Matias Nochetto, MD

Matias is the Vice President, Medical Services, at DAN, where he has worked since 2006. He is co-director of the DAN-UHMS continuing medical education program and a faculty member of several national and international diving medicine courses and programs. He became a dive instructor in 1999 during medical school, which led him to complete a three-year clinical and research fellowship in hyperbaric and diving medicine to combine the two passions.

JoAnn Perry, MSE

JoAnn is the Director of Safety Services and training at DAN. She has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering and brings knowledge of safety in the construction and manufacturing industries to scuba diving. JoAnn has been teaching diving since 2008 and is a diving Instructor Trainer and a DAN Examiner.

Frauke Tillmans, PhD

Frauke is the Vice President of Research at DAN. She holds a PhD in human biology and is DAN’s point of contact for national and global collaborations in diving-related research. Before joining DAN in 2019, she participated in projects covering a variety of medical and health aspects in recreational and military diving and she now oversees DAN’s in-house research initiatives in diving physiology, injury monitoring, and population health, as well as the DAN Research Grant Program.

Rochelle “Shelli” Wright

Shelli is the Director of Commercial Insurance at DAN. She has been a licensed insurance agent for over 25 years, actively working with all lines of insurance products. Shelli is a dive instructor and an avid technical and full cave diver. She combines her knowledge of insurance and her passion for diving to promote risk mitigation and safety education for the diving community.

Angela Williams

Angela is the Director of Membership and Personal Insurance at DAN. She manages the DAN Member Services team and has 18 years of experience at the organization. She is a licensed insurance agent who is highly motivated to ensure DAN members are educated about the personal insurance programs and products DAN offers.

Francois Burman, PE, MSc

Francois is the Vice President, Safety Services, at DAN. He is responsible for all DAN’s safety and accident-prevention initiatives as well as the recompression chamber network. He has traveled around the world to conduct safety assessments at facilities used to treat injured divers and has written two books: The Risk Assessment Guide for Dive Operators and Professionals and The Risk Assessment Guide for Recompression Facilities.

Patti Suggs

Patti is the Director of Insurance Operations and oversees the strategy and execution of the organization’s insurance operations. Patti works across departments and with global partners to strengthen DAN’s insurance programs, ensuring they remain responsive to the evolving needs of divers, dive professionals, and operators worldwide. She is a dive instructor and business owner with over 10 years of experience at DAN. Patti’s background in business development spans across aviation, real estate, IT, and education, bringing a broad perspective to her role supporting divers and the diving industry.

Laura Johnson

Laura Johnson is the Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean at DAN World. Laura began working at DAN in 1999, the same year she became a certified diver in her home state of North Carolina.  Her passion for diving in Cozumel, Mexico, and her love for Latin American cultures led her to relocate to Cozumel in 2009, where she has lived ever since.  Laura is a PADI dive pro and a DAN Instructor Trainer.

Nathalie E. Judkins

Nathalie is the Director of Member Engagement at DAN. She is a diver and a licensed insurance agent. Nathalie has over 20 years of experience at DAN, helping divers and travelers navigate the organization’s various insurance products and programs. She works with DAN members, dive professionals, and dive operators globally and is fluent in Spanish and French as well as English.

Dr. Dawn Kernagis 

Dr. Dawn Kernagis is Director of Scientific Research for DEEP, a global marine engineering organization that is evolving how humans live and work subsea. A diver since 1993, Dawn has been involved with undersea exploration projects around the world, is a diving biomedical research scientist, and has been inducted into the Women Divers Hall of Fame.

Dr. Nicholas Bird  

Dr. Nicholas Bird is the current medical director for the Center of Hyperbaric Medicine at Virginia Mason Franciscan Health in Seattle, Washington. He has been practicing hyperbaric and undersea medicine since 2004. He is board certified in both family medicine and undersea and hyperbaric medicine and completed a fellowship in diving and hyperbaric medicine at UC San Diego. He has held senior leadership positions to include UHMS President, Chief Medical Officer and CEO of Divers Alert Network, Medical Director of Hyperbaric Medicine, a veteran and prior US Air Force flight surgeon, and former scuba instructor.

Armando Ramirez   

Armando Ramirez is the Sales and Marketing Manager for Catalina Cylinders.  He is responsible for sales worldwide and is based out of the Catalina Cylinders head office in Garden Grove, CA.  Armando manages sales in the industrial and specialty gases, medical oxygen, beverage (CO2) industry, fire safety and suppression, auto racing and SCUBA industries.  Prior to joining Catalina, Armando spent many years in the alternative fuels for transportation field where high-pressure Type 2, 3 and 4 cylinders were commonly used.  Since joining Catalina, Armando has dedicated his time and effort to aluminum Type 1 cylinder sales, support, quality and safety.

Jimmy W. Horton   

I am a 1993 graduate of Mississippi State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering.  I started at Piper Impact in 1994 as a manufacturing engineer with primary focus on cold metal forming and product-process development, launching new products for the automotive, defense, and compressed gas industries..   I continued with the company through the various changes in ownership, including Essex Industries and Worthington Cylinders, and since 2015, Thunderbird, LLC.  I currently serve as the engineering manager for the Thunderbird Metals South and Thunderbird Metals East facilities.

Douglas Ebersole    

Douglas Ebersole has been a certified scuba diver since 1974 and is an interventional cardiologist with the Watson Clinic in Lakeland, Florida specializing in structural heart interventions.  He is an open circuit recreational and technical diving instructor, a trimix closed circuit rebreather instructor on multiple units, and is a cave diving instructor. Given these areas of expertise, he has been a cardiology consultant to Divers Alert Network for over 15 years and has been faculty on many international diving medicine programs.  His lecture topics this year will be “Cardiovascular Fitness to Dive – What Every Dive Professional Needs to Know” and “PFO and Diving: Understanding the Managing the Risks”.

Mark A. Gresham

Mark A. Gresham is the owner, President & CEO of Professional Scuba Inspectors, Inc.- Professional Cylinder Inspectors, Inc. Mark began SCUBA diving in 1977 as a young boy in Florida, thus began a lifelong passion for scuba diving. While in the US Marine Corps he became a certified diver.  He was certified as a Scuba Instructor in 1991, PSI Cylinder Inspector in 1996, PSI Inspector Instructor in 1999 and a PSI Instructor Trainer 2001. Mark has attended many training courses and seminars with US DOT, OSHA, NASA and several colleges learning subjects related to cylinders. Mark apprenticed under several notable cylinder manufacturing engineers and metallurgists learning all aspects of manufacturing and testing. With Bill High, founder of PSI, Inc. as his mentor, Mark became a member of the PSI Executive Team in 1999 and contributed directly to the development of scuba cylinder safety guidelines, training materials and published cylinder safety bulletins.  He co-authored the 5th edition, INSPECTING CYLINDERS book. As a PSI-PCI Instructor, Mark has conducted countless inspection courses and safety seminars for SCUBA centers, SCUBA clubs, public forums, hydro re-qualifiers, fire departments, all military services, cylinder manufacturers, NASA, NOAA and in support of industry trade shows. Mark provides technical information and consulting to cylinder manufacturers, the US Department of Transportation, Compressed Gas Association, fire associations, NOAA, NASA and all branches of the US Military and foreign militaries.  He works closely with government and industry investigators of high-pressure cylinder related accidents. Mark worked with industry experts and specialists to develop the widely recognized training programs for oxygen cleaning of cylinders (the protocol used now by NASA). In 2006, Mark added Professional Cylinder inspectors (PCI) as an all-encompassing entity for cylinder inspection training outside the scuba industry, now providing training for beverage industry, aviation, medical and other areas where high pressure cylinders are utilized. He is instrumental in raising awareness among gas industry constituents for the merits of cylinder safety and visual inspection. He provides the most comprehensive, up to date and specialized Federally required Hazardous Materials (HAZMAT) training in most segments of the gas industry. The most direct measure of Mark’s influence and success toward the reduction in pressurized gas cylinder failures was zero accidents in 2015. There is no doubt that lives have been saved and certainly injuries prevented by Mark Gresham’s dedication to high pressure cylinder safety training broadly offered in the world today.