Shontieka (Tieka) Adeogun is the Emergency Manager for the City of Tacoma within the Tacoma Fire Department. She is a graduate of the Homeland Security Emergency Management Bachelors of Applied Science program at Pierce College. Before working for the City of Tacoma, Tieka was the Emergency Response Plans Coordinator at the Washington State Department of Health. During her time at the Department of Health she was heavily involved in the COVID-19 response where she worked as the Emergency Support Function 8 (public health, medical, mortuary and veterinary services) at the state emergency operations center at Camp Murray, and then was the states site lead at the mass vaccination location in Chelan/Douglas county where they vaccinated over 60,000 people. In 2016, Tieka participated in the 2016 Cascadia Rising exercise. Participating in Cascadia Rising sparked an interest in the roles of planning, training and exercise. She developed her first response plan by supporting Pacific County Emergency Management in drafting their hazardous materials plan. It was after that experience Tieka knew she’d found her place in emergency management. Public outreach and preparedness are close to her heart. Tieka has given countless hours to promoting personal and community preparedness encouraging people to be ready to respond and to take care of themselves whenever the need may arise. Tieka’s quote as an emergency manager is “We have to do what we can to help wherever and whenever it is possible for us to help.” -- Jackie Chan Tieka believes this is the essence of emergency management and that helping others should always be the driving force.

In her presentation she will talk about personal preparedness, why it is important, how to prepare.  She will share how community groups like Rotary 8 can play a role in community resilience and support response efforts.