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Emergency Management Directors

Education and Training Requirements

High School

Emergency management directors must be top-notch communicators, so it’s a good idea to take as many English, writing, and speech classes as possible in order to develop your presentation, report-writing, and general communication skills. Learning a foreign language—such as Spanish—will be useful if you need to communicate with people who do not speak English fluently. Other recommended classes include business management, accounting, mathematics, statistics, computer science, and social studies.

Postsecondary Education

You will need a minimum of a bachelor’s degree in emergency management, crisis and disaster management, emergency management and homeland security, public administration, or a related field and a minimum of five years of emergency management–related experience and/or training to qualify for a position as an emergency management director. Students typically participate in an internship or other cooperative education experience at a government agency or other employer of EMDs as part of their training. Some EMDs have master’s degrees or doctorates in one of the aforementioned fields.

Certification

The International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) offers a core-level certificate in global emergency management to new and experienced directors who complete a two-day class and a case study short answer and multiple choice evaluation. Class topics include Fundamentals of Emergency Management; Prevention, Protection, and Mitigation; and Emergency Planning. The IAEM also offers the 1-Day IAEM PDTC Symposium for Emergency Management Leaders and Executives. Those who attend the symposium will receive a certificate of completion. Visit https://www.iaem.org/resources/PDTC for more information.

Certificates in emergency management, cybersecurity, homeland security, and related fields are available from colleges, universities, and other providers.

Other Education or Training

Professional associations; for-profit, online learning platforms, and colleges and universities offer a variety of courses that will be useful to emergency management directors. For example, the National Emergency Management Association offers webinars such as How Technology Supports Preparation, Response, and Recovery for Extreme Weather Events and Flooding. The Association of Continuity Professionals, Business Continuity Institute, Disaster Recovery Institute International, International Association of Emergency Managers, and associations at the state and local levels also provide webinars and in-person classes (often at their annual conferences).

The Federal Emergency Management Agency provides continuing education opportunities via its Emergency Management Institute. Recent classes included:

  • Understanding EMAC
  • Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) for Alerting Administrators
  • Preparing for Federal Disaster Operations: FEMA
  • Voluntary Agency Coordination in Disasters