Mary Rose Duberek has over 25 years of State service starting her career as a Planning Analyst with the CT Department of Labor. Mary Rose comes to UConn Office of Emergency Management after spending the last 18 years working for the Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security (DESPP/DEMHS) as both an Emergency Management Program Specialist and the agency’s first female Regional Coordinator.
Having spent most of her time within the Radiological Emergency Preparedness Program (REP) unit, working with local, state, federal and nuclear industry representatives, Mary Rose worked to ensure compliance with state and federal laws in the development of the State Radiological Emergency Response Plan (RERP). In support of the REP program, she has participated in all the federally evaluated nuclear safety exercises since 1998 and has even served as an exercise controller for UConn’s last three Host Community exercises.
She has worked in three different DEMHS Regional Offices assisting over 120 chief elected officials, emergency management directors and other local officials in developing and implementing local emergency operation plans, conducting hazards analysis and qualifying for federal funds. During her tenure at DEMHS Mary Rose was assigned numerous positions during State Emergency Operation Center (SEOC) activations, including staffing operations, logistics, planning and the State’s Joint Information Center. The most notable of these activations include Y2K, September 11th, the back to back storms in the fall of 2011, Superstorm Sandy, the February Blizzard of 2015 and all the State emergencies in between. Mary Rose was also assigned to work at the State and Federal Joint Field Office (JFO) after several Presidential Declarations, including Superstorm Sandy.
Of all her accomplishments, she is especially proud of being assigned to the core team that successfully prepared the State to achieve Emergency Management Accreditation Program (EMAP) accreditation in 2015. Mary Rose developed strategies to meet emergency management program standards, analyzed federal guidance, researched best practices, and collaborated with internal and external stakeholders in developing plans to improve the State’s emergency management program culminating in the receipt of a Commissioner’s Recognition Award for her work on the EMAP project.
Mary Rose is a graduate of UConn with a BA in Communications. She lives with her husband and son in Tolland.