Erik Ronningen was the last person to escape the South Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11th before it collapsed. After the dust settled, he immersed himself in the urgent task of ascertaining who and who did not survive. To facilitate this, he developed a victim identification-database reconstituted from the damaged World Trade Center access control system and delivered the results to the 9/11 Commission. He recounted his and other survivor's experiences in his Ella Dickey Literacy Award-winning book From the Inside Out. He has traveled the world as a public speaker and has keynoted at various national and international security venues, high schools, elementary schools, and church groups, as well as Navy Seal Teams, Army Delta Teams, and the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center. He is currently the Principal of Consolidated Consulting Group, LLC, a security-consulting firm and service provider of Life-Safety Personnel Assurance. He lives in Mamaroneck, NY.