St Joseph’s incoming Emergency Manager says she’s excited to take on the new challenge.

Jada Thomas has been with the City of St. Joe since 1998, working as a dispatcher and dispatch supervisor before taking her current jog as terminal agency coordinator in charge of the criminal justice information system. She says her experience in the Communications Center will come in handy.

“The Communications Center is a vital part of that,” Thomas said. “It’s basically a mini Emergency Operations Center on its own at the beginning of any incident.”

“That’s where an incident begins, where you start to determine what you need and where you need it, and to send those resources out. So, it’s basically emergency management and an EOC on a smaller scale.”

Buchanan County’s Emergency Management Director Bill Brinton offered high praise for Thomas, calling her a “fantastic choice” who he said would help improve communications and relations between the city and county. Thomas says there’s always a chance for problems between agencies, but she says the team learns from such foul-ups.

“I think done very well communicating between the disciplines, and we’ve learned from mistakes that we’ve made,” she said. “We always try to rectify those and clear up any miscommunications or problems that have happened so we don’t repeat those mistakes in the future.”

Thomas starts work on March 20th. She replaces Julie Alt, who stepped down last fall for health reasons. Fire Chief Dalsing has been serving as Interim Emergency Manager.