Indiana

Indianapolis

46260

Emergency Manager

IAEM

Nationwide

Public/Private Partnerships
Engaging Your Governmental Counterparts For Private Sector Entities
Preparedness, Mitigation, Response and Recovery for Small and Medium-Size Businesses, Churches, Organizations, etc.

Hospital Emergency Management
Hospital Incident Command Systems (HICS) Simplified
Active Shooters in Healthcare Settings
OSHA Hazmat Operations for First Receivers Training
Hazmat Awareness for Hospitals

(Hospital) Incident Command Systems (HICS or ICS) Simplified

Emergency Management for Small to Mid-Size Businesses, Organizations, Churches, etc.
Designing custom presentations for your specific needs and audience.

Biography:
Esmeralda Valague achieved her Bachelor's Degree in Psychology and Business Administration from Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, TX. She then obtained a Master's Degree in National Security Policy from St. Mary's University. In 2009, she went back to school and got an AAS in Emergency Management from Frederick Community College. She is a Certified Emergency Manager with 15 years of academic and professional Emergency Management experience working with NGOs (Non-Profit Organizations), schools, governmental agencies and various private-sector industries large and small. In addition to her paid work, Esmeralda also has over 4000 documented volunteer hours preparing for and responding to emergencies, for which she was awarded the President's Volunteer Service Award by President Barack Obama (among numerous other awards).

Esmeralda has authored or contributed to numerous scholarly, media articles and books and loves teaching and speaking. Her passion is making complex and intimidating emergency management and business continuity topics easier to understand and empowering others to feel like preparedness is attainable. She particularly enjoys working in private sector settings where persons have limited exposure to emergency management, business continuity and post-disaster recovery and, thus, have a higher level of apprehension and resistance that she can help customers overcome. She delivers basic training and presentations but also enjoys working with clients to create custom training and speeches based on the needs of the audience she serves.

Personal Statement:
I was first exposed to crisis management when the FDA recalled half of the nation's flu vaccine supply in 2004. I was working with medically vulnerable populations and this incident had the potential to wipe out a large percentage of our clients to flu-related illness. I secured vaccines and set up points of distribution (before I even knew what PODS were called) to ensure the sickest persons in our care got the vaccine. I loved being a part of the "solution"... Next year was hurricane Katrina. I was working for an urban small business development canter. My job after the storm was to help 150 small business owners recover from losing their businesses and forging a way forward. The storm decimated not only the structures that housed their businesses but scattered their customers. Starting over was particularly difficult for those who inherited their business from family and never had to work from scratch, this is all they knew. This story repeats in so many places... up to 40% of small businesses affected by a disaster NEVER RECOVER. That's why I consider myself a EM evangelist to those sectors. Soon after, Houston had another major issue. It had taken in many persons from New Orleans with basic literacy issues (as much as 20% of the population could not read or write), making it harder for them to obtain employment and become independent. To make things worse, federal adult education funding is tied to performance - and a large influx of low-performing students could have easily caused a REDUCTION in funding when it was needed the most. That's why I was asked to direct programs and services for the Mayor's Commission for Literacy as part of Houston's long-term recovery from hurricane Katrina. My goal was to save that funding and improve outcome. We not only saved the funding, we increased it! During this time, I wrote grants on the side for other non-profit organizations who also addressing recovery needs (housing, environmental, etc.). From there, my EM career expanded working with the US Coast Guard, Petroleum Industry, the IT industry and the nuclear waste disposal industry. Responding to numerous facility, local, state and federal disasters and always preparing for the next. For the last 8 years, I have served in hospitals - helping to make them more resilient and prepared so that they can remain a critical part of a community's response and recovery to emergencies. My experience as taught me so much, and I would love to share what I have learned with your audience!

Yes

Moderate: Full refund up until 14 days prior to event, except fees (travel and service)