Nathan Yiu, 28
Job: PhD student, former emergency planning advisor, City of Vaughan
Education: Bachelor of Arts ’19 and Master of Disaster & Emergency Management ’21, York University
When COVID-19 hit, Nathan Yiu was a grad student at York University and his summer practicum became an urgent call to support the City of Vaughan’s emergency response. What started as a student placement turned into a full-time role as the emergency planning advisor. Nathan developed local preparedness efforts for everything from weather-related events, blackouts and health crises to public safety threats. Now, after several years on the front lines, this Top 30 Alumni Under 30 is back at York as a PhD student. Drawing on his real-world experience, he’s eager to explore the theories and research that underpin his field, aiming to advance emergency management through both scholarship and practice.
How did you become an emergency planning advisor for the City of Vaughan?
Originally, that role didn't exist. Sharon Walker, the manager of emergency planning for the City of Vaughan, was running things by herself. She had summer students, and interns or co-op students who would support her throughout the year. Because I was doing the disaster and emergency management program, I got into a practicum. Then I volunteered whenever she needed people for larger public education events. When the summer posting came up again, I applied. That was January 2020. I was in the second semester of my master's program.
But you didn’t start that summer, you started in March 2020.
I started because of COVID. Just before everyone was declaring a state of state of emergency I got a phone call from the City of Vaughan asking me to come in. I had applied for the summer position but I was getting called in March, and didn't really know why.
I got the call on the Friday, came in on the Monday. I was sitting with the emergency manager, the fire chief, deputy city manager, city managers, and we got right into briefings. We had daily meetings, I was the one taking notes. That was a high-stakes period. I was there for the entire period that COVID was happening. Then they created my former position, emergency planning advisor, and Sharon encouraged me to apply while I was still working on pandemic response.
Were there any lessons from the MDEM program that you were able to draw from as you were starting out? Was there anything you learned at York that proved to be particularly salient to your field?
There was a course on understanding legislation. We learned how to read legislation, orders and bylaws. Knowing the key words to look out for really helped me. And my socio-legal courses gave me an understanding of the power dynamics between the government and why people were angry and why people were protesting. We learned about social issues surrounding an emergency. Vaughan had spikes in cases many times, the reason being the manufacturing jobs. It’s because of the social context. Also, Professor Alain Normand taught us about communications as well as body language and how we present ourselves. During this time, messaging was key.
What are some of the situations the City of Vaughan has plans in place for?
In the Emergency Planning Department, there are multiple scenarios they’re responsible for. A lot of them are weather-related. One of the main roles I had was to monitor weather and send alerts. When there is interesting or extreme weather, the department looks at how to respond. If it’s a heat or extreme cold event, we’d consider what the residents need, and what York Region needs. We did have a major power outage in the middle of winter before. We also had tornadoes hit parts of the city. There could be major disasters. A building could collapse. Fortunately, that hasn’t happened. Other events can be human caused, like protests; we monitored those.
Were you on call for active emergencies? You weren’t just doing the planning, you were part of the response.
Myself as well as my former manager, we handled the entire disaster cycle — from mitigation to prevention, response, as well as recovery. We weren’t on the scene, but we provided guidance and support. One example would be — I was away that time — but in December of 2024, there was a power outage in one of the major condominium buildings in the Vaughan metropolitan centre. We had to activate our emergency operations centre and respond. In situations like this we had to move quick: How would we keep people warm in the winter? Where would we move them? Who would we need to co-ordinate with in York Region?
A large portion of my role, when there was an emergency or incident, was to be the liaison officer. To work with our internal staff, as well as staff from other partners such as the TTC, York Region, paramedics and police.
What is your approach to emergency preparedness, and why is planning so important?
Another one of my main roles was public education training and exercises. A lot of focus is on the response, but wouldn't you prefer not to be in that situation? And if you do end up in that situation, I would rather be someone who knows what to do, which actions to take, and has the information to respond so that I can minimize the damage to myself, my family or loved ones, or even my property. Preparedness helps people, it saves lives, and it saves resources for families and our community.
Tell us about your decision to pursue a PhD.
Through my master studies, I realized that the field of emergency management was very new and there was an opportunity for me to dive deep into topics. I thought it would be a great path to move forward doing research in the field that I love. Also, York professors were very persuasive in encouraging me to continue with research in the emergency management field after practicing for a couple of years.
The Career Files is a series where we talk to Top 30 Alumni Under 30 about how they turned their ambitions into achievements. Real paths. Real insights. Discover where a York education can lead you.
To learn more about York University's disaster & emergency management program, visit https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/program/disaster-emergency-management.