Melissa Waller, MA
Master Exercise Practitioner (MEP), Owner
Ms. Melissa Waller, lead consultant and owner of Pre-Emergency Planning, LLC, is a FEMA certified Master Exercise Practitioner (MEP), is recognized as a Professional Continuity Practitioner, and holds a Master’s Degree in Disaster and Emergency Management. She is a dedicated professional in Emergency Management compiling an extensive record of public service and private industry accomplishments over the last 19 years. Her commitment to public service and the advancement of the industry is evident in the many roles and responsibilities she has held over her career.
Melissa’s skills and experience exemplify her ability to support diverse audiences in organizing, preparing, developing, and reviewing emergency and business continuity plans. She is effective in coordinating and executing efficient training programs and exercises as well utilizing project management skills to deliver services in both the public and private sectors. She has served as the lead in the development of many emergency planning and business continuity projects for clients such as Wisconsin Physicians Service Insurance Corporation (WPS), Total Administrative Services Corporation (TASC), University of Wisconsin Health which included the UW Medical Foundation, UW Hospitals and clinics, private sector partners and critical infrastructure providers.
Ms. Waller has served as a subject matter expert, leading large, complex HSEEP operational exercises for State and regional clients. She has contracted with the Department of Defense, Regional Emergency All-Climate Training Center, and the State of Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs to serve as the lead exercise contractor for six joint civilian and military multi-day full-scale exercises, each with over 1,000 participants.
Ms. Waller has developed and lead several regional workshops and exercises with hundreds of participants for healthcare emergency readiness collations, medical centers and public private partnerships. She served as the Dane County Medical Surge Liaison working closely with hospitals and medical clinics within Dane County, Wisconsin to develop a county wide medical surge plan. Melissa also managed the Dane County Long Term Care Emergency Preparedness Program serving as the County liaison for long term care providers to support emergency operation plan development and designing, facilitating and evaluating exercises to validate plans and procedures.
She has worked extensively in the private sector with a variety of clients that include utility providers, municipal water systems, transit systems, insurance providers, convention centers, and global manufacturing facilities to create, update, and validate emergency response/ business continuity plans and to validate these plans through exercise using an all hazards approach.
In her practice, Melissa has provided hundreds of high quality training and exercise events covering nearly all target capabilities for private, non-governmental organizations and government agencies at the municipal, county and state level. She is highly efficient at producing programs that are fully compliant with state and federal regulations including documentation of achievement and correlation of objectives to grant applications. In addition to the aforementioned accomplishments, Ms. Waller served as a Deputy Medical Examiner for over 8 years and as a volunteer Emergency Medical Technician for over 10 years.