NIU grad says surviving 2008 mass shooting prepared her for Will County job

The 2008 Northern Illinois University mass shooting left a heavy mark on the greater DeKalb community, but one alum said it has better prepared her to carry out her duties as an emergency management professional.

Allison Anderson, a 2008 NIU graduate and director for Will County Emergency Management Agency, said the trauma she endured Feb. 14, 2008, when a lone gunman shot into a crowded NIU lecture hall, killing five students and injuring dozens more, has been used to inform the way she assumes organizational leadership.

“It definitely changed college for me,” Anderson said. “It changed a lot for me. But I think I do what I do because I know what it feels like to live your worst day of your life.

“I’m very passionate about school safety. I’m trying very hard to make Will County the safest for our kids. I have two kids in the schools now. So I think about them every time I walk in now that what I’m doing has an impact on them.”

A senior at the time, Anderson was in a sociology class in DuSable Hall, near Cole Hall, where the shooting was.

“I didn’t believe it until I got downstairs and you could hear a pin drop,” Anderson said. “That’s when everything changed. ... I didn’t know if it was safe to go home. There was no information. The only thing we knew was there were cops outside.

“I had someone telling me that there’s a shooter. We didn’t know one way or the other. I couldn’t get phone calls out to verify anything. I tried calling my parents. I couldn’t get through because the phone lines were jammed.”

It definitely changed college for me. It changed a lot for me. But I think I do what I do because I know what it feels like to live your worst day of your life.”

—  Allison Anderson on the 2008 NIU mass shooting

She said she’s since dedicated her life through her work in Will County to improving relationships between first responders and area schools so if the worst-case scenario ever happened again, there might be a “better outcome on the other end.”

Appointed in 2022 as the agency’s director, Anderson has worked for the Will County Emergency Management Agency for about a decade. Before that, she interned with the village of Oak Lawn.

Anderson said there are not too many programs that could have directly prepared her for a career in emergency management. As a psychology and sociology major, she knew she wanted to help people.

“I just didn’t know what that entailed,” she said. “So I really was going into social work. … But after the shooting at [NIU], there was an internship posted on the job board. I figured, I’ve tried a few other avenues, and I haven’t found that thing that I love. I gave it a shot, and I fell in love with this industry.”

In a statement, Will County Executive Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant heaped praise on Anderson for leading by example.

“Allison is a proven leader in emergency management both in Will County and in Illinois,” Bertino-Tarrant wrote. “As director, she oversees an amazing team of staff and volunteers who are working every day to keep our communities safe. I appreciate her strong leadership and her motivation to pursue innovations for the agency’s important mission.”

Anderson said her favorite part of her job is working in partnership with area first responders.

A key responsibility in Anderson’s job is planning for the worst. The agency coordinates public awareness campaigns, emergency response plans with first responder agencies and other trainings in the event of disasters or emergencies in which immediate action can save lives.

A day on the job for Anderson may vary. It’s par for the course in a role that must plan for anything to happen at any time, such as a mass-casualty event, tornadoes, a pipeline rupture or a global pandemic.

“Things can happen very quick,” she said. “We’re always on our toes, and we’re always pivoting to the needs of our community.”

In January, an ice jam took hold along the Kankakee River near Wilmington so severely that flooding resulted, prompting more than a dozen people to be evacuated.

[ Wilmington declares state of emergency over flooding, Route 53 reopened ]

“That was pretty big news for us,” Anderson said. “It happens on a regular basis, but the interesting component that we have here is that we are home to one nuclear facility, and we border another one.”

The emergency called for a creative solution: Crews used warm water from the Dresden Nuclear cooling lake to warm the river and melt the ice. The flood lasted 10 days, she said, with multiple jams along the river. Downtown Wilmington was flooded, and 15 people, five dogs and one cat were evacuated.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Anderson’s agency acted as the logistics hub for the county.

“Any [personal protective equipment] came through us, and we provided to the nonprofits and the first responders,” she said. “So we manage that entire inventory. We also coordinated all of the vaccination clinics. So we were the ones that found the facilities. We designed the facilities.”

As times change, so has the way people get information. It’s also forced people such as Anderson to evolve how they get a mass message out with immediacy to a large group of people.

“So we’re constantly struggling with, ‘how do we get people to opt into a notification system? How do we get ahold of them during a possible worst day of their lives?’” she said. “And that is all a delicate balancing act.”