Executive Professional Studies Emergency Management (MPEM)

Natural Hazards and their impacts will be analyzed in this course from a variety of standpoints, from their management to their interaction with social, political, environmental, and economic systems. Students will investigate what qualifies as a disaster and how the designation of a disaster depends on a range of factors, such as the intensity and scale of the event, the social context in which it occurs, the degree of vulnerability or resilience exhibited by affected parties, and the assets that any household has at its disposal to help cope with lost income and earning power, resources, social support mechanisms, and property.

This course will end with an on-site residency in Louisiana to study the recent history of natural disasters and climate change adaptation in that state, and many case studies and examples from this context will be presented to help prepare students for this field experience. In the last eleven years alone, Louisiana has experienced Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Ike, Gustav, Isaac, the Deepwater Horizon Gulf Oil Spill, and now two riverine and precipitation-based flooding events of massive scale in the northern and central regions of the state (Great Floods of March & August 2016).

The intersection between human behavior and nature will include an analysis of climate change and rural/urban migration and development patterns that put growing numbers of people in the path of natural hazards that are increasing in frequency and severity. The course will allow students to gain insight into what it means to build effective resilience regimes and what we do and do not understand about effective adaptation and resilience strategies.

Explore the multi-dimensional issues surrounding the planning for and response to disaster events caused by natural hazards, such as severe weather and geophysical events, as well as those caused by technological hazards, including hazardous material spills and critical infrastructure failures.

Students will develop a greater understanding of the context in which emergency management is practiced in the United States. This will be accomplished via examination of the history of emergency management, associated legal frameworks, and theories that influence its practice.

This course is restricted to students enrolled in the International Executive Master's Degree program.

Study the strategic, operational, and legal frameworks of a regionally based emergency management organization while analyzing the processes and relationships that define interagency and international cooperation

This module introduces the added dimension of a deliberate terrorist event, without notice, and explores the challenges associated with chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and high-yield explosive hazards. Examine a coordinated, multi-jurisdictional, multi-discipline response. Understand the complexity of such attacks and how current and emerging technologies can support the response to such incidents.

-Compare and contrast deliberate acts of terrorism to other types of disasters with respect to public reaction, incident management, hazard characterization, triage, public health and first responders/first receivers.

-Understand the challenges to quantifying and communicating the risks for high consequence/low probability events and identify mechanisms to promote civic responsibility and overcome apathy.

-Recognize the role of technology and its limitations in making sound decisions.

The International Disasters course is a graduate seminar that challenges students to grow in their knowledge and understanding horizontally beyond the borders of domestic U.S. emergency management principles and vertically beyond national policies into global frameworks. Students will be introduced to threats and hazards with global implications, how those threats/hazards shape the systems that exist to mitigate, respond, or recover from them, and the complexities that exist in international disaster operations.

This course will focus on the United States Government’s (USG) organization for responding to international disasters, how emergency/disaster management is structured in other nations, and how nations come together to respond to an international disaster. Students will be introduced to case studies and presented scenarios that will require considering factors such as interpretation of complex international arrangements, political climates, economic environments, social/media influences, and state sovereignty.

Throughout the course, students will receive lectures expanding on the week’s topics by the instructor, have opportunities to interact with guest lecturers and engage in discussions with other classmates. The residency week will not only expand on the topics during the preceding weeks but will also layer further discussion on the complexities of international disaster operations such as initial coordination, logistics, command, and control, among others.

The Capstone Course will provide an opportunity for students to reflect on and deepen their understanding of social, psychological, functional, and technical dimensions of emergency and disaster management. Core readings will focus on strategic thinking and leadership as the underlying, necessary framework for organizational success in emergency management organizations, and explore the art and science of disciplined innovation and follow-through to influence change (e.g., value innovation, strategy, managing performance). Specific attention will be paid to examining approaches to leadership and decision-making in crisis, in the context of emergency management, including sense-making, meta-leadership, and data-driven decision making. We will also explore how social determinants affect emergency management outcomes and the role of emergency management in broader issues of resilience and governance.