The new head of ShakeAlert spent 30 years studying earthquakes in Alaska. Here’s what she’s focused on now.

In December 2024, Dr. Natalia Ruppert left the Alaska Earthquake Center after three decades of fieldwork, data analysis, and seismometer installations across some of the most seismically active terrain on the planet. Her destination: Seattle, where she now leads the USGS ShakeAlert earthquake early warning program for the entire West Coast.

It’s the kind of career move that tells you something about where earthquake early warning is headed, and what the people building the system think matters most right now.

From Fairbanks to the front line

Ruppert grew up in Novosibirsk, Russia, and came to the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1994 for what she expected to be a single semester. She stayed for 30 years. During that time, she helped install and maintain seismometers across Alaska, supervised real-time earthquake detection systems, managed field teams during the USArray expansion, and co-authored multiple papers on the 2002 M7.9 Denali Fault Earthquake, which she experienced firsthand at a church potluck in Fairbanks while holding her 18-month-old son.

Her background is relevant because Alaska is where you learn what it takes to run seismic monitoring across enormous distances with limited infrastructure. That experience now applies directly to ShakeAlert’s biggest challenges: expanding coverage, hardening the network, and making the system work reliably for the people and organizations that depend on it.

What ShakeAlert looks like in 2026

ShakeAlert currently uses over 1,675 seismic stations across California, Oregon, and Washington to detect earthquakes and push alerts before shaking arrives. The system serves more than 50 million people and has issued over 1,200 alert messages since operations began in 2019. Of the 144 earthquakes M4.5+ it detected through October 2024, 141 were accurate alerts with only three false events.

But phone alerts are only part of the picture. The part that matters most for facility operators is automated action: systems that receive ShakeAlert data and trigger protective responses before anyone has to make a decision. Gas valves close. Elevators stop at the nearest floor. Manufacturing lines shut down safely. Fire station bay doors open before the shaking can jam them shut.

In a recent Seattle Met interview, Ruppert described this automated response layer as the future of the system. It’s the difference between a warning you read on your phone and a building that protects itself.

Alaska expansion and what it means for the network

One of Ruppert’s most immediate priorities is also her most personal: bringing ShakeAlert to Alaska. The USGS published a Phase 1 technical implementation plan calling for 450 seismic stations across the state (270 new, 160 upgraded, 20 existing) at an estimated cost of $66 million. The initial focus covers Anchorage, Fairbanks, Kodiak, and the Prince William Sound region, where roughly 90% of Alaska’s population lives.

Congress allocated at least $2 million of the $34.9 million in ShakeAlert funding for initial Alaska buildout. Full implementation could take roughly six years, though early warning alerts may be active in parts of southcentral Alaska before then.

For facility operators on the current West Coast network, the Alaska expansion isn’t just a geographic footnote. Every station added to the system improves detection speed and accuracy across the entire network. And it signals continued federal investment in ShakeAlert at a time when the FY2027 budget proposal has proposed significant funding reductions.

The bottom line for buildings on the West Coast

Ruppert’s appointment signals that ShakeAlert’s leadership is focused on operational reliability and physical infrastructure, not just consumer alerts. That’s the part of the system that matters most if you’re running a hospital, a school district, a manufacturing plant, or a fire department.

The question for facilities isn’t whether ShakeAlert works. It does. The question is whether your building is connected to it, and whether you’ve set up the automated responses that turn a few seconds of warning into something useful.

If you’re evaluating earthquake early warning for your facility, Early Warning Labs can help you understand how to connect to ShakeAlert and what automated protective actions make sense for your operations. Get in touch to start the conversation.