Where is @rusnivek?

Emergency Management, Emergency Services, & Disaster Spox

2019 National Preparedness Symposium (Day-1)

Posted on May 21, 2019 by rusnivek

Early morning start to this Tuesday waiting for clearance from tower.

But before you know it, we are off heading 150 to the 2019 National Preparedness Symposium!

Awwwww yeah, training & exercises and all the FEMA peeps in one place here at the Center for Domestic Preparedness in Alabama!

Started off with a talk from the National Integration Center on the new National Response Framework and Community Lifelines.

Chad walked us through soooooo many programs that Doc talked about previously. Glad to see his work has carried through to inspire a new generation of Emergency Managers.

Continued with spirited discussion from my friends at FEMA EMI on the ongoing efforts for the Emergency Management Professional Program.

Lots of recs on what to take and complete as they could (hint hint) require this for EMPG grant funding employees. Yes that’s right, they can mandate these courses to qualify for grant funds.

So yeah, I’d suggest you get on those courses right away.

Then we hopped deep into a FEMA Region 5 meeting w/ our partners from Ohio, Indiana, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, and of course Illinois. Overview of exercises “Basically, June is going to be insane.”

Grrrrreat.

Then, it happened. One of the Training & Exercise Managers called me out as “The Legend! We have a picture of you on our wall!”

Me: Blush

Joliet Fire Deputy Fire Chief gave us the biggest shoutout as they said to the entire region “Did you know DuPage trained all the Aurora Police PIOs? Their first day of the job was the day they had that shooting.”

Either way, it was good to report out for DuPage County OHSEM and their significant efforts in training for all provides from across Illinois.

And of course got a chance to see a few familiar faces in the crowd from Rhode Island, Vermont, Texas, California, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Tennessee, New York, Kentucky, Louisiana, and of course Illinois.

Great to catch up to FEMA Region 8 James Taylor who served as my Disaster Recovery Center Manager during Hurricane Irma for the Florida Keys.

Glad to hear he is doing well.

Proud to see soooooooo many old disaster friends too.

Looking forward to hearing from Acting Administrator Pete Gaynor tomorrow morning as he will surely touch on our strategic mission objectives as well as building out a culture of preparedness.

Follow the hashtag used: #NPS19

Reporting live from the CDP….

@rusnivek

2019 May is cray!

Posted on May 1, 2019 by rusnivek

Justin Timberlake better be busy too because this month because it’s about to get redic.

First week in May, our team was invited to teach ICS-300: Intermediate ICS to leadership staff at the Illinois Air National Guard.

Second week, will be the ICS-400 class and the solid bunch of social media classes (Basic Social Media, Social Media Engagement Strategies, Social Media Tools and Techniques).

Third week, we will be popping the FEMA G0290/0291 Basic PIO and JIC/JIS course with one of my favorite FEMA DSASers…Sister Michael!

Fourth week, I will be presenting at the 2019 National Preparedness Symposium at the Center for Domestic Preparedness in Alabama.

And the last week is the full set of FEMA Basic PIO and JIC/JIS Course at Aurora Police.

If you are calculating that out, that’s 128 hours of straight classroom time.

Fortunately, I enhanced the playlist this past weekend.

Headphones in, affirm the mission and objectives, head down…No time for rest.

@rusnivek

Keep everyone safe in #Cleveland

Posted on July 2, 2018 by rusnivek

Summer is here…so friendly reminder: Keep everyone safe.

And for those following along on the breaking news story today, pay close attention to this line: “A final meeting happened yesterday morning where the undercover agent and Pitts had a lengthy conversation — Pitts indicated his desire to participate in a terrorist attack on July, and his desire to kill military members and others.”

Be vigilant peeps.

Just to reiterate: FBI has the lead on all domestic terrorism issues.

@rusnivek

More Emergency Management interviews at #IAEM16

Posted on October 19, 2016 by rusnivek

It was super fun to interview Jody today at the 2016 International Association of Emergency Management Conference.

Emergency Management Officer Jody Hodge from the Jefferson County Emergency Management Agency (Alabama)

Why is Jody so awesome?

Yeah, we talked about preparedness, talked about disaster kits, talked about natural disasters…But to close the interview, he said “Aloha y’all!”

Reporting live from #IAEM16

@rusnivek

NDPC News 2015 Summer edition

Posted on August 28, 2015 by rusnivek

Attention – It’s here!

NDPC News 2015 Summer edition is here.

@rusnivek

Final FEMA review of the new social media courses #NDPTC

Posted on August 14, 2015 by rusnivek

I popped back-to-back-to-back social media classes last week in Sacramento, California.

Participants from all over the west coast attended. Specifically for Thursday and Friday, FEMA reviewed our new curriculum courses. Yep, straight up evaluation. Not going to lie, I was pretty nervous.

Ongoing for course design, I will make a few more additions/changes before courses are sent to the National Training and Exercise Division (NTED) for certification. Hoping for final approval in November 2015. Hope to hear the magical words “Federally published” as my course is listed in the DHS / FEMA Training catalog. Whoa Nellie!

For the classes? We had great interaction from all participants.

Solid discussions during the breakout sessions included professionals from all Emergency Support Functions (ESFs) as well as experts from the National Weather Service (NWS), Critical Infrastructure, and Volunteer Organizations Active in Disasters (VOADs), etc… Diverse groups make for the best discussions for sure!

As part of our continued efforts in Emergency Management, it is imperative that we address issues from the All-Hazards approach and incorporate the support of our stakeholders in solutions.

With heavy discussion, class participants had a great time engaging with others and using tools/techniques that are specific to the Preparedness, Response, Recovery, and Mitigation Directorates. Obviously, I showcased the importance of a good Public Information Officer (PIO) / Public Affairs Officer (PAO) and how their interaction in the Emergency Operation Center (EOC) or the Joint Information Center/System (JIC/JIS) is imperative to a successful emergency or disaster.

Also, starting to build an online learning library that can be easily accessed from anywhere using the #NDPTC is always good reference. Free. My favorite F-word.

Special mahalos to fellow Instructors Cheryl and MaryJo in the delivery of these courses.

Also the solid smiles from fellow #SMEM Jennifer and Scott was crucial support on this delivery.

Glad to be working with partners like the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), National Domestic Preparedness Consortium (NDPC), and the National Disaster Preparedness Training Center (NDPTC). Truly great to see everyone working collaboratively. Thanks to the Sacramento County Emergency Management for hosting these courses.

Looking forward to the next class at the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) conference in Clark County, Nevada. See you there!

@rusnivek