Named
'North America's Continuity & Resilience Consultant Of The Year'
for 2016
by the Business Continuity Institute (BCI)
CRISIS MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT
TRAINER - ADVISOR - SPEAKER - AUTHOR
SUZANNE BERNIER, CEM, CBCP, CMCP
PRESIDENT, SB CRISIS CONSULTING
AUTHOR, DISASTER HEROES
TECHNICAL EXPERT, ICOR RESILIENCE LIAISON EXPERT/LIAISON TO ISO TECHNICAL COMMITTEE 292 SECURITY AND RESILIENCE
A former journalist and government press secretary, Suzanne is now a multi-certified, award-winning and internationally-recognized crisis management consultant, speaker and author, who has helped governments, communities and companies plan for and respond to disasters for over twenty years. She was named North America's ‘Continuity & Resilience Consultant of the Year’ by the Business Continuity Institute (BCI) in 2016, and had the honor of being a guest speaker at The White House during FEMA’s 2016 Individual & Community Preparedness Awards ceremony.
Throughout her career, Suzanne has been professionally and/or personally involved in helping communities respond, rebuild or recover from numerous crises, including the Manchester, San Bernardino, Brussels, and 9/11 terror attacks, the 2016 Fort McMurray, Alberta wildfire, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Sandy, the H1N1 pandemic, the 2003 Northeast Blackout, the 1998 “Ice Storm of the Century” in Eastern Canada, as well as numerous floods, fires, and severe storms.
In 2006, Suzanne developed Ontario’s first recognized Pandemic Plan for the Workplace Safety & Insurance Board, and led their internal response to the 2009 H1N1 Pandemic. Following her work on infectious disease planning in Canada, she was commissioned by the United Nations Headquarters in 2008 to design and deliver their first-ever Pandemic Tabletop Exercise.
More recently, Suzanne has been helping disaster survivors, including terror and mass attack survivors, recover and heal through her volunteer work as Global Ambassador of Stars of HOPE USA, and as an advocate for the San Bernardino terror attack survivors and bereaved families.
Suzanne is a Certified Emergency Manager (CEM) through the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM), as well as a Certified Business Continuity Professional (CBCP) through the Disaster Recovery Institute (DRI) and a certified Crisis Management and Communications Professional (CMCP) from the International Consortium on Organizational Resilience (ICOR).
Suzanne’s critically-acclaimed book and podcast series, Disaster Heroes, tells the stories of ordinary men, women and children who have done extraordinary things to help respond, recover and rebuild following some of the world’s most significant modern disasters.