September 17, 2023 • 12 mins
Anne Strouth recently took over as the director of the Ashland County EMA, Emergency Management Agency. Anne was born in Ashland and attended Loudonville High School. Strouth went to the University of Akron and NCTC for her education, then worked for Loudonville Police and the Highway Patrol. Learn about what all her office does in preparing residents for any type of weather or emergency.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
The CEO you should know. Broughtto you by Robie Foster Miller Eric Insurance
this week CEO and Strouth Ashland CountyEmergency Management Agency Director. Today we're going
to shine the spotlight locally as wealways do, this time on Ashland County
(00:20):
EMA Director. That's the emergency managementagency we have and Strouth joining us this
morning, and good morning. Thankyou for being with us today. Thank
you, Good morning to you two. All Right, well, you recently
let's start at the top. Yourecently took this job. When did you
actually start as the Ashland County EMADirector. I started part time on April
(00:43):
seventeenth of this year, in fulltime the very first week of May.
Okay, And if anybody knows anythingabout emergency management it's a twenty four seven
three sixty five kind of job,right, absolutely, yes, it is.
Well and could we talk about whatyou do? Somebody here's Emergency Management
Agency. They may hear about youguys responding after we've had you know,
(01:06):
some sort of weather and things likethat. But could you kind of describe
I know there's a lot of thingsyour office as in charge of. What
all do you guys do? Couldyou walk us through that sure I could
walk you through. I'll try tobe brief because there, as you said,
there's a lot of things my officedoes. We are responsible for emergency
disaster coordination and conjunction of course withother emergency agencies like the Fire Department's law
(01:30):
enforcement as well as any other keyleader organization within our counties. And we
also develop and implement and update thecounty's Emergency Operation Plan, and we also
prepare for exercises that's part of thatplan for the state, coordinate and assists
our Local Emergency Planning Committee which wecall the l EPC, and I am
(01:55):
the chair of that, and thatcommittee is responsible for the development of hazard
Materials Response Plan for here in AshlandCounty, interface with a lot of different
agencies and planning for any type ofdisaster or casualty event those partners or American
Red Cross, Salvation Army, theOHIOLYMA. We have a State Emergency Response
(02:15):
Commission. Just tons of responsibilities anda lot of that of course does pertain
to Hazard's material response plan, butalso any other type of disasters which we
are known here this year for ourtornadoes, heavy winds, and flooding.
And this office coordinates all of theresources that are needed and for any of
(02:38):
those type of events. And Strouthis the voice you hear this morning.
She is this week's CEO. Youshould know Ashland County EMA director. So
you brought up tornadoes in flooding,and you and I are chatting here in
September. A recently your office,I know was responding there were cars and
you know that maybe entered flooded roadways. We've recently add some heavy rain there
(03:00):
in late August, so you guyshave definitely been busy here as of recent
We've been very busy. Yes.And in terms of September being National Preparedness
Month, which is a great timeto talk with you. I'm sure you're
having plans because you know, rightnow people enjoy hey fall weather cooling down,
but we know when winter arrives insnow, you have to be prepared.
(03:22):
You know what if the power wentout, talk about some of the
things. So you guys prepare forhere in the month of September. At
least you'll let the public know tohave that plan ready. Oh. Yes,
And one thing to remember is thatpreparedness is one of our number one
priorities out of this office. Sowe don't just wait until September to promote
that preparedness. We do it all, I mean throughout the entire year for
(03:42):
that. However, the national campaignthat is started is main focus is done
this year is on the elder populationand trying to prepare the elder population for
any type of emergencies. So whatwe have done here in September to help
with that national campaign on our Facebookpage, we are putting tips out you
know, every other day or frequentis a couple times during the day of
(04:06):
tips that can help those in ourcommunity, especially the older community, how
they can prepare for any type ofwhether it's flooding, whether it's snow,
and just the tips that they canfollow, you know, and some of
those tips you think about. It'smaking sure you know, you have some
non perishable foods, I know,batteries, lights, if the power wars
(04:27):
to go out at different things likethat, because you don't want to be
a spot when the power does goout or you're stuck at home for you
know, maybe so many hours oreven days. You need to be prepared
well in advance, correct oh absolutelywell in advance, and to always continue
to refill any of those kits thatyou may have put together a year or
two ago to ensure that you knownothing's been expired, and always keep it
(04:53):
handy and accessible. And Strouth iswith us for a few minutes this morning.
She is this week's CEO you shouldknow and she is the EMA director
Emergency Management Agency in Ashland County.Well, let's step away from work and
find out a little bit more aboutyou, and if we could, let's
step back to the beginning. Ifyou would tell us where was Anne strouthborn.
(05:15):
I was born at Ashland Samaritan Hospital. All right, so from Ashland.
Next, tell us about school andthings like that. Where's you go
to high school? I went tohigh school Loundeville High School. I grew
up in the village of Perrysville.Okay, Now tell us after high school
maybe the path where you are now? Did you one day say, hey,
you know, I want to workin you know EMA, those kind
(05:38):
of things. How if you wouldmaybe highlights along the way how you got
into this role? Okay, Ican share that one. I like to
say that I'm young, but I'veI have quite a few years in my
career path under my belt. ButI know when I graduated from high school.
I went to college at Akron Universityand I did that for a year
and realized being away from home wasnot wasn't suited for me, so when
(06:00):
I came back home and then wentto NCTC, and during that time,
I looked for a job to helpfund my college expense and it was as
a dispatcher at Loudonville Police Department.So at age nineteen, I started at
Loambville Police Department as a dispatcher,and through dispatching, I realized that was
my calling, that law enforcement waswhere I needed to be. So I
(06:23):
put myself through the police academy andbecame a police officer. I worked at
Loambville Police Department and that gave memy step into the highway patrol in which
I started in nineteen ninety three atthe Mansville Patrol Post at thirteen in Hanley,
Rode And that career path led meinto my next career, which was
(06:44):
the program director and Police Academy commanderat North Central State College and I did
that for twenty three years and duringthat opportunity in that time, I was
able to teach at other colleges asan adjunct and one of those happened to
be Ashland University, and I justrecently would be two years now, I
was hired to be the online programdirector of the Criminal Justice and Homeland Security
(07:09):
degree program. So I'm employed byAshland University, which opened a door for
this position here at Ashton County forthe Emergency Management Director. All right,
glad to learn all about and Strouththis morning, this week's CEO. You
should know it again, the EMAdirector in Ashland County. All right.
So while we're on the topic ofyou, and I don't know if you're
(07:29):
married, children or anything like that, but you tell us a little more
about Ann Strouth and the family.Oh. Absolutely, I am married and
just recently moved here to Ashland.I have two adult children and I have
one grandchild. My grandchild lives currentlynow in the state of Georgia, so
I do a little bit of commutingfrom Ohio to Georgia to be able to
(07:50):
see my granddaughter. And my otherdaughter is enrolled at Akron University Law School.
All right, terrific. And somy next thing was to ask you
about spare time. So some ofthat is going to Georgia. You mentioned
to see the grand child, butdo you have any hobbies and what do
you do when you're not working inyour spare time? Well, I work
a lot bullth Hatch in the universityand here's the EMA director, So I
(08:13):
really don't have a lot of freetime. But when I do have that,
I actually am trying to figure outwhat I can do in the community
to give back. So I'm alwaysconstantly working. I don't I don't have
any spare hobbies because I just wantto make a difference in our community.
All right, Well, that isgreat to hear. Now as we get
back to work for just a couplemore minutes before I let you go.
(08:35):
And how many staff members do youhave? I know you're the EMA director.
How many people kind of help outyou know within your office locally?
I'm sure you have a lot ofvolunteers and people that help out over the
course of the year. Well,we do have volunteers, which is our
SIRT cert team, and those arejust volunteers that whenever we have an events
and we need volunteers, they stepup to the plate. But actually helping
(08:58):
me here in the office, Ihave a part time assistant, so it's
really me full time and I havean assistant that works three days out of
the week. Well, before Ilet you go, I wanted to bring
up I know recently there was talk, or there has been talk, there'll
be a solar eclips coming up nextyear. And I know your office does
so much training. We mentioned,you know, getting ready for winter season,
(09:20):
but just being prepared in general.There's been a lot of talk if
you could share a little bit withus about that, there were expecting a
lot of people in north central Ohioin April of next year. Correct.
Oh, correct, it's April eighthof twenty twenty four. We are one
of the counties out of thirty fivethat has been that's basically been identified as
(09:41):
wherever you want to be in thecounty, you will be able to see
the full eclipse. And because ofsuch, and because we are close to
in or State seventy one and justthe rural county that we are, we
think that we will definitely double inpopulation. Yeah, I heard that about
Richland County, Ashland County, andI know, you know, being an
EMA director, it's probably thinking aswe get close to there, with a
(10:03):
lot of people in town and hotelsand buying things plan early for that.
Oh. It is it's plan earlyinto State of Ohio's campaign is basically to
come early, stay late, Sothey're encouraging residents to come early. The
viewing the on April eighth is ona Monday, wanting people to start on
Friday and then don't leave until Tuesday, the ninth of April. So hopefully
(10:28):
that'll bring a lot of tours toour area and hopefully our local merchants can
benefit from that. All right,last thing before we wrap up our conversation,
and a good one this morning withand Strouth, who is the new
EMA director in Ashland County Emergency ManagementAgency. And if somebody wants, you
(10:48):
know, to get involved with theEMA office, they want to maybe find
out what's the best weather radio,they want to you know, maybe they
want to get into some sort oftraining or just be prepared. How can
they reach out to your office,whether call, website, social media?
How can they reach you? Well, they can reach us by calling at
four one nine two eight nine fourone three two and that's the line direct
(11:11):
to my office. They also couldvisit the Ashland County website and under County
Services would be my department to theEMA, and we have our website for
that. We also have a Facebookpage for Ashland County EMA and we are
located in the County building where thecommissioners are located on the second floor,
(11:33):
which is one ten Cottage Street.Well, I wanted to bring that up
and before I let you go,it's a new office for your department.
Correct, recently moved. Absolutely,we moved when I took over the position
in the first week of May.It's brand new. We used to be
located off of State Route sixty wherethe old health department was located. All
right, terrific. If you wantmore information, that website Ashland County,
OH dot us and is and mentionedclick on the LinkedIn for the EMA office
(11:58):
and strouth those this morning again EMADirector Emergency Management Agency in Ashland County,
and thanks so much for spending timewith us. Great to learn about you
and your office. We appreciate thetime and we wish you continued success.
Thank you very much and strou AshlandCounty EMA Director. The CEO you should
(12:20):
know rid a bio see a photoand hear the extended interview at WMA NFM
dot com. This is John Robyof RFME Insurance. This said that a
good leader sets the bar high becausehe or she wants to reach goals and
make the best of their teams.We're proud to introduce you to some of
the communities leaders on the CEO series
The CEO you should know. Broughtto you by Robie Foster Miller Eric Insurance
this week CEO and Strouth Ashland CountyEmergency Management Agency Director. Today we're going
to shine the spotlight locally as wealways do, this time on Ashland County
(00:20):
EMA Director. That's the emergency managementagency we have and Strouth joining us this
morning, and good morning. Thankyou for being with us today. Thank
you, Good morning to you two. All Right, well, you recently
let's start at the top. Yourecently took this job. When did you
actually start as the Ashland County EMADirector. I started part time on April
(00:43):
seventeenth of this year, in fulltime the very first week of May.
Okay, And if anybody knows anythingabout emergency management it's a twenty four seven
three sixty five kind of job,right, absolutely, yes, it is.
Well and could we talk about whatyou do? Somebody here's Emergency Management
Agency. They may hear about youguys responding after we've had you know,
(01:06):
some sort of weather and things likethat. But could you kind of describe
I know there's a lot of thingsyour office as in charge of. What
all do you guys do? Couldyou walk us through that sure I could
walk you through. I'll try tobe brief because there, as you said,
there's a lot of things my officedoes. We are responsible for emergency
disaster coordination and conjunction of course withother emergency agencies like the Fire Department's law
(01:30):
enforcement as well as any other keyleader organization within our counties. And we
also develop and implement and update thecounty's Emergency Operation Plan, and we also
prepare for exercises that's part of thatplan for the state, coordinate and assists
our Local Emergency Planning Committee which wecall the l EPC, and I am
(01:55):
the chair of that, and thatcommittee is responsible for the development of hazard
Materials Response Plan for here in AshlandCounty, interface with a lot of different
agencies and planning for any type ofdisaster or casualty event those partners or American
Red Cross, Salvation Army, theOHIOLYMA. We have a State Emergency Response
(02:15):
Commission. Just tons of responsibilities anda lot of that of course does pertain
to Hazard's material response plan, butalso any other type of disasters which we
are known here this year for ourtornadoes, heavy winds, and flooding.
And this office coordinates all of theresources that are needed and for any of
(02:38):
those type of events. And Strouthis the voice you hear this morning.
She is this week's CEO. Youshould know Ashland County EMA director. So
you brought up tornadoes in flooding,and you and I are chatting here in
September. A recently your office,I know was responding there were cars and
you know that maybe entered flooded roadways. We've recently add some heavy rain there
(03:00):
in late August, so you guyshave definitely been busy here as of recent
We've been very busy. Yes.And in terms of September being National Preparedness
Month, which is a great timeto talk with you. I'm sure you're
having plans because you know, rightnow people enjoy hey fall weather cooling down,
but we know when winter arrives insnow, you have to be prepared.
(03:22):
You know what if the power wentout, talk about some of the
things. So you guys prepare forhere in the month of September. At
least you'll let the public know tohave that plan ready. Oh. Yes,
And one thing to remember is thatpreparedness is one of our number one
priorities out of this office. Sowe don't just wait until September to promote
that preparedness. We do it all, I mean throughout the entire year for
(03:42):
that. However, the national campaignthat is started is main focus is done
this year is on the elder populationand trying to prepare the elder population for
any type of emergencies. So whatwe have done here in September to help
with that national campaign on our Facebookpage, we are putting tips out you
know, every other day or frequentis a couple times during the day of
(04:06):
tips that can help those in ourcommunity, especially the older community, how
they can prepare for any type ofwhether it's flooding, whether it's snow,
and just the tips that they canfollow, you know, and some of
those tips you think about. It'smaking sure you know, you have some
non perishable foods, I know,batteries, lights, if the power wars
(04:27):
to go out at different things likethat, because you don't want to be
a spot when the power does goout or you're stuck at home for you
know, maybe so many hours oreven days. You need to be prepared
well in advance, correct oh absolutelywell in advance, and to always continue
to refill any of those kits thatyou may have put together a year or
two ago to ensure that you knownothing's been expired, and always keep it
(04:53):
handy and accessible. And Strouth iswith us for a few minutes this morning.
She is this week's CEO you shouldknow and she is the EMA director
Emergency Management Agency in Ashland County.Well, let's step away from work and
find out a little bit more aboutyou, and if we could, let's
step back to the beginning. Ifyou would tell us where was Anne strouthborn.
(05:15):
I was born at Ashland Samaritan Hospital. All right, so from Ashland.
Next, tell us about school andthings like that. Where's you go
to high school? I went tohigh school Loundeville High School. I grew
up in the village of Perrysville.Okay, Now tell us after high school
maybe the path where you are now? Did you one day say, hey,
you know, I want to workin you know EMA, those kind
(05:38):
of things. How if you wouldmaybe highlights along the way how you got
into this role? Okay, Ican share that one. I like to
say that I'm young, but I'veI have quite a few years in my
career path under my belt. ButI know when I graduated from high school.
I went to college at Akron Universityand I did that for a year
and realized being away from home wasnot wasn't suited for me, so when
(06:00):
I came back home and then wentto NCTC, and during that time,
I looked for a job to helpfund my college expense and it was as
a dispatcher at Loudonville Police Department.So at age nineteen, I started at
Loambville Police Department as a dispatcher,and through dispatching, I realized that was
my calling, that law enforcement waswhere I needed to be. So I
(06:23):
put myself through the police academy andbecame a police officer. I worked at
Loambville Police Department and that gave memy step into the highway patrol in which
I started in nineteen ninety three atthe Mansville Patrol Post at thirteen in Hanley,
Rode And that career path led meinto my next career, which was
(06:44):
the program director and Police Academy commanderat North Central State College and I did
that for twenty three years and duringthat opportunity in that time, I was
able to teach at other colleges asan adjunct and one of those happened to
be Ashland University, and I justrecently would be two years now, I
was hired to be the online programdirector of the Criminal Justice and Homeland Security
(07:09):
degree program. So I'm employed byAshland University, which opened a door for
this position here at Ashton County forthe Emergency Management Director. All right,
glad to learn all about and Strouththis morning, this week's CEO. You
should know it again, the EMAdirector in Ashland County. All right.
So while we're on the topic ofyou, and I don't know if you're
(07:29):
married, children or anything like that, but you tell us a little more
about Ann Strouth and the family.Oh. Absolutely, I am married and
just recently moved here to Ashland.I have two adult children and I have
one grandchild. My grandchild lives currentlynow in the state of Georgia, so
I do a little bit of commutingfrom Ohio to Georgia to be able to
(07:50):
see my granddaughter. And my otherdaughter is enrolled at Akron University Law School.
All right, terrific. And somy next thing was to ask you
about spare time. So some ofthat is going to Georgia. You mentioned
to see the grand child, butdo you have any hobbies and what do
you do when you're not working inyour spare time? Well, I work
a lot bullth Hatch in the universityand here's the EMA director, So I
(08:13):
really don't have a lot of freetime. But when I do have that,
I actually am trying to figure outwhat I can do in the community
to give back. So I'm alwaysconstantly working. I don't I don't have
any spare hobbies because I just wantto make a difference in our community.
All right, Well, that isgreat to hear. Now as we get
back to work for just a couplemore minutes before I let you go.
(08:35):
And how many staff members do youhave? I know you're the EMA director.
How many people kind of help outyou know within your office locally?
I'm sure you have a lot ofvolunteers and people that help out over the
course of the year. Well,we do have volunteers, which is our
SIRT cert team, and those arejust volunteers that whenever we have an events
and we need volunteers, they stepup to the plate. But actually helping
(08:58):
me here in the office, Ihave a part time assistant, so it's
really me full time and I havean assistant that works three days out of
the week. Well, before Ilet you go, I wanted to bring
up I know recently there was talk, or there has been talk, there'll
be a solar eclips coming up nextyear. And I know your office does
so much training. We mentioned,you know, getting ready for winter season,
(09:20):
but just being prepared in general.There's been a lot of talk if
you could share a little bit withus about that, there were expecting a
lot of people in north central Ohioin April of next year. Correct.
Oh, correct, it's April eighthof twenty twenty four. We are one
of the counties out of thirty fivethat has been that's basically been identified as
(09:41):
wherever you want to be in thecounty, you will be able to see
the full eclipse. And because ofsuch, and because we are close to
in or State seventy one and justthe rural county that we are, we
think that we will definitely double inpopulation. Yeah, I heard that about
Richland County, Ashland County, andI know, you know, being an
EMA director, it's probably thinking aswe get close to there, with a
(10:03):
lot of people in town and hotelsand buying things plan early for that.
Oh. It is it's plan earlyinto State of Ohio's campaign is basically to
come early, stay late, Sothey're encouraging residents to come early. The
viewing the on April eighth is ona Monday, wanting people to start on
Friday and then don't leave until Tuesday, the ninth of April. So hopefully
(10:28):
that'll bring a lot of tours toour area and hopefully our local merchants can
benefit from that. All right,last thing before we wrap up our conversation,
and a good one this morning withand Strouth, who is the new
EMA director in Ashland County Emergency ManagementAgency. And if somebody wants, you
(10:48):
know, to get involved with theEMA office, they want to maybe find
out what's the best weather radio,they want to you know, maybe they
want to get into some sort oftraining or just be prepared. How can
they reach out to your office,whether call, website, social media?
How can they reach you? Well, they can reach us by calling at
four one nine two eight nine fourone three two and that's the line direct
(11:11):
to my office. They also couldvisit the Ashland County website and under County
Services would be my department to theEMA, and we have our website for
that. We also have a Facebookpage for Ashland County EMA and we are
located in the County building where thecommissioners are located on the second floor,
(11:33):
which is one ten Cottage Street.Well, I wanted to bring that up
and before I let you go,it's a new office for your department.
Correct, recently moved. Absolutely,we moved when I took over the position
in the first week of May.It's brand new. We used to be
located off of State Route sixty wherethe old health department was located. All
right, terrific. If you wantmore information, that website Ashland County,
OH dot us and is and mentionedclick on the LinkedIn for the EMA office
(11:58):
and strouth those this morning again EMADirector Emergency Management Agency in Ashland County,
and thanks so much for spending timewith us. Great to learn about you
and your office. We appreciate thetime and we wish you continued success.
Thank you very much and strou AshlandCounty EMA Director. The CEO you should
(12:20):
know rid a bio see a photoand hear the extended interview at WMA NFM
dot com. This is John Robyof RFME Insurance. This said that a
good leader sets the bar high becausehe or she wants to reach goals and
make the best of their teams.We're proud to introduce you to some of
the communities leaders on the CEO series
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