Women to Know: Lauren Trimble helps keep Dallas safe from crises to the FIFA World Cup

Dallas has been preparing to host soccer’s World Cup since 2018, from the moment FIFA first announced North America as home to the 2026 tournament.

Making plans to welcome the world isn’t easy though, and just as visitors from across the globe began descending upon Big D, Ebola reared its ugly head again in Africa, and a deadly outbreak of hantavirus threatened vacationers on a cruise ship in the South Atlantic. The concerns were a familiar echo for Lauren Trimble, chief of staff for Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins. Since joining his office in 2011, Trimble and the county’s multifaceted team have helped wrangle the 2012 West Nile Virus outbreak, the 2014 Ebola crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.

On the day I sat down with her, Trimble and the team had completed recent preparedness training sessions with FIFA, and she was running off to yet another FIFA meeting later in the day. Their discussions and disaster simulations were complicated, but their goal was simple: Keep Dallas County residents safe during the tournament’s June and July games.

“In any emergency, the first thing we look at is what do we need to do for life safety,” Trimble says. “Suppose all these things go wrong on day one: there’s a bomb threat, and people are fainting because of the heat, and there’s a huge car accident — what’s the most important information to get out to the public? What do we have to do to keep people safe?”

Trimble and Jenkins were just one year into their jobs when the West Nile Virus infected almost 2,000 Dallas County residents in 2012. They knew lives depended on their actions.

“Those were some really tough decisions — things like spraying pesticides — but that’s what the science and the medical community told us we had to do to save lives, and it ultimately worked,” Trimble explains. “It was a tough call, and public opinion was not always supportive.”

Receiving personal criticism and being second-guessed by naysayers has been a constant part of the job, but Trimble says she works to remain disciplined and focused on the crucial tasks at hand.

“A theme that we’ve maintained for West Nile, Ebola and COVID-19 is to listen to the subject matter experts. Follow the science,” she says. “We’ve relied heavily on our public health department and the state health experts.”

Communicating critical information is key, and Trimble’s team has learned to be creative in their messaging — and messengers.

“The more information you can get to people, the better decisions they can make. I think the community struggles when they don’t feel like they have the information they need. Now, how they get it has changed. We put stuff out on our social media channels, but we also use other trusted voices when we can. Maybe it’s an expert from the medical community, or maybe it’s Dirk Nowitzki. If something happens within the Argentinian community during FIFA, we might turn to their consulate or to an Argentinian soccer player to get the word out.”

Each incident resulting in lasting injury or death takes a personal toll.

“It’s heartbreaking,” Trimble says. “West Nile spiraled out of control so quickly that a lot of people got sick before they realized they needed to be using bug spray or wearing long sleeves or avoiding dusk and dawn. With Ebola, Mr. (Thomas Eric) Duncan got sick before he came to Dallas, and there were limited medical treatments at that time, but we helped (his partner) Louise (Troh) as best we could. We moved her into a new place and took care of her. We’re still in touch with her, actually. It’s hard because you want to do more, especially when you’ve met them.”

If you’re wondering why a county judge is handling emergency management tasks, you’re not alone. Trimble says her boss is more like the mayor of the county.

“When you say county judge, everyone assumes it’s a black robe judge, and I don’t know why Texas hasn’t just changed that term. A lot of other places call it a county executive, which makes more sense.”

Dallas County government also handles Parkland Hospital, the tax office where we pay our property taxes and get vehicle license plates, and the clerk’s office where we get marriage licenses and passports. The county also funds roads, bridges, parks, trails and open space preserves, and they’ve created a pilot program to help fund childcare with participating businesses and the Dallas Regional Chamber.

Trimble’s life at home is just as busy, since her husband Ryan works at Allyn Media and hosts the Deconstructing Dallas podcast about local politics, sports and current events. Their children, aged 6 and 9, attend Spanish World School.

“I stumbled on an analogy about the struggle of working moms, and it really resonated with me,” Trimble says. “A working mom is juggling all the balls — some are glass, and some are plastic. You learn that it’s OK to drop the plastic balls because they won’t break, but the glass balls are the ones you have to keep juggling.”

Trimble grew up the only child of an American Airlines captain and flight attendant who appreciated world travel. Her mom shared stories of trekking Taiwan, Korea and other foreign locales. Now, Trimble’s passion project is to show her own kids the world.

“We discovered we couldn’t go to all the places we wanted to go because it was so expensive, so we found a way through credit card points and miles,” she explains. “Now, I teach other moms how to do that on my ‘Adventuring Party of Four’ Instagram account. I don’t want to be 70 years old and wish I had gone places and done things. We want to show our kids that there’s this whole world outside of Dallas. We want them to be good global citizens.”