In this interview, we delve into the remarkable story of how Dana Moore, the Executive Director of California Utilities Emergency Association, embarked on her path to success in the world of leadership and public service. Join us as Dana shares her experiences, notable accomplishments, leadership style, and the values that have guided her along the way. Discover what sets her organization apart, how she has navigated major operational and structural challenges, and her aspirations for the future of critical infrastructure resilience. Get ready to be inspired by Dana’s journey as a leader and her relentless pursuit of excellence in strengthening systems that serve millions.
Early Leadership Journey
Dana Moore’s leadership journey began remarkably early, in sixth grade, when she boldly set her sights on becoming the first female President of the United States and earned her school’s leadership award. From that point forward, leadership was not something she stepped into occasionally, but something she naturally embodied. She consistently gravitated toward roles where responsibility, accountability, and difficult decision making were required. Whether as a team captain in school, a sorority and alumnae chapter president, or later as a Governor’s appointee, she was often the youngest leader in the room. Over the course of a 20 year career, she has built programs from the ground up, established state and national benchmarks, and stepped into struggling organizations and teams to repair and rebuild them. Her passion lies in solving complex problems, and she has always viewed hearing “no” not as rejection but as a challenge that fuels her drive.
A Defining Leadership Challenge
A pivotal moment that shaped Dana’s leadership path came when she simultaneously stepped into five demanding roles: Acting Deputy Director, Assistant Deputy Director, Health Equity Liaison, Advisory Board Lead, and Tribal Liaison. Each of these roles could have required a full time leader on its own. Operating well beyond her comfort zone and initial knowledge base, she found herself deeply connected to the concept of the hero’s journey, leaving the familiar, facing intense trials, gaining insight, and returning transformed. As she worked to honor the responsibilities of each position, she discovered not only the depth of her own capacity but also the kind of leader she aspired to be and the values she would carry forward into future roles.
Core Values That Guide Her Leadership
Throughout her evolving career, Dana has remained anchored to a consistent set of core values. Transparency is central to her approach, as she believes in being honest about the work and the true status of the organization, particularly when outcomes fall short. Accountability is equally important, with a clear understanding of where responsibility lies and a willingness to own both decisions and mistakes. Curiosity drives her to challenge the status quo, continually ask why, and pursue learning. Equity shapes how she leads, not as a standalone initiative but as a lens through which she evaluates who is missing, whose voices are unheard, and what norms may unintentionally exclude others. Finally, she emphasizes individualization and respect for people, treating life and work as a team effort, honoring different motivations, and nurturing individual strengths to build trust and high performance.
A Bold Strategic Shift in 2026
One of Dana’s boldest moves in 2026 was centering the water sector within an organization historically focused almost exclusively on power, including gas and electric utilities. As the California Utilities Emergency Association also represents water, wastewater, and multiple forms of telecommunications, the organization touches virtually every type of critical infrastructure utility in the world’s fifth largest economy. Publicly committing to support California’s water industry, after decades of tension and neglect, represented a major shift in both focus and impact, redefining the organization’s role in supporting comprehensive infrastructure resilience.
The Role of Innovation in Decision Making
For Dana, innovation is not a trendy buzzword but a combination of disciplined practices. She views it as ingenuity in finding resourceful solutions, progress through steady and intentional improvement, reinvention of systems or practices that no longer serve the mission, and the courage to challenge entrenched thinking while bringing diverse perspectives into decision making. This mindset shapes both her daily decisions and her long term strategy.
Creating Meaningful Impact for People
Among Dana’s proudest achievements is transforming a 200 person division that once struggled with the worst performance and lowest morale into the top performing team within four years. Staff became reenergized as they recognized that their work had a direct impact on everyone born, living, or dying in California. Under her leadership, there was also a significant increase in promotions of Black and African American staff from lower wage roles into management positions where they had historically been overlooked, demonstrating her commitment to both performance excellence and equitable opportunity.
Rebuilding for Positive Change
This year, Dana led a comprehensive rebuild of her organization from the ground up. The effort focused on aligning structure, culture, and systems more closely with the organization’s mission and the communities it serves. This initiative reflected her belief that lasting positive change requires more than surface adjustments and instead demands thoughtful, systemic transformation.
Balancing Growth with Responsibility
In Dana’s field, growth means expanding membership, and she approaches this with careful intention. She ensures that the organization can genuinely support new members before, during, and after disasters. Because members’ work directly affects the environment and more than 42 million Californians, she and her team carefully scrutinize policy recommendations to state and federal governments, aiming to minimize unintended consequences while protecting both people and the planet.
An Evolving Leadership Style
Dana describes her leadership style as transformational, and in 2026 it evolved significantly due to a major shift in power dynamics. She moved from leading approximately 200 staff within a hierarchical structure to reporting to 13 board members. This transition required her to move from positional authority to influential management, shaping attitudes and behaviors through example, communication, credibility, and relationship building. She focuses on empowering people and fostering open communication so individuals are motivated to follow because they want to, not because they feel obligated.
Building Resilience Within Her Team
To cultivate resilience and drive, especially during uncertain times, Dana begins with deep respect for people. She views every employee as a whole human being with history, family, ambitions, and beliefs, not merely a job title. This approach helped her maintain minimal turnover during a two year hiring freeze, a 12 million dollar budget deficit, and the exposure of serious fiscal and policy control gaps. Her team remained committed because they trusted they were confronting and solving these challenges together.
Excitement About the Future of the Industry
Dana is energized by the opportunity to make resilience and disaster readiness realistic and achievable for all of California’s critical infrastructure utilities. Given the scale and complexity of operating in the world’s fifth largest economy, she sees this as a challenging but deeply meaningful goal.
The Leadership Legacy She Is Building
The legacy Dana is consciously building focuses on creating organizational cultures that outlast her tenure and influencing laws and policies in ways that generate lasting, positive change. For her, knowing that her work helped shift systems for future generations is more important than receiving personal credit.
A Message to Emerging Entrepreneurs
For emerging entrepreneurs, Dana shares advice that has stayed with her: the fastest racecars have the best brakes. She emphasizes that long term success often comes from going fast by going slow, building strong foundations, pacing oneself, and making deliberate decisions, especially during moments when everything feels urgent.
In conclusion, Dana Moore’s journey reflects what true leadership looks like when ambition is matched with service, courage, and deep accountability to people and systems. From a young girl with bold aspirations to a seasoned executive guiding critical infrastructure resilience in one of the largest economies in the world, her path has been defined by stepping into complexity, rebuilding what is broken, and creating cultures where people and purpose thrive together. Her story is not just about professional achievement, but about lasting impact, equity in action, and the deliberate shaping of organizations that will continue to serve communities long into the future.
