Confluence News Magazine
Our new news magazine “Confluence” serves as an intersection where we come together to share Center events and activities each month and important information about our all hazard emergency management career pathways. Our video and pod casts will bring together our pathway programs, their faculty, students and employers, and our communities across the state to discuss a variety of issues, interests, trends and discussions about our career pathways.
Who Needs to be Educated About Emergency Management? Who doesn’t?
Who Needs to be Educated About Emergency Management? Who doesn’t? By Jim Mullen Emergency managers often lack the political clout, or even the bureaucratic standing, to have much of an impact on policy decisions societies make. We’re there to try to mitigate, within our means, prepare the community and [...]
Climate Change: A Practical Guide
Climate Change: A Practical Guide By Linda Crerar & Nancy Aird How are more extreme weather, rising temperatures, and climate change affecting our health, homes, finances, safety, and day-to-day activities? What can we do about it? Every year, Washington faces floods, wildfires, landslides, tornadoes, and snow. Our Confluence staff [...]
Volunteers: Partners in Emergency Management Preparedness
Volunteers: Partners in Emergency Management Preparedness By Linda Crerar April is National Volunteer Month and we are recognizing the work and service of the many dedicated volunteers like those who have been so instrumental in establishing, supporting, and implementing the Partners in Emergency Preparedness Conference every year. Volunteers have [...]
Washington’s Workforce Development Boards: How They Connect Employers to Job Seekers
Washington’s Workforce Development Boards: How They Connect Employers to Job Seekers By Kellie Hale What are Workforce Development Boards (WDBs)? I kept hearing about them during my time at the CoE-HSEM. However, I never had the chance to interact with them personally or professionally. It wasn’t until I began [...]
Some Modest, Hopefully Post-Covid Suggestions
Some Modest, Hopefully Post- Covid Suggestions By Jim Mullen In the spirit of the theme for this month’s Confluence, I thought that I would “volunteer” some thoughts about the situation in which we find ourselves as COVID – hopefully, fingers crossed – has begun to ease into endemic status. [...]
Women in Leadership Profile: Frances Whalen
Women in Leadership Profile: Frances Whalen By Deb Moller Every emergency manager knows that FEMA expects a “whole community” approach to preparedness. This guiding principle is sometimes seen as less critical than other doctrine. But it’s impossible to develop strong situational awareness, the foundation for effective planning and response, [...]
Growing Our Own: How can we find the next wave of Emergency Managers?
Growing Our Own: How can we find the next wave of Emergency Managers? By Jim Mullen “ My goal for our discipline is that 20 years from now, my resume won’t qualify me to do the job I currently have” – a truly iconic (now retired) state director - [...]
International Women’s Day 2022
International Women’s Day 2022 By Linda Crerar The UN theme for International Women’s Day 2022 was “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow. ” Many events recognized how women around the world are responding to climate change. The International Women’s Day website provides a platform to help forge positive [...]
A Bitter-sweet Message
A Bitter-sweet Message By Linda Crerar It is again that “bitter-sweet feeling” I share with Kellie about her wonderful new job at PACMTN Workforce Development COUNCIL, working with William Westmoreland, the Director and also a Center Advisory Board Member and his great team. Kellie has received a warm [...]
Thank you, coe-hsem, for an incredible 10 years!
Thank you, coe-hsem, for an incredible 10 years! By Kellie Hale Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I’d spend ten years at the Center of Excellence for Homeland Security Emergency Management. I never expected what was supposed to be an internship to transform my life. When [...]
Breaking News – 322nd Year Anniversary of Cascadia Subduction Zone Earthquake/Tsunami
Breaking News - 322nd Year Anniversary of Cascadia Subduction Zone Earthquake/Tsunami By Nancy Aird January 26, 1700, at 9:00 pm, the last Cascadia Subduction Zone megathrust earthquake (CSZ) was estimated at magnitude 8 or 9, and the subsequent tsunami devastated the Pacific Northwest. How are we able to [...]
Education Journey – Brick and Mortar or Online or…?
Education Journey - Brick and Mortar or Online or...? By Nancy Aird Human Rights Watch, hrw.org, report “Years Don’t Wait for Them – Increased Inequalities in Children’s Right to Education Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic”. Bede Shepard, Hye Jung Han, and Elin Martinez, May 17, 2021. By April, 190 [...]
Interview with Jason Petrait
Interview with Jason Petrait - CoE Aerospace and Advanced Manufacturing Director By Kellie Hale Kellie: Tell us about yourself? What is your educational and professional background? Jason: I’m a Northwest native and I found my passion for getting people good jobs when I lucked into work at South Seattle [...]
Pierce College’s HSEM Degree Program Named One of the Ten Best
Pierce College’s HSEM Degree Program Named One of the Ten Best The World Health Organization estimates that 160 million people are impacted by natural disasters each year. These disasters are compounded by thousands of terrorist attacks, accidents, and other incidents around the world. From first responders to agency administrators, [...]
Rising Star Award Video Interviews
Rising Star Award Interviews The Center of Excellence – Homeland Security Emergency Management has always been focused on student success and helping people to positively change the trajectory of their lives and who have demonstrated excellence in their professional endeavors working for the advancement of people in education and [...]
Digital Equity: What Is It and Why Is It Important?
Digital Equity: What Is It and Why Is It Important? By Kellie Hale You may have been hearing the term “Digital Equity” in the news a lot more lately. What is digital equity? Well, it is a vital necessity for “civic and cultural participation, employment, lifelong learning, and access [...]
DHS Climate Change Professionals Program
DHS CLIMATE CHANGE PROFESSIONALS PROGRAM WASHINGTON – The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the creation of a new Climate Change Professionals Program to recruit recent graduates and current federal employees to support DHS growing focus on adapting to climate change and improving resilience. This two-year program will be run by the DHS Office of the Chief Readiness Support [...]
Breaking News – Natural Disaster Flooding
BREAKING NEWS – NATURAL DISASTER FLOODING By Nancy Aird 1860 news from Missouri to California took ten days by Pony Express. Western Union transcontinental telegraph line rendered it obsolete by 1861. Today natural disaster breaking news only needs cell phone cameras and internet coverage. 2022 started with the atmospheric [...]
It’s Time We Have a Talk: Difficult Conversations and Keeping Good Relationships
It's Time We Have a Talk: Difficult Conversations and Keeping Good Relationships "People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other." - Martin Luther King, [...]
Acknowledging the Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Acknowledging the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (A message from Pierce College) As Martin Luther King, Jr. Day approaches, Pierce College has the opportunity to acknowledge the profound impact of Dr. King’s civil rights legacy, which is embodied in their mission, vision and values, and their commitment [...]
Jamye Wisecup Scholarship
Jamye Wisecup Scholarship ABOUT JAMYE WISECUP Jamye was the heart and soul of emergency management in her community and made an impact on many people’s lives. In addition to her work with emergency management at Clallam County Sheriff’s Office, Jamye served on numerous local non-profit boards and was known [...]
Congratulation to our Board Members and Senior Fellows who all published preparedness books this year!
Congratulation to our Board Members and Senior Fellows who all published preparedness books this year! Two of our Board members, Curry Mayer and Michele Turner, along with Senior Fellow, Deb Moller, published books this year. The Future of Emergency Management After 2020: The New, Novel, and Nasty , by [...]
Women in Leadership Profile: Brittany Barnwell
Women in Leadership Profile: Brittany Barnwell By Deb Moller To be an effective emergency manager, it helps to be an insider. After all, insiders speak the same language, rely on the same tactics, share a history, exercise together. They learn from each other in after action reviews. They count [...]
Women in Leadership Profile: Shannon Marheine
Women in Leadership Profile: Shannon Marheine By Deb Moller If I told you that a woman is an ardent motorcycle enthusiast, riding a 2016 Indian Scout 60 motorcycle every chance she gets, it wouldn’t lead you to assume she works in homeland security. After all, what’s the connection? Shannon [...]
Interview With Rising star: Tamara Corpin
Interview With Rising star: Tamara Corpin Linda Crerar: Share with us what it was that drew you to the Homeland Security Emergency Management field. Tamara Corpin: Before getting my degree in Homeland Security, my background was education. So, I had spent many years teaching and developing a curriculum. One [...]