Reagan Knobloch was on the path to a medical career when she dropped in on her friend Shari Harrington.
Standing in the basement of the City Building where for years authorities coordinated the response to local disasters, Harrington went down the list of her responsibilities as director of the Montgomery County Emergency Management Agency.
“She didn’t know it at the time,” Knobloch later said, “but she was the inspiration for going into that career field.”
More than five years since that first visit, Knobloch completed an internship with the agency this week after training for search-and-rescue operations, writing grants and helping plan for an upcoming police dog certification program.
The projects, she said, are made possible by a network of people that comes together to “make things happen in a positive way for the community when bad things happen.”
Gov. Eric Holcomb declared Feb. 24-28 as “EMA Appreciation Week” to recognize the work of the agencies across the state.
Knobloch joined the agency in 2018 after she moved back to her hometown while her husband, Timothy, was deployed in Germany as a NATO instructor for the Air Force. Timothy works on satellite command and control and ballistic and missile warning defense. The couple has three children, Anna, 13, Josh, 10, and Olivia, 9.
Her husband’s military career has taken the family from California to Colorado, where Timothy has been re-assigned to Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora. He was scheduled to arrive back in the United States on Wednesday.
While pursuing a master’s degree in environmental science, Knobloch worked alongside EMA staff and volunteers in the agency’s offices on Elmore Street.
She completed training for the Community Emergency Response Team, known as CERT, a team of volunteers that assist public safety officials in disasters.
Knobloch also worked on a federally mandated emergency plan required for grant funding, set up a mass casualty incident trailer and took part in a rail car derailment scenario under Harrington’s guidance.
“She’s really showed me how the pieces fit together,” Knobloch said.
Harrington praised Knobloch’s work with EMA administrative assistant Kristi Braziel to plan a statewide K9 officer program scheduled for September in Montgomery County.
“Reagan gets it,” Harrington said, reading from a letter of recommendation as the staff gathered to congratulate Knobloch on her final day in the office Tuesday. “She understands that she has to look at the whole community approach … from the 30,000 ft. view.”
In Colorado, Knobloch plans to work with the military’s emergency management program on the base before seeking a full-time position with a county agency.
“Everybody throws in a piece and it can be from the tiniest thing to the most major thing, but it all has to go together,” Knobloch said about responding to emergencies. It’s a well-oiled machine.”
