Women’s History Month Trailblazers: Amanda Freeman

Amanda Freeman, Disaster Health and Medical Manager
Office of the Medical Director and Emergency Medical Services

Amanda Freeman is a U.S. Air Force veteran who is one of the driving forces behind Orange County Health Services’ role in emergency response for hurricanes and other unplanned events. We recently caught up with her and discussed her journey and goals for Orange County.

Who inspired you growing up?
My parents. They were heroes, not just to me, but to the entire community. They both have a long list of community accomplishments. I’m currently in the same position my dad once held, and I strive every day to make my parents proud and continue their incredible work.

What did you learn from your time in the military?
The most important thing was resiliency. Life in the military can be unpredictable, and things don’t always go the way you plan, so I learned to be resilient no matter what happens in life or what obstacle I’m faced with. The Air Force also introduced me to my passion for CBRN (chemical biological, radiological, nuclear) hazardous materials and emergency management.

How did you make your way to Orange County Health Services?
In my previous role at AdventHealth, I worked closely with this office and the person who held the position before me. When they retired, I decided it was time for me to continue my work in health and medical emergency management from another side of it. My background in healthcare gave me a unique perspective I wanted to bring to Orange County.

What’s your role in emergency response to hurricanes and other unplanned events?
I lead dozens of staff across the emergency operations center, department operations center and logistical support, ensuring we can open special needs shelters or respond to the scene of any emergency when requested. It’s my job to keep everyone moving towards our goal, which sometimes means long days, little sleep and stressful times, but at the end of the day, ensuring the safety of residents makes it all worth it.

Tell us about the County warehouse you oversee.
Our warehouse holds supplies and equipment for almost any type of emergency. We store a portion of the equipment used when special needs shelters are activated and have enough supplies to shelter more than 1,000 people with special needs and their families. We’re also capable of setting up an alternate care site – a temporary site where medical care can be provided during a disaster. We have a logistics team that maintains, repairs and deploys items in the warehouse, ensuring all equipment is ready to go at a moment’s notice.

What challenges do you face?
Being able to anticipate and plan for any incident that might occur. Most of our plans and procedures take an “all-hazards” approach, meaning they apply no matter what happens, but that doesn’t mean we don’t need to think about and have plans for specific things, like mass casualties, interruption to healthcare organizations, pandemics, etc. Another challenge is taking my leadership training and experience in the Air Force and translating it to meaningful leadership in Orange County because there are differences, and finding the right balance is important.

What are your goals?
My primary goal is to ensure the readiness of the County for any disaster. A solid program was handed over to me, and I plan to take that program and make even more improvements to our medical readiness. I also want to continue to bolster the partnership we have with other agencies because it takes many hands to prepare, respond to and recover from disasters. Strengthening those relationships in blue skies means in gray skies we are ready.

What should Orange County residents know?

We work every day to ensure their safety before, during and after disasters. They may not see all that we do, but we train, plan and practice constantly so when a disaster does strike, we’re ready to respond.

Is there anything you’d like to add?
I’m so happy to be here. I truly love my job, and I’ll continue to work hard every day to do my best for Orange County.