Educators and senior emergency management officials have pondered what would motivate a person to aspire to a career in emergency management. How do we attract bright young students while providing continuing education and growth opportunities for those already immersed in emergency management roles? This is not just a problem of the moment how can emergency management survive, and thrive, in the long term?
Back-to-School Programs Looking for a great career opportunity? Thinking about career options or looking to change careers? The climate change crisis has created significate educational opportunities in Emergency and Risk Management for industries, government, and public service. Join the workforce to help maintain national security, response to all-hazard events and help build strong resiliency in a changing world. Our current CTC programs focus on 6 major pathways: Criminal Justice Cyber/Technolgy Medical and Health Services Fire/Wildland Homeland Security Emergency Management Occupational Health and Safety These pathway programs begin in the K-12 systems with 15 of our statewide skill centers. Students [...]
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 ourselves to the extent limited funds allow, coordinate a multi-disciplinary response, and manage (steer?) the process of recovery. And then we assess our performance and start over. Far too often, we fail to educate the public that mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery are their responsibilities too. For years, emergency managers landed [...]
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 built this organization for 31 years and it is important to understand the history of the organization and the contributions volunteers have made to sustain it. Partners is a non-profit charitable organization founded in 1991 and is the largest and most successful regional emergency management preparedness conference in the Pacific Northwest. [...]
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. And, even if not, the recovery process should be kick-started. Now. My May 2020 Emergency Management Once Removed blog offered these thoughts, drawing upon the words of one of the subtler “philosophers” of another day Like Yogi, I just wanted us to map out a desirable destination before our journey ended.. [...]
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 - not me! How can emergency management directors assure opportunities for those people who, over the next 20 years, will hopefully make people wonder why any of us ever had those jobs? A career in emergency management, once an afterthought or an accident, has become an attractive possibility for people in mid-career [...]
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 us last month and informing our readers and us about the organization and its resources. To learn more about WASILC, check out their website at: https://www.wasilc.org/
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 with disabilities are included in emergency preparedness efforts. Jim House is the Emergency Planning Disability Integration Manager working with the Coalition on Inclusive Emergency Planning (CIEP). (www.wasilc.org/coalition-on-inclusive-emergencyplanning ) CIEP is a statewide cross-disability advisory group that works with state and local emergency stakeholders to build disability accessibility and inclusion into all [...]
By Kellie Hale First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt Courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library archives. Did you know that First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt is considered the initial supporter of women in the field of emergency management? Mrs. Roosevelt encouraged her husband to appoint Florence Kerr as project lead to research and implement ways on how women can utilize their skills during World War II. The two women helped establish the development of the Office of Civil Defense (OCD). The purpose of the OCD was to bring communities across the United States health programs and medical care [...]
By Deb Moller Imagine a book of inspiring stories about women leading interesting lives. A teenage girl working as a wireman for the local electric company. A sheep shearer in New Zealand. A sailor living aboard a boat for seven years. A woman who taught Bill Gates to use a technology program. A bee-keeper. An engineering student who did poorly in her college classes yet became one of the first to switch from manual to electronic drafting. A white-hat hacker. A student at the bottom of her class at Pennisula College due to numerical dyslexia. A United Nations [...]
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