UDOT emergency operations manager describes ECC, career path and ShakeOut preparedness

Amber Mortensen, UDOT’s Emergency Operations Manager, described the Emergency Coordination Center as an ‘‘equipped space where we could come together and solve an emergency’’ and said the facility and staff training help the agency prepare for major earthquakes and other incidents.

Mortensen said the ECC is designed so staff ‘‘could come to this room with nothing in your hand and work as comfortably as you could in your own office,’’ and noted on-site features such as adjustable desks and stocked showers that support responders during extended activations.

The comment came as Mortensen recounted her own career path at the Utah Department of Transportation, saying she joined Region 2 Permits in 2007 and used UDOT’s tuition reimbursement program to advance. "I was working full-time, paying all the bills by myself," she said, and added that she took classes one at a time, earned an associate degree, a planning degree from the University of Utah, and a master’s in public administration from SUU. "Graduated with my master's and I had no tuition fees," Mortensen said.

Mortensen described how job shadowing and lateral moves—she cited a Complex position to learn funding, finance and programming—helped her qualify for a later project management role. After gaining that experience, she applied for and won the position she now holds, which she said gave her the chance "to come into a program, kind of build it from scratch almost, and build like the whole program for the state."

On preparedness, Mortensen described UDOT’s participation in the Great Utah ShakeOut, noting that staff practice ‘‘drop, cover, and hold on,’’ building evacuation, employee accountability, and response and recovery drills. She raised an operational focus on how the agency collects field data and brings it into the ECC to support coordinated response.

Mortensen also highlighted mentorship at UDOT: she said several leaders gave her guidance and that she still has mentors she calls when struggling with difficult issues. Offering career advice, she told listeners, "If you want it, go after and get it," recounting that others had told her she would not be hired for certain roles because she is not an engineer.

Mortensen’s remarks combined facility and operational details about the ECC, a personal account of workforce development through UDOT’s internal training and tuition support, and an outline of drill-based earthquake preparedness. She closed by identifying herself as Amber Mortensen, Emergency Operations Manager for the Utah Department of Transportation.