Contact Information
Office Location: 428B6 Minard Hall
Cell Phone: 701-219-4293
Office Phone: 701-231-5595
Email Address: ja.jensen@ndsu.edu

Current Courses

• EMGT 410: Comprehensive Emergency Management Planning
• EMGT 445: Understanding Vulnerable Populations in Disaster
• EMGT 463/663: Voluntary Agency Services in Disaster
• EMGT 720: Emergency Management Theory
• EMGT 761: Preparedness Theory and Practice
• EMGT 762: Mitigation Theory and Practice
• EMGT 861: Preparedness Theory and Practice II
• EMGT 862: Mitigation Theory and Practice II
• EMGT 863: Response Theory and Practice II
• EMGT 864: Recovery Theory and Practice II

Research Interests

• Development of emergency management theory
• Emergency Management higher education including program learning objectives, curriculum development, course design, and assessment at all degree levels
• The development of emergency management practice
• How society addresses vulnerability and hazards within organizations and positions (e.g., emergency manager, resilience officer, sustainability officer, recovery coordinator)
• Incident management systems (e.g., Incident Command System, National Incident Management System)

Current Research Projects

• NIMS and ICS in action? A repeat study more than a decade later
  Key findings: Variation in intent and implementation of both systems continues. Intent to implement still has the strongest influence on actual implementation. With respect to both, local jurisdictions have honed in on shared common aspects of each system, seeming to vary with respect to or discard the rest.
• A study of the activities in which local emergency managers engage and what explains variation observed
  Key findings: Local emergency managers vary in the activities in which they engage somewhat. There is a significant difference between comfort with and involvement in mitigation and recovery faciltiation versus preparednss and response facilitation. There is also a significant difference in the extent to which local emergency managers report comfort working with stakeholders aligned with mitigation and recovery versus preparedness and response. Variation in all cases is not explained by resources, number of staff or rural versus urban location. Variation is explained by occupational background, years working in emergency management positions, education, and professional development.
• A global study of all emergency management bachelors degree programs examining curricular intent and structure for key characteristics
  Key Findings: Programs around the world are dissimilar. Curricular intent communicated through websites, course catalogs and university undergraduate bulletins is out of alignment with curricular structure often. Programs in the United States exhibit a strong bias to federal policy and training to common tasks.
• A study of how emergency management bachelors degree programs in the United States teach preparedness
  Key Findings: Preparedness is being taught from a federal government (i.e., doctrine, policy) perspective and to task as opposed to based on empirical evidence and covering different units of analysis. There is very little research base to preparedness instruction at all.
• A study of the extent to which response plans in the largest, most disaster prone US counties address AFN issues
  Key Findings: To the extent addressed, in ESFs with little evidence of planning regarding key issues.
• Assessing IH preparedness with the Holistic Individual Preparedness Model (Jensen, 2014) in multiple countries
  Key Findings: TBD, ongoing
• A study of SVOAD effectiveness and strength based on interviews with current and past SVOAD chairs
  Key Findings: Study resulted in definitions for both effectiveness and strength that may facilitate quicker onboarding of future SVOAD chairs, State and Federal VALs, and others entering emergeny management positions with respect to what SVOADs do and how to best work within/support them. One of the most important findings is the extraordinary connection between pre-disaster strength and effectiveness which has significant implications for SVOAD effectiveness into the future and what government will need to do to support these entities.
• A second study of job placement of emergency management degree program graduates applying lessons learned from an initial study
  Key Findings: The revised model better assesses what it needs to measure; yet, for a variety of reasons the ability to statistically assess the influences on job placement is limited. Chief among these reasons is that students are engaging in significant professional development and experiential learning withhin these programs (so lack of variation prohibits tetsting) and programs are not tracking alumni contact information.

2020-2021, Coordinator, Emergency Management Higher Education Network: Degree Program Leadership Conference

Conference Agenda

Pre-conference Survey Results

Final Conference Report

2015 Accreditation Standards

2017-Present, Founder and Coordinator, Emergency Management Higher Education Network

2017, Invited Subject Matter Expert, Exploring Emergency Management Disciplinary Boundaries Focus Group, Federal Emergency Management, Higher Education Program

2013-2016, Founder and Organizer, Emergency Management Theory and Research Workshop

2016, Invited Subject Matter Expert, Emergency Management Student Internship and Jobs Focus Group, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Higher Education Program

2016, Invited Facilitator and Subject Matter Expert for Consensus Building with Emergency Management Doctoral Degree Holders: The Emergency Management Discipline, Status and Needs, 2nd Iteration, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Higher Education Program

2016, Invited Subject Matter Expert for Emergency Management Education and Training Synergy Working Group, 2nd Iteration, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Higher Education Program

2015, Invited Facilitator and Subject Matter Expert for Consensus Building with Emergency Management Doctoral Degree Holders: The Emergency Management Discipline, Status and Needs, 1st Iteration, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Higher Education Program

2014, Invited Subject Matter Expert for Accreditation Working Group and Report Author, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Higher Education Program

2014, Invited Subject Matter Expert for Emergency Management Education and Training Synergy Working Group, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Higher Education Program

2014, Survey Research and Report Author, Report of the Feedback on the Emerging, Draft Accreditation Process and General Standards, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Higher Education Program

2014, Survey Research and Report Author,  Results from a Survey Gauging Emergency Management Higher Education Community Consensus on Key Points related to Research Standards for the Discipline of Emergency Management, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Higher Education Program

2014, Survey Research and Report Author,  Snap Shot of the Results from a Survey Gauging Emergency Management Higher Education Community Consensus on Key Points related to Emergency Management’s Disciplinary Identity, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Higher Education Program

2014, Invited Subject Matter Expert, Training and Education Synergy Working Group, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Higher Education Program

2013, Invited Facilitator and Report Author FEMA Higher Education Program Focus Group Implementing Research Standards in Emergency Management, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Higher Education Program

2013, Original Drafter of Standards and Editor, Draft Research Standards for the Academic Discipline of Emergency Management, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Higher Education Program

2013, Invited Subject Matter Expert, FEMA Higher Education Program Focus Group Part II: Accreditation, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Higher Education Program

2013, Invited Facilitator and Report Author, FEMA Higher Education Program Focus Group Part II: Disciplinary Purview, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Higher Education Program

2013,  Survey Research and Report Author, Survey on Support for Accreditation Across Emergency Management Degree Offering Institutions, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Higher Education Program

2012, Invited Facilitator and Report Author, Purview and Core Research Questions for the Academic Discipline of Emergency Management Focus Group, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Higher Education Program

2012, Invited Facilitator and Report Author, Research Standards in Emergency Management Focus Group, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Higher Education Program

2012, Invited Subject Matter Expert, Accreditation for Emergency Management Higher Education Programs Focus Group, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Higher Education Program

2012, Invited Subject Matter Expert and Report Author, Purview and Core Research Questions for the Academic Discipline of Emergency Management Focus Group, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Higher Education Program

2012, Invited Subject Matter Expert and Report Author, Research Standards in Emergency Management Focus Group, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Higher Education Program

2011, “An argument in favor of a disciplinary approach to emergency management in higher education”. In J. Hubbard (ed.), Challenges of emergency management in higher education: Planning and strategies. Fairfax, VA: Public Entity Risk Institute

2010, “Emergency management theory: Unrecognized, underused, and underdeveloped”. In J. Hubbard (ed.), Integrating emergency management studies into higher education: Ideas, programs, and strategies (pp. 7-24). Fairfax, VA: Public Entity Risk Institute

Back in 2011, Jensen helped the International Association of Emergency Managers develop a white paper suggesting a principed approach to measuring return on investment for the Emegency Management Performance Grant Program. She suggested that preparedness is comprised of acheiving a series of outcomes and that the things we do and buy with federal grant dollars do have meaning against those outcomes. Give it a read!