Soraya Sutherlin

Soraya Sutherlin is the managing partner of Emergency Management Safety Partners, where she leads the Emergency Management and Campus Safety Division. She currently is serving as the Joint Information Center Manager for the South Bay COVID-19 Emergency Operations. She also acts as the External Affairs Branch Liaison for LA County COVID-19 Joint Information Center. She is a Certified Emergency Manager (CEM) by the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM). She has over 13 years of experience in emergency planning, training, response, public health planning, multiagency coordination, and municipal government emergency management operations. She has worked collaboratively with local, state, and federal agencies in emergency planning and response operations in her roles. In 2019, she joined the faculty at the National Center for Biomedical Research and Training (NCBRT) out of Louisiana State University to develop Emergency Operations Plans and Emergency Communications Training for K-12 Schools as part of a Department of Justice and Department of Education directive.

In 2019 she was asked to be the Keynote Speaker for the California Air Resources Board Refinery Emissions Symposium on Integrated Emergency Communications. In October 2020, she was asked to speak on a national panel discussing emergency communication best practices during the Coronavirus Pandemic.

In 2019, she worked with the California Department of Education in coordination with the Los Angeles County of Office of Education in rewriting the Safe School Compliance Guide for California Public Schools. She has done extensive work with many CSU campus locations on their emergency response procedures and plans, conducted tabletop exercises for cabinet and emergency operations center staff, and language translation documents to comply with executive orders.

In her tenure, she has managed many disasters and emergencies, including the two explosions at the ExxonMobil Refinery in Torrance, Ca. She led and coordinated the Armed Forces Day Parade in Torrance from 2014-2017; oversaw the Incident Command Post for the LA Marathon Medical Team in 2011 and 2013; she led the planning, design; and led the execution of the Incident Command Center for the UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center Hospital patient relocation. She has directed and participated in many large and full-scale exercises and disasters across the state, including responding to the California Storms in January 2017 and the 2019 Coronavirus Pandemic.

She is currently on assignment as the Regional Emergency Communications Program Manager for the Alert South Bay Emergency Notification System. This first of its kind multijurisdictional notification platform bridges 14 cities and over 1 million residents in Los Angeles County to receive emergency alerts under one cross-jurisdictional platform. She is the liaison for the South Bay Community Awareness and Emergency Response group as the subject matter expert on refinery regulations and notifications, AB 1646, the liaison for Los Angeles County Fire Department Health Hazmat, and the City of Los Angeles Fire and the Emergency Management Department.