Amanda Westervelt of the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management (PBEM) rose to the top of a national open recruitment process and was selected for the recent Emergency Management Program Manager position at PBEM. An attorney by training and emergency manager at heart, Westervelt’s professionalism and dedication began during her time as a Neighborhood Emergency Team (NET) volunteer.
In this new role, she will join the Program Managers team, as PBEM continues supporting critical functions. Westervelt recently helped conduct an exercise with more than 70 partners from across federal, state, and local jurisdictions. She supported the City's involvement in the national IronOR exercise, and has taken on numerous other projects in areas such as PBEM’s Duty Officer program and Emergency Operations Center (EOC) operations.
Westervelt joined PBEM in 2021 after careers in biochemistry and then law. She grew up in rural Oklahoma, and moved to Portland in 2010, spending time raising two children and co-leading a Girl Scout troop. Amanda discovered emergency management through the NET program and founded an advanced training event called NETCamp in 2019. When COVID hit, Westervelt helped run the Portland Mask Project and the NET Vaccine Access Project.
Westervelt was previously certified as a hazardous materials technician and Emergency Medical Technician. She is a wilderness first responder and is certified to instruct statewide first aid classes and emergency management classes. Westervelt has an undergraduate degree in biology from Cornell University and a juris doctor from Wake Forest University’s School of Law. She is working on a Master Exercise Practitioner credential from FEMA’s National Disaster and Emergency Management University.