With all of those organizations, whether at the state and federal level to make sure we understand what those changes are.

And as they apply to local, whether at the city or the department level, that we understand the impact they have to our operations and we put those to use in the best way possible so that we continue to do our primary mission here in the port, it's to remain, you know, engaged for our stakeholders and for the movement of goods, but also for our employees.

If changes impact how we do business as a city agency, we have to make sure we understand what that means, and ensure that we engage all of our divisions and that we train people and that we continue to update as different changes happen.

Every disaster brings new opportunities, different changes, the most significant being after 9-11.

We saw a whole series of federal requirements change from the Department of Homeland Security, and those continue, and they'll continue to change as climate changes, as we have longer heat emergencies as we've seen this summer, fire change, the brush fire season, the significance of the catastrophic emergencies, it's an ever-changing profession.

It's exciting, but to remain engaged, it's never a stagnant moment when you're in emergency management.

What are some of the differences in emergency management of different countries you have visited?

I think some of the most significant differences are from the government level.

China is a completely different country.

They're run at the national level, and that's how they implement their rules and their policies.

And it's evident in all the different jurisdictions that we visited.

They champion growth and development, as I mentioned, the Shanghai development of the high rises was very significant.

In Japan, it's very different.

They're much more western.

Their prefectures run their emergency management with the great support of the national level.

And how they implement at the very neighborhood level.

The communities in Japan are very receptive to what the national government provides to them.

And as a culture, they're very open and receptive to what the government says, and that's very unique.

In the Western world like us, it's at the very local level.

Emergencies are managed at the local level.

So seeing the differences in those countries, as well as others like Turkey, where again it's a very different, it's a culture, it's the history, and I think for me, one of the most amazing things is being able to see the history of those countries.

I traveled around the world, my mother's British, and my husband is actually Japanese.

So being able to understand the culturals in my home and then see how they're applied at the government level was just amazing for me.

It was in engaging, it was fun, and then I was able to travel afterwards with my family to be able to see how that how that happened and then speak to family members and then really appreciate how they do emergency management was incredible.

I'll never, I'll never forget those traveling opportunities.

I'm very grateful.

As the emergency management coordinator, what does your daily schedule look like?

Well, I think in emergency management or working in government, our days change as the years change.

It used to be you come in and you you catch up with your colleagues and you look and you jump into it.

With technology today, it's ever changing.

To come in and pick up voicemail, I get very, very few voicemails.

But emails, we get hundreds of emails.

So to be able to quickly vet your emails to go through them to see and prioritize what's important to see who they came from.

So if you have a way that you personally are comfortable to sort and prioritize, to align with the projects that you're working on, and to make sure that you also keep in mind the priorities of the agency that you work for.

In emergency management, it's also critical to see what are going to have an impact today.

We recently had an earthquake in Alaska, and to see one quick social media blip, really then changed your focus immediately to find out, you know, was it real?

Was it valid information?

Where did it occur?

Is it going to have greater impacts with an earthquake in the um in the Alaskan Aleutian Islands?

Is there going to be a tsunami?

And there was a tsunami warning for that area.

But to quickly reach out to my colleagues and to find out where, how long is it going to have an impact and are we going to have a tsunami changes everything until you get the information you need from those from those experts outside of your agency.

And then being able to and never forget keep your supervisors and your management engaged and involved and share the most current information so that if we need to change our organization focus to respond to an event you're always ready for that you can never put that in the back seat.

How does your role and responsibilities adapted to fit the needs of the pandemic and how do you expect the industry to change in the event in the future even after the restrictions are lifted.

So I think the pandemic has really changed the way we do business.

It's been almost eight months it has had a tremendous impact both emotionally organizationally it's had a huge fiscal impact to the city of Los Angeles and the port.

But it's not the first time we've dealt with a pandemic event we've dealt with significant events in the past and we adapted and we changed and we got through them and then we returned to normal the difference in the pandemic is we don't know what that's going to look like.

So day to day you see different activities every day and people have adapted masks for the first several weeks were difficult.

They were hard to find they were uncomfortable people weren't used to them and now you can find them in every design color you can find them at stores grocery stores supermarkets everywhere you go you can see masks for sale in all the different designs they're being sold really you know online locally you can get them everywhere and people wear them all the time which is amazing.

As we move from the pandemic of COVID into flu season that is going to benefit us and we'll be able to remain um aware we'll be prepared we will maintain the correct social distancing so we can't let down our guard especially when it comes to this pandemic it won't be the last there will be future pandemics but coupled with earthquakes fires floods landslides and different events that we see we have to be able to acknowledge how that impact is going to change what we do.

So while I've changed wearing a mask social distancing washing my hands and making sure I comply with all the directions that are given to us that's not the only event that we're working on.

While our department operations center is active and we're working with the city's emergency operations center we're also just recently we conducted an earthquake drill for the annual shakeout and then we're looking at our emergency plans it's that time of year where we do update our department emergency plan and our continuity of operations plan.

And then we look at other plans we look at how we're preparing our employees how we work with our communities how we work with our schools and our stakeholders we want our stakeholders and our businesses to remain prepared.

So we will continue to respond to the current pandemic moving into the flu season while always looking at what other events might occur.

What hobbies do you enjoy during your free time?

I am a wife a mother we have five children we have a wonderful blended family we have pets um I love my gardening so I go out in the garden we have some fruit trees we try and you know plant I'm also a grandmother for little grandbabies so when they come over I am so proud that um the oldest with her grandkids now is enjoying gardening as well.

So spending some time outside away from any electronic devices just spending quiet time it's amazing now that they have learned to enjoy just being quiet being by yourself for just a few minutes just to to gather yourself and to do something that's not time intensive takes a lot of patience to garden so you have to um in you have to enjoy it you have to just be patient you have to watch it and then nurture it.

And then you can see the results afterwards.

My grandfather had a wonderful garden, and I'm so proud that I was able to pass that off to my kids and now my grandchildren.

And then if the dogs don't dig it up, maybe we get a couple carrots at the end of the year.