Lance Peterson - Director

Mr. Lance Peterson is the Director of Weber County Emergency Management and Homeland Security. Lance entered the emergency management field in 1991 following completion of a Master's Degree in Human Resource Development at Utah State University and a Bachelor of Science in English from Weber State University. As the Director of Weber County Emergency Management and Homeland Security, Lance is responsible for all disaster and emergency planning, training, and exercising in the county. He has identified over twenty-seven planning initiatives for the county and has accomplished eighteen of those plans to date, with four major plans in process. While at his position, Lance created the Weber County Sheriff’s ARES Communications Team, as an auxiliary to the Sheriff’s Office. He has also been instrumental in creating the Weber Hazmat Response Task Force and is involved in the Northern Utah Regional Hazmat Response Team planning effort. He is co-chair of the Northern Utah Regional Homeland Security Coalition and it’s executive board. He also chairs the Weber County Homeland Security Committee.

Lance was the State Exercise Training Officer (ETO) for the State of Utah Division of Comprehensive Emergency Management from September of 1992 until joining Weber County in June of 1999. Lance focused on local operations and field-management of resources during his career at the state. This included the development and delivery of courses such as, Disaster Medical Management, Search and Rescue Incident Management, Unified Command, IEMC Earthquake, IEMC Terrorism, IEMC Special Events, and other operational training for local field and EOC responders.

Lance also serves in many other capacities. He is Team Commander for the NDMS Region VIII Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team and served for three weeks in New York City at the World Trade Center operations. Lance also served as the State Disaster Committee Chair for the American Red Cross in Utah during 1999-2000, and is Past-President of the Utah Emergency Management Association. Lance is an adjunct instructor for the Emergency Management Institute, has served on several curriculum development committees for FEMA, and has instructed on a national level for state and local emergency management programs, as well as for business and industry. He has assisted in the development or updating of several FEMA courses including; all of the Comprehensive Exercise Curriculum courses, Mass Fatalities Incident Response, and the Special Events Planning Independent Study course.

Lance is an active member of the State Critical Incident Stress Debriefing Team and served on the Board of Directors for four years. He loves to farm. Lance has three children and is married to the former Becky Johnson of Layton.