Gay Ernst
OQA Secretary
Walla Walla, Washington
gmernst@charter.net
Gay Ernst is the former Director of Emergency Management for Walla Walla County in Washington State and Chief Readiness Branch for the US Army Corps of Engineers, Walla Walla District, directing emergency preparedness and response in all or parts of 5 states. During her 32-year tenure with the federal government, Ernst also served in numerous leadership positions for the US Forest Service, and the Bureau of Land Management. She served as public affairs officer and recreation program manager for a 2.4 million-acre national forest in northeastern Oregon; as director of BLM's National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, Baker City, Oregon; and as Operations Chief for the Bureau of Land Management, Vale District, Oregon. Ernst has spent over 20 years of her career leading or participating in federal and county emergency management programs. She has served as Incident Information Officer on both Type 1 and Type 2 teams, represented federal agencies on Multi-Agency Coordination groups for a variety of incidents. Additionally, Ernst has extensive experience as a meeting and conference facilitator, including leadership forums, teambuilding sessions, natural resource-related summits, US Army change of command programs, and Union/management partnership meetings. Experienced at all-hazard incident information gathering and dissemination through media, public meetings, and documents.
Gay has twenty-four years as facilitator and moderator of meetings and conferences. She excels at bringing decision makers to agreement on topics ranging from highly controversial and complex, to routine. Five years as S-420, Command and General Staff teambuilding instructor. Seven years planning and executing exercises and drills for all-hazard scenarios, including tabletops; enhanced tabletops; functional; and full-scale exercises following standard Homeland Security doctrine and practices. Instructor for the USFA AHIMT and EMI and NWCG PIO courses. She is a member of the National Wildfire Suppression Association, AHIMT Association and National Emergency Management Association.
Honors and Awards
- US Army Corps of Engineers, Commander's Award for excellence
- US Army Corps of Engineers, Commander's Award for leadership
- USFS 11 Merit Service Awards
Special Assignments
- Facilitator of interagency policymakers reviewing the Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy
- Walla Walla County's representative for planning and executing Homeland Security Dam Sector Exercise Series
- Principal lead for promoting severe weather safety and awareness planning in Walla Walla County
- Keynote speaker and moderator for Bureau of Land Management National Leadership Challenge Conference
- Facilitator for Federal Columbia River Power System Cultural Resources Working Group
- Command and General Staff - 420 cadre member for teambuilding instruction
- Facilitator for Whitman College, Corps of Engineers conference: Women Shattering the Glass Ceiling
- Facilitator for Walla Walla County/City fire departments, analyzing effective ambulance services capability
Ernst attended Washington State University majoring in physical education, and later attended Eastern Oregon University studying liberal arts and natural resource management, Clemson University Recreation Short Course and Oregon State University, Master Gardener.
