Continuing the recent theme of discussing standards and training in emergency management, a timely article was released with the latest Domestic Preparedness Journal Weekly Brief. The article (written by Dr. Michael Valiente, Senior Training Officer for TDEM) tells of the first Texas Emergency Management Academy, developed by the Texas Division of Emergency Management, which is an eight-month program providing training in a variety of topics. As an eight-month program (though I don’t know their class schedule) it’s certainly longer than the FEMA Basic Academy and seems quite intensive. There is even some indication of FEMA Basic Academy courses being included in the program. The article mentions starting with 20 cadets and graduating 17, which is an excellent graduation rate.

The program covers the expected topics of preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery with some specific content identified from FEMA, TDEM, and seemingly some guest instructors from other agencies, which I think really enriches the learning experience (emergency management isn’t only performed by emergency management agencies, after all). I’m hopeful there was quality training in how to write various types of emergency plans. I’m just more and more discouraged nearly every day by the plans I’m seeing out there… but that’s a different topic.

Beyond the four fundamental areas, there are some notable additions. One of which is a basic EMT course. I’m kind of scratching my head on this one. As I’ve espoused before, I certainly have no issues with people getting additional training or professional certifications – especially in life saving skills, but EMS is not EM. I can certainly hear in my head a lot of the justifications people would use for this, and while I understand them, I just don’t know that I can agree with the inclusion of an EMT course into an EM program.

Having a program of extended duration such as this offers some great opportunity to build in some external activities, such as conferences, training, and exercises sponsored or conducted by other partners, which they absolutely did. Of course, they included training from the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) which I’ve always found to be fantastic. They also had a capstone exercise which was held at the TEEX facility in College Station (highly recommend, by the way, for those who have never been). Certainly, a great opportunity to utilize a terrific resource in your back yard.

Another noteworthy addition was an emergency management job fair which was preceded by classes on resume building, interview techniques, and other skills. I think this is brilliant and incredibly valuable for participants.

Overall, this seems a good and valuable program, though from what I read, given the inclusion of the EMS training, the response courses, the field training (which included a lot of response activity), and the (response) capstone exercise, it very heavily leans toward response. Sure the ‘pointy end of the stick’ for many emergency managers comes down to the high-consequence crisis that must be managed – and as such these training and experiences hold great value – but so much of what emergency managers do is in the time before and after disasters, much of which is administrative and collaborative. I’m just hoping there was a lot of great content, activities, and opportunities that supported these things as well that simply weren’t highlighted as much in the article.

In the discussions that have been had as of late on standards in emergency management, an academy-style program like this could certainly be a standard. There are pros and cons, but certainly things to be considered. I’m curious about what TDEM learned from this first academy that they expect to change for the next. Would love to hear from TDEM folks (and others) involved in the program, as well as graduates!

© 2023 Tim Riecker, CEDP

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