Jessica Jensen, assistant professor of emergency management, was an invited participant in a Federal Emergency Management Agency focus group March 5-8 to develop an executive/managerial training curriculum for emergency management practitioners.
The agency is developing a comprehensive Emergency Management Training and Education System that will include foundational training related to the field, career track specific training (e.g., in planning, training and mitigation), and the executive/managerial training Jensen is helping to develop. The agency envisions the training as the highest level a practitioner can complete in emergency management.
Jensen attended the focus group as the representative of emergency management higher education. Other participants included a Federal Emergency Management Agency regional administrator, representatives of state emergency management departments, representatives of professional associations and Emergency Management Institute personnel.
Jensen also conducted survey research on the impact of a type of federal funding, known as Emergency Management Performance Grants, on local government emergency management programs for the U. S. Council of the International Association of Emergency Managers. The council describes the survey in its press release as “the largest and most comprehensive examination of local emergency management capability conducted in the United States.”
On behalf of council, Jensen wrote a short technical report, titled “Emergency Management Performance Grant Funds: Returns on Investment at the Local Level” based on the data collected. The report illustrates how Emergency Management Performance Grants funds support emergency management activities to bring about coordination, collaboration and integration within local level and tribal jurisdictions in the United States in 2011.
The International Association of Emergency Managers is the largest emergency management professional association in the world. Jensen has volunteered for the association for several years and is a member of its Training and Education and Government Affairs Committees.