Tag ibfcsm

Formalizing Emergency Management as a Profession

Tim Riecker, The Contrarian Emergency Manager 5 Comments

The professionalization of emergency management is certainly a continued discussion among emergency managers. Many feel it’s not an actual profession, as it doesn’t fit certain definitions of a profession by not having a universal code of ethics, licensure, and other features. While I personally reject this claim, feeling some resentment that so many of us do in fact work in this field as a career yet it doesn’t meet someone’s definition of a profession. That said, there is a desperate need for standards in the field, yet what should those standards look like? I wrote a couple years back about the various activities very commonly found within emergency management, many of them professions in their own right. With that, I feel we can at least create a foundational standard.

My prompt for this post comes from an initiative in Massachusetts being advocated by Dr. Jennifer Carlson, a professor at Anna Maria College. You can see from the article and the video of her testimony, that professionalization will require several steps.

  1. Developing a code of ethics and professional standards
  2. Formalizing higher education accreditation standards and an accrediting body
  3. Establishing a non-profit gatekeeper organization tasked with professional licensure
  4. Having an accredited institution degree requirement fully integrated by 2040

The most current version of the Code of Ethics and Professional Standards of Conduct for Emergency Managers comes from FEMA’s Higher Education Program. I feel this code is comprehensive and aspirational, representing what emergency managers should be striving to work within. I feel this code, or a version thereof, is reasonable to adopt.

Formalizing higher education accreditation standards and an accrediting body is something else that has been discussed within FEMA’s Higher Education Program for some time. While I do teach emergency management in higher ed, accreditation in that field is something I only have tangential knowledge of, though my wife is an experienced Middle States Commission on Higher Education evaluator and can speak to this better. I will say that many specific professions do have their own national-level accreditation boards which establish standards for all academic programs covering that profession. This certainly seems an attainable goal.

Establishing a non-profit gatekeeper organization tasked with professional licensure… I do have some concerns with the wording of this. Many feel that the Certified Emergency Manager credential from IAEM meets this criterion, though it’s very rare to see membership organizations also serve as credentialing bodies. I feel it’s quite easy to have conflicts of interest and certification influenced by factors other than evaluation of competency. While there are national-level certification organizations for a variety of professions, such as IBFCSM (which presently provides the Certified Emergency Disaster Professional – CEDP, a certification that I hold), which maintains a certification board for each credential and is not a membership organization, the term ‘licensure’, as specifically mentioned, brings about a very different connotation. Properly stated, licensing powers are held by federal, state, and local governments, not by private or non-profit organizations. (Note that I did work for a time with the Massachusetts Division of Professional Licensure many moons ago.) Licensure of professions is generally seen as a state’s rights issue. While it would be best to have one national standard, most professional licensure is done at the state level and is likely the best way to proceed with this.

Lastly, having an accredited degree requirement by 2040 is also quite reasonable. I appreciate that Dr. Carlson advocates the grandfathering of persons already working in the (would be) profession. In recognition of the various related professions, however, I’d like to see the option for X hours of accredited course work (on top of a related degree) as a bridge to quality for certification/licensure absent having an accredited emergency management degree. This will support those who have come to EM through other related pathways and professions, as they commonly do.

I’ll note that none of this should preclude anyone from working in emergency management, but that absent meeting these requirements they could not serve as an actual emergency manager. It’s an important distinction that will require a legal definition of ‘emergency manager’ to accompany any laws that are passed on this matter.

I think this is a noble and meaningful effort being promoted by Dr. Carlson and I hope Massachusetts lawmakers take the step forward down a path that no other government entity in the US has. This absolutely would be a game changer for the ‘profession’. Let’s watch this one carefully.

©2023 Tim Riecker, CEDP

Emergency Preparedness Solutions, LLC®

Certificates and Certifications

Tim Riecker, The Contrarian Emergency Manager 4 Comments

There seem to be regular misunderstandings between words and their meanings. The words ‘certified’, ‘certificate’, and ‘certification’ are words I see regularly misused, especially in requests for proposals, LinkedIn profiles, and resumes.  Unfortunately, as with so much in the English language, there are no easy boxes to put these in, but the differences are really important.

One of the things I regularly see is in reference to something like the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP). Far too often, RFPs request personnel who are ‘HSEEP certified’. There is no certification for HSEEP. To be certified, according to Oxford, means that someone is ‘officially recognized as possessing certain qualifications or meeting certain standards’. People who complete HSEEP training are provided with a certificate of completion. A certificate of completion is simply documentation given by a training provider indicating that someone has completed the requirements of a course (attendance, participation, maybe an exam), but is not intended to speak to their qualifications, therefore it is not a certification.

Certifications are credentials that should be provided by independent bodies indicating that someone has met a certain slate of standards. To be certified in something digs deeper. I am a Certified Emergency Disaster Professional (CEDP), which is a credential provided by the International Board for Certification Services and Management (IBFCSM). To become certified I had to demonstrate experience, education, and competence; and I must affirm continued competence through continuing education.

Colleges also have certificate programs, such as the one I’ve helped develop and have recently started teaching for Herkimer College. A certificate program is a specific type of academic program with a more concise set of requirements compared to a degree program.

If you are writing RFPs, developing your LinkedIn profile, or updating your resume, please be sure to properly represent credentials and qualifications.

© 2022 Tim Riecker, CEDP