Written by Harriet Vanderbilt

Cascades Region Red Cross is pleased to announce the arrival of Kirsten Mandala. She brings to Cascades a portfolio brimming with humanitarian and disaster risk reduction career positions. Globally as well as within the United States, Mandala worked with compassion and kindness to help alleviate disaster risk largely caused by climate change.

Her job was focused on helping communities across Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific cope with humanitarian crises, conflicts, and disasters. Her work in climate and disaster risk reduction involved studying the potential impact of climate-related hazards such as extreme weather on people and property and working with communities to identify solutions to build resilience to these hazards. In Timor-Leste, she helped develop an early warning system, designed to help communities withstand disasters.

“Throughout my professional pathway to Cascades Region, I frequently partnered with the Red Cross worldwide and I’m thrilled to join an organization that I have long admired,” says Mandala.

Portland has been her home base since her professional career began. She graduated from Reed College and then earned a Masters of Public Administration from Portland State University. The position of Reginal Disaster Officer for Cascades Region allows her to be more anchored locally.

Mandala will lead and manage disaster response efforts to include implementing disaster cycle services. She will also develop emergency plans and coordinate volunteers, staff and community partners. Her past career positions make her a perfect fit for the job.

“The Vancouver apartment fire was a good introduction to my new job” declared Mandala.

Just before 3 am on Friday, May 2, a fire in a third-floor apartment erupted of the Norwood Villa 40-unit apartment building in the Dubois Park neighborhood. 15 units and 33 personnel responded to the two-alarm blaze. 20 residents were displaced from nine units. Sadly, one adult died. The fire was under control in less than 30 minutes.

Mandala says, “When I visited in the afternoon, our volunteer response team had been there since 5am. They had grabbed breakfast from McDonald’s for the residents. Before arriving to set up a temporary shelter, people had waited outside for hours, clothed only in their pajamas.” A permanent shelter was later staged at a local church.

“Everyone smelled of smoke. There were tears of sadness. There were also tears of relief because the Red Cross was there to help them. Unfortunately, the building was declared a

total loss. The emotional and financial loss is considerable, but I am so grateful to have joined the organization that showed up to help.”

The shelter remained open until Friday, May 16th after hosting 33 overnight stays and serving 216- meals.

Welcome to Cascades Region, Kirsten! For more information about our work, visit https://www.redcross.org