Wendy Freitag is the External Affairs Manager for the Washington State Military Department’s Emergency Management Division. In this role, she oversees statewide emergency management outreach programs which include disaster preparedness public education, private-public partnerships, and public information programs all aimed at encouraging residents of Washington state to undertake preparedness actions in their households and their communities before a disaster strikes. Prior to joining EMD, Wendy spent a decade acquiring hands-on global and national disaster preparedness and response private sector operational experience managing physical security, national crisis management and business continuity projects and teams at Microsoft and the former Washington Mutual Bank. Prior to her private sector work, Wendy served on multiple U.S. disaster operations as a FEMA Lead Public Affairs reservist and also worked briefly in a similar role for the American Red Cross. Freitag and her team continue to seek out ways to design outreach campaigns and programs which use a combination of reason and emotion to empower individuals and organizations to proactively prepare for disasters.Programs under her guidance recognize that effective disaster response and recovery occurs at the community level. Disaster preparedness programs must seek out better ways to engage and inspire all community members to become more disaster resilient.