In the Spotlight: Heather Harper

A Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP) instructor since 2022, Heather Harper has approximately 12 years of healthcare emergency management experience with a large healthcare system that provides Level 1 and 3 trauma care.

Harper has a bachelor’s degree in paralegal studies, with a focus on healthcare law, from the Purdue University System in Indiana. She’s also worked as an emergency medical technician for more than a decade and is pro-board certified as a hazardous materials technician.

In addition, she is a member of her healthcare system’s highly/emerging infectious disease team and plans and executes exercises and conducts hazard and vulnerability analysis for the system as well.

Harper has worked several national incidents in her career, including responses to hurricanes. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she served as an emergency management planner for several mass vaccination clinics and worked as a medical branch director in her county’s emergency operations center.

“If I can impact just one emergency responder or healthcare teammate with my experiences or give them an educational tool that makes their life easier, I feel grateful to be a part of their continuous learning,” said Harper.