Emergency Transportation Operations Update
New Resources for Public Information, Evacuations, and Planned Events

Kimberly C. Vasconez
Team Leader, Emergency Transportation Operations Team
Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation

May 28, 2008

REVIEWS

"Despite the technical difficulties, I thought the presenter was the most knowledgeable about technical building blocks (DOT e9-1-1 NexGen, Boston U Project Beacon, FEMA (DMS-SIG / IPAWS) that I've witnessed in these proceedings and elsewhere. Very cognizant of other major programs & how they intermesh. Very educational... this presentation adjusts "my" (meta) work."
Steven J. McGee
Simple WIns Concepts

KIMBERLY VASCONEZ

Kimberly C. Vásconez serves as the Emergency Transportation Operations (ETO) Team Leader in the Office of Operations at USDOT/Federal Highway Administration in Washington, DC. With 19 years of experience in a variety of areas that required a knowledge of emergency transportation and traffic management, she assumed her current position in late February 2006, after spending one year with FHWA's Office of International Programs as the Global Technology Exchange Team Leader. Ms. Vásconez transferred to FHWA in 2005 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), where she served almost 14 years in a variety of capacities.

At FEMA, she developed the National Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) capability and managed their use in the field for Hurricane Andrew, Northridge earthquake and Oklahoma City bombing responses. She also developed and managed the Federal Disaster Logistics System, a program that grew from no resources to one averaging $20M per annum, with over 400 permanent and reserve staff located in 8 CONUS and OCONUS (Pacific and Caribbean) sites.

Ms. Vásconez served as a senior manager on almost every major incident of national significance from Oct. 1991 through Dec. 2002 at either the National, Regional or field levels. As the Agency's Senior Disaster Logistics Official, she orchestrated FEMA's second largest logistics mobilization, strategically managing the concurrent Pentagon and World Trade Center responses, and served as the Logistics Section Chief in Oklahoma City in 1995 managing support efforts to the bombing response.

Prior to this, she worked for 4 years as a contractor to the USAID's Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance. There, she served as a Latin American specialist and participated in the development of the International US&R capability and the Disaster Assistance Response Teams (DARTs). She began her Federal career with the Department of the Navy, Naval Sea Systems Command Headquarters, Ship Design and Engineering Department.

She holds a Master of Public and International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh and a B.A. in Journalism from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of the OPM's Management Development Seminar and Women's Executive Leadership programs and FEMA's Leadership Excellence and Disaster Field Office Management programs.