Advanced Certificate in Emergency Management

A HEPA professional prepares for and addresses any emergencies in the hospital setting. This can include responding to natural disasters and securing facilities, and the increased influx of injured, sick or infectious patients. To qualify, you’ll usually need to have a degree in hospital administration as well as your EM certificate.

Homeland Security Officers assess and respond to issues involving national security, terrorism, or border control. There are opportunities to work for the Secret Service, the TSA, and other government agencies. This role has become increasingly important in a post-9/11 world and ties in closely with emergency management. For example, the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA work together to secure disaster-hit areas. To qualify, you’ll need at least a Bachelor’s in Homeland Security or a closely related field like cybersecurity.

As the name suggests, Public Information Officers alert communities during times of crisis and provide essential information. This includes evacuation orders, extreme weather warnings, and which areas to avoid during a natural disaster. They also play a key role in government agencies and help write and implement emergency preparedness plans. In addition to your certificate, you’ll need a Bachelor’s or Master’s in public administration, management, or a similar field.

This course is designed to teach the student the basic principles of emergency management and how they apply to all hazards, including those due to disasters, terrorism, and public health emergencies. The student is shown how the discipline of emergency preparedness applies science and technology, planning, risk analysis, and management in dealing with large and complex events; events that have the potential to cause significant morbidity and mortality, extensive damage to property, as well as to the economic and physical infrastructure of communities. Lastly, the student is shown how the preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery phases apply to these events.

Acts of terrorism present unique threats to communities. Students are shown the approaches to planning for and responding to acts of terrorism, including those that are chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive. The concept of hazard and risk vulnerability as it applies to terrorism is presented. Also discussed is how the threat of terrorism has affected emergency preparedness and the approach taken to terrorism preparedness at the local, state, national, and international level.

This course explores the unique aspects of both natural disasters and complex humanitarian emergencies. In addition, the challenges faced by public health emergency practitioners are presented. The student is taught how to apply comprehensive emergency management to these events. Information from recent national and international events is presented and discussed.

This course explores the roles, responsibilities, and perspectives of public health in times of natural disasters, terrorism, and public health emergencies. The student is taught how emergency preparedness principles can be applied to public health preparedness. The course covers the role of public health in disasters and terrorism. It discusses how emergency preparedness is applied to public health emergencies and complex humanitarian emergencies.

The purpose of this course is to provide the student with the opportunity to synthesize and integrate the knowledge and skills learned in previous emergency preparedness coursework. Students will gain insight in the practical application of emergency management principles and practice in a variety of settings. The course examines the application of emergency management in both the public and private sector as well as provides perspectives on emergency preparedness as a profession. Lectures are designed to be discussion-based and provide the student with global insight into the practice of multi-disciplinary emergency management.