Photographs from Will County Emergency Management Agency Facebook page

Article from The Herald News online

The director of the Will County Emergency Management Agency retired Thursday amid praise from several officials for his 31 years of service to the county.

Harold Damron was first hired to the staff of the Will County EMA in 1991 and was appointed its eighth director in 2007. The Will County Board recognized Damron for his service during a meeting Thursday.

During his career, Damron helped coordinate the response and recovery efforts during eight presidentially declared disasters and numerous other emergencies. In remarks to the board, he praised his staff at the EMA as a “great and dedicated” group.

“Our job is to be problem solvers, often without much history about the problem and without too many answers,” he said. “And they adapt all the time.”

The agency also has used hundreds of volunteers during Damron’s time there, he said.

He and the EMA were crucial to helping local municipalities obtain protective equipment during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Longtime Will County Board member Jim Moustis said the job Damron did helping him secure PPE for Frankfort Township was “extraordinary.”

“He’s done such a wonderful job,” Moustis said last week.

Damron’s successor is Allison Anderson, who has served as the county EMA’s deputy director since 2018. She was sworn in near the end of Thursday’s board meeting.

“I am pleased to appoint Allison to continue the strong leadership of Will County’s EMA department,” Will County Executive Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant said in a statement. “Her experience and knowledge will provide stability, as well as offer a vision to move us forward.”

Anderson joined the county in 2013 as an emergency response specialist with the health department and joined the EMA the next year. She’s coordinated and developed strategic, operational and tactical plans for the county’s response to emergencies.

As deputy director, she’s managed the training and exercise programs, which is required each year by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“I am honored to be chosen to lead this agency and the dedicated team of professionals and volunteers who work hard to keep our residents safe,” said Anderson in a statement. “Emergency planning is not something people think about every day, but we are always training and learning the best way to respond in any type of emergency. I will strive to keep Will County a leader in all our emergency responses.”

Anderson graduated from Northern Illinois University, majoring in psychology and sociology. She is a certified emergency manager with the International Association of Emergency Managers and received her Illinois Professional Emergency Manager’s certification in 2015.