Frances Edwards-Winslows
Director of Emergency Services
City of San Jose

Frances Edwards-Winslow, Ph.D., CEM is the Director of Emergency Services for the City of San Jose. She has served as OES Director in San Jose for nine years, including one year as acting assistant chief in the San Jose Fire Department. Dr. Edwards-Winslow is also Director of San Jose’s Metropolitan Medical Task Force (MMTF), a terrorism response unit that includes police, fire and medical personnel. Dr. Edwards-Winslow is a certified trainer in five of the DOD “Weapons of Mass Destruction/Nuclear, Biological, Chemical” courses, and co-creator of the “Terrorism Awareness for Public Employees” course. She has written two chapters and co-authored a third in the “Terrorism” section of the Handbook of Crisis and Disaster Management, published by Marcel Dekker in 2001. She participated in the Hoover Institution’s Biological Terrorism Conference, and has contributed a chapter to their conference proceedings, The New Terror, published by Stanford in 1999. Her article on “Dealing with the Media in the Midst of Terrorism” is published by James Internet Periodical, and is on the Harvard/Kennedy School of Government website. Her most recent article on terrorism response planning appeared in the Department of Justice newsletter, The Beacon, in January, 2001.

Dr. Edwards-Winslow is a frequent speaker at professional conferences on terrorism response issues, Dr. Edwards-Winslow represented emergency management on the five night “Bio-War” series on ABC’s “Nightline with Ted Koppel” in October, 1999. She represented emergency management at the Fred Friendly Seminar for media leaders on New York City in July, 1999, “Reporting on Weapons of Mass Destruction: Responsibility, Reliability, Readiness.” She has been a consultant to the JASON scientists, and is a member of the Stanford University Working Group on Chemical and Biological Warfare. She is a member of the Executive Session on Terrorism at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine Metropolitan Medical task Force review committee, and was a participant on the RAND Corporation evaluation of bio-terrorism readiness in February, 2000.

Dr. Edwards-Winslow has a Ph.D. in Public Administration, and a Certificate in Hazardous Materials Management. Her previous positions include Emergency Services Coordinator for Irvine, California and Management Analyst for the Irvine Police Department with collateral duties for the 1984 Olympics, and rotations through the laboratory system of Pennsylvania Hospital on Philadelphia, PA... She is a winner of the California Emergency Services Association Gold and Platinum Awards, and is the first recipient of the John Fetz Memorial Award. Her biography appears in Who’s Who in America.