2026 CRHNet Symposium

Scott Ramey is a human factors researcher and applied scientist specializing in naturalistic decision making, AI implementation, and systems improvement in high-risk, high-reliability organizations.

Scott draws knowledge, learning, and inspiration from experience with many large scale incidents through his career; from the Eastern Ontario ice storms, to the Toronto TTC subway crash, losing air ambulance colleagues in helicopter crash, to most recently being the on-call and initial incident commander for the Halifax Wildfire, losing 200 homes and displacing 15,000 people.

His work explores how experienced practitioners make decisions under uncertainty and time pressure, and how intelligently designed systems can support rather than disrupt that process. Drawing on over two decades in emergency services, including years as an emergency manager, critical care flight paramedic, deputy chief, and his role as Assistant Fire Chief of Research and Development, Scott brings rare depth to questions about where technology helps and where it gets in the way.

He is completing his PhD in Systems Design Engineering with Human Factors specialization at the University of Waterloo, with research focused on the human-AI interface in complex, time-critical environments. Alongside this, he leads AI-ERADS, a grant-funded initiative developing artificial intelligence tools for emergency response resource allocation and decision support.

Scott is the Founder/CEO and Principal Specialist of The Human Factor, built on the core belief: that sustainable improvement in high-reliability domains depends on understanding how people actually work, not just how systems are designed to work, designing the system to work with the people.