Derek Kahanek was appointed to the Bastrop County Emergency Services District No. 3 Board in September 2026. His term runs through December 2026.

Born and raised in Bastrop County, Derek is proud to serve the community he has always called home. He brings to the ESD No. 3 Board more than two decades of experience in technology, leadership, critical infrastructure, emergency preparedness, and supporting organizations where reliability and operational readiness are essential.

Derek currently serves as Lead Server & Storage Systems Engineer at the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA), where he helps lead the management and support of enterprise servers, storage, virtualization, backup, and other critical technology infrastructure. His role requires strategic planning, problem-solving, risk management, teamwork, and a strong focus on ensuring essential systems remain reliable and available when they are needed most.

Earlier in his career, Derek worked at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), where he served as an IT Project Manager supporting the Space Shuttle Program, including work associated with Space Shuttle Discovery. In an environment where careful planning, risk management, system reliability, and teamwork were critical to mission success and astronaut safety, Derek gained valuable experience supporting complex, mission-critical operations. Derek also served as an IT Systems Engineer supporting the Mars Exploration Project focused on the health and safety of astronauts preparing for future exploration of Mars. His work at NASA reinforced the importance of anticipating risk, preparing for the unexpected, building resilient systems, and ensuring people have dependable resources to safely carry out their mission.

Following his time at NASA, Derek served as a Senior IT Systems Engineer with the City of Austin, supporting critical public infrastructure at the Combined Transportation, Emergency & Communications Center (CTECC) and the Austin Water Utility. At CTECC, he supported technology and infrastructure associated with emergency communications and public safety operations. His work with Austin Water further strengthened his experience supporting essential services that communities depend on every day, particularly during emergencies.

These experiences have given Derek a strong understanding that emergency preparedness begins long before a first responder arrives on scene. It requires reliable communications, resilient infrastructure, continuity planning, redundancy, cybersecurity, responsible use of resources, effective leadership, and a commitment to ensuring critical systems are ready when the community needs them most.

As a member of the ESD No. 3 Board, Derek brings that experience to his responsibilities of oversight, accountability, planning, and supporting the district's long-term mission. He is committed to responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars while helping ensure our firefighters and first responders have the equipment, technology, facilities, training, and resources necessary to safely and effectively serve our community.

As Bastrop County continues to grow, Derek believes thoughtful planning today is essential to meeting the emergency service needs of tomorrow. His goal is to help ESD No. 3 anticipate future needs, strengthen its infrastructure, support its first responders, and continue providing dependable emergency services to the people and communities it serves.