Press Release

For Immediate Release 
#24-22 

NYC EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT’S LATEST ‘PREP TALK’ PODCAST HIGHLIGHTS WOMEN IN PUBLIC SERVICE

#PrepTalkNYC {Click here to listen to episode 78}



March 24, 2022 — As the emergency management field expands, so too does the need for diverse, knowledgeable professionals. On the latest episode of “Prep Talk,” two women leaders in emergency management from the NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene, Elyse Morris and Cory Pardo, discuss the role of women in public service, leadership, responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, and much more.

Each guest also shared how they expect the emergency management field to evolve and the importance of having more women involved in public service and emergency management.

“We’re going to have to increase our capacity in this field and so one aspect of that is to bring nontraditional voices to the table ¬¬– more people of color, more women, more people of diverse backgrounds ¬– because disasters and emergencies affect us all,” said Elyse Morris, field operations training manager at the NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene. “We have to be dedicated to bringing to those nontraditional voices to the table. I think we are going to see – or should see – more of an opportunity to study emergency management in the curriculum or even as a concentration. If we can see that or make it visible... we would get more women in the field.”

“Emergency management is more in the forefront of people’s minds now than ever, and I think people want to improve it for themselves,” said Cory Pardo, director of public health emergency planning at the NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene. “You do not need to have a background in emergency management to be an amazing emergency manager. Emergencies hit every sector... [so] we are going to see an expansion of what emergency management means.”

You can listen to the latest episode on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, and Spreaker. 

Profile

Elyse S. Morris, MPH, is the field operations training manager at the NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene. She is a creative and strategic planner with over eight years of combined experience in emergency medical services and public health emergency management. In her current role, she oversees the development, coordination, maintenance, and evaluation of the agency’s field operations training program, managing 30-plus annual trainings for 2,500 employees from over 27 City agencies and volunteers from the Medical Reserve Corps, to prepare them to support bureau-led emergency field operations. Morris is an alumna of the John D. Solomon Fellowship for Public Service (2017-2018), the City of New York’s first student fellowship with the City devoted specifically to emergency management. She also was recently honored (alongside the Citywide Health Emergency Field Operations Emergency Response Group), with the “Distinguished Service Award: Excellence in Response” from the NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene for their work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cory Pardo, MPH, is the director of public health emergency planning at the NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene. In this role, she oversees a team of emergency planners and a diverse public health emergency planning portfolio, which includes all-hazards planning, continuity of operations planning, pandemic planning, and citywide health and safety planning. Prior to her recent promotion, Pardo was the all-hazards emergency planning lead for over six years, where she created the agency’s first all hazards response dataset, which lists over 1,000 potential activities that the NYC Health Department may implement in a potential response. She has also filled multiple response roles in prior and current agency public health responses, including those for the 2015 Legionnaires’ disease outbreak, 2016 Zika virus outbreak, 2016 H7N2 animal shelter (“cat flu”) outbreak, the 2019 measles outbreak, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

-30- 

MEDIA CONTACT: Press Office (718) 422-4888 

STAY CONNECTED: Twitter:   @NotifyNYC (emergency notifications); @nycemergencymgt (emergency preparedness info); Facebook: /NYCemergencymanagement