Michael is a native Arizonian, born and raised on the Navajo reservation. He attended both ASU and NAU. He has served in several capacities in the Dept over his 19 year career and was promoted to Assistant Chief in December. He spoke very highly of the department and said that the officers are all trained to avoid the kind of incident that occurred in Minneapolis. Michael is currently heading the Emergency Operations Center to deal with the CORONA-19 virus. The Department had intelligence about the virus in December and began to prepare very early. The Emergency Operations Center also deals with protests resulting from the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.  He said that the protesters were mostly peaceful and they let the Department know when and where they plan to assemble and march. There were a handful of instigators from out of state but the protesters were instrumental in keeping them in check. Michael's presentation was excellent and generated many questions from club members. We have invited him to attend one of our regular meetings so he can meet us in person.

 

Andrea is the Assistant Chief for Community Risk Reduction with the Tempe Fire-Medical-Rescue organization. She told us how her division has established an Emergency Operations Center that has been operating in a virtual mode for the last 56 days.This group has a daily operations update to identify the incident plan for each day. They also review a situation report for the previous day. Andrea is constantly in contact with various organizations within the city and county to make sure the city resources are well coordinated. She told us of the many challenges that her organization has faced because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, they are developing a Recovery Plan for the city which is designed to build resiliency for future disasters.  There was a lengthy question and answer period and club members praised Andrea for her work and her success in her role as Assistant Chief.  Many kudos to you Andrea.