meet our team
Shirah Wagner
A certified emergency management + homeland security specialist, Oakland CERT member, and community organizer, Shirah brings a unique blend of skills to emergency resilience.
With extensive experience in film production, event management, and program development across multiple countries, she understands how to create engaging, effective training programs that resonate with diverse communities. As a multi-cultural polyglot and trained Full Spectrum Doula, Shirah excels at working with all kinds of communities, families, and children in high-stress situations.
In her own neighborhood in Piedmont Ave, Oakland, Shirah is the founder + chair of the Piedmont Ave Resilience Committee, and works with 100 homes on her street, collectively preparing her neighbors. She is also the founder + chair of the East Bay Resilient Neighborhoods Network, a growing collective of neighborhoods who are interested in building collective resilience through community connection, preparedness, and mutual support.
FOUNDER & LEAD TRAINER
ACTIVE SHOOTER & FOOD SOVEREIGNTY TRAINERVanessa Arambula
Vanessa is a community organizer, horticulturist, and 20-year military veteran, where she served as a seamstress, Motor Transport Operator, CBRN specialist, and Civil Affairs team member. She deployed once to the Middle East, completed four overseas training missions in four different countries, and retired with the rank of Master Sergeant.
Resiliency was not something Vanessa learned in the military. These skills were embedded in her from her Coahuiltecan lineage. As a land worker and child of people who have worked through many obstacles in caring for themselves, Vanessa carries forward the knowledge of how to live with, understand, and work alongside the resources around us to the best of our ability.
Above all, Vanessa is a mother, a caring neighbor, and a teacher, and it is these roles that guide how she shows up, builds community, and supports the people around her.
