The Role of GIS in Disaster Recovery and Damage Assessment

Dana Reed

Director of Emergency Management

County of Santa Clara

Director Reed currently serves as the Director of Emergency Management and is responsible for the Santa Clara County Office of Emergency Management (OEM), and the Santa Clara County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) serving the County and the Operational Area with 15 jurisdictions. Director Reed has been in public service for over 40 years. He has served on the Bay Area Earthquake Plan Leadership Committee and was instrumental in planning for Super Bowl 50 creating a collaborative planning and communication process with the Operational Areas of San Francisco County and San Mateo County and the host Cities. He is the Santa Clara County representative to the Bay Area Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI) Approval Authority. He currently serves on the MARAC Region II Emergency Management Mutual Aid SEMS Committee and is the Santa Clara County Emergency Operational Area Council (EOAC) liaison. Before joining Santa Clara County, he served with the City of San José for 29 years as a Deputy Fire Chief in charge of Operations, EMS and Training. Dana  also served on Cal-Fire Incident Management Team 1 responding to numerous wildland incidents in California; he was one of the founding members on the Santa Clara County Overhead Support Team and served as the president of the Santa Clara County Operations Chiefs. He also served as an Emergency Services Specialist with the NASA Ames Fire Department at the Moffett Field Federal Airfield in Mountain View for three years. He is a California State Certified Chief Officer, California Emergency Management Specialist and holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Occupational Studies and an Associate’s Degree in Fire Science. He has received numerous awards and recognitions. Most recently he was the EOC Coordinator for the COVID 19 activation lasting 1,092 days, the SCU Fire: fourth largest Wildfire in California and the recent 2022-2023 Winter Storm EOC activation for 96 days.  Director Reed has successfully built an Emergency Management Organization that continues to meet the challenges of response, preparedness, mitigation, and recovery.