Jessica Jensen, assistant professor of emergency management, travelled to Washington, D.C., Aug. 22-25 to meet with Federal Emergency Management Agency administrators and Congressional Committee staff related to a paper she wrote on behalf of the United States Council of the International Association of Emergency Managers titled, "Preparedness: A Principled Approach to Return on Investment."

The article presents a principle-based process to developing measures of return on investment for preparedness grant programs and also suggests a framework of outcomes that can be used to develop meaningful measures.

The International Association of Emergency Managers invited Jensen to collaborate with the organization to address the issue of how return on investment should be measured for the Emergency Management Performance Grant Program. The program’s funds are a critical source of support for local, state, tribe and territory emergency management across the United States. The program is designed to offer local, state, tribe and territory jurisdictions up to a 50 percent match to their investment in building capacity within their jurisdiction. The association gathered a working group to discuss and validate an approach to measuring return on investment suggested by Jensen. Based on the group's discussion, Jensen developed her paper.

Jensen and International Association of Emergency Managers president H. E. "Eddie" Hicks, first vice president Hui-Shan Walker and policy adviser Martha Braddock will meet with key officials to present Jensen’s paper and discuss next steps.