From left: Mike Sprayberry, director, North Carolina Emergency Management, and past NEMA president; Thad, Huguley, IAEM Government Affairs director; and Peter Gaynor, acting FEMA administrator, at the National Governors’ Association (NGA) Summer Meeting, held in Salt Lake City, Utah, July 25, 2019. The summer meeting, one of two primary gatherings of the nation’s governors, includes a variety of sessions open to the media, as well as governors-only private sessions. NGA meetings are solutions-oriented, providing governors with a chance to discuss the crucial issues that states face, including the state-federal partnership.

Left to right: Pam Williams, executive director, BuildStrong Coalition; Nick Crossley, CEM, IAEM immediate past president, and director, Hamilton Co. (Ohio) Emergency Management & Homeland Security Agency; Bryan Koon, vice president of homeland security & emergency management, IEM; and Chris Rodriguez, director, Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency, hold a panel discussion on “Identifying State and Local Mitigation Priorities” at the Forum on FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) Grant Program, July 23, 2019, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Washington, DC. The panel featured state and local stakeholders and resiliency experts. It focused on identifying and understanding this group’s mitigation and resilience goals, including managing different state, local, and regional challenges.

Pete Gaynor, acting administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), was featured in the IAEM/Harvard NPLI Think Tank held July 23, 2019. The moderator was Rich Serino, a distinguished visiting fellow at Harvard University’s National Preparedness Leadership Initiative (NPLI), and senior advisor at MIT’s Urban Risk Lab, who is a past deputy administrator of FEMA. This open conversation with Mr. Gaynor is the most recent in a series of think tank discussions based on FEMA Think Tanks. IAEM partners with Harvard NPLI to engage our partners, promote innovation, and facilitate discussions in the field of emergency management. Learn more.

Judd Freed, CEM (left), visiting with IAEM CEO Beth Armstrong and IAEM-USA Immediate Past President Nick Crossley, CEM, in Cincinnati (Ohio) as part of an Emergency Management Accreditation Program (EMAP) officer meeting, July 26, 2019.

(Nov. 4, 2019) At the recent California Emergency Services Association (CESA) meeting on Nov. 4, 2019, IAEM member Jerry Quinn, MBA, president, GJQ Consulting LLC, received the Gold Award from the California Emergency Services Association (CESA) State Board for his exceptional efforts in the field of emergency management and his unwavering dedication to the CESA organization and its members. Gold Awards are presented to an organization or individual who has shown exceptional efforts in the field of emergency management resulting in benefits statewide. In addition, Quinn has received two previous awards from the CESA State Board, as well as the 2011 Fetz Service Award from the CESA Coastal Chapter Board.

On Nov. 19, 2019, IAEM and Harvard NPLI hosted a Think Tank on "Community Outreach and Why This Is Important to Emergency Managers Now More Than Ever." Left to right are: Herman Schaffer, assistant commissioner, NYCEM and Director of Community Engagement Division; Laura Mellem, public engagement manager, New Orleans Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness; Sherry-Lea Botop, public information officer/community engagement manager, Baldwin County Commission, Alabama; and Richard Serino, IAEM Think Tank moderator. Based on the idea behind FEMA Think Tanks, IAEM partners with Harvard NPLI to engage our partners, promote innovation, and facilitate discussions in the field of emergency management. 

FEMA and IAEM-USA senior leadership met on Nov. 18, 2019, at the IAEM Annual Conference in Savannah, Georgia, to talk about shared focus areas.

Pictured left to right are Marty Shaub, CEM, UCEM, outgoing IAEM-USA president (2018-2019), with Teri Smith, CEM, incoming IAEM-USA president (2019-2020), at the 2019 IAEM Annual Conference in Savannah, Georgia, on Nov. 19, 2019.

IAEM-USA senior leadership met with representatives from the National Weather Service on Nov. 18, 2019, to discuss areas of shared interest and possible collaboration. The meeting took place at the 2019 IAEM Annual Conference, held in Savannah, Georgia.

Participants at the IAEM-USA Universities and Colleges Emergency Management Practitioner Symposium, a two-day workshop on Nov. 16-17, at the IAEM Annual Conference in Savannah, Georgia. This year’s symposium will focus on the themes of resiliency and relationships. The symposium featured sessions on how to increase the resiliency and continuity of departments, institutions or programs and sessions that focused on how to build and integrate relationships, whether with other departments, agencies, institutions, or vendors. Sessions reflected real-world incidents over the past year, focusing on opportunities and successes, lessons learned, and best practices. The annual UCC Symposium program focuses on content and speakers who relate directly to higher education and emergency management, and all practitioners and interested parties are welcome.