Zeb Holland is Jackson County’s New Emergency Management Director
Story by Bill Davis, Public Information Officer, Jackson County
Zeb Holland is Jackson County’s New Emergency Management Director
The Jackson County Board of Commissioners announced Zeb Holland as the county’s new Emergency Management Director during their board meeting in early October. “We’d like to congratulate Zeb Holland on becoming our new Emergency Services Director,” said Chairman Mark Letson, during the Oct. 7 meeting, also thanking the 44 applicants who applied for the position to replace outgoing EM Director, Todd Dillard.
Holland first became a firefighter about a decade ago and was recently a GIS mapping specialist for Jackson County Emergency Services. Add in a four-year degree in emergency management, experience with a couple of major disasters here in Jackson County, and countless training courses and certifications, you get Zeb Holland.
Oh, and he also happens to own his own fire truck.
“It started out as a joke that I was going to buy my own fire truck, and I was going to sell ice cream out of it,” said Holland. “And about a week later, Cullowhee Fire Department said they were going to sell one of their old fire trucks – ‘Engine 454’ – and I thought, well, this is just almost meant to be. So, I ended up buying a 1982 American LaFrance engine. It’s in great condition, and I’ve also used it for doing fire education out in the community.” It’s that kind of commitment to community – the nearly 45,000 residents of Jackson County, visitors to the area, and area partners – that makes Holland motivated. And he says he’s up to the challenge.
“It’s a pretty big honor, big department head level job and comes with a lot of responsibility, and I am truly thankful to be chosen to serve Jackson County and its citizens as the new emergency management director,” said Holland. “My top priority will always be ensuring safety and preparedness of our community before, during, and after any emergency or disaster,” he said. “I’m grateful for my education and training that has helped me get here.”
Holland Becoming a Firefighter…and a College Grad
“I started my emergency services career as a firefighter in 2016 at Upper Hominy Fire Department in Candler,” said Holland. “I was an active member of the department until I came to college at Western in 2018.”
Having hands-on experience in the fire service prior to working on his college degree helped in the educational process.
“I felt like I had somewhat of an advantage because I had seen the operational side of things,” Holland said.
The college degree did, however, help him develop his administrative skills.
“My degree really benefited me when it came to the planning side, grant writing, things like that.”
While attending college, Holland worked part-time in an emergency management specialist role with Jackson County, assisting with whatever needed to be done – logistics, pulling trailers, radios, and helping dispatch. About half-way through his degree, Holland began to work for the county in a full-time capacity.
It was a difficult time to do both, but he says it helped him gain a lot of time management skills. He graduated with his bachelor’s degree in Emergency and Disaster Management from WCU in 2022.
“I accepted a full-time position with emergency management while I was in college in 2020,” Holland said. “I did all the GIS mapping for the 911 Call Center and all the law enforcement, fire and EMS, the response boundaries, and response districts.”
COVID…and Helene
“My bosses and mentors in the past would tell me that emergency management changed completely during 9/11,” said Holland. “And a lot of the people that worked there in 9/11 also worked during COVID. And those same people said the same exact thing, that COVID has changed emergency management forever.”
The field of emergency management became broader of a career field.
“The devastating impact of 9/11 made emergency responders focus on the terrorism, both foreign and domestic,” Holland noted. But COVID brough public health and disease outbreaks to the forefront. It was a time here in Jackson County when the subject matter experts at the Jackson County Public Health Department teamed up with emergency response skills at emergency management.
“We (Emergency Management) had experience in mass care or mass vaccinations, and our health department was our main point of contact with their healthcare expertise,” said Holland. Pairing the emergency management and public health skillset with the drive-through shot clinics where they were seeing hundreds of people a day really paid off, Holland said.
Four years later, Hurricane Helene really put Jackson County Emergency Management in the spotlight.
“Helene definitely gave emergency managers in Western North Carolina a different outlook on hurricanes and severe weather,” said Holland.
“I’ve talked with colleagues over in the eastern part of the state, and they prepare for hurricanes all the time. We got a lot of advice and pointers from our colleagues on the eastern part of the state who had dealt with hurricanes a lot.”
Holland was part of the Emergency Management team that activated the Emergency Operations Center during Helene to help provide the right resources and support during the emergency.
“I like to compare the EOC to being a hub – a resource center – for emergency services,” said Holland. “We’re able to coordinate with fire, law, EMS, rescue, all the departments, and it’s oftentimes an intense environment when we open the emergency operations center.
“There’s a lot of critical decisions that are made there, but it’s also rewarding to be able to offer those resources and oftentimes information to the public out of that EOC. A lot of the public information that we’re pushing out is just coming directly from our operations staff out of the EOC.”
Partnerships
“Our partnerships are critical with our local partners, our state partners, federal partners, and also our non-government organizations, the NGOs,” said Holland. “I’m very lucky to have good relationships with all our surrounding counties and further out as well. I’m on a first name basis with all the emergency managers in Western North Carolina, and that’s a big help.”
Holland also touts his partnerships he has locally with fire and law, not only here in Jackson County, but surrounding counties as well. He also speaks with the State Emergency Management Area Coordinator weekly, as well as getting updates from both FEMA and North Carolina Emergency Management daily with their operational briefings.
Disasters don’t have jurisdictional boundaries, and having mutual aid agreements in advance of a disaster is critical.
“We have a statewide mutual aid agreement with every county in the state already, so as far as staffing and equipment, it can be requested and received at any point by any county in the state,” Holland said.
Train for “What If”
“The training exercises we’ve had recently – one with Jackson County Public Schools (with the active shooter scenario) and then second with the Health Department and DSS as our shelter exercise – have been eye-opening opportunities for all parties involved.”
It’s that hands-on experience that is so important.
“You can read a plan and look at a computer all day, but until you’ve actually done it, you don’t know what it’s like,” Holland said. “Things such as the hands-on portion in learning how to set up cots in a shelter or set up an animal shelter at a location that they’ve never been before. Or maybe that was mass feeding. Or maybe that was offering some sort of health care, such as in a non-hospital, non-health department setting.”
He is also continuously working on emergency management certifications, such as FEMA courses with Incident Command System. In 2024, he earned his fire investigator certification at the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, Maryland.
“I’m deeply grateful for my education, the training, and certifications I’ve received and especially the mentors who have guided and supported me along the way,” Holland said.
But there is one personal goal he seeks. “I would say one of my biggest goals for my career is I would like to be an internationally Certified Emergency Manager with the International Association of Emergency Managers.”
Plans for the Future
“I want to focus on growth and development within our agency so we can get better, and as director, I want to provide as much opportunity as possible to our staff,” said Holland. “I’m going to evaluate our current staffing levels and see how that compares to the needs of the county and make adjustments as needed for that.”
Holland puts an emphasis on training for emergency services, to include training classes hosted right here in Jackson County. His goal is to provide classes locally for emergency services personnel – fire, EMS, and law – so they don’t have to go to other counties to take a class. “They would be both internal classes and external classes that would be a partnership with Southwestern Community College for fire, law enforcement and paramedic courses,” Holland said. For example, being able to hold training here in Jackson County for firefighter certification classes would mean that firefighters wouldn’t have to leave the county to become a certified firefighter. It would also allow an alignment of in-house training so that other firefighters can attend. “Oftentimes people say the state stops in Asheville,” said Holland. But he has a vision in which Jackson County can become a “voice for the far west counties” and be a place for training opportunities and resources here and the WNC area.
A lot of times resources from outside the county can take hours, if not days, to get here, said Holland. “So, it’s our duty and our responsibility to ensure that our citizens get the same amount of coverage and the same amount of skill level that anywhere else in the state gets.” Some of those areas include health care and communications.
“We just reinstated a partnership with the Mountain Area Healthcare Coalition, so we’ve got an oxygen cache out here in our building now in our warehouse that can be used for all the far west counties in disaster,” Holland said. “We’re also working on a communications trailer that has a large cache of radios and some satellite stuff and some internet capabilities that will also be housed here in Jackson County for all the far west to use.” It’s an effort to best serve Jackson County and the Western North Carolina region. “We’re focusing and working on making sure that our emergency management office and dispatch center is one of the best in the state,” Holland said. “We want to strive to be the best. There’s no reason to accept any less.”
911 – True First Responders
“We dispatch for seven fire departments, two rescue squads, two EMS agencies, the sheriff’s office, and Sylva Police Department,” said Holland. “If you make a 911 call within the Jackson County geographical area, it comes to this center here.” The only exception is with Western Carolina University that has its own police department and EMS service. While Holland oversees the 911 Call Center, he also carries the “been-there, done-that” card.
“I got all my certifications in as a dispatcher, so I’m certified as an emergency medical dispatcher, emergency fire dispatcher, and emergency police dispatcher.” Holland views the role of telecommunicators as true first responders. “They’re here for possibly this person’s worst day, and not only do they have to dispatch the correct units to that call for service, but they also have to deal with the mental aspect and help calm that person down or give them the information that they might need, or they might even be given instructions on how to do CPR if there was someone who has stopped breathing. “Here in Jackson County, our telecommunicators do everything.”
About that Fire Truck He Owns
As Holland turns 26 in December, he also wants to turn heads as he shows off his fire truck at community events. There are two passions that come from this. One is his affinity with the automobile industry. “My family has a history in racing, so I get to tie in my fire service hobby in with the car industry as I take the fire truck to a lot of car shows,” Holland says. “With it being an antique, the car show enthusiasts love seeing the old fire truck. It’s something different, and it’s not oftentimes you see an old fire truck at a car show.” His second passion is firefighting. “Having a career in emergency management, my hobby is the fire service, because that’s kind of the part-time thing that I do, or do it on the side when I’m off,” Holland said. While serving as the emergency management director, he also serves as a volunteer firefighter with the Sylva Fire Department. Holland eyes his service in emergency management with commitment. “I am lucky to be a part of a great agency, and I would put our staff and program up against anyone in the state,” Holland said. “I’m thankful for this opportunity at a young age because that gives me the opportunity to serve Jackson County for the next 25 plus years, hopefully.”
