EP 22: Woman of Emergency Management With Donna Boston

Body  Donna Boston is the Director of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department Emergency Management Division.  Ms. Boston’s career in Emergency Management spans 20 years. She has worked with local government at the City level and currently works with the Orange County Sherriff’s Department, Emergency Management Division.  Orange County’s population exceeds 3 million people with wide ranging diversity. Ms. Boston’s career experience includes managing municipal Emergency Management Plans, managing public relations programs, Emergency Operations Centers during active emergency response, directing emergency exercises, managing grants, coordinating community training programs, presenting training programs, serving on strategic planning work groups, and representing local government through the Nuclear Community Engagement Panel related to the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.  In her current position, Ms. Boston has managed the recovery for more than 8 federally declared disasters, and has worked through the cascading consequences of large scale emergencies, ranging from floods, landslides, communications outages to major wildland fires and earthquakes.  Ms. Boston is charged with managing Orange County’s Emergency Management Program, including County preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery.    Ms. Boston has guided strategic planning in areas such as emergency planning for people with disabilities, access and functional needs; the use of technology during disasters; and the collaborative development of emergency plans with local government, private enterprise, non-profit and the faith community.  She works daily to provide leadership to the County, Region, and State in developing areas of emergency management.  Ms. Boston is known as an effective communicator who has presented to high level elected and appointed officials.    Ms. Boston’s educational background is built on a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Davis and a Graduate Degree in Public Policy and Administration (MPA) from the California State University, Long Beach.  In the past 20 years, she has attended an extensive amount of training on a variety of subjects related to emergency management.  Ms. Boston is also a Certified Emergency Manager (CEM) through the International Association of Emergency Management, served as the 2003 President of the Orange County Emergency Management Organization, and is a past Board Member of the Southern California Emergency Services Association.  Ms. Boston is also a past member of the Board of Directors for the Orange County Chapter of the American Red Cross and has been appointed to the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station Community Engagement Panel.  In 2016, Ms. Boston was appointed to the National Advisory Council for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to serve for a three year term. Links linkedin.com/in/donna-boston-71930311 [email protected]