San Mateo County’s Emergency Management director blends data and feelings when making decisions

“It’s fun, it’s interesting, it’s challenging. I think there’s things here that really make me tick,” Dhapodkar said. “You’re not stuck in one lane, you learn about roads, you learn about health, you learn about body cameras. So I just really enjoy that.” 

She was born in India and, before settling in Redwood City with her husband, her parents and their dog Gnocchi, Dhapodkar grew up in Kewanee, Illinois, a small town 160 miles outside of Chicago. 

She went on to the University of Illinois where she earned a bachelor’s degree in molecular cellular biology before earning a master’s degree in homeland security from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, and a doctorate of medicine from the American University of Antigua. 

Dhapodkar decided she’d be a surgeon at the age of 5 and, by the end of her schooling, she’d completed that training and achieved her goal. While she enjoyed medicine, Dhapodkar said she found the routine, doing the same thing over and over, stopped challenging her and she found herself being pulled toward disaster planning and emergency management. 

A year off allowed Dhapodkar to do “some soul searching.” When an intern fellow position with the county Health Department doing emergency preparedness for skilled nursing facilities opened up, Dhapodkar applied. Those interviewing her questioned whether she would stick with the county given that she was overqualified for the position. 

Eight years later, Dhapodkar has only continued to further ingrain herself in the county’s emergency preparedness work. The excitement of something new, combined with the feeling that she’s doing something good for the community, is what has kept her so interested for so long. 

“It was interesting, it was fascinating, it just made my heart flutter and every day was different,” Dhapodkar said, noting she also enjoyed the planning aspect of the work. “Those things really drive me. It’s the partnerships, leaving the world a better place and helping people who are in need.” 

COVID response

As the lead of the county’s Emergency Medical Services disaster planning efforts, Dhapodkar played an integral role in the county’s response to COVID-19, being the first to warn superiors about the virus and its potential impacts in January 2020 and serving as a liaison with the Association of Bay Area Health Officials. 

She launched the county’s mass testing and vaccination sites, focusing efforts on the communities most at risk and sometimes the hardest to reach. At times when doses were precious, Dhapodkar said her gut would tell her when it was a good time to prepare new shots, shocking her colleagues when the perfect number of doses would be ready for an influx of late shows. 

It’s that work ethic and sound judgment that earned her praise from County Executive Officer Mike Callagy as Dhapodkar was being considered for the role of  director of Emergency Management last October. The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the appointment, making Dhapodkar the first woman to fill the role, succeeding Don Mattei, a longtime Belmont police chief, who retired from the position after four years. 

“During those first days of the pandemic and throughout that crisis, I was impressed with Shruti’s work ethic, her decision making and her ability to get the seemingly impossible done,” Callagy said in a press release introducing Dhapodkar to the community last September. 

How Dhapodkar knew it was time to abandon her dream of being a surgeon, how she predicted COVID’s impact, how she routinely knew the right number of doses to prepare during vaccine clinics, she said, came down to a feeling. 

She describes it as a sense of calm. Paired with quick internal analysis of any given issue, the feeling has rarely if ever steered her wrong, though Dhapodkar said she’s open to being disproven. On issues like COVID, she would have welcomed it. And when stressed, Dhapodkar said she leans more on the data side of her brain. 

“I’m more OK with saying ‘I feel.’ I can have feelings and I can think and I can have instincts. And I can make a decision based on data as well,” Dhapodkar said. “But I don’t do the feelings thing alone. I have a whole circle of people that I surround myself with.”  

A demanding job

The job can be demanding, she recognized, emphasizing the importance of self care. Dhapodkar often wakes up early in the morning to stretch, has a big breakfast, does yoga, meditates and journals to prepare for her day. Shaking off the day through dancing is also an outlet for recharging along with eating good food and going on hikes. 

Knowing when to take a break is also vital, Dhapodkar said, noting she had to build that skill so she could act as a role model for her team. She also enjoys picking up new hobbies, not afraid to drop them when they lose their luster. 

The work, though, never seems to bore. Every day brings a new challenge, Dhapodkar said, who oversees a department of 10 employees working on up to 70 projects at once and a budget worth $5.3 million. 

Dhapodkar is looking to grow her staff by nearly half and presented her vision for the department to the county’s Emergency Services Council in January. That vision calls for enhancing resilience by fostering a culture of preparedness, strengthening partnerships that would optimize emergency services, advancing technological integration to help the department make data-driven decisions, ensuring rapid and effective response and recovery, and promoting ongoing improvements and innovations. 

Dhapodkar’s advice to the public on emergency planning in the meantime? Have a go-bag packed for a seven-day trip and know how and where to shelter if needed. Once those basics are done, Dhapodkar said people can consider doing more administrative preparedness like having sensitive documents on an encrypted thumb drive or in paper form. 

“We are building and we are growing,” Dhapodkar said. “Our focus is community preparedness and resiliency, both short term and long term. We are determined and dedicated to making that happen.”