Regional and Responsive: Creating a Tri-County Bleeding Control Program

King County Emergency Management, in collaboration with emergency management agencies in Snohomish County, Pierce County, Bellevue, and Seattle, is coordinating the placement of thousands of bleeding control kits in public, high-traffic areas throughout the three-county region covered by the Seattle Urban Area Security Initiative—a federal grant program that supports regional homeland security efforts in King, Pierce, and Snohomish Counties. These bleeding control kits contain tourniquets, gauze, and other medical supplies that can help treat severe bleeding and are complemented by training initiatives to enable community members to provide lifesaving care in moments of crisis.

The speakers will highlight the development of this new program, examine the research conducted to create a data-informed program, and describe the iterative process the participating jurisdictions are following to create a model that promotes regional consistency while recognizing the unique threat pictures of each participating jurisdiction. Speakers will also examine how this project was designed to enhance, rather than supplant, existing programs in the region that promote and develop the same lifesaving bleeding control skills.

About the Presenter

Mikko McFeely is the Prevention-Protection Coordinator for the King County Office of Emergency Management, where he coordinates multi-county and multi-agency counterterrorism programs. Before joining King County, Mikko worked on topics related to national security, emergency preparedness, and climate change as the Director of Resilience and Sustainability Affairs for the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies and as the Water Information Sharing and Analysis Center’s Resilience Programs Director. He previously spent two years as a postgraduate fellow in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Water Security Division and is an alumnus of Washington State University and the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security. Mikko also volunteers as a first responder for international Scouting events, most recently serving as the World Organization of the Scout Movement’s co-lead for the 2023 World Scout Jamboree’s 300-person Patrol Team.