On January 11th, Los Angeles Region Board Chair, Andrea Davis hosted our region’s AmeriCorps team on the Walt Disney Lot in Burbank, CA for a pow-wow in emergency preparedness. As Director of Global Crisis Management and Business Continuity for The Walt Disney Company, Andrea oversees an enterprise-wide department that is responsible for all-hazards emergency planning and testing for Disney and its affiliates world-wide. Our AmeriCorps team was grateful for the opportunity to meet with her and learn more about the exciting and challenging field of emergency management. Here is what AmeriCorps member Kelsey Herrera took away with her after the exciting day.
By AmeriCorps member, Kelsey Herrera
Among the actors, props, and movie sets scattered about the Walt Disney Studio Lot in Burbank, there is one overlooked and often forgotten about character named Andrea Davis! Andrea is the Director of Global Crisis Management and Business Continuity for the Walt Disney Company and, just like us at the American Red Cross, she understands the importance of emergency preparedness— because no one is exempt from disasters, not even the Magical World of Disney.
I serve as a Safe Corps AmeriCorps member out of the American Red Cross Long Beach office. Recently, the entire Los Angeles AmeriCorps team (all 25 of us) were given the unique opportunity to meet with Andrea in Burbank to discuss her experiences with emergency management.
Just like me and my fellow AmeriCorps, Andrea started in the non-profit sector, giving preparedness education presentations in Northern California. It was truly inspiring to meet someone who started from the bottom and worked her way up. She has definitely felt the same struggles that we sometimes feel. But, she taught us that those experiences are why she has achieved great success in her field.
Though her days of going door-to-door are definitely long gone and the means by which she educates individuals has certainly changed, her main mission, to ready others in the face of emergencies, still stands! Andrea’s story inspires me because she was able to harness her passion for individual and community preparedness and apply it to a prominent international corporation— without losing her fundamental humanitarian values.
It was nice getting to know Andrea. And, thanks to her passion for the not always so magical role of emergency management, I know that even when faced with disaster, the happiest place on earth will always remain safe!
