Get to Know CRESA's Emergency Management Team

If you know CRESA, you might think first about 911 and dispatch. That's a big part of what we do, but it's not the only part.

We also have an Emergency Management (EM) team focused on helping Clark County plan for emergencies, build readiness before something happens, and support coordinated response and recovery when it does.

This post is a simple introduction to the people behind that work, and what their roles mean for the community.

Emergency Management 

At CRESA, Emergency Management includes planning, preparedness, training and exercises, partnerships, support for Emergency Operations Center (EOC) operations, continuity planning, and recovery and mitigation work.

That work spans the full disaster lifecycle:

• Mitigation – reducing long-term risk (like earthquake retrofits or floodplain planning)
• Preparedness – training, planning, and community outreach before an incident
• Response – coordination and information-sharing during an incident
• Recovery – helping the community stabilize and rebuild after

In plain language: EM is about helping the community get ready, stay organized, and recover faster.

If you see terms like EOC, CERT, COOP, or "points of distribution," you're not expected to know them already. We'll translate as we go.

Meet the Team

Below are the roles that make up our Emergency Management team and a snapshot of what each person works on day to day.

Jordan, City of Vancouver Coordinator

Jordan helps City of Vancouver employees (about 1,400 people) become more disaster-ready and understand what to do for workplace emergencies that don’t rise to a countywide “disaster” threshold.

Much of Jordan’s work happens behind the scenes. She supports department-level emergency plans so city teams know how to respond if a facility is impacted, utilities are disrupted, or operations need to shift quickly. She works directly with departments to clarify roles and responsibilities, identify essential services, and develop backup procedures so those services can continue even under strain.

Jordan also coordinates drills and trainings for city facilities, helping staff practice evacuation procedures, internal communication processes, and incident coordination. These exercises ensure that employees are not seeing their plans for the first time during a real emergency.

Not every incident requires activating a countywide Emergency Operations Center. Many events are managed at the city or department level. By strengthening internal readiness, Jordan helps ensure that city employees can act quickly, protect one another, and continue delivering critical services like water, transportation, and public works.

Fun fact: Jordan loves to travel — and now that she works in emergency management, she can’t help but research local hazards before she goes and adjust her travel preparedness kit accordingly. Most recently, she did this for a trip to Japan.

A prepared workplace can protect people, reduce confusion, and keep essential city services moving when the community needs them most.

Dakota, Operations Coordinator

Dakota supports some of the most time-sensitive parts of emergency management:

• Our Duty Officer Program
• Alert and warning work
• Emergency Operations Center (EOC) support

The Duty Officer Program ensures there is always someone monitoring incidents, coordinating with partner agencies, and ready to elevate issues if needed — 24/7.

In alert and warning, Dakota helps manage systems that push out emergency notifications and public information, ensuring messages are timely, accurate, and consistent across platforms.

If you've ever wondered how agencies coordinate during a big incident, the EOC is often where that happens. An EOC is a central location for coordinating information and resources to support incident management. 

Dakota helps maintain EOC readiness by:

• Updating operational procedures
• Supporting technology and communication systems
• Coordinating logistics and situational awareness tools

Dakota also keeps an eye on hazards like earthquakes and volcanoes, tracking regional risk information and integrating it into planning and readiness efforts.

Fast coordination and clear public messaging can reduce harm and speed up response, especially in a rapidly changing situation.

Jodi, Volunteer and Public Outreach

Jodi focuses on preparedness at the individual and family level, plus volunteer programs, including CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) preparedness grants.

CERT is a FEMA-supported program that trains community members in basic disaster response skills, so they can help themselves and help their neighbors when first responders are overwhelmed. 

Jodi’s work includes:

• Coordinating CERT classes and exercises
• Managing volunteer engagement and retention
• Supporting grant compliance and reporting
• Delivering public preparedness presentations
• Developing outreach campaigns focused on household readiness

Preparedness outreach may cover topics like:

• Building emergency kits
• Creating family communication plans
• Understanding local hazards
• Planning for power outages or severe weather

While Jodi is great with people, she's fantastic with animals. 

In many disasters, the first help available comes from the people closest to you. Prepared households and trained volunteers strengthen the whole community.

Cindy, Community Partner Coordinator

Cindy works with community partners and helps build the agreements and relationships that make response work smoother, including planning for:

• Shelters and assembly areas
• Points of distribution (PODs), where communities can receive essential supplies after a disaster

In emergency management, a POD is a temporary site where essential supplies can be distributed to the public. 

Cindy’s work often involves:

• Drafting and maintaining Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs)
• Coordinating with nonprofits, faith-based groups, schools, and private-sector partners
• Identifying facility capabilities and limitations
• Integrating partners into exercises and planning meetings

Cindy also supports community organizations that mobilize during disasters, often called COADs (Community Organizations Active in Disaster). 

Strong relationships built before an incident mean fewer delays and fewer surprises during one.

Cindy loves cruising—especially to tropical destinations. She appreciates that everything is self-contained on the ship: no grocery runs, no dishes, no housework. It’s a rare chance to fully unplug and enjoy a place where all the logistics are already handled.

During an emergency, the community is bigger than any one agency. Strong partnerships help make sure support reaches people faster, and that plans match what partners can actually do in real life.

Harold, Training and Exercise

Harold leads the development and coordination of CRESA’s training and exercise program.

That includes:

• Designing tabletop, functional, and full-scale exercises
• Building realistic scenarios based on local hazards
• Coordinating multi-agency participation
• Evaluating performance and documenting improvement plans
• Tracking corrective actions to ensure gaps are addressed

Exercises are structured, discussion-based or operations-based events that test how plans, systems, and people perform together. They are guided by national standards such as FEMA’s Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP), which promotes consistent, improvement-focused evaluation. 

Harold’s work ensures that:

• Plans are more than documents on a shelf
• Agencies understand their roles and responsibilities
• Technology and communication systems are tested
• Leaders practice decision-making under pressure

After every exercise, lessons learned are captured and translated into specific improvements — whether that means updating a plan, clarifying roles, improving communications flow, or adjusting logistics procedures.

Practice builds coordination, confidence, and speed. When a real incident happens, teams should already know how to work together.

Justine, Planning

Justine supports planning work that includes the county's mitigation planning, the Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan (CEMP), recovery plans, and post-disaster public assistance coordination.

The Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan (CEMP) outlines how the county organizes for response and recovery, including:

• Roles and responsibilities
• Coordination structures
• Resource management processes
• Information-sharing procedures

Mitigation planning focuses on identifying long-term risks — such as earthquakes, floods, wildfires, or severe weather — and developing strategies to reduce their impact.

In recovery planning and public assistance coordination, Justine helps position the county and its partners to:

• Document disaster impacts
• Track costs
• Coordinate with state and federal agencies
• Support eligibility for disaster assistance programs

When she's not working, she's usually doing something creative—running a photography business, knitting, experimenting with pottery, or baking sourdough.

Good planning reduces uncertainty. It clarifies who does what, supports faster coordination, and helps the community recover in a more organized and efficient way.

Anna, Continuity of Operations Planning (COOP)

Anna supports continuity planning, including developing city continuity plans that connect with broader EOC and regional response planning.

COOP (Continuity of Operations Planning) is about helping organizations identify essential functions and plan how they'll keep those functions running, even when operations are disrupted. 

That work includes:

• Identifying mission-essential functions
• Mapping dependencies (staff, facilities, IT systems, vendors)
• Planning for alternate work locations
• Developing orders of succession and delegations of authority
• Conducting continuity exercises

Continuity planning applies to:

• Local government departments
• Critical infrastructure partners
• Support agencies that provide essential services

After a disaster, the community still needs water, roads, public records, payroll, and other essential services. Continuity planning helps those services keep going, even under stress.

Anna loves hiking and spending time on the trails in the Pacific Northwest. Just like preparing for a long hike, continuity planning is all about thinking ahead, having the right resources in place, and making sure you can keep moving forward when conditions change.

A Quick Note About How CRESA Is Organized

CRESA has distinct functional sides: Emergency Management and Dispatch/911. This post is specifically about our Emergency Management team.

Both functions are critical — but they serve different roles within the broader public safety system.

Learn More

Want to dig more into what our EM team does? Visit us at CRESA Emergency Management

Connect with us at our contact page.