissions, and at the State Legislature. Chris also represents the CBIA on several state and national working groups and advisory committees, including the CA State Fire Marshal’s Wildfire Mitigation Advisory Committee, the California Fire Safe Council, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Climate Change Task Force and Codes and Standards Sub-Committee, the California Building Standards Commission’s Building and Fire Code Advisory Committee, and the Cal Poly WUI Fire Institute Advisory Council.

• Co-Vice Chair

Former California State Fire Marshal, Former Napa County Fire Marshal

Kate Dargan Marquis currently works on wildfire resiliency strategy through many pathways and institutions. She advises the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, she most recently worked for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy as Assistant Director for Preparedness and Response and serves as Board Director and Chief Strategy Officer for Intterra, a wildfire and public safety software company she co-founded in 2010. She is also a longtime Board member and past Co-Chair of the CA Fire Safe Council. Prior to her advocacy phase, Kate was a pioneering California firefighter/chief for 30 years, the first woman State Fire Marshal for California and a proud Cal Poly San Luis Obispo graduate.  She has worked at the community, public agency, industry, technology, and policy levels of the national fire service and is widely recognized for her consensus-building style and innovative approaches to old problems.  

• Co-Treasurer

Southern California Region FSC Rep.; Professor emeritus in marketing at the College of Business Administration, California State University Long Beach.

David A. Horne (Ph.D., MBA, BS Industrial Engineering; all from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan) was a Professor of Marketing and the Director of Graduate Programs for the College of Business Administration at California State University Long Beach until he retired in 2015. He has also been a Visiting Professor of Management at the Jesse Jones School of Business Administration at Rice University in Houston, Texas and at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. At the graduate level Dr. Horne taught corporate strategy and several Marketing classes. At the undergraduate level he taught Retailing and International Business.

Professor Horne’s research interests are in the area of consumer privacy concerns and disaster preparation and recovery. Dr. Horne’s research has been published in The Journal of Consumers Affairs, International Journal of Service Industry Management, European Journal of Innovation Management, Research in Consumer Behavior, Psychology and Marketing, Current Issues in Research and Advertising, the Association for Consumer Research Proceedings, the American Academy of Advertising Proceedings, the Interactive Marketing Association Proceedings and the American Marketing Association Proceedings. He also co-edited a book about consumer’s recovery from disasters entitled Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water: Perspectives on Natural Disasters.

Dr. Horne currently serves on the Board of Directors of the California Fire Safe Council and has been that organization’s Treasurer since its founding in 2002. Following the Laguna Fire of 1993, he founded and still chairs the Greater Laguna Coast Fire Safe Council.

• Co-Treasurer

Vice President of Emergency Preparedness and Response- PG&E

Leading the development of a world class emergency management organization through; the advancement of collaborative relationships across the utility industry, public safety, and risk management communities.

Manages the execution of the four phases of Emergency Management: Planning, Preparedness, Response and Recovery across the PG&E enterprise. Leads a team charged with the development and execution of robust emergency management concepts and strategies, leveraging public sector emergency frameworks to support all aspects of emergency management principles for our customers, shareholders, and stakeholders including, Business Continuity, All Hazards Planning, Training and Exercising, 24/7 Hazard Awareness Warning Center, budgetary responsible for PG&E’s emergency response and PG&E’s Geoscience team.

BS in Public Safety Management, Disaster Science Fellow, California Homeland Security Council, California Earthquake Early Warning Advisory Committee, FEMA Vanguard Executive Crisis Leadership Cohort #3, Master Exercise Practitioner, FEMA certified thru ICS 400, California Fire Marshal certified Firefighter 1, 7 years’ experience as a firefighter/EMT, Developed PG&E’s Electric Operations Public Safety Program, Finance Section Chief for San Bruno incident, Plans Chief Superstorm Sandy Incident Management Team, Plans Chief and Night Shift EOC Commander for the Napa Earthquake, Plans Chief for the Valley Fire, Deputy IC Hurricane Irma, Plans Chief October Wildfire Atlas Fire, Plans Chief Hurricane Maria, EOC Commander

• Secretary

Since 2020, Seth has served as Chief Executive Officer with the Santa Clara County FireSafe Council. He holds a BS in Communications from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, an MBA from Suffolk University, and Certificates in Operations from Stanford University and Nonprofit Financial Management from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Seth is a CEO, board member and advisor, whose background bridges philanthropy, technology, public and private sectors. For 25 years, Seth led global sales and operations for various technology start-ups, Fortune 500 Divisions, venture capital and private equity backed organizations, with extensive experience in mergers, acquisitions, and restructurings. Seth served as CEO of a private equity owned data center equipment manufacturer, with experience developing partnerships in software, hardware, machine learning and artificial intelligence-based solutions. For the last 15 years, he has served as a nonprofit CEO and as a Board member for numerous nonprofits and grantmaking foundations.

• Board Member

Strategic Wildfire Advisor; Former, CAL FIRE Chief Deputy Director

Chris Anthony seeks to connect innovative technologies to the wildfire community to protect lives, communities, ensure resilient landscapes, and end the disastrous impacts of destructive wildfires. He served California as a Governor Appointee overseeing nearly all aspects of CAL FIRE’s Fire Protection, Resource Management, Support, and Administrative functions as the Chief Deputy Director. He was responsible for implementation of strategic initiatives and policies critical to ensuring operational readiness, wildfire resiliency, community preparedness, and deployment of innovative technological advancements into day-to-day operations. During his appointment he worked across numerous internal program areas and with tribal, local, state, federal, non-profit and private entities to ensure efficient implementation of investments made by the Administration and Legislature; investments which led CAL FIRE to exceed 12,000 employees with a budget of over $4B to address the increasing size, severity and scope of wildfire impacts in California. He had the unique opportunity to serve in resource management, fire protection, fire prevention, law enforcement, administration and executive level positions during his 27 years with CAL FIRE. He was the Deputy Task Force Leader for the Governor’s Tree Mortality Task Force, a member of the State Board of Fire Services, coordinated with numerous state agencies and the Administration during emergencies of statewide significance, served on local, state and federal Incident Management Teams in Command and General Staff positions, and responded to major incidents throughout California during his career. He currently consults and advises for firetech companies, academia, philanthropic and non-profit organizations; and sits on the Boards of the Earth Fire Alliance and California Fire Safe Council.

He is a Registered Professional Forester, honorably retired California Peace Officer, and earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Forestry from the University of California Berkeley. He also studied Resource Management at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. He currently resides in South Lake Tahoe.

• Board Member

Deputy Director, CAL FIRE (Community Wildfire Preparedness & Mitigation and Fire Engineering & Investigations Divisions)

Chief Bigelow began his CAL FIRE career in 2004 as a Fire Fighter I at the Ahwahnee station in the Madera-Mariposa-Merced Unit (MMU), where he spent five seasons. In 2009, he promoted to a Fire Apparatus Engineer at the Coarsegold Station, also in MMU. In 2013, Chief Bigelow promoted to Limited Term Fire Captain at the Columbia Air Attack Base in the Tuolumne-Calaveras Unit (TCU) working as the Air Tanker Base Manager. At the end of the 2013 fire season, he accepted a permanent Fire Captain position in MMU as the Pre-Fire Engineer. In 2017, he promoted to Battalion Chief as the Southern Region Pre-Fire Coordinator. In 2020, Frank then promoted to the Deputy Chief of the then-called Wildfire Prevention Engineering Division in the Office of the State Fire Marshal, where he oversaw five statewide programs. In 2021, he accepted a Staff Chief position in the newly created Community Wildfire Preparedness & Mitigation Division, overseeing eight statewide programs. Most recently, Chief Bigelow was the Assistant Deputy Director (ADD) of Community Wildfire Preparedness & Mitigation, the ADD of Fire Engineering & Investigations, and oversaw the division’s support services section.

Chief Bigelow was integral in the development of the Online Burn Permit process. In 2018, Chief Bigelow was a part of a small group who implemented the CALFIRS incident reporting system. He also co-developed an application for field data collection on fuels reduction projects used by the Fuels Crews.

Chief Bigelow represents the department in various capacities. He is a Board of Directors member for the California Fire Safe Council and is a member of the newly created CAL POLY Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) Fire Institute Steering Committee. Additionally, he chairs the CalMAPPER Steering Committee, serves on various Wildfire & Forest Resilience Taskforce working groups, and is part of the eGIS Committee, as well as many others. Chief Bigelow is also a State Fire Marshal instructor, and a California Specialized Training Institute (CSTI) instructor.

• Board Member

President of the Personal Insurance Federation of California

Rex Frazier serves as President of the Personal Insurance Federation of California. He represents PIFC’s member companies before the California State government and provides advice on legislative, regulatory, litigation and political matters. He previously held the position of Vice President & General Counsel of PIFC. 

Prior to joining PIFC, Mr. Frazier was an attorney in Los Angeles with the law firm of Pillsbury Madison & Sutro, focusing on insurance and banking issues. Mr. Frazier served as Deputy Insurance Commissioner with the California Department of Insurance and legislative staff in the California State Assembly. Mr. Frazier has additionally served in various California political campaigns, including as campaign manager of a successful statewide ballot measure, Proposition 213, in 1996. Mr. Frazier’s current community service activities include: Board Member, California Fire Safe Council (2022 – Present) and Member, Climate Insurance Working Group, California Department of Insurance (2019 – Present) 

Mr. Frazier graduated as valedictorian from McGeorge School of Law at the University of the Pacific and was an Adjunct Professor there for seven years – developing and teaching two courses: California Lobbying & Politics (2012-2018) and Legislative & Public Policy Clinic (2014-2018), recognized as one of the Top 15 most innovative legal clinics in America. In addition, Mr. Frazier received graduate and undergraduate degrees in public policy from the University of Chicago. Publications include: California’s Ban on Climate-Informed Models for Wildfire Insurance Premiums, UC Berkeley Ecology Law Quarterly, October, 2021, Capital Lawyering & Legislative Clinic, Duquesne Law Review, Winter, 2017. Recipient, Service Award, 2021, National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies. 

Mr. Frazier lives in Sacramento with his wife, April. They have two sons.   

• Board Member

Wildfire DefenseWorks, Owner

In 1981, David graduated from college with a Bachelors in Architecture and moved to Southern California. After five years of working in architecture firms, David sought something different and began work as a seasonal firefighter for California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE). For the next 31 years, he worked to combine these two forms of knowledge as he rose through the ranks in CAL FIRE, from seasonal firefighter up to the Office of the State Fire Marshall.

In 2018, David retired from CAL FIRE as the Staff Chief for the Division of Planning and Risk Analysis. During his five years at the Office of the State Fire Marshall, he oversaw statewide fire prevention programs and came to understand the inner workings of fire policy in California. As one of the leading experts in understanding structural ignition from wildfires, David has helped to develop best practices for wildfire mitigation for communities and property owners. David’s work has been recognized numerous times: as a recipient of CAL FIRE Director’s Outstanding Achievement Award in 2014 and 2015; and a Medal of Valor from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2007.

Building wildfire resilience is David’s passion, not only his profession. He has incorporated its advancement into his personal life through multiple teaching and volunteering opportunities, in the hope of sharing the lessons that he has learned with upcoming wildfire personnel. David has received a lifetime teaching credential from California Community Colleges and has instructed numerous courses on leadership for CAL FIRE firefighters. In an effort to share his knowledge, David regularly presents on the dynamics of structure ignition to professional wildfire and fire chief associations, such as Fire Rescue International and the International Association for Wildland Fire.

• Board Member

Southern California Region Utility Rep., Southern CA Edison

Troy has worked for the Southern California Edison Company for 40 years and has served as Senior Fire Management Officer for the past 30 years. He is a recognized Utility Wildfire Mitigation, Response and Recovery Expert.  Troy has been an active member of the California Fire Safe Council since the first meeting at CAL FIRE HQ in 1993, and is one of the few original board members.  He recently provided on scene guidance and support to Hawaiian Electric for 40 days following the Maui fires.  Troy is a past president, and current Director on the So. Cal. Assoc. of Foresters and Fire Wardens Board.  He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization.  Troy is the SCE Program Manager for the Quick Reaction Force Aerial Suppression Program.  Troy serves as the liaison to the fire agencies within SCE’s 50k mile service territory on wildland fires and other emergency incidents.