Center’s Blog
Use this page to stay up-to-date on COVID-19, homeland security emergency management, campus safety, job resources, career pathways, upcoming webinars, scholarships, Washington State news and more.
A Commencement Address to Graduates in Emergency Management
A Commencement Address to Graduates in Emergency Management Congratulations! You have completed a step most of your future colleagues have never done - achieving formal academic training in your chosen profession before entering it. As a result, you know a fair amount about the issues and challenges many [...]
Juneteenth is Recognized as a Federal Holiday!
Juneteenth is Recognized as a Federal Holiday! *Taken from the Chancellor and Presidents of Pierce College This week, Congress passed a bill to make Juneteenth the nation's 12th federal holiday. Starting in 2022, Washington state will also recognize Juneteenth as an official state holiday and day off [...]
Featured Podcast with Joseph Dilley
Center Director Linda Crerar interviews Fire Services Leadership and Management Program Coordinator Joseph (Joey) Dilley on college programs within the Fire Service and HSEM fields. We are excited to have Joey as an Advisory Board member and continue collaborating on projects that will allow us to work on common [...]
Evaluate Local Workforce Against Education Through Data Analytic Tools
CHMURA – JOBSEQ: Evaluate Local Workforce Against Education Through Data Analytic Tools By Nancy Aird Do you understand the local workforce? JobsEQ by CHMURA software tools provide data analytics on critical indicators, including occupation and industry data, demographic profile by age and race, income and poverty levels, underemployment, [...]
Women in Leadership Profile: Tanya Knight
Women in Leadership Profile: Tanya Knight By Deb Moller Most people, counting down the five or ten years until retirement age, would never consider tackling a doctoral program. Tanya Knight isn’t like most people. As Tanya says, “As long as I’m healthy, why not keep going? After all, [...]
Interview Transcript featuring Jim House
Interview Transcript featuring Jim House Linda Crerar: Welcome. And good afternoon. My name is Linda Crerar and I am the Director for the Washington State Center of Excellence for Homeland Security Emergency Management and our Center serves as a lead for all of our all-hazard emergency management programs. [...]
May is Mental Health Month – Resources by Pierce College
May is Mental Health Month - Resources by Pierce College Established in 1949, Mental Health Month has been recognized each May with the goal to raise awareness and reduce stigma surrounding mental health struggles. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 5 people will [...]
Continuing to Honor Jamye Wisecup
Continuing to Honor Jamye Wisecup Through The Jamye Wisecup Scholarship Fund We continue to honor the memory of Jamye Wisecup through Jamye Wisecup Memorial Scholarship. Jamye was the Program Coordinator/Trainer at Clallam County Sheriff’s Office and an Advisory Board member for the Center. Those around in her community [...]
Women in Leadership Profile: Mary Kay Bredeson
Women in Leadership Profile: Mary Kay Bredeson By Deb Moller When someone retires, a common comment is that they are starting a new chapter in their lives. Most of the time, people are secretly certain that the coming chapter will be less interesting, less challenging, and less important [...]
Featured Interview: Joseph Dilley
Featured Interview: Joseph Dilley 1. The last time we talked with you was in January 2020. How have things changed since then in regards to the Fire Services Program? The FSLM program itself has not changed much, however; our approach has become more a holistic approach. Our program [...]
Washington State House Bill 1168: Concerning long-term forest health and the reduction of wildfire dangers
Washington State House Bill 1168: Concerning long-term forest health and the reduction of wildfire dangers HB 1168 was delivered to Governor Jay Inslee on April 26 to sign into law. The Bill focuses on the concerning increase of forestland and rangeland wildfires. The impact of wildfires has continued [...]
Wildfire Mitigation
Wildfire Mitigation By Nancy Aird “WILDFIRE READY NEIGHBORS “– WA new, free community initiative program “Wildfire Ready Neighbors” is a new, free collaboration between the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR), preparedness experts, fire districts, and landowners/ residents. Chelan, Okanogan, and Spokane counties initiated this program in [...]
Wildfire Season Off to an Early Start: How You Can Be Better Prepared
Wildfire Season Off to an Early Start: How You Can Be Better Prepared By Kellie Hale April showers, bring May flowers is the usual saying. However, now it seems that April fires will bring an early start to wildfire season. During the week of April 19, Washington has [...]
May – Volcano Awareness Month in Washington State
Governor Jay Inslee has proclaimed that beginning May 2021, it will be Volcano Awareness month. Our state has five (5) active volcanoes located in the Cascade Range east of Seattle: Mt. Baker, Glacier Peak, Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams, and Mt. St. Helens. Each volcano, except for Mount Adams, has [...]
Jim House Interview Now on SoundCloud!
We are excited to share our podcast interview with Jim House! Jim is the Disability Integration Manager for Coalition of Inclusive Emergency Planning at WA State Independent Living Council (WASILC). We want to thank Jim and Kim Conner, Executive Director for WASILC, for taking the time to talk with [...]
Emergency Management’s Journey to Resilience – May 2021
Emergency Management’s Journey to Resilience: Using Our Words by Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed Where does the term “resilience” fit among these standard emergency management terms? Mitigation. Preparedness. Response. Recovery. Prevention (how did that get in here?). Finally, Resilience. Mitigation: efforts to minimize the negative consequences of a [...]
Functional Assessment Service Teams (FAST)
By Nancy Aird The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was enacted on July 26, 1990. It guaranteed equal access to individuals with disabilities to state and local programs, services, programs, activities, and facilities, which included support from non-governmental organizations (NGOs), faith and community-based organizations, and private sources. FEMAs’ Whole [...]
ADA Thoughts: Outlooks By Scott Preston
By Scott Preston When I ran the UW CERT team, I would actively seek out members from the hard of hearing/deaf community and the blind community. Dana Platt, the State 9-1-1 TTY manager at that time was someone who volunteered on several occasions. The UW would pay for an [...]
ADA Thoughts: Outlooks By Curry Mayer
By Curry Mayer It is interesting that we, in emergency management, talk at length about helping as many people as possible in all of our programs and in all of the phases of emergency management, however, I don’t believe we have spent enough time thinking about how we reach [...]
ADA Thoughts: Outlooks By Jim Mullen
By Jim Mullen It is frustrating when the obvious is missed. The challenges a disabled citizen encounters merely trying to access entry into an office, navigating stairs and hallways are always in plain sight. Those few individuals over the course of my career with whom I worked that experienced [...]
Featured Interview: Jim House
By Linda Crerar Society continues to be reminded of the importance of making emergency planning efforts inclusive of people of all ages and abilities as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act. ACL. I interviewed Jim House, disability community leader working to ensure that people [...]
Women in Leadership Profile: Michele L. Turner
Women in Leadership Profile: Michele L. Turner MBCP, FBCI, CISA, CRISC By Deb Moller “If you would go fast, go alone. But if you would go far, bring others along.” - African Proverb As a woman of color, Michele is aware that there are biases in the world that [...]
Diversity: The Invisible Side
By Kellie Hale I don’t believe the term “diversity” should be viewed as a buzzword or fad. It is an important word that should continue to be a part of a person’s lexicon. For me, there is not a day that goes by where I don’t learn something new [...]
A Year of COVID – April 2021
A Year of COVID: Looking Back, Looking Around, Looking Ahead By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed It has been more than a year since the pandemic turned life upside down for everybody. Emergency managers and homeland security professionals should soon begin to assess what went right, as well [...]
United Nations Women Training Center Classes
By Nancy Aird In 2015, the world leaders adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) to ensure women and girls’ rights across all goals for justice and inclusive economies by 2030. The United Nations (UN) Women site provides daily news, blogs, and training to promote these SDGs. The [...]