FEMA’s Higher Education ProgramBits and Pieces

National Emergency Training Center, Emmitsburg, MD

22July 2011

Hi Ed Website (submitted today to webmaster for posting next week):

Hi Ed Activity Reports –

  • July 15

College List – Emergency and Disaster Management Programs in Other Countries –

  • Tai Poutinit Polytechnic Emergency Management Programme (Level 2 – Level 6)

EM Faculty Positions –

  • Drexel University – Assistant/Associate Clinical/Teaching Professor Multidisciplinary & Emerging Programs Homeland Security Management/Emergency Management

All comments concerning website materials should be emailed to.

14th Annual Emergency Management Higher Education Conference Update

14th Annual Emergency Management Hi Ed Conference, June 6-9, 2011. Each week a number of presentations will be posted to the Final Conference agenda. Student reports will also be posted in the next few weeks. Student reports are a summary of the breakout sessions they were assigned and attended. If you need a presentation and do not see it posted please send me an email. We will be happy to honor your request.

15th Annual Emergency Management Higher Education Conference has been scheduled for June 4-7, 2012.

College and University News:

2012 National Evacuation Conference
Early bird registration is now open for the 2012 National Evacuation Conference, which will be held February 7-9, 2012 at the Hilton Riverside in New Orleans, LA. Don’t miss this opportunity to register at a discounted rate! The conference gathers professionals, academics, nonprofit, and for-profit organizations, consultants, emergency managers, and transportation planners to discuss evacuation planning for cities and regions across the United States and abroad. The purpose of the conference is to foster an interdisciplinary exchange of ideas surrounding a broad range of evacuation issues, particularly mass evacuations prompted by disasters. The conference offers a venue for dialogue between the academy and practice, as well as between the private and public sector. It is co-hosted by the Gulf Coast Center for Evacuation and Transportation Resiliency at Louisiana State University and the University of New Orleans and LSU’s Stephenson Disaster Management Institute. The 2012 National Evacuation Conference will feature a special focus on evacuation issues surrounding the 2011 Japan disaster. The conference invites researchers and practitioners to submit abstracts for presentation and publication. Abstracts will be due September 30, 2011. Full papers will be considered for publication in one of two special journal issues: The American Society of Civil Engineers’ Natural Hazards Review and The International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters. For a full list of suggested presentation topics, visit

Dr. David McEntire is seeking authors to contribute to the FEMA Comparative Emergency Management textbook. Please see a description of the project and to see what countries have been included thus far. Chapters on European, African, and other nations are desired. Contact Dr. McEntire for additional details ().

Emergency Management and Homeland Security News:

Summer is in full bloom.Summer has officially arrived with all the floods, severe storms, tornados, hurricanes,and a myriad of other disasters. Check the FEMA website when preparing your home, car and work place for emergencies. Important information can be found at

NYC Citizen Corps Council News

Every Monday via email, the NYC Citizen Corps Council ( distributes the NYC Citizen Corps Council News to organizational contacts interested in staying connected.The emphasis of the newsletter is emergency preparedness and volunteerism, providing information on current NYC Citizen Corps Council outreach initiatives (typically NYC centric, but may provide outreach ideas for others), upcoming webinars, conferences, and resources that may be relevant to all. If you represent an organization and would like sign-up for this informative newsletter, please email your name, contact information, and organization to Justin Land .

Public Entity Risk Institute (PERI)

Planning for Post-Disaster Recovery: A Review of the United States Disaster Assistance Framework by Gavin Smith is now available in PERI’s Bookstore!

Book SummaryRecovery from disaster is a complicated process and one that is not fully understood. In an effort to address deficiencies in current knowledge and practice about recovery, both by scholars and practitioners, this book outlines a disaster recovery assistance framework that defines the problems in the U.S. approach to recovery from disasters in an attempt to improve current practice and recovery outcomes. Additionally, chapters address the linkage between hazards analysis, planning and sustainable development.

Contents

Chapter 1 The Disaster Recovery Assistance Framework

Chapter 2 The Public Sector: Federal, State, and Local Governments

Chapter 3 Quasi-governmental and Nongovernmental Organizations

Chapter 4 Nonprofit Relief Organizations

Chapter 5 The Private Sector and For-Profit Organizations

Chapter 6 The International Community

Chapter 7 Individuals and Emergent Groups

Chapter 8 Planning for Disaster Recovery

Chapter 9 Addressing the Challenges of the Disaster Recovery Assistance Framework: Creating the Disaster Recovery Act

Chapter 10 The National Disaster Recovery Framework: A New Vision for Recovery?

About the Author
Gavin Smith is the Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Natural Hazards and Disasters (UNC Hazards Center) and the Department of Homeland Security’s Center of Excellence - Disasters, Coastal Infrastructure and Emergency Management (DIEM). The UNC Hazards Center research focus areas include modeling, land use planning, technology applications, the social implications of hazards and disasters, environmental hazards management, law and policy, public health, business and economics. In this role Dr. Smith oversees the administration of the UNC Hazards Center including the identification of research opportunities, building partnerships among hazard scholars and practitioners and managing additional research initiatives and sub-centers as they emerge. The Center of Excellence research focus areas include: hazard modeling, engineering, human behavior, and land use planning. Dr. Smith is currently engaged in planning-related research within the center, focused on a national evaluation of local and state hazard mitigation plans.
Dr. Smith is an Associate Research Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and teaches courses in Disaster Recovery, Hazard Mitigation and Special Topics. Dr. Smith is a co-editor of the text Adapting to Climate Change: Lessons from Natural Hazards Planning that will be published in 2012.

To order a copy of Dr. Smith’s book visit the PERI bookstore:

Received from: Greta E. Marlatt; email: /;

  • New or Updated Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports:
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Global Health Programs: FY2001-FY2012 Request. 20p. R40239
  • Changes in the Arctic: Background and Issues for Congress. 80p. R41153
  • Federal Support for Academic Research. 26p. R41895
  • USAID Global Health Programs: FY2001-FY2012 Request. 19p. RS22913
  • Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
  • PacNet #34 - The Risks of 'Disaster Nationalism'
  • Congress. House. Energy and Commerce Committee
  • The American Energy Initiative: Discussion Draft of H.R. ____, the “Pipeline Infrastructure and Community Protection Act of 2011
  • Internet Privacy: The Views of the FTC, the FCC, and NTIA
  • Legislative Hearing to Address Spectrum and Public Safety Issues
  • Legislative Hearing on Miscellaneous Public Health Legislation
  • Congress. House. Homeland Security Committee
  • Homeland Security Contracting: Does the Department Effectively Leverage Emerging Technologies?
  • Protecting the Maritime Borders -- Leveraging Law Enforcement Cooperation to Enhance Security Along America’s Coasts
  • Securing Federal Facilities: Challenges of the Federal Protective Service and the Need For Reform
  • Congress. House. Transportation and Infrastructure Committee
  • FEMA Reauthorization and Cutting the Red Tape in Recovery
  • Reducing Regulatory Burdens, Ensuring the Flow of Commerce, and Protecting Jobs: A Common Sense Approach to Ballast Water Regulation
  • Congress. Senate. Foreign Relations Committee
  • Harnessing Technology and Innovation to Cut Waste and Curb Fraud in Federal Health Programs
  • Ten Years After 9/11: Preventing Terrorist Travel
  • Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)
  • Chemical Hazards Emergency Medical Management (CHEMM)
  • Government Accountability Office (GAO)
  • Homeland Security: DHS Could Strengthen Acquisitions and Development of New Technologies, GAO-11-829T [testimony]
  • Homeland Security: Protecting Federal Facilities Remains a Challenge for the Department of Homeland Security's Federal Protective Service, GAO-11-813T [testimony]
  • Combating Terrorism: Additional Steps Needed to Enhance Foreign Partners' Capacity to Prevent Terrorist Travel, GAO-11-637
  • DHS Science and Technology: Additional Steps Needed to Ensure Test and Evaluation Requirements Are Met, GAO-11-596
  • Homeland Security and Defense Business Council
  • At Loggerheads? Privacy vs. Security in Today’s Cyber World
  • National Science Foundation (NSF)
  • Academic Research and Development Expenditures: Fiscal Year 2009
  • Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering: Fall 2008
  • USAID
  • Afghanistan - Complex Emergency - Disaster Assistance at a Glance [latest update]
  • Cote d'Ivoire - Complex Emergency - Disaster Assistance at a Glance [latest update]
  • Haiti - Earthquake and Cholera [latest update]
  • Horn of Africa - Earthquake and Cholera [latest update]
  • Pakistan - Complex Emergency - Disaster Assistance at a Glance [latest update]
  • Yemen - Complex Emergency - Disaster Assistance at a Glance [latest update]

Kiltz, Linda (2011) "The Challenges of Developing a Homeland Security Discipline to Meet Future Threats to the Homeland," Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management: Vol. 8 : Iss. 2, Article 1.
DOI: 10.2202/1547-7355.1899
Available at:

The paper argues that homeland security education must continually adapt to future risks, threats and vulnerabilities. To do this, it will be necessary to look at the many ways of looking at homeland security thinking and practice from multiple perspectives and disciplines. Looking at the homeland security enterprise through a variety of perspectives, taken together and synthesized, can deepen understanding and shed additional light on the scope of the field or discipline. Next, this paper discusses the need for existing and future educational programs in homeland security that are inclusive of the theories, practices and research methods of emergency management, despite the current cultural differences between these fields. Finally, this paper highlights three challenges in the development of homeland security education programs: (1) the development and implementation of a standardized curriculum with core functions and competencies that are inclusive of emergency management, (2) the evolution into a new academic discipline; (3) and the adoption of multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary approaches to teaching and learning.

National Emergency Management Agency Learning Resource Center (NETC LRC) Update

New at the LRC Last Week

  • Downloadable titles

Selected topics:

  • Disaster planning/preparedness
  • Emergency Management
  • Emergency response
  • Explosions
  • Geographic Information Systems
  • HazMat
  • Interagency Cooperation
  • Leadership/Personnel Management
  • Mass casualties
  • Mass Evacuation
  • Natural disasters
  • Nuclear/Radiological Hazards
  • Pandemics
  • Prefire planning
  • Public Health
  • Rescue Operations
  • Resiliency/Critical Infrastructure
  • Risk communications/social media
  • Terrorism
  • Training - Emergency Mngt
  • Wildfires

CEMR Network Broadcast:

Emergency Management Solutions is a free monthly newsletter written by Lucien G. Canton, CEM. It is intended to share ideas, tips and tricks that will help improve your emergency programs. You’re welcome to share the content with others with appropriate attribution. To subscribe to the newsletter or to view the current issue

From the Bookshelf

Ever give much thought to the water you drink? Robert Morris' bookThe Blue Death: Disease, Disaster, and the Water We Drink will change that.The book traces the history of the battle against water-borne pathogens starting with the cholera epidemic in London in 1853.The chapters onmajor outbreaks of gastrointestinal disease in the United States read like case studies, with much useful information for emergency planners. Morris, a public health physician andepidemiologist, is critical of our current water systems and makes a strong case for his concerns. This is an excellent source of background material for exercises, particularly for public health planners.

Over the past few years, I've heard Time Magazine reporterAmanda Ripley speak at several conferences but hadn't got around to reading her bookThe Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes and Whyuntil recently. Frankly, I it was low on my list because I expected a book of anecdotes backed up by a bit of pop psychology. Big mistake! This is undoubtedly one of the best books I have read on how people react in times of crisis. Ms. Ripley did her homework, interviewing well-known experts in our field likeDennis Mileti, Thomas Drabek, and Lee Clarke.While not an academic work, it's firmly grounded in both published research literature and Ms. Ripley's own extensive interviews. Definitely worth considering as an addition to your professional library.

Natural Hazards Observer, Vol XXXV, Number 6, July 2011 edition, is now available.

The Medium and Message—Making Building WarningsMeaningful
And …

  • Quakes on the Continental Interiors are Most Deadly
  • Disaster Tolerance Forms Cultures
  • Two Hats, One Hazard
  • And much more ...

Contributions of jobs, conferences, and other content to this newsletter can be sent to . Please include “for Disaster Research” in the subject line.

To subscribe, visit or e-mail .

Council for Emergency Management and Homeland Security (CEMHS) (please email Keith for a copy of the article at )

DearCSU Council for Emergency Management and Homeland Security (CEMHS) Members and Colleagues,

I would like to sharean article written for the next volume of the Journal ofEmergency Management and Homeland Security (available in print at the end of next week). The article "The Essentials of Emergency Management and Homeland Security Graduate Education Programs: Design, Development, and Future" involves a discussion of the essentials of Emergency Management (EM) and Homeland Security (HS) graduate programs,the critical components of EM-HS programs,and emerging trends and issues related to EM-HS programs. These trends include the necessity of the development of national accreditation standardsand promulgating professional bodies to ensure the healthy development of this growing academic discipline.

Enjoy!

Best Regards,

Keith Clement

Planning Director, CEMHS

California State University, Fresno

Department of Criminology

Notes from the Hi Ed Program:

Just an FYI: On Thursday, July 14th, I arrived at my office to find an army of people working frantically to clear it out not because I’m such a messy person or because housekeeping is working in tandem these days but because at approximately 6:50 am the sprinkler right over my desk decided to come on. I have lost most of the books, papers, notebooks and some files in my office. A temporary office space has been assigned to me while my office is being rebuilt which all means I have a serious case of chaos going on. I have hope that all will be back to normal, or a reasonable facsimile of such, in just a short while.

We are accepting news and events to be placed in our “Bits and Pieces” reports each week. Let us know what emergency management or homeland security activities are happening at your college, university, and state or local emergency management office.

Have a verycool weekend,

Barbara

Barbara L. Johnson

Higher Education Program Assistant

FEMA/EMI/NETC

Department of Homeland Security

16825 S. Seton Avenue, K016

Emmitsburg, MD 21727

Ph: (301) 447-1452

Emergency Management Institute

A 60-Year Legacy of Training and Education in Emergency Management

“FEMA’s mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.”