Makenna Haas ’26 is living something of a double life. She’s not only a senior finishing up her Emergency Management degree, but she’s also the acting director of Cloud County Emergency Management. Connections, she noted, were key to achieving this position and her ability to perform within it.
Before coming to Kansas Wesleyan, Haas, a Salina-area native, had worked as a CNA, dabbled in being an EMT and received her associate degree in Fire Science from Salina Area Technical School.
When those options didn’t quite fit, she decided she could push her education, and natural gift of gab, even further.
“I love firefighting, and I love EMTs and all the people that I’ve met along the way,” Haas said. “I’m a little bit more political. I like to talk to people more than actually working on them.”
That was when she decided to come to Kansas Wesleyan.
“When I came to KWU, I was really set on being a government consultant,” she said.
Though she envisioned herself working at the federal or state level, her interest in local government blossomed during her time interning with Saline County Emergency Management.
While with them, she attended meetings, wrote grants and created a tornado safety exercise, which she was able to test on KWU’s campus
this summer.
That, partnered with her experience as a volunteer with the Salina Fire Department District Five, Kansas Search and Rescue and Saline County Sheriff’s Mounted Patrol Squad, made her unusually qualified for a young professional just entering her field. So, when a job opening for an Emergency Management director opened in Cloud County, her colleagues at SCEM and professors at the university were the first to push her toward it.
“[While interning with Saline County Emergency Management], I got to know all the emergency managers for the region,” she said. Those she met were able to offer endorsements of her accomplishments and work, which helped significantly when she applied for her role.
“Basically, they [Cloud County] were like, ‘You can finish out school and we’ll pay you to work,’” she said. “Sign me up.”
She’ll spend her Spring 2026 semester learning online while also working full-time in Concordia.
This arrangement was made possible through the flexibility of Kansas Wesleyan’s Registrar Office and Emergency Management department, both of which worked with Haas to ensure she could work and finish her degree.
“She’s an outstanding student,” said professor Bernie Botson. “We coordinated classes and directed studies through the registrar’s office to get her to graduation. This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. We had to make it work, and we had to do it in a week.”
Haas was sworn in as Cloud County’s acting director of emergency management on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025.
As for whether she’s ready for the challenge of running her department, she’s not worried about what’s to come.
“I like being in charge, and I’m definitely a people person, so it doesn’t bother me at all,” she said. “I am ultimately a department of one. It’s just me, so I have to figure it out.”
She acknowledges that she won’t have to go it alone all the time.
“If I don’t know what I’m doing, somebody I have in my phone is going to know.”
Story by Skylar Nelson ’21. This story will appear in the Fall/Winter edition of Contact magazine.
