THP 30: Andy Moffitt

Program: Emergency & Disaster Management
Current Position: Program Manager, Finance & Logisics, Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems
Hometown: Washington, D.C.
LinkedIn: Andy Moffitt

What are the three most important skills for someone in your profession and why?

1)  Critical thinking. The bulk of an emergency management professional's time is spent evaluating risks, which are nearly endless.

2)  The ability to make decisions under pressure and with incomplete information. Disorder and confusion are axioms of crises, and it's easy to pause action in hopes of clarity (which rarely arrives).

3)  Trust. Decisions may ultimately "belong" to a particular individual, but emergency management is a team sport; you must rely upon any number of individuals to frame your understanding of complex situations.

Who (or what) has inspired you and how has your life changed as a result?

The most inspirational individuals I've come across in this field have been those who've not come to emergency management by direct means, but who instead apply unique specialties to the field. Among the most notable have been a structural engineer, a retired homicide detective, and a physician who works at the Mt. Everest base camp. Witnessing their extrapolation of experience for application in a totally different arena has inspired me to open the breadth of my learning, and in turn, I've applied lessons from history, science, and the arts to my profession in new ways.