White House Author

Gail Toscano, Preparedness and Resiliency Manager for the American Red Cross, Northeast PA Region, has been with the Red Cross for 6 years. She began her Red Cross career as the Disaster Services Coordinator for the Pocono Chapter. Gail’s passion is to motivate and educate individuals and communities to take action in order to become better prepared and resilient in the face of a disaster. Empowering communities to become resilient begins with change, working together, and developing a relationship with partners. Community residents and businesses were severely impacted by Hurricane Sandy and the response from that devastating storm brought an increase in requests for preparedness training across the community. Gail has developed preparedness programs that are led by American Red Cross volunteer preparedness teams. The project takes innovative and comprehensive approach for a large community to become self-sufficient in responding and recovering from the initial impact of a disaster. In addition, the project includes individual preparedness workshops for youth, adults and seniors.