Few of us, if weβre honest, paid full attention to the actions of task forces or crisis and emergency managers β until mid-March. Now, the world practically turns on their every move. At a most coincidental time, ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½ is about to graduate its first three students from the Masters of Emergency and Crisis Management (MECM) program. They happen to be at the leading edge of an oncoming wave.
βBecause the program is so young, we can adjust the lessons to reflect whatever is going on in real time.β – Claire Connolly Knox, director of the program.
βStudents are attracted to the program because theyβve been directly impacted by recent disasters β , the BP oil spill, the Pulse Nightclub massacre, and now the pandemic,β says Claire Connolly Knox, director of the program. βInterest has taken off almost exponentially.β
Both the ²ϊ²Ή³¦³σ±π±τ΄Η°ωβs and masterβs programs in emergency management launched in Fall 2018. Initial projections of 20 students taking up the major by 2020 has been raised to 150 for the coming fall. And U.S. News and World Report ranked ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½βs MECM program No. 2 in the nation.
The first three graduates, and Knox, provide a wide-lens picture of who is at the heart of emergency and crisis management.
The Director
It takes only a few seconds before Knoxβs passion for the environment can be heard clearly. A minute later, the Louisiana Cajun accent also sneaks in.
βGrowing up in the coastal wetlands, I understood how fragile our relationship is with nature, and the impact it can have when it breaks down. The wetlands are the first line of defense against hurricanes.β
Still, she had no idea how bad it could be. While studying for her masterβs in public administration at Florida State University in 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated her beloved Bayou State. The scrambled response became a series of tragic lessons learned β communication, collaboration, basic preparedness. The aftermath also kick-started Knox on a path that drew her to ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½, in a region with more than its share of crises and at a school willing to adopt new ideas.
βBecause the program is so young, we can adjust the lessons to reflect whatever is going on in real time. Thatβs essential in this dynamic and complex profession,β she says.
At the moment, she and other program faculty are literally creating new teaching modules derived from the ongoing COVID-19 experience. The team in the MECM curriculum includes some of the most published and cited scholars in this discipline, as well as an advisory board of practitioners from every sector. Knox also points to a group just as valuable: the students.
βSomething other than fancy titles and hats is driving them,β she says. βItβs their hearts. They make the program real because of their own experiences.β
The Security Specialist
Jaime Garcia first recognized a whole new world opening in his field of expertise, ironically the same day he had to close himself off.
On March 16, Garcia was thinking about graduation, job prospects, and finishing up his internship with the Osceola County Office of Emergency Management. At the door of the county building, he was asked if heβd been in any crowds the previous weekend. As a then part-time security guard at the Magic Kingdom, Garcia had. He spent the next 14 days in quarantine watching the news. What he saw and heard from Ecuador, where he was born and raised, only emboldened his reasons for pursuing his MECM.
βPeople were dying, the morgues were full, and they didnβt know what to do because there had been no planning,β says Garcia. βHere, even though I didnβt like being quarantined, I knew there was a good reason. The contrast proves why we need good people making decisions before and during a crisis.β
Garciaβs first lessons came from his father, a doctor. While many people in authority, including doctors, used their positions in Ecuador to hoard essentials and profit from them, Garciaβs father would drive into rural areas and distribute vaccines and treatments for free.
βHe said helping people was always the right thing to do.β
As a teenager, Garcia coordinated a group of classmates to collect food and clothes for families following a mudslide. After moving to Charlotte, North Carolina, he took a group of security colleagues to deliver water to evacuees in the Superdome following Hurricane Katrina.
βWe have so many blessings in the U.S., but that made me realize we can never take them for granted.β
All of these experiences led Garcia to enter the MECM program when it launched in 2018. βItβs a continuation of what I love doing,β he says. βWe discuss how things are always changing and how to prepare for anything.β
At work heβs been in discussions about crises like water contamination or a second outbreak of COVID-19.
βWeβre also preparing for the possibility of severe weather later this week.β
The Meteorologist
Itβs 8:30 a.m. and Maureen McCann is in full stride. A meteorologist for Spectrum News 13, sheβs already been on the air 20 times this morning to give weather updates. In the midst of Central Floridaβs singular focus on COVID-19, McCann needs to find a way to alert us that, yes, a severe storm is a distinct possibility in the next 72 hours. Weather events pay no attention to lockdown orders.
βOur motto is, βDonβt be scared, be prepared,β β she says. βThatβs true in any emergency situation β the virus, the weather, a severe storm. The more I know about crisis management, the better I can communicate preparedness to viewers.β
βWatching the meteorologists on TV made me less scared,β she says. βI decided thatβs what I wanted to do β warn people and calm them at the same time.β
After earning a ²ϊ²Ή³¦³σ±π±τ΄Η°ωβs degree from Cornell University, McCannβs television career led her around the country. Whether she was in Austin or Denver, something about Central Florida intrigued her. Specifically, the storms. When she moved here in 2013, she also had an unfinished masterβs degree. The launch of ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½βs MECM in 2018 seemed fortuitous.
βI liked that itβs a fresh program and the instructors are willing to adjust so we can collaborate on real-time events.β
She and her cohorts have gleaned lessons from hurricanes Irma, Maria, Michael and Dorian. Even the meteorologist has had her light-bulb moments.
βIβm a scientist with an opportunity to communicate directly with people who will be impacted by an event. Thatβs a form of emergency management in itself.
βAnother big takeaway is the need to network before a disaster, not during. My network has expanded through the program to include security, conservation, a first responder. The boots on the ground β¦ thatβs an interesting perspective.β
The Paramedic
Chris Goodson is catching his breath. Heβs just finished a workout near his neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, and now heβs foraging for what weβve all come to know in recent weeks as a PPE kit. A risk and safety specialist for Superior Ambulance, heβs waiting to find out where heβs needed next.
βI like to be on the move,β Goodson says.
Heβll transfer COVID-19 patients to rehab facilities or to McCormick Place, which FEMA has set up as a field hospital downtown. βThe situation weβre facing isnβt one that I enjoy, but the chaos is putting my education into practice.β
His winding route involved uprooting from his home to enter a brand-new graduate program 1,200 miles away at ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½. βIβm glad I took the chance,β he says. βLeaders in Central Florida have been at the forefront of disasters in terms of coordination, action, protocols, leadership. Iβd like to use those lessons here at home.β
Goodson grew up in βThe Hole,β the most oppressive section of Chicagoβs notorious Robert Taylor Homes public housing project. Gunshots became everyday noise. βPolice might come or they might not. At some point I thought, βChris, you could provide the help.β β
After high school, he completed two years at Eastern Illinois University before enlisting in the Army, spent time in Afghanistan, delivered aid to Haiti, helped the recovery following Hurricane Sandy, and eventually moved to Roseland in the south-side of Chicago as a paramedic. At ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½ he learned about cultural competency as a central concept in crisis management. Back home, itβs more than a concept.
βHospitals near my neighborhood are underfunded and understaffed. More black people are dying because of underlying health conditions, a lack of resources, and slow response. You have to know how things work at the local level to effectively help.β
Goodson plans to take a grant writing class to round out his credentials. In five years, he sees himself in a role with FEMA or a local governing body. But for now, heβs checking his gloves and mask. He doesnβt know where heβll be 20 minutes from now. And thatβs just fine with Goodson. Heβs ready for anything.
