The Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security (ODEMHS) yesterday announced two recipients of Oklahoma’s Annual Community Preparedness Awards, which honors individuals and organizations who excel at inspiring the public to be ready for disasters.
Dominique Baradaran with Oklahoma Medical Reserve Corps and Oklahoma City-County Health Department and Lynn Cordes with Lawton Public Schools received the awards. ODEMHS announced the winners at the annual Oklahoma Emergency Management Conference, which was held virtually on April 28-29.
Dominique Baradaran received the highest overall score of all Oklahoma entries and was awarded Oklahoma’s Youth Category for Community Preparedness for the impact she had on youth preparedness. Dominique, as the Oklahoma County Medical Reserve Corps Coordinator, partnered with a Francis Tuttle Health Sciences Health Occupations Students of America group to educate their high school peers and build preparedness and resilience skills within their community. The goal of their program was to build a future network of skilled and knowledgeable volunteers willing to help and educate others about disaster preparedness and response.
Oklahoma’s Whole Community Preparedness Award was given to Lynn Cordes, Executive Director of Communications at Lawton Public Schools, for her efforts in coordinating with local, state, community and school agencies to integrate Active Shooter and emergency preparedness training, drills and exercises into the Lawton Public School system and surrounding community. It was made clear by those nominating her that Lynn regularly goes above and beyond her scope of duties and does so with an excellence that has made her a valuable resource both in her local role, as well as in the community at large.
It was because of these qualities that Lynn was also chosen as the overall winner out of 5 states to receive the 2020 FEMA Region 6 Community Preparedness Award.
Emergency management is most effective when the whole community is engaged and involved. Faith-based organizations, service agencies, businesses and associations, tribal organizations, and community members individually can make a real difference before, during, and after disasters.
The award program is administered on the state level by the Oklahoma Homeland Security Office ODEMHS in partnership with FEMA.
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