December 2007

Spotlight on Staff: Christina Peterson

Christina Peterson spends her days developing plans that she hopes she’ll never have to put in place. Peterson is a senior emergency management associate in the Office of Public Safety and Emergency Management (OPSEM), which oversees GW’s preparations for emergencies, including civil disturbances, natural disasters, purposeful acts of violence, and infectious disease outbreaks.

Peterson grew up in Sacramento, Calif., and received her undergraduate degree from Georgetown University. Now a graduate student in GW’s School of Public Health and Health Services, she “stumbled upon” two former emergency management associates at a graduate fair; the chance meeting led to her job at OPSEM.

Q: What are your main job responsibilities?
A: The key part of my job is emergency planning. In addition, I handle the office’s budget and human resources functions. I also play a big part in our special events and spearheaded the Safety Expo event, held earlier this year, for our office. In addition, I act as liaison to the Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area. The consortium has a seat in the mayor’s crisis command center that GW is responsible for staffing, which is very exciting.

Q: Tell us about the award OPSEM recently received from the International Association of Emergency Managers.
A: It was the Business and Industry Preparedness Award, which we received for our Emergency Preparedness Exercise Program. The award category is open to all kinds of organizations and agencies, not just universities. We were very happy and proud to receive the award!

Q: Does this mean GW is in good shape?
A: Yes. We have very comprehensive emergency plans and are at the forefront of planning for universities in our region. And we continue to improve. We just introduced “GW Alert,” which puts crawlers with emergency notifications on students’, faculty’s, and staff’s computer screens. We also have started a new project called “SafeTea,” which offers an opportunity for University departments to talk about emergency planning in an informal setting. Emergency planning may seem daunting for people who have never done it before, and we want them to know it is not that hard.

Q: Which part in any movie would you have loved to play?
A: Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. I love an adventure; I love to meet new people and to be in new places. I definitely would have enjoyed playing her!

Q: Have you ever been in a school play?
A: I was in Our Town in eighth grade, and in my senior year of high school I was in Bye Bye Birdie. I was an athlete in high school and hadn’t seriously tried out the theatrical scene before, but it was a good experience.

Q: Do you like winter sports?
A: I’m from California, so to me winter sports are building snowmen and staying warm!

Q: Who was the last person that made you laugh?
A: I would have to say my coworker Ali Hochreiter. We have pretty good laughs almost daily about silly things around the office.

Q: What is your favorite TV show?
A: It’s a tie between The Office and Grey’s Anatomy. Unfortunately, they’re on at the exact same time on Thursday, so I watch one live and TiVo the other one.

Q: Do you have any hobbies?
A: I love yard work. I love pruning the bushes and the flowers in the front yard, mowing the lawn, and raking the leaves. But I have to wait until the spring to do that again.

Q: What is your favorite part about the holidays?
A: Spending time with my family. I’m the oldest of seven; I have two brothers and four sisters. We have huge family gatherings—it’s pretty much one big holiday from Thanksgiving to Christmas!

Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu