On Saturday, May 2, 2026, from 1:00–4:30 PM, join us at Los Altos Hills Town Hall or online for a day of learning, conversation, and local connection.
Download the Presentations
| Welcome, Introductions & Firewise Updates with Denise Gluhan, LAHCFD | Download Presentation |
| California wildfire in a warming climate with Dr. Daniel L. Swain, Ph.D. | Download Presentation |
| Home Insurance Shopping Tips with Joel Laucher, United Policyholders | Download Presentation |
| Beavers, Pixels and Wildfire: Increasing Community Resilience with Dr. Cindy Schmidt, Ph.D., NASA Earth Science (ret.) | Download Presentation |
Speaker Biographies
Denise Gluhan
Captain Gluhan (ret.) retired from the Santa Clara County Fire Department in December 2018 and joined the Los Altos Hills County Fire District in 2019. She provides community education and information to the residents of Los Altos Hills, including emergency preparedness, wildfire preparedness, and the Firewise USA program.
Daniel L. Swain, Ph.D.
(Virtual presentation)
Daniel Swain, Ph.D., is a climate scientist with the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR) focused on the dynamics and impacts of extreme events—including droughts, floods, storms, and wildfires—on a warming planet. Dr. Swain is an alumnus of the University of California, Davis (B.S., Atmospheric Science) and of Stanford University (Ph.D., Earth System Science), and completed his postdoctoral work at UCLA. He also authors the widely-read Weather West blog (weatherwest.com), which provides real-time perspectives on California weather and climate and can be found on Twitter (@Weather_West), Bluesky (@WeatherWest) and YouTube (@WeatherWest).
Joel Laucher
Joel Laucher works for United Policyholders, a nonprofit that helps consumers with an array of insurance issues. He will discuss the basics everyone should know about the current, very challenging, homeowners insurance marketplace, including how to show for coverage and how to possible reduce your premium.
Laucher previously worked for the California Department of Insurance.
Cindy Schmidt, Ph.D.
Cindy Schmidt, Ph.D., retired from NASA in 2025 and is currently volunteering for the American Red Cross of Silicon Valley. At NASA, Schmidt was an Associate Program Manager for Ecological Conservation and used geospatial data and technology for natural resource management, wildfire management, and human health risk assessment. She also started the Indigenous Peoples Capacity Building program in 2016. Schmidt is especially enthusiastic about teaching people how to use and interpret satellite imagery for a variety of applications, including disaster assessments.
