A derailment in a farm field. A 53-vehicle pileup in brutal winter weather. A hazmat tanker carrying oleum, a vaporizing form of sulfuric acid. These are the moments when a community learns whether its plans and partnerships are real. We sit down with Therese Crementi, Livingston County Emergency Manager, to talk through what emergency management actually looks like when the stakes are high and information has to move fast.

Therese shares her path from the Michigan State Police into emergency management, including what it feels like to walk into a new discipline full of acronyms, new partners, and a very different kind of leadership. We get practical about the training tools that make it work: NIMS and ICS training, FEMA independent study courses, exercise design, crisis communication, and the Michigan Professional Emergency Manager (PEM) designation. Along the way, we dig into why emergency management should stand on its own, how a county maintains an Emergency Operations Plan, and how federal funding and hazard mitigation planning can determine what help is available after a disaster.

We also break down the “wheel” of emergency management planning, prevention, response, recovery, mitigation and why recovery is usually the longest, hardest phase. Therese explains how and when we activate an Emergency Operations Center (EOC), including the difference between a plug-and-play physical EOC and a virtual EOC model learned during COVID. The conversation closes with grounded career advice for anyone entering public safety: live in the moment, take self-care seriously, and remember the badge exists to empower the people you serve.