{"id":149413,"date":"2025-10-24T15:56:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T19:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=149413"},"modified":"2025-10-30T11:19:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T15:19:09","slug":"ucf-professor-named-emergency-management-educator-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-professor-named-emergency-management-educator-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½ Professor Named Emergency Management Educator of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"
Claire Connolly Knox<\/a> was honored with the Emergency Management Educator of the Year award from the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) \u2014 a testament to her role in building the U.S. News & World Report<\/em> No. 1-ranked emergency and crisis management master’s program<\/a> at Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½.<\/p>\n As a professor and academic program coordinator, Knox plays a key role in the School of Public Administration<\/a> and is highly regarded in the emergency management<\/a> field, as reflected in the peer-nominated award recognizing her significant impact on the program and its students.<\/p>\n \u201cI was incredibly honored to receive this award,\u201d Knox says. \u201cThese awards mean more to me than other recognitions because they’re from the practitioner community. As a former practitioner, I have such high regard for emergency management professionals and what they go through on a daily basis for their communities. The fact that they see me as not just one of their peers but also as someone they want to partner<\/a> and collaborate with is extremely humbling.\u201d<\/p>\n Growing up in coastal Louisiana, Knox has long understood the importance of emergency management in communities. This lifelong familiarity fuels her passion for preparing students to enter the professional field and make an immediate impact after graduation.<\/p>\n “Living along the bayou, coastal wetlands are our first line of defense against disasters,\u201d Knox says. \u201cHaving lived through several hurricanes, I saw communities completely devastated. I learned how government response works, and I also saw community members and organizations rise to the challenge. It drives so much of my passion for designing a program that will help our students go into their communities and make them more resilient.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI’m really adamant about providing opportunities for students to sharpen skillsets that they need as they advance in a career.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Her background as a practitioner in the field was also crucial for informing how she designed her emergency management courses.<\/p>\n \u201cI’m really adamant about providing opportunities for students to sharpen skillsets that they need as they advance in a career,\u201d she says. “This was informed by the experiences I had when I first started working for the federal government. It was assumed that I could write a technical report, facilitate a meeting, speak in front of policymakers and more, so I incorporate many of those experiences into class assignments, so students have a safe space to hone these skills and receive feedback.\u201d<\/p>\n Whenever possible, Knox also provides students with ample opportunities to engage directly with practitioners and community partners \u2014 from local public administrators to panels of emergency management professionals \u2014 while gaining experience presenting and answering questions from real practitioners.<\/p>\n One of Knox\u2019s favorite classes to teach, she says, is the capstone for the emergency and crisis management master\u2019s program. In this course, students are paired with mentors from various emergency management agencies in roles they are interested in pursuing after graduation, helping them build professional networks and gain practical experience.<\/p>\n