Celebrating 13 Years in Business!

Fourteen years ago, I had a calling.

I was working in the California system at the time, and while I loved what I was doing, there were several situations where I realized the client needed more. They wanted more. More than anything, they?deserved?more. After a lot of thought, Connect Consulting Services was born. I wanted to start an organization that not just met client needs, but really understood the full suite of disaster management: prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery. Thirteen years ago today, we opened our doors to go above and beyond for our clients. Here are some of our highlights:

2009?– CCS launches?with Initial clients?Direct Relief, NACHC, and the Primary Care?Development Corporation?on August 8, 2009. (All?are still clients.)?Initial service offerings?include?emergency management?training?and technical assistance, resource development, and?fostering?client?relations with state and?emergency management?officials.?We started as a sole proprietorship.?

2010-2015?-?Added?many healthcare and?federal?agencies?clients?in 22 states.?Service offerings now include emergency management and business continuity planning, in addition to?the training and technical assistance, and exercises.?We conducted our first law-enforcement?coordinated?Active Shooter Functional Exercise?for the members of the West Virginia Primary Association.?

2016-?CCS incorporates,?obtains our first office?suite?in Sacramento, CA, and hires our first employees.?Additional offerings now include?evacuation planning,?county agency?emergency?planning,?more?trainings, and?we?develop the first Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Emergency Preparedness Compliance Toolkit.?The new CMS Compliance requirements are meant to increase the?disaster?preparedness level of?17 providers such as hospitals, long term care agencies,?and primary care providers.?

2017-?CCS created our Training Division and added our first Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)-trained Master Exercise Practitioner (MEP) to our staff. Since then, we have developed and delivered emergency management and business continuity trainings via in-person, webinar, and eLearning Management System formats for more than 15,000 people. In addition, CCS has conducted more than three hundred tabletop discussion-based exercises, functional exercises, and multi-agency full-scale exercises for clients in recent years. Exercise scenario topics have included COVID-19 response evaluation and mitigation, active shooter/active threat, workplace violence, hurricanes, tornadoes, Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) events, flooding, infectious disease outbreaks, cyber breach, hazardous material release, incident management, water outages, wildfire, earthquake, severe weather, political and civil unrest.

2018- CCS adds?more staff and team members?across the country.?CCS has now completed emergency management and business continuity planning, training, and exercise projects?for clients in 32 states. CCS was named the Woman Business of the Year by the?Sacramento SBA.?CCS staff spoke at more than twenty?emergency management and business continuity conferences,?community events and webinars.?CCS co-hosted our first annual webinar with our?partner Great Shakeout Earthquake Drill to support earthquake planning of?600 CMS providers.?

2019-2020-?CCS moves to a?new office suite in Sacramento?as well as adds staff in Washington State and Texas?and more team members across the country.?CCS has now completed emergency management and business continuity planning, training, and exercise projects for clients in?39?states.?CCS staff spoke at more than?thirty?emergency management and business continuity conferences, community events and webinars.?We secured our first planning, training, and exercise contracts with California?state?agencies and?wastewater?utilities.?

2021-?The?COVID-19 Pandemic led to?the CCS?staff and client growth?since we?are experts in infection control, mitigation, and business continuity.?We have completed more than?100+?COVID-19 related planning,?training, resource development, exercise, After Action Report (AAR)?projects for clients in?43 states.?CCS obtained?the?Woman Business Enterprise certification from the?California Public Utilities Commission and the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise from the Department of?Transportation. Lastly, CCS?was named the?2021 Small Business of the Year by the Women's Business Center of the California Capital Financial Development Corporation in Sacramento.?

2022 -?CCS?now?has completed?projects in 47 states, added?more staff in Nevada and plan on continuing growing!?

Thank you for being part of our 13 years! Every day is an honor to serve you.

Nora O'Brien, Founder & CEO, Connect Consulting Services, Sacramento, CA