Her Story
About Victoria
I have spent about 10 years in emergency management and communications, and my work has evolved into some really innovative areas. Right now, I'm implementing data analytics into emergency management while also working in the game design space to innovate emergency management training and exercises. I've been building training games that serve as decision diagnostic tools for emergency management agencies - not just engagement tools that people tend to use games for, but tools actually geared towards tracking decision-making capacity and identifying where the gaps are within decision-making. The game design space for emergency management is very small right now, sort of a core group of people developing these tools. It's something I started in my position at the airport, and I really wanted to bring it to a larger audience, so I started my consulting business to be able to do that. My goal for the next 5 years is to make my consulting full-time. I'm currently working on a co-author paper with a professor out of University of Illinois, developing a framework for serious games as that diagnostic tool, building that into a formalized framework rather than just a consulting product.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Victoria
01What do you attribute your success to?
I think it's creativity. Having a creative streak that lets me kind of innovate in my space - I'm a big proponent of innovation, and that's kind of been one of my key strengths to my success. I've found things that I genuinely enjoy doing, and so it makes it a lot easier to balance them, because to me, they don't feel like work. I've found the things that don't feel like they're a tedious job to do. I genuinely enjoy doing them, and so that takes a lot of that burden out.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Two things. Don't be afraid to innovate. And don't be afraid to pivot. Emergency management has so many areas to it, from response, recovery, preparedness planning, mitigation, and sometimes there's a niche aspect that nobody has thought of yet. Not being afraid to make that pivot if you decide that that's kind of where your expertise lies - you don't have to stay on the mainstream track. I think not being disappointed when you have to make that move, because sometimes it turns out to be for the better. Sometimes you find something that you never knew was going to be a strength.
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