​Oakland County Man Named 2019 Emergency Manager of the Year

OAKLAND COUNTY, MI — Michael Loper of Oakland County has been named the 2019 Michigan Professional Emergency Manager of the Year, the Michigan State Police announced Thursday. Loper received the award at a special ceremony in Dimondale.

The Professional Emergency Manager of the Year Award recognizes an emergency management professional who displays outstanding professional ethics, leadership and innovation and provides outstanding contributions to the field of emergency management in the state of Michigan, the state said in a news release.

“Mr. Loper’s commitment to emergency management and efforts to better prepare Michigan communities to respond to a disaster through training and exercise are deserving of recognition,” Homeland Security Division Commander Capt. Kevin Sweeney said. “It’s for these reasons and Mr. Loper’s dedication to protecting Michigan’s residents that he is the 2019 Michigan Professional Emergency Manager of the Year.”

As an emergency management specialist for Oakland County Homeland Security, Loper has designed and facilitated hundreds of exercises, developed a county wide policy and operational plan for first responders to follow while responding to unknown white powder responses and assisted local jurisdictional partners in developing a county wide complex coordinated attack policy based on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s guidelines for complex coordinated attacks, according to a news release.

Loper began his career with Oakland County Homeland Security Division in January 2001 as a planner, trainer, exercise developer and special operations specialist. He is a national level trainer of the National Incident Management System and the Incident Command System and holds a Master Exercise Practitioner certificate through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.