Employee Spotlight: Colleen Brennan, Airport Operations Emergency Manager

"I was able to help with disaster housing and volunteer with nonprofit work," says Brennan, who went on to graduate with a Master's Degree in Public Administration with a focus on Homeland Security. This unique combination of experience and education made Colleen a perfect fit for helping airports prepare for almost any emergency, whether man-made or natural.

"I never really thought about working at an airport until I got deeper into emergency management," recalled Brennan. She said that even with her extensive background dealing with hurricanes and other disasters, working at an airport would be a totally different challenge with a whole new set of acronyms to learn.

"Emergency management has its own alphabet soup," Brennan laughed. "Now I'm trying to mix that in with all the airport lingo, and that's been a pretty big challenge in my brain," which she says has been a blast.

"I get to learn something new every day while bringing in knowledge from my background. It's been so much fun."

Brennan began her career at TPA in February, and in just her first six months on the job, she's been spearheading the planning for the airport's upcoming Triennial Exercise on Sept. 17.

The full-scale emergency exercise is a requirement of the FAA and must be completed by all commercial airports once every 36 months.

"We're bringing everyone together, from the airport to our federal, state, and local partners. Everyone will be involved in this scenario to help identify any gaps in our planning, coordination, or communication," said Brennan.

"What's key here is that we know who we're talking to and that we have those relationships with the community partners. They know how to access our sites and integrate into our response operations."

TPA's Triennial exercise next week will involve a simulated collision between two aircraft, with a fire on the airfield and another smaller aircraft down in Tampa Bay.

"We wanted to be sure to include a water rescue component in this exercise, which will require assistance from community partners like the Tampa Police, the U.S. Coast Guard, and others," said Brennan. "Having two separate scenes definitely complicates the response for everyone. Communication will be key."

TPA's communications team plans to alert the public ahead of next week's exercise, informing those in the vicinity of the airport to expect to see smoke coming from the airfield, along with emergency vehicles and helicopters around the airport and Courtney Campbell Causeway while the exercise is taking place.