Carol Cwiak, assistant professor of emergency management, taught a course in the Emergency Management Leaders Academy program for the Federal Emergency Management Agency at the Emergency Management Institute. The Institute is located at the National Emergency Training Center in Emmitsburg, Md.

The course had several goals and objectives, including:

• introduce qualities of effective emergency management leaders, relevant management styles, strategic thinking and decision-making in emergency management leadership;
•  understand and implement emergency management program evaluation, situational awareness, planning, mission and vision statements;
•  effectively address human resource issues;
• develop awareness of key attributes of communication and collaboration for an effective emergency management leader; and discuss inter- and intra-agency communication, public advocacy, change management and personal strengths.

Emergency management professionals from universities and all levels of government from across the United States attended the course. Cwiak worked with a team of instructors, including Glenn Cannon, state director of Pennsylvania’s Emergency Management Agency; Tom Hirt, training specialist and course manager at the Emergency Management Institute; and Lillian Virgil, Mitigation Branch chief at the Emergency Management Institute. 

The academy is part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s efforts to increase professionalization in the field by using research-based leadership training.

Cwiak has been involved in several engagements that focus on the professionalization of emergency management and serves as the executive director of the Emergency Management Higher Education Consortium.

NDSU is recognized as one of the nation's top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.