Cross-Sector Collaboration: Essential for Effective Public Safety Planning and EmergencyManagement

Sarah Nuss - Director of Emergency Management

Sarah Nuss - Director of Emergency Management

1. What, are the major factors that play a key role in preventing or lessening the effects of disasters on communities?

Disaster preparedness at the individual level is the foundation of disaster risk mitigation for community residents. The truth is, when a disaster hits, first responders will likely focus initial resources on critical facilities or populations, like hospitals and schools over responding to households. Therefore,it’s key that individuals and families take time to prepare themselves for disasters of risk to the region. In support, local emergency management leaders must engage in opportunities to educate the community and to provide resources, continually assessinggaps in access to resources.

Education can look like providing regular disaster preparedness presentations to targeted groups (seniors, folks with access or functional needs, limited English populations, and more), ideally incorporating a hands-on component. I love to provide presentations to community groups, bringing a sample “go-bag” and “home emergency kit”. I have found that people enjoy feeling items like hand crank radios, playing with triangle bandages or tourniquets, and the like. Too, local Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) program offerings are a standardized, comprehensive, and community-focused education platform that works to provide hands-on training to individuals & neighborhoods, in preparation for disasters.

2. What is your opinion on the impact of technology in augmenting public safety planning and community health program management?

The evolution of technology has augmented the capabilities of disaster preparedness outreach at the government level and the individual level. The expansion of digital resources means that more residents can access educational resources concerning all-hazards disaster preparedness and response. As additional folks gain access to technology, more community knowledge can be swiftly shared, leading to a more resilient and prepared community. This means that emergency management programs can not only post/link to digital planning resources, but virtual meeting tools can be leveraged to reach more people for educational training, collaborations, and more.

The rapid evolution of public-facing alert and warning tools has greatly expanded alertness of regional emergencies or disasters in real-time. While many such tools are still opt-in, many regions are seeing high uptake of tool use (such as CodeRed®). The cool thing about these alert tools is the ability for end users to select the geographical areas for which they would like to receive alerts, and the preferred channels for receiving messages vary (SMS, iMessage, phone call, e-mail, etc.). In my opinion, the ability of end-users to customize their experience through these applications greatly increases the likelihood of use, resulting in a more aware& prepared community in the event of a disaster.

Finally, early warning (detection) systems have evolved, providing engineers, planners, and public officials with faster than before,science-based notification about impending hazard events. Such systems, like ShakeAlert®, can detect earthquakes nearly immediately,providingadditionalwarning time to communities at risk for subsequent ground shaking or secondary events like tsunamis. In addition, advancements have been made in meteorological sensors and modeling, to help communities prepare for impending weather systems that could result in flooding, strong wind, and the like.

3. What are some of your experiences that empowered you to gain deep expertise in emergency management, critical public infrastructure protection, community education and risk reduction, disaster resilience, and violence reduction strategies?

For me, emergency preparedness has been a way of life, after following the lead of one parent who is a firefighter and another who is a registered nurse, practicing hospital emergency management. Since a young age, I’ve been exposed to radio, wildfire planning, communicable disease vaccine clinics, mass sheltering exercises, and the like—which piqued my interest in civil servants related to disaster preparedness, public health, and community engagement.

Through higher education and early professional work in New Orleans at Tulane University, I was able to gain invaluable knowledge and experience in a region ripe with disaster history and associated lessons learned. The opportunity to accessfirst-hand knowledge from community residents who have lived experience Hurricane Katrina (among other disasters) lit a fire in me, and a passion to do whatever possible to help individuals prepare themselves for emergencies and disasters.

4. On an ending note, what is your advice for other senior leaders and CXOs working to ensure heightened public safety and efficient emergency management?

For senior leaders, I sincerely practice that cross-sector collaboration is key to comprehensive public safety planning. This includes involving the “whole community” in early planning and decision-making. Truly well-thought-out emergency preparedness involves engaging all stakeholders, from the beginning— ensuring that the entire process for planning, mitigating, responding to, and recovering from disasters is truly community-informed and community-oriented. As government professionals, we must bring the public along every step of the way.