Monroe County’s top emergency management official is departing to lead her alma mater’s emergency planning and response.
On May 21, Monroe County announced Shannon Weiner’s resignation as emergency management director after she accepted a similar position at the University of Tampa.
“We extend our deepest gratitude to Shannon for her years of dedicated service to the county and its residents through numerous activation, the building of the new Emergency Operations Center, a global pandemic, and her leadership through numerous hurricanes, including Hurricane Irma,” said County Administrator Christine Hurley.
With Weiner’s departure, the county announced Cory Schwisow as interim emergency management director. An emergency manager at Naval Air Station Key West during Hurricane Irma in 2017, Schwisow was most recently deputy director in county emergency management under Weiner.
Weiner joined county emergency management as senior planner in 2016. Two years later, she was named deputy director under then-director Marty Senterfitt. By 2020, she was named director.
Two weeks later, Weiner was leading a team of municipalities and agencies up and down the island chain through a COVID-19 pandemic. Weiner said she wrote pandemic response plans when she worked with Sarasota Emergency Management in the early 2000s.
“We (Monroe County) had the framework for response, but the reality of COVID turned any type of local response upside down due to the fact it was a global, national and state event,” she said. “Everyone was experiencing the same disaster at the same time. The regular resource chain did not work, and in some cases (there was) no supply chain with businesses shutting down.”
She led daily phone calls with emergency management officials from the various municipalities and numerous agencies, as then-county health department administrator Bob Eadie provided the latest on the outbreak. Under Weiner, the emergency management team ensured hospitals had the personal protective equipment, or PPE, needed to keep nurses and staff safe. They also worked to get the vaccine to the Keys.
Then there was the shutdown of the Keys, and a controlled reentry with sheriff’s deputies and other government workers staffing checkpoints, to ensure hospitals weren’t overrun by increased infections.
“If we had an influx of people coming in here, which we would have, and we didn’t have medical supplies to support them or support the hospital system, we would have been overwhelmed,” Weiner said.
With assistance from National Weather Service Key West, she also guided the island chain through some close calls as various hurricanes, including Ian in 2022, skirted past the island chain.
“To me, emergency management is the ultimate team sport. It’s not just five people who sit in the building who plan, train and gain more resources in the offseason to get ready for the real season. We have to do this with all of our partners,” she said.
Weiner served as deputy incident commander when Hurricane Irma inflicted its wrath on the Florida Keys in 2017.
“It was life-changing for a lot of us,” she said. “The incredible part was the 700 first responders here helping with response and recovery. When you are that impacted county, people will come from across the country to help you be whole again.”
Kimberly Matthews, senior director of strategic planning and libraries director, first met Weiner in the days leading up to Hurricane Irma in 2017. In a room of hundreds, her command presence, expertise and openness stood out immediately.
“Over the past eight years, I’ve had the privilege of being at her side during multiple county emergency operations activations. During our community’s most chaotic and uncertain moments, her calm, decisive leadership offered reassurance that all would be well,” Matthews said. “Through both blue skies and gray, Shannon has led with grace and professionalism, forging strong partnerships and inspiring others to follow her lead. She has fostered an emergency response community in the Florida Keys that has carried us through devastating storms, mass migrant landings and a global pandemic. Her absence will be deeply felt and she will be greatly missed.”
County Veterans Affairs director Cathy Crane served on Weiner’s emergency management team as planning section chief during the pandemic and in times of impending storms. She said Weiner was clear and compassionate during an emergency response to a storm, pandemic or establishing a state-of-the-art Emergency Operations Center in Monroe County.
“Shannon is highly respected amongst her peers, local and state partners and the community,” Crane said. “As Shannon moves on to the next phase of her career, she leaves an indelible mark on our team and community. Shannon’s contributions will be felt for years to come, and her infectious laughter will forever echo through the halls of the EOC in her absence.”
Weiner said she’s excited to take a position where she’ll build a program and plans at the University of Tampa.
“Emergency management, in higher education at college, is a really new aspect in the field of emergency management with all the shootings and riots over the last decade or so; it’s become more in demand,” she said.
Weiner will be returning to a campus in Tampa where she received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Her oldest daughter graduated from the university in 2021, and her youngest daughter will be attending the university following her graduation from Key West on May 30.
“It’s definitely special,” Weiner said.
Despite leaving for her new job, Weiner said she still plans on spending summer and holidays at her Florida Keys residence.
