Hannah Shafer

Email: hannshafer@gmail.com
Title: Natural Hazard Mitigation Specialist
Organization: Lane County Emergency Management
Community: Lane County
Population: 383,189
County Served: Lane County

Meet Hannah Shafer (she/her):

Originally from Pennsylvania, Hannah received a B.A. in Sustainability Studies & Public Policy from Messiah University in 2019. After undergrad, she moved to Eugene to attend graduate school at the University of Oregon’s School of Planning, Public Policy, and Management to earn a Master of Public Administration degree. She is passionate about local climate policy and climate change mitigation. She is excited to merge climate change mitigation practices and natural hazard mitigation together during her service year. She loves doing anything outdoors and you can find her running and biking along all of the trails Lane County has to offer.

Community and Organization:

Lane County is the fourth-most populous county in Oregon, with a population of around 383,000. It is comprised of 12 incorporated cities, 10 census designated places, and 74 other unincorporated communities. Lane County is biodiverse, spanning from the Pacific Ocean, to the Willamette Valley, and all the way to the Cascades. Lane County Emergency Management is responsible for all categories of emergencies in Lane County – natural disasters, biological/chemical, wildfires, national emergencies, and more. They focus on mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.

Project:

Hannah is leading Lane County’s Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan (NHMP) update for 2023. She is specifically working on improving the County risk assessment sections, adding climate change elements to the vulnerability assessments, integrating the Community Wildfire Protection Plan into the NHMP and enhanced mitigation opportunities, increasing public engagement with BIPOC and underserved groups, and restructuring the plan to increase usability.