Infosecurity.US

Infosecurity.US congratulates the 2008 International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) Award Winners. The full list of Award Recipients appears after the break.

From the IAEM: “The International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) is a non-profit organization consisting of more than 4,000 emergency management professionals from local, state and federal governments, the military, private industry, and volunteer organizations. IAEM has consistently promoted the goals of saving lives and protecting property during emergencies and disasters since its founding in 1952 as the U.S. Civil Defense Council.”

IAEM Announces Winners of 2008 Awards

The International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) has announced the winners of the IAEM 2008 Awards. The awards will be presented at the IAEM 56^th Annual Conference & EMEX 2008, Nov. 15-20, 2008, Kansas City (Overland Park), Kansas.

The Career Excellence Award recognizes a national/international leader who has made significant contributions throughout his/her career to promote and improve the emergency management profession. The 2008 recipient of the IAEM Career Excellence Award is Albert H. Fluman, Supervisory Senior Exercise Program Specialist of the Emergency Management Institute (EMI), Federal Emergency Management Agency, for his significant contributions throughout his career to promote and improve the emergency management profession. IAEM particularly recognizes Mr. Fluman for his role in development and training for thousands of emergency managers, elected and appointed officials, and first responders through EMI, including his development of the Integrated Emergency Management curriculum and individual training courses provided at EMI.

The Academic Recognition Award recognizes an academic leader or institution that has made a significant contribution to the formal education of students pursuing a career in emergency management or through research and development of paradigms or standards that have helped shape the broader field of emergency and disaster management. The 2008 recipient of the IAEM Academic Recognition Award is Professor Jim Cole for his significant contributions to the formal education of students pursuing careers in emergency management. After nearly twenty years of teaching at Victoria University in Wellington, Professor Cole was appointed to his present position as Professor of Geology in the Department of Geological Sciences, University of Canterbury, where he serves as Director of the Natural Hazards Research Centre. IAEM also recognized Professor Cole for his outstanding research career, which includes programs that discovered new volcanic centers and have significantly increased our understanding of what triggers super-eruptions from highly active volcanic centers in the Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand, and around the world.

The first U.S. Dept. of Defense Uniformed Emergency Manager of the Year Award is presented to TSgt Gregory P. Brannon, U.S. Air Force. Deployed to Kuwait, TSgt Brannon wrote the first ever emergency management plan, protecting 174K U.S./coalition forces and forging relationships between the host nation and U.S. responders. He personifies the United States Air Force slogan, “No one comes close” and is recognized as one of the best enlisted leaders in the EM career field.

The first U.S. Dept. of Defense Civilian Emergency Manager of the Year is presented to Steven A. Robertson, Chief, Readiness and Emergency Management Flight, U.S. Air Force. Robinson led the first-ever Presidential emergency management support team to Bogota, Colombia. Additionally, he led Air Force support to the Warren Grove fire command, which involved the largest New Jersey wildfire in 40 years, and he designed and fielded the Air Force prototype Mobile Emergency Operations Center.

The Business & Industry Preparedness Award is based on excellence in implementing a program that plans for multiple hazards, sets implementation priorities, is cost effective, links all levels of the organization, and coordinates with local emergency response and management agencies. The program must be repeatable by similar organizations in business and industry. This year’s winner is The George Washington University’s Office of Public Safety & Emergency Management for its Emergency Preparedness Exercise Program.

The Partners in Preparedness Awards recognize programs or processes that demonstrate innovative, multi-participant involvement between local governments/governmental entities and private sector businesses, non-governmental organizations/non-profits, or individuals which have resulted in effective and efficient incident management, emergency management or homeland security processes. The 2008 winner of the Partners in Preparedness Award was the partnership between the Chinese Information & Service Center, Seattle, Washington, and the Seattle Office of Emergency Management, who teamed up to provide emergency preparedness information to Chinese and Vietnamese communities in Seattle.

The Interagency Disaster Preparedness Award, co-sponsored by Homeland1.com, recognizes pro­grams that involve an ongoing multi-agency effort whose mission is primarily disaster and/or terrorism mitigation, prevention, response and/or recovery. Entry is open to emergency response, emergency management and emergency support agencies (such as public health and public works) and their municipal, county, tribal, state, pro­vincial, military or federal jurisdictions or parent agencies. The 2008 recipient is the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health for its “Schools’ Pandemic Influenza and Infectious Disease/Public Health Emergency Toolkit,” that provides a means for improved communication and collaboration between the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and the more than 80 LA County school districts that serve more than 1.8 million children.