There are key core operational strengths that any emergency response organization needs to master. Leveraging these strengths ensures flexibility and an all-hazard approach to any disaster. Sustaining multiple and concurrent disasters relies on common processes to manage the simultaneous, but different hazards of COVID-19, civil unrest, earthquakes, wildfires and whatever comes next.
Join us for this virtual workshop where our panelists will discuss the operational strengths that are key through all the events as well as operational challenges that are unique to the individual events.
Our speakers are:
Crisanta Gonzalez, City of Los Angeles Emergency Management Department
Crisanta Gonzalez is a Disaster Manager for the City of Los Angeles Emergency Management Department. She is a member of the Community Preparedness and Engagement Division at this time, and in her current position, she is responsible for promoting and facilitating emergency preparedness efforts for over 2 million residents in the San Fernando Valley region of the city. This includes individual, family, neighborhood, community and business preparedness. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions on outreach efforts, her main responsibility is to support the City’s EOC activation. Crisanta is currently one of two rotating Planning and Intelligence (P&I) Section Coordinators for the Level I activation.
Crisanta’s career as a Civil Servant spans more than 19 years over various governmental organizations including California Department of Water Resources, California State Controller’s Office, Los Angeles Department of Transportation, and City of Los Angeles Emergency Management Department. Crisanta received her Master's degree in Emergency Management from Anna Maria College in Paxton MA, as well as completing a Leadership in Crisis course at Harvard Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge MA.
Jenny Novak, The California State University
Jenny Novak is an award winning, Certified Emergency Manager, specializing in response to recovery transition, exercise development and higher education emergency management. Jenny was recently selected as the first systemwide Director of Emergency Management and Continuity for the California State University system. Previously, she worked in response for the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services where she served as State Division Supervisor for Ventura County in support of two presidentially declared major disasters: the Thomas and Woolsey Fires. Over the past thirteen years, she has also served two municipalities, one large public university, and one county in the fields of emergency management and fire prevention.
Jenny’s academic background is in Hazards Geography. She earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Geography from Humboldt State University in 2007, studying earthquake and tsunami preparedness along the Cascadia Subduction Zone. Jenny went on to pursue graduate level disaster research at the University of Southern California, earning a Master of Arts Degree in Geography in 2012. Jenny currently serves as a Board Director of the California Emergency Services Association Southern Chapter and a Sustainability Commissioner for the City of Long Beach. In 2016, Jenny was honored at the White House for her innovation in preparedness training development for higher education.
Jill Raycroft, City and County of San Francisco COVID Command Center
Jill Raycroft is a dedicated emergency manager with fourteen years of experience. Her north star is to lead with empathy, equity, and integrity. She is currently the Deputy Planning Section Chief in the City & County of San Francisco’s (CCSF) COVID Command Center (CCC), which serves as the city’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and comprises over 1,000 disaster service workers. The EOC activated in February for COVID-19, and Jill has been the Deputy EOC Manager and Planning Section Chief. Jill helps to manage over fifty personal in the Planning Section, and she facilitates daily Command Staff, Section Chief, and Branch Director briefings, as well as the weekly all-hands response-wide virtual gathering for all CCC staff. Jill has participated in approximately 60 activations of the city’s EOC for emergencies ranging from the Cosco Busan Oil Spill in 2007, Asiana Airlines flight 214 airplane crash in 2013, and poor air quality resulting from fires in 2018 and 2019.
Jill completed her M.A. in Security Studies from the Naval Postgraduate School’s (NPS) Center for Homeland Defense and Security (CHDS) in March 2020. Her thesis looks at how cities operationalize resilience. Jill received a B.A. in English Literature from Scripps College and a Master of Public Administration (MPA) with Honors from San Francisco State University. She completed the yearlong Big City Emergency Managers (BCEM) Emerging Leaders Program and Harvard University’s National Preparedness Leadership Institute (NPLI). Jill is a Certified Emergency Manager (CEM) and Master Exercise Practitioner (MEP).
Michelle Riebeling, City of Los Angeles Emergency Management Department (ret.) (Moderator)
Michelle Riebeling has over 29 years of experience in public and private sector emergency management. Skills include emergency planning, exercise design and conduct, emergency response and recovery training, aviation emergency management, community preparedness program management, Incident Command System (ICS), and Emergency Operations Center (EOC) operations. She has lead disaster management initiatives at the local, operational area, regional, state, and federal level of government. She has worked in City command posts and the City of Los Angeles EOC, in various positions including EOC Director, during a number of significant spontaneous incidents and planned events.
Michelle currently holds an Emergency Management Specialist certificate from the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services and the Professional Certificate from the Federal Emergency Management Administration. She is an Emergency Management Accreditation Program (EMAP) Assessor credentialing and a Type II credential EOC Planning Chief. She has held a Certified Member accreditation with the Airport Association of Airport Executives. She retired from the City in 2019. Since retirement, accomplishments include instructor for the California Standard Training Institute (CSTI), EMAP assessments, and development of the Mass Care and Shelter Annex Template for Los Angeles County Disaster Management Area C, D, and E.