Erik Viel has been selected as the new director of the Office of Emergency Communications.
Viel comes to OEC from Milwaukee County, where he served as the Radio Services Director for the Office of Emergency Management. During his tenure, he led the transition of the county and 18 municipalities to a digital public safety radio system and implemented a shared governance structure to provide policy and long-term planning. Prior to this, Viel managed Milwaukee County’s Emergency Medical Services Communications Center.
Viel has been a licensed paramedic for 15 years, is a Communications Unit Leader, a Communications Unit Technician, and is an Incident Technical Support Specialist on the state of Wisconsin’s Type 3 Incident Management Team.
Viel holds a Master of Public Affairs from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s La Follette School of Public Affairs and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He will start on Aug. 18, 2019.
Viel replaces Tom Czaja, who recently retired as the director after serving two very successful years with the Department of Military Affairs. Czaja’s leadership was instrumental in the transition of OEC from the Department of Justice to the Department of Military Affairs back in 2017.