**May 9-13, 2005 FEMA Emergency Management Higher Education Project
Activity Report**

\(1\) CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, CALIFORNIA, PA \-- NEW GIS
AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT BA CONCENTRATION:

May 13, 2005 \-- Received email from Dr. Jamie Mitchem, Department of
Geography at California University of Pennsylvania, noting that approval
has been received to implement a Concentration in GIS and Emergency
Management within the current BA in Geography \-- to start the Fall
Semester of 2005. The first of three new courses to be taught in the new
concentration, \"Natural Hazards,\" already has an advance enrollment of
50 students for this coming Fall Semester (which required a doubling of
the original course cap). Follow-on new courses will be: \"Emergency
Management,\" and \"Disaster Vulnerability Assessment.\" Other already
established courses are in Meteorology, Geology, and Geography. A
California University Press Release states that this program is unique
in the field of collegiate emergency management programs \-- and to the
best of my knowledge this is indeed the case. Given the current and
growing importance of GIS to all phases of the disaster cycle, I wonder
what took this type of development so long. Will be gathering additional
information so that a description can be developed and posted to the
Project website. In the meantime, for additional information, contact:
Dr. Mitchem at: mitchem@cup.edu.

\(2\) CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, CALIFORNIA, PA \-- NEW
HOMELAND SECURITY CERTIFICATE AND GRAD TRACK:

May 11, 2005 -- Received mailing from Dr. Charles P. Nemeth, Director of
Graduate Legal Studies and Director of the Institute of Law and Public
Policy, at the California University of Pennsylvania (part of the
Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education), including two brochures
announcing an online Homeland Security Track within their Master's in
Legal Studies, and a Homeland Security Certificate. Included, as well
was a letter announcing a new publication \-- the \"Homeland Security
Review,\" to be published by the University\'s Institute of Law and
Public Policy and to focus on \"topics relating to law, science,
policing, emergency and fire protection, public policy and other related
fields.\" For further information on the new journal, email:
Instlaw_pubpol@cup.edu or Dr. Nemeth at: nemeth@cup.edu

Amongst the courses to be offered in the Homeland Security Master\'s
Track and Certificate are:

US Homeland Security

Terrorism, Threat & Vulnerability Analysis & Protection Biological,
Chemical, Nuclear & WMD Threats in Homeland Security Intelligence
Practice in Homeland Security

\(3\) COASTAL HAZARDS MANAGEMENT \-- GRADUATE LEVEL COURSE DEVELOPMENT
PROJECT:

May 12, 2005 \-- Received for review 1st draft of Session 27, \"Coastal
Hazards Management Framework II,\" by Anna K. Schwab, University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

\(4\) EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT HIGHER EDUCATION CONFERENCE, JUNE 7-9, 2005,
EMI, EMMITSBURG, MD:

May 9, 2005 \-- Modified draft agenda to include a short 10-15 minute
presentation by the EMI Professional Development Program Manager, Tom
Gilboy, on an about-to-be released new 35 minute video entitled
\"Principles of Emergency Management.\"

May 9-13, 2005 \-- Continued (unending) agenda modifications \-- learned
that two presenters would not be able to make it after all.

May 13, 2005 \-- Informed by Admissions Office that they have now
processed and accepted a total of 172 applications.

\(5\) FLOODPLAIN MANAGEMENT \-- GRADUATE LEVEL COURSE DEVELOPMENT
PROJECT:

May 10, 2005 \-- Received for review from lead course developer, Bob
Freitag, University of Washington, Session 28A (Optional) \"Prepare
Ecological Risk Assessment.\"

\(6\) HAZARDS MAPPING AND MODELING \-- UPPER DIVISION/GRADUATE-LEVEL
COURSE DEVELOPMENT PROJECT:

May 11, 2005 \-- Received for review, from lead course developer, Dr.
John Pine, Louisiana State University, Session 2, \"Technology
Developments in Hazard Mapping and Modeling,\" by Dr. Ute Dymon,
Professor of Geography, Kent State University, and Dr. Nancy Winter.

\(7\) IAEM BULLETIN (International Association of Emergency Managers),
May 2005 Edition \-- EM Students:

May 11, 2005 \-- Received Vol. 22, No. 5 of the IAEM Bulletin and
counted the number of new members who have joined between March 16th and
April 15th \-- 17 of 67 new members were from academia, mostly emergency
management students (or 25% of the new memberships for this 30 day
period). Counted the new members who were obviously emergency management
personnel and got a count of 18 new members \-- just about even. Month
after month I count growing numbers of academic community new members
\-- mostly emergency management college students. Look forward to day
when new EM student members outrun new EM practitioner members. Colleges
with \"emergency management\" programs represented this past month were:

Arkansas Tech University

Jacksonville State University (5)

Metropolitan College of New York

University of New Orleans

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2) Western Carolina
University

\(8\) JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY \-- NEW HOMELAND SECURITY CERTIFICATE AND
MASTERS OF GOVERNMENT HS CONCENTRATION:

May 12, 2005 \-- Read an April 30th \"Washington Post\" article on
\"Colleges; Hottest New Major: Terror,\" and learned of a new Homeland
Certificate and Masters of Government Homeland Security Concentration at
Johns Hopkins University. Communicated with the head of these two new
programs, Dr. Steven David. The Homeland Security Certificate requires
six courses. The Masters program requires 9 courses, a symposia, and a
thesis. Amongst the homeland security related courses offered are:

Administering Homeland Security

Art and Practice of Intelligence

Bioterrorism and the Law

Bioterrorism, Science, and Policy

Contemporary Terrorism and the American Response Crisis Management
Defense Policy I & II Foreign Policy in the Age of Global Terrorism
Politics, Language, and Culture of the Arab World Preserving American
Security in a Dangerous World Science and Biodefense Technology of
Weapons of Mass Destruction War, Humane Behavior, and Morality

We will be attempting to get syllabi of the above-noted courses for
posting to the \"Syllabi Compilation\" section of the Project website.
The Project Assistant is working on the development of these programs
for posting to the \"Homeland Security\" section of \"The College List\"
on the Project website. Until that time, for more information, Dr. David
can be reached at: sdavid@jhu.edu

\(9\) JOURNAL OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT, VOL. 3, NO. 2, MARCH/APRIL 2005:

May 8, 2005 \-- Read latest issue and note following items:

\"Terrorism and the all-hazards model\" Editorial by Dr. William L.
Waugh, Jr.:

\"The term all-hazards does not mean being prepared for any and all
hazards that might manifest themselves in a particular community, state,
or nation. What it does mean is that there are things that commonly
occur in many kinds of disasters, such as the need for emergency
warning\...that can be addressed in a general plan, and that plan can
provide the basis for responding to unexpected events\....What the
all-hazards approach can contribute to the effort to deal with terrorism
in its many forms is a basic framework for structuring the emergency
response, preparing for the response, and recovering from attacks, as
well as developing appropriate measures to prevent or reduce the impact
of the attacks\....the all-hazards approach encourages a broader
perspective\...The Department of Homeland Security has been focused on
the prevention of terrorist incidents, even though the department\'s
mission statement also mentions reducing the impact of incidents that do
occur\...All-hazards planning does encourage a broader perspective on
risks and how to deal with them and a broader foundation on which to
build effective programs to manage hazards and disasters.\"

\"Hazard mitigation planning utilizing the HAZUS-MH Flood Model and
Hurricane Wind Model,\" by Dr. John Pine, Dr. Hassan Mashrizui,
Stephanie Pedro, and Jennifer Meyer.

\"Rectifying a failure in imagination using a medical generalist model:
An analysis of the 9/11 Commission Report,\" by F. Matthew Mihelic, MD:

An interesting piece which notes the 9/11 Commission finding that
imagination (or insightful judgment) was inadequate in connecting the
dots that were in hand prior to the 9/11 attacks \-- \"All of the pieces
of the plot, along with many of the possible connections of such pieces,
had been conceived before the event occurred. What was lacking was the
insightful judgment necessary to assess the true risks of those pieces
coming together, along with the initiation of actions necessary to
prevent and respond to the risks and events\....The qualities necessary
for such insightful judgment include a broad scope of knowledge, complex
decision-making capabilities, the ability to function well in uncertain
circumstances, and an orientation toward action.\" Goes on to note that
\"insightful judgment\" proceeds from \"a generalist orientation.\"

The above is from the first few paragraphs and there is much more. What
I find interesting in his analogy to the generalist medical practitioner
as a model for homeland security specialists, in that it is just as
true, I believe, and perhaps more helpful, to point to the generalist
emergency manager as the model. Emergency Management philosophy has for
several decades now been making the case that it is a mistake to focus
on one hazard (threat) to near exclusion of other hazards (threats) \--
thus the Federal Response Plan (generalist plan and mentality) evolved
from the Catastrophic Earthquake Plan (single hazard focus and
mentality) and was superior in many respects, including flexibility,
adaptability, incorporation of many more players (and ideas), and the
encouragement of the development of \"insightful judgment.\"

\"Critical Curriculum for Emergency Management Leaders: Three Essential
Themes,\" by Glen L. Woodbury.

From the abstract: \"While the volume of higher education curriculum has
increased, three key thematic areas must be addressed as the baseline of
knowledge for emergency management professionals: 1) hazard and threat
science, 2) sociological and psychological considerations, and 3)
prevention/mitigation principles.\" Alluding to the two ways most
emergency managers of the past (and even very many today) acquire
knowledge \-- namely training and experience, Mr. Woodbury states that
\"neither of these learning environments provides the deep understanding
necessary for an emergency management leader to effectively develop and
implement \'strategic\' efforts to mitigate threats or to properly
prepare for the response and recovery of their consequences.
Additionally, the depth of understanding across the spectrum of hazards
facing a community, business, or jurisdiction is
unbalanced\....Emergency management leaders need an academic, not just
experiential, knowledge base of the natural and manmade hazards that
face their regions or facilities. They need to know the science behind
the threats, not just the potential, operational consequences should
these hazard manifest themselves.\"

In relation to this last article by former Washington State Office of
Emergency Management Director, Glen Woodbury, who is now with the Naval
Postgraduate School Homeland Security Program, contacted the editor of
the Journal of Emergency Management and very graciously received
copyright approval and a PDF version of this article to post to the
Project website \-- which we will be doing in two places \-- Articles,
Papers, and Presentations section, and \"EM Competencies and Curricula\"
section \-- where it should be available shortly.

For the other documents one will need to read the March/April JEM.

\(10\) VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY, RICHMOND \-- APPROVAL FOR
HOMELAND SECURITY AND EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS BA & MINOR:

May 10, 2005 \-- Received communication from Dr. Bill Newmann, L.
Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs, noting that
Virginia\'s State Council on Higher Education has just this week
approved the VCU proposal to implement a Bachelor\'s Degree in Homeland
Security and Emergency Preparedness. Dr. Newmann notes that students are
already signed up for the official inauguration of this new major (and
minor) this-coming Fall 2005 Semester. A description of the new program
can be found in the \"Programs Proposed/Investigated\" section of The
College List on the Project website. For additional information, Dr.
Newmann can be reached at: wnewmann@vcu.edu

B.Wayne Blanchard, Ph.D., CEM

Higher Education Project Manager

Emergency Management Institute

National Emergency Training Center

Federal Emergency Management Agency

Department of Homeland Security

16825 S. Seton, N-430

Emmitsburg, MD 21727

\(301\) 447-1262, voice

\(301\) 447-1598, fax

wayne.blanchard@dhs.gov

[[http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/edu]{.underline}](http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/edu)