It is now possible to get an online degree as a Master of Infrastructure Planning and Management. This podcast is an interview with Wendy Freitag, Program Director for the University of Washington’s program linked above. In this podcast we talk generally about online degrees in general, to include those in emergency management. How they compare school to school and with resident courses of study. A bit of history on higher educatio...

Emergency management organizations have now been immersed in COVID-19 response for over a year. This podcast is an interview with Jody Ferguson, Director for Pierce County Department of Emergency Management. In it we explore how her department responded first to the call to help with Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) distribution and then more recently with mass vaccination efforts by the county. We also discuss how she views the...

In the podcast we talk about the cybersecurity threats and different approaches being used to counter those threats. Cybersecurity training is one of those and it has become something employees must accomplish as part of organizational standards. There are many mistakes that companies and governments make in their approaches to this training. Heather Stratford, CEO for Drip7 is the Disaster Zone guest. She suggests new methods for ...

Emergency management is primarily known as a profession that responds to disasters. Another very important aspect of the discipline of emergency management is disaster mitigation. This podcast focuses on a relatively new federal program called Building Resilient Infrastructure Communities (BIRC). Derrick Hiebert, Deloitte is the mitigation expert interviewed in this recording. He shares the key elements every organization needs to ...

What does disaster readiness look like for the Pacific Northwest from a person coming to the topic with a fresh point of view? Brian Landon, an attorney, writer and director is working on a master’s degree and his project is examining how the Cascadia Subduction Zone will impact the State of Oregon and other parts of the Northwest. He comes to the task with more of a world view having lived and worked in other countries. This inter...

One of the outcomes from the coronavirus pandemic is that our normal training sessions have been disrupted. People can’t gather into classrooms. A solution to that issue, and one that will be used going forward is virtual training that goes beyond the online Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) self-paced learning. This podcast is an interview with Todd Manns, Owner and Managing Partner of The Blue Cell. In this session we di...

The coronavirus pandemic has multiple impacts to our society, ranging from medical, economic, education—you name it, nothing has remained the same. All this physical change has impacted how people interact and relate to one another. The social impacts to people have been huge. Besides the coronavirus itself there have been political and racial tensions in the United States. Tim Bayer, a Lutheran Pastor discusses those impacts and h...

The blood supply for a community, region or state is critically important. This podcast is an interview with Curt Bailey, President and CEO of BloodWorks Northwest  Their territory covers eight million people in the states of Oregon and Washington. Consider this a Blood 101 class on all aspects of blood collection and use.  It amazing all the blood products that are collected in just one donation. They like everyone else, have had ...

One of the outcomes of the coronavirus pandemic is the need to maintain social distancing. An innovation borne out of this is organizations have begun using technology to conduct virtual exercises. My guest for this podcast is Kyle McPhee, Director of Preparedness for Hagerty Consulting. Topics discussed include what technology solutions work and what the benefits and challenges are for doing virtual exercises. I also ask Kyle abou...

No matter who you are and what you do, there is an element of salesmanship to how you interact with other people and organizations. This podcast is an interview with Jeff Kirchick, author of the book Authentic Selling, How to use the Principles of Sales in Everyday Life. In this podcast we discuss what it takes to be authentic and how incorporating listening and being empathetic can help you interact more effectively with others.

D...

Mike Byrne, the podcast guest has been at the center of emergency management and homeland security for decades, both in responding and recovering from major disasters while holding senior positions responsible for orchestrating assistance from a government and private sector perspective. In this podcast he speaks about his personal learning points from four major disasters that he was intimately involved with in either the disaster...

The need to achieve communications interoperability has haunted public agencies for years. The terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001 highlighted the need to improve the ability for public agencies from different jurisdictions to communicate with one another. Now today, Verizon has initiated an outreach to other companies, carriers, device makers, etc. to come together to jointly work on the issue of communications interoperability.

The gu...

People are often called on to deliver public presentations. Yet, the very thought of speaking in public makes many people panic. We know the power of speakers who can convey messages that are clear and convincing, whether delivered in person or online. This episode is an interview with Michael Buschmohle, President of Applause Associates who has trained thousands of speakers worldwide, including many emergency managers. He will sha...

As people and organizations in the public and private sector work to prepared disaster plans, trainings and exercises they need to remember to include a focus on people with disabilities in all facets of their emergency management and business continuity program. The guest for this podcast is Linda Mastandrea, Director of the Office of Disability Integration and Coordination at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) headqua...

Technologies are available now that can help with many facets of emergency
management and business continuity programs. This is an interview with Matt Bradley, Vice President, with OnSolve a company that specializes in providing a variety technological solutions. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the newest tool being added to help organizations obtain situational awareness very early in an event. Future trends are another topic discu...

In this podcast Deanne Criswell, New York City’s Emergency Management Commissioner discusses how the city uses a variety of legacy warning systems along with new technologies to warn the public. New York City has a significant challenge with the level of diversity in spoken languages in the city and those issues are also addressed in the podcast.

This episode is sponsored by The Blue Cell, a by design crisis and consequence manageme...

As the Covid pandemic continues raging and businesses are being cut back, many people are working from home. Besides working online with Zoom, people are doing more and more writing. But most people are not professional writers and many find writing challenging. This episode is an interview with Michael Buschmohle, an author, book editor, and international writing instructor. He will share his proven tips for writing short, clear e...

Eventually everyone in government or business will likely need to engage a consultant to assist their organization with an element of work that they need help with. This podcast is an interview with Brian Murphy, a Principal with BERK Consulting. We discuss a number of issues related to obtaining a consultant to perform work for you. What should you expect from a consultant? When do you use a RFP, RFI or RFQ to solicit proposals? A...