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Preparing the Next and Future Generations of Leaders and Prepared Citizens |
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Tina Titze
Director
South Dakota Office of Emergency Management
In your active experience with the association, what do you think of NEMA? I have the privilege of working within South Dakota Emergency Management for 20 years; most of those years have allowed me to be a member of NEMA. I was the
Deputy Director for the office for 10 years and have served as Director for the past 5 years.
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In these positions and as a NEMA member,
I appreciate the professional organization and all that it has been done to
develop the emergency management field over the years. As is true with any organization there is
always more work to be done.
NEMA really brings together the best of the best. As an organization the staff within NEMA provide
invaluable efforts of representation for emergency managers, help to push
federal policy initiatives, and provide opportunities to collaborate with lead
partners to make changes which advance emergency management. NEMA is also
necessary to facilitate the networking opportunities amongst the states and
territories. There must be a strong association to facilitate this
collaboration, NEMA provides that to us.
The established NEMA committees also enable individuals
within the emergency management field to share best practices, develop new
ideas, and improve in areas needed. Time, resources, and energy is not wasted on
recreating the wheel. We can learn from
each other.
NEMA annual forums promote information sharing, the
collaboration of new ideas as well as the ability to get to know other state directors. These personal relationships are so important
during a response or while a state is recovering from an incident. State staff can learn from one another because
of NEMA. It is important to build these
relationships prior to an emergency or disaster event, NEMA provides various
ways for this to happen.
Emergency management really is organized chaos
at times; NEMA brings together various state and federal officials so we can
effectively plan and grow and continue to do great things in all phases of emergency
management.
What makes you the proudest of your team?
The South Dakota Emergency Management team is small, but
mighty. SD OEM is the smallest staffed emergency
management office within the nation; despite having a consistent number of
federal disasters declared each year. We
do a lot with a little. I am proud of
the versatility of my team. I feel work
relationships should be based on mutual respect and built on integrity, good
customer service, and honesty. Because
of this, our staff understands what is expected of them and they deliver. They not only deliver, they put forth extra
effort when needed to keep the safety of South Dakotan’s a priority.
Federal disasters come with a great deal of work;
hundreds of FEMA staff come into the state in support; however, our staff must
work alongside them during disaster. Our
small team must adjust and set aside daily activities to work the emergency at
hand. Our staff can quickly shift gears
and deal with the incident at hand. Flexibility
is key in emergency management and my staff are the embodiment of flexibility. Our staff also assist a very small Homeland Security
office (less than 5 staff) by providing training, exercise and equipment
monitoring support. With a small staff
we must be able to quickly shift our priorities and work efficiently or we
would not be able to effectively assist the citizens of SD and help communities
recover from disasters.
Name one thing that is completely awesome and why is it
so incredible?
The opportunity to be a part-time Adjunct
Professor for the Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) in Iowa. I love teaching and guiding students who may
be advancing their careers through education or exploring different career
fields while starting their college education.
I instruct within the Criminal Justice, Homeland Security and Emergency
Management Certificate Programs. It is incredible to be able to guide and train
the next generation of emergency management and homeland security
professionals. Truly a rewarding opportunity and an amazing team I am a part of
at DMACC. |
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Where do you see innovation in emergency management and
how do we take that to the next level to promote success?
One
of the most exciting opportunities created within SD OEM is the Tommy the
Turtle campaign. Social media is so
important in our lives today and it really is where so many people get their
information. We created, developed, and utilize
Tommy the Turtle in our social media campaigns.
It allows us to grab the reader’s attention as they scroll through social
media platforms.
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Tommy
the Turtle is a mascot for SD OEM and part of a children’s book safety awareness
campaign. The idea was fully developed
by our office. I encourage staff to
bring ideas forward so we can further develop emergency management. This project began as an idea and staff
quickly ran with developing the concepts, hired an author and an illustrator
and the books were created. To date we
have printed four Tommy the Turtle books.
Tommy was debuted at our State Fair in 2016 and has been loved ever
since by our students across the state.
The Tommy books focus on: Severe Weather Preparedness, Winter Weather
Preparedness, Fire Safety, and Flood Awareness.
We partnered with the State Fire Marshal to develop the Fire Safety
book.
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The
books are written for 2nd grade level students and we periodically provide
copies of these books to schools, libraries, doctor and dentist offices etc. Most recently a 4-pack of the books was
provided to every 2nd grader in the state.
That is a huge preparedness accomplishment. As we all know; if you ask a child to prepare,
they will take these preparedness tips home and ask their parents to prepare. Our goal is to encourage families to complete
simple steps and have fun preparing together.
We also have the Tommy books available for other states to
purchase. A state can order books with
their own Emergency
management office information inside the cover and utilize these within their own state if they wish.
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We have had several states do this. Tommy is an example of an idea where my staff thought outside the box and ran with it. We continue to utilize Tommy and his ability to spread the preparedness message as staff travel around the state with Tommy participating in many different local events (school events, fairs, etc.) promoting safety. Tommy also visited the State EOC while State staff and the SD National Guard were working in response to COVID. Easter candy was delivered, and it brightened everyone’s day.
What is your most favorite activity to do with your family? As a wife of more than 21 years and a mother of2 teenage children we have a busy active life. Our daughter Madyson is 19 and a sophomore in college and our son Daysen is 16 and a Junior in high school. Our family activities generally revolve around some sport. Our children continue to be active in many different sports to include basketball, football, baseball, softball, and golf. Those activities are important as our children are growing up so quickly. When we are not traveling in support of one of these sporting activities, we do like to relax and enjoy the Missouri River. The river runs through our community and we have a pontoon boat and jet ski. It is fast and easy for us to head out on the water and relax when we get the opportunity. Days can be stressful at times-after the satisfaction of helping others through the struggles of disasters or whatever the challenge of the day is, we can be on the water within 10 minutes relaxing the day’s troubles away. |
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Recordings of Virtual Summit sessions are now available to members on the NEMA website Log in, go to your Dashboard and click the Virtual Summit icon |
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Copyright NEMA 2020. All rights reserved.
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